Like most works of art, music is a source of joy, amusement, heartbreak and sometimes mystery. Familiarity affects the way you hear music and comprehend a song; you’re likely to be drawn to the music that your ears are accustomed to, while steering clear of music that’s yet to imprint on your mind.
Aaron Levin runs Weird Canada, a website dedicated to unfamiliar and oddball music. Levin searches his hometown of Edmonton and all across Canada for the voices and sounds that most listeners would deem unmelodious.
Weird Canada strives to break through the bounds of familiarity. Levin works hand-in-hand with curiosity, sliding the curtains aside and opening up a window onto a world full of songs-less-listened. He not only attempts to make these peculiar styles more palatable, he challenges you to take on the unknown – one of the reasons why Weird Canada was named Canada’s Best Music Website by CBC Radio 3.
What kind of stuff did you listen to growing up?
When I was about 5 or 6 I got really into Def Leppard. I had their tapes, some posters, and even a VHS of one of their tours. Much to the chagrin of my parents, I used to take my jeans and cut them up to look like Joe Elliot.
Alas, I didn’t grow up in a very musical family, so after Def Leppard it was N.W.A., Wu-Tang, Mobb Deep, Nas, A Tribe Called Quest and all the rap groups that were getting huge in the early 90s. I was also addicted to The Wedge (pre-Sook, though she was a great host and still is on CBC!). I basically skipped that whole classic rock musical lesson. No Beatles, Stones, Who, Neil Young, or any of that until I was in university!
So, I’d say the music I listened to growing up was fairly pedestrian, most (if not all) of it being informed via skateboarding videos and MTV.
Weird Canada focuses on “peculiar” music. What does peculiar music sound like to you? And what sorts of things make songs peculiar-sounding?
“Peculiar music” has no real sound, as it depends solely on the listener. It usually takes the form of anything challenging or unknown. I’d say that rock n roll was pretty peculiar to the kids growing up on Bing Crosby!
Enter the recent wave of DIY-everything and these new creative streams start to sound very unfamiliar. At formidable ages people are being exposed to music that would have been impossible 6-7 years ago. Prior to the internet, the want lists of tastemakers were exclusively distributed through zines and niche publications. Now, we’ve got bands of enthusiastic teenagers going back to the Ocora catalog. Which is why I believe (aspects of) the new wave of indie music is having a larger impact with each birth. New bands rise and fall faster than Soviet satellites, it’s incredible. I don’t think this is a bad thing, I think it’s a great thing, and I believe it’s because more of our culture has been exposed to unfamiliar sounds and as a result, their creative energies are maturing and delivering the same in return. Across all genres. It’s lovely.
How did you decide to focus on this type of music? And what’s the aim of your site?
I was working as a music director at a college radio station prior to starting Weird Canada. I witnessed a multitude of amazing truly independent music coming out of Canada that was not escaping municipal boundaries. I’d chat with other music directors and none of us had any clue what was going on outside of our cities. Yet there was so much great stuff!
I asked myself if this was an international phenomenon, or if it was just in Canada. Certainly, in America there were many websites and publishers focusing on emerging music, but none dedicated to Canadian music.
So, I embarked on a mission to capture this emergent Canadian music by creating Weird Canada. Since then it’s grown into something greater and more special (thanks to everyone involved behind the scenes and all the support from artists across Canada), so the aim has changed slightly. It’s no longer the one-person show in the days of yore. It is slowly becoming a home for the artists we serve.
Along the way we’ve had some struggles. Particularly being an unfunded, non-monetized publisher with a rapidly growing base of artists and musicians interacting with us, we’ve had a very difficult time keeping up with all the new stuff. However, I could hope for nothing more. This really points towards the plethora of amazing music coming out of Canada. I just hope we can find the time to build tools and harmonize with people so we can better serve the artists we love.
You feature music from all over Canada (one of the reasons why Weird Canada was voted Best Canadian Music Site). Where in Canada would you say there’s an abundance of weird music?
Every major city in Canada has a wealth of amazing music. I mean this seriously.
By creating Weird Canada, and now also having Wyrd – a music festival that brings the bands you feature on the site into a live setting – how does it feel to create a kind of nesting ground for this marooned musical style?
The response and success has been rewarding. The work has been incredibly exhausting. We’ve had quite a few existential crises along the way, but it’s an indescribable feeling we have. Something akin to twilight; we’re only briefly aware of the significance of our actions, but with each step forward we’re reminded of how audacious we can be. To think that a website full of tapes, lathes, and 7″s would win such national recognition? What next?!
Outside of music, what other types of things do you consider weird?
I’m interested in any challenging and exciting physical ephemera. Books, posters, buttons, paper materials, etc. For example, there was a group of individuals from BC who used to publish this zine in the 80s called CLEM: Contact List of Electronic Music. It was a massive list of electronic music from Canada and abroad. It accompanied their radio program “Alien Soundtracks” (named after the Chrome album of the same name). These are the kinds of things that excite me.
Who were some of the first artists/bands you thought were weird, the ones that opened the door to your inspiration?
In high-school I was exposed to some very bizarre rap records. I remember listening to Buck 65 or the Sebutones for the first time. This would have been the late 90s. It really pealed my wig back and exposed me to the idea that there was an entire culture of people trading cassettes in complete and unintended secrecy. It wouldn’t be for another 10 years that I started to uncover the true weight of that fact. These are exciting times.
- Aaron Levin of Weird Canada
