While most think of pop music as being sleek, catchy, simple, and geared to as broad an audience as possible, many artists are successfully challenging that belief. More and more pop performers are pushing the genre to its limits. It’s this spirit of exploration that forms the basis of Pop Avant, a performance series curated and hosted by The Music Gallery and dedicated to the weirder side of pop music. The next event in the series will be the Weird Canada Showcase.
Weird Canada, a creative collective whose mandate is to “encourage, connect, and document creative expression across Canada,” is co-presenting the event.
All of the performances will include some element of collaboration, as avant-garde artists pool their collective strangeness to create one-of-a-kind performances. Singer-songwriter Jennifer Castle (who has appeared on records by Bry Webb, the Constantines, and Fucked Up) will perform with acoustic-folk black-metal solo act Wyrd Visions, brainchild of Colin Bergh. They will be joined by the drone-and-feedback wall of Zachary Fairbrother‘s guitar orchestra. Bergh is particularly excited about the collaborative opportunities here. “This is a chance for both Jennifer and I to perhaps get out of our comfort zones and explore new things with each other,” she said. “It’s a chance for me to selfishly be able to sing Jennifer’s songs that I’ve always wanted to sing, in a live setting. I don’t want to give anything away really, but we are doing renditions of old, slightly esoteric, traditionals. The important thing is to actually bring something new to these songs, which makes it a more unique experience.” Castle and Bergh have been collaborating with each other since 2005.
Also performing is Isla Craig, known for her otherworldly voice. She’ll be joined by several vocal collaborators: Daniela Gesundheit, Tamara Lindeman, Ivy Mairi and Felicty Williams, all performing under the name Soul Sisters Supreme Redux 2.0. Craig explains that, “These ladies, aside from being some of the best singers that I know, are very dear friends, and also busy musicians. They all tour a lot, unlike me, so it’s been a while since we’ve all been in the same room. Singing together is a dream, a very powerful thing! I think this showcase is special because of the collaboration factor.”