Buck 65, Constantines And Japanther Art Rocks "Colour Is The Keyboard"

Have you ever wondered what your favourite indie rock artists do with their free time, aside from trudging to work during the day and rocking your face off at night? It turns out that a whole pile of 'em make art — in all its forms. "Colour Is The Keyboard," a new multimedia art exhibition running from April 4 to 13 at Toronto's Whippersnapper Gallery, showcases the work of a host of indie musicians from across the continent.

The extravaganza is the brainchild of Chart photographer Rachel Verbin and musician/artist/Whippersnapper Gallery director Luke Correia-Damude. ChartAttack spoke with Correia-Damude about the show, who's in it and, most importantly, when the party kicks off.

The show will also feature performances from Toronto art rockers DD/MM/YYYY at the opening night celebration on Friday and Boys Who Say No, Romo Roto, Key Witness and Bloodhoney on April 10.

ChartAttack: How did the show come about?
Luke Correia-Damude: It's kind of funny because we do a lot of music shows at the gallery and I had been thinking of doing a show like that. I had even mentioned it to guys like Chad VanGaalen and Ian [Vanek] from Japanther. But, being really busy running the gallery, I hadn't started planning a show like that — and then Rachel approached me with her thesis project, which was this idea. So it was perfect. She had just wanted to do a rental of the space, but, because I wanted to do something exactly like that, instead we collaborated and I was able to bring in some names that she, you know, might not have been able to bring in, because they'd played in the space. So both of us were on the same page, but just hadn't met yet.

So who exactly is involved?
There are, I think, 20 artists showing, and the bigger names are Chad VanGaalen, Buck 65, Ian Vanek from Japanther, Dallas [Wehrle] from the Constantines, Will Zimmerman from Shout Out Out Out Out — a lot of pretty big players. But there's also the DD/MM/YYYY guys and some [people from] smaller bands that are great, just not as known, like The Guest Bedroom and Key Witness.

What kind of medium are the works in? Was there a cohesive theme?
It's really mixed. Chad VanGaalen is doing an animation, Matt [Collins] from Ninja High School is doing some videos, so is Buck 65. We have a sound installation from the guys in DD/MM/YYYY and paintings, and we even have model airplanes from Dallas in Constantines, some drawings and some photography.

You're cutting a wide swath in terms of media. Was that always your and Rachel's intention, or did it just sort of happen like that?
We always try to keep it as multimedia as possible. We don't like to just have one medium showing and our main mandate is to show young or emerging artists, right, so we want to show the very diverse facets of art.

I realize that you can't speak for everyone, but being that all the participants in the show are musicians, do you consider yourself a musician or an artist first? Can you even separate the two?
I think it's a kind of mentality. It's that creation thing that drives, you know. It's more of a calling than a pursuit. They're kind of drawn to it. I'd say that music and art sort of go hand-in-hand for a lot of people.

This is a gross generalization, but, to a degree, it almost seems to be part-and-parcel with indie rock, for lack of a better term.
I think a lot of these experimental, more indie guys, the guys that are left of pop, are more likely to have a visual or conceptual art basis as well, because it's about thinking differently or creating something that isn't as cookie-cutter.