Bumping into... Leslie Predy

Bumping Into... is a series of mini-chats with a variety of peeps that you might run into in some of our local music communities. (There's a bit of an intro and my thoughts behind the series here.)

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How are you? Where are you?

I'm doing ok, I'm in Toronto (east end)

What have you been up to since March or so?

I have to think...it feels like March was years ago, but also yesterday. I haven't done much creatively, I haven't had the motivation. My job got really busy with the pandemic, and I've been trying to spend more time actively outdoors (walking, biking, etc.). I have also been eating a lot of cheese

Have you found any new ways to do old things? How are you feeling about the shifts in how music is being made/shared/listened to?

I have't been able to get into the experience of watching a musical performance online--it doesn't feel the same. Personally, I've also always made music that was meant to be performed live so I haven't been making new music. I have found myself buying and listening to more digital records/albums this year (I loved New Fries' Is The Idea Of Us and the Brigitte Bardon't album made on a Barbie keyboard). Bandcamp Fridays are great! I hope we'll see more equitable platforms for musicians to share music.

Any works of art that have been a light for you in these times? Anything that's just been a good diversion?

I've been watching more films, both old classics and new. Sound of Metal is one of my favourites from this year, and I love weird horror movies (like Death Spa).

How are you feeling about 2021?

I'm trying to keep my expectations low, but I'm optimistic.

Anything else we'd chat about if we bumped into each other?

I'd probably ask you what you've been listening to and how you've been dealing with the crazy times. You've been a huge supporter of live music so I'd probably ask you what you thought of the current situation.

Recording: Doom Tickler

Artist: Doom Tickler

Song: Piriformis [variant]

Recorded at The Music Gallery (A Night with Pleasence), February 11, 2017.

Doom Tickler - Piriformis [variant]

The Music Gallery does an excellent job of using its "institutional privilege" to boost the signal of a wide range of local culture-makers. This night saw the stage given over to local label Pleasence, whose output isn't united so much by genre as its striving-oddball aesthetic. Leslie Predy, whose Spirit Fingers EP is out at the end of the month, lead things off with her monster growl throatscapes, improvising loops of animalistic grunts to driving beats while Randy Gagne's giant papier-mâché heads spun lazily from the roof beams.

[Doom Tickler will be performing at the season's final Long Winter, returning to the Gladstone Hotel on March 24th.]

Recording: Doom Tickler

Artist: Doom Tickler

Song: Tendrils [variant]

Recorded at Array Space (Invocation Residency Series), August 26, 2016.

Doom Tickler - Tendrils [variant]

You can always tell when the bulk of a crowd hasn't previously seen Leslie Predie performing as Doom Tickler — there's a somewhat tentative reaction at first as the barking/grunting/mewling loops of her vocals burst over the audience, and it usually takes a couple song-breaks before the applause starts. Even the gunshot percussion that launches this one seemed to cow the crowd at this gig a little further, but by the end of the set there was an enthusiastic response. A nicely-programmed companion to Arrington de Dionyso's grunt-y throat singing in the headlining set, too.

Recording: Matt Miller/Ben Sirois/Leslie Predie/Minesh Mandoda

Artist: Matt Miller/Ben Sirois/Leslie Predie/Minesh Mandoda

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at Dundas Video ("Track Could Bend #13"), April 5, 2016.

Matt Miller/Ben Sirois/Leslie Predie/Minesh Mandoda - [excerpt]

To my great surprise and delight, Track Could Bend has survived and thrived for a full year. To celebrate, I invited everyone who played the series' first twelve months (more than seventy people!) back for a birthday party. In the end, the night consisted of twenty-seven musicians collaborating over eight short sets, most of which were spontaneous "bands from a hat", drawn by lot before the set started. Given the wide range of musical practices and backgrounds, it was quite exciting to see how much coherence and excellence resulted.

The first "band from a hat" set the bar high with an eerie and atmospheric horror-movie soundtrack. Leslie Predie (who performed at TCB#4) set the tone here with her wordless feral vocalizations, but rather than Doom Ticker's hunting sprint, this was more of a sedate lope thanks to the glide of Minesh Mandoda's guitar (part of Ghostlight at TCB#5) and Ben Sirois' violin (part of Someflowers of Hell at TCB#3). Matt Miller (who had performed as part of Rub Out The Word at TCB#9) completed the vibe with his realtime ipad manipulations, adding static bursts and other unsettling noises.

[The next Track Could Bend will be at Dundas Video on Tuesday, May 3rd, featuring Kosher Dill Spears, Terms Of Venery (Mike Smith, solo electronics) and Glamour Nails (Lina Allemano + Justin Haynes).]

Recording: Doom Tickler

Artist: Doom Tickler feat. Lana Del Satan

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at Katzman Contemporary (Channel no. 1: Vlog), January 12, 2016.

Doom Tickler feat. Lana Del Satan - unknown

This five-night series, curated by Brett Despotovich, is bringing Toronto's experimental music scenes into a gallery space — both to allow some considered listening and to enable a series of large-scale visual collaborations. (This first night drew inspiration from the seemingly-boundless wellspring of youtube videos.) Besides the well-chosen music, this will also be an introduction for many to a rather lovely space — gallery culture, which tends to stay one step ahead of gentrification in the search for affordable spaces, has now seeped up to Carleton Village. So this week, hop on the Symington bus and go check out some cool collaborations.

Leslie Predy, whose loop-based music is filled with animalistic grunts and howls, took things to the next level in a spontaneous interspecies collaboration with celebripug Lana Del Satan, who was hopping with excitement while adding some call-and-response barking. (Check out some video evidence here.) Predy is also noted for her visual work in trawling youtube's weirder corners, and her montage here felt like a series of Tales From Beyond The Uncanny Valley, mixing early computer animation with pseudohuman robots and other creepy visages.

[Channel's run at Katzman Contemporary continues through Saturday, with cool musicians using the space to collaborate with the visualisations in different ways.]

^* Does anyone know the title to this one? Please leave a comment!

Recording: Doom Tickler

Artist: Doom Tickler

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at Dundas Video ("Track Could Bend #4), July 7, 2015.

Doom Tickler - unknown

Leslie Predy led off this evening of musical explorations with the avant-howls of her Doom Tickler project. I'm not sure what this piece is "about" but it sounds like a recounting of an epic battle between marauding monsters and a rag-tag collection of brave, heroic kittens.

[Track Could Bend #5 will be at Dundas Video on Tuesday, August 4th. Full details coming soon!]

^* Does anyone know the title to this one? Please leave a comment!

Photo by Kristel Jax.

Recording: Soupcans

Artist: Soupcans

Songs: Soft Party/Postmordial + Murder Parade [feat. Leslie Predy]^*

Recorded in the dungeon of 8-Eleven ("Sonic Boom Record Store Day Afterparty"), April 18, 2015.

Soupcans - Soft Party/Postmordial

Soupcans - Murder Parade

The Soupcans sometimes work as performance art/standup comedy, such as at the start of this set where the members cast aspersions on each other for not being able to maintain the momentum from one quick song into the next ("We're a real band," the crowd was reassured) but once they did get firing on all cylinders, whoo-boy. I've heard some talk of new recordings getting closer to getting done, including rumours of a guest appearance by Induced Labour/Doom Tickler howler Leslie Predy. That probably explains this set-closing last track here, a full-on spasm that had the crowd surging back and forth in the low-ceilinged basement space. (I was mostly just trying to keep upright, so pardon a few weird sonic shifts in the recording.)

[Soupcans will be playing at Jam Factory on Saturday (May 2, 2015) as part of Feast in the East's big Four Year Anniversary celebration.]

Recording: Doom Tickler

Artist: Doom Tickler

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at CineCycle ("Blockspace II Presents: Pre-NYE Extravaganza"), December 30, 2014.

Doom Tickler - unknown

This night was a pre-NYE party assembled by the Blockspace collective (Laura Dobson, Julie Reich, Nick Leviathann) that transformed CineCycle into a DIY label bazaar and filled it with art installations plus a full slate of live music. It was also a release party for the Reich-compiled Offerings mixtape, the last gesture from the local showpaper before a soon-to-be-announced transformation.

Artist Leslie Predy's musical project has a sound that embodies both parts of its name. Using nothing but her voice and a loop pedal, Predy builds grunts, moans and screams into song-shapes, their inherent gruffness co-existing with a certain whimsical quality. In 2014, the recent prominence of Tanya Tagaq makes this seem like a reasonable path to pop, but it should be noted that Predy has been making music as Doom Tickler for several years now.

^* Does anyone know the title to this one? Please leave a comment!