Don’t call it house.
Whatever you do, don’t call it house. “We don’t focus on anything, what happens happens. What is on the record – we wouldn’t really call that house” bark Azari & III. “Some house guys are not going to consider this to be a part of that world.”
Four voices speaking as one, the Canadian collective aim to party down the barriers. Emerging from Toronto, the quartet are a furious blend of style, attitude and euphoric tunes. Listening back, the band’s self-titled debut reeks of early 90s Chicago house (don’t shoot us guys!) but there’s also plenty of disco edits, Detroit techno and even a European influence. Coming of age in Toronto, the city’s easy going atmosphere allowed the four to find each other. “I think that really informs our dance sensibilities as a group, because the four of us can relate together” they explain. “That after hours, illegitimate kind of scene where things are a lot wilder, a lot darker and a lot sketchier. Also, the music is deeper and better and the people there dance better. It’s kind of like just letting free and of course when we go into the studio we’re letting free and making music so you’ll get this warehouse vibe I guess.”
Sliding from influence to influence, Azari & III’s quicksilver style is difficult to pin down on record. When probed, the Toronto quartet push off any attempt to intrude on their territory, refusing to be drawn on influences. “I think we unconsciously absorb things” they muse. “We have really broad tastes. Basically, this is what it is but I think there’s going to be a lot broader recipe next time. In our live show, you can hear the record but when you see it live it goes into a lot of different territories. The pop music scene is opening up to us a lot too, as well. It may take a little longer. But then a lot of underground people will stay underground for so long instead of opening up to pop sensibilities on the other side of things. You get these really strong melodies with a good underground feel.”
Matching catchy melodies to often daring material, Azari & III melt down the barriers between pop, politics and philosophy. Recent single ‘Hungry For The Power’ tackles the banking system, warning of ambition without restriction. However the Toronto four piece place the material within a sweet pop pill, the track’s house textures slick enough to push into the mainstream – something it seems the band would welcome. “You can try and say you’re staying underground but y’know – we’ll see how long that lasts. It’s like young kids who want to be bad ass and shit – you either get to be good at it and get to the point where you’re making tens of thousands of dollars and shit and you’re at the top of the underground scene or you’re gonna get a day job, start changing your recipe to be more successful, right?”
In town to play Relentless Energy Drink Freeze Festival, Azari & III’s live show is pared back but extravagent. The four piece rely on natural charisma to demolish the stage, rampaging around like hyped up divas amid a maelstrom of electronic beats. “We try to dress really sharp and play our instruments. We don’t rely on visuals – it could be a blank canvas behind us, I think our personalities come across without that. We can entertain people for a good hour or two”.
But yet the band still hunger for an added visual dimension. The nature of the creative community in Toronto means that virtually every discipline bleeds into the next – a film maker can swap roles and release an electronic album within a week. “There’s a lot of crossover – musicians, writers, designers, critics. There’s a lot of people that are internationally respected for their opinions in writing – fashion writing, music writing. If anything, Toronto has a really good history of fashion, music and literature. Very strong arts city. Maybe the quality is one of the best in North America. It’s definitely quite overwhelming.”
But the pressure isn’t yet beginning to tell. Azari & III released their debut album earlier this year, with the band’s overwhelming confidence shining through. A freestyling, improvising collective the four piece seem completely at ease with whatever life throws at them. “We’re just kind of going with the flow right now. We’re just playing live and connecting with our fans. We’re building new fans and getting our stuff out there. After a year of playing so many shows in different places we haven’t sat down and processed what we’ve learned and sucked up but it’s in there we have to sit down and figure it out. We’re on the road like for a month here or so, so we’ll probably flesh out something just while we’re hanging out” they explain.
“It’s about you ability to express yourself in the medium and not worry about the limitations, let the limitations work for you. We’re quite experimental people – we’re not trying to make stuff which is inaccessibly experimental but we just like to do experiment with whatever we can get our hands on. We happened to have our hands on a bunch of electronic equipment the last time, if we get our hands on a bunch of acoustic stuff this time we’ll have fun with that. We’re not contained to one format of working. Where we all come from definitely we all did different things. A lot of different kinds of music.”
Azari & III spoke to ClashMusic courtesy of Relentless Energy Drink Freeze Festival.
