Canadian synth maulers par exellence Holy Fuck have been dealt a blow by the Canadian government, with a publicly funded touring programme being axed.
The band’s use of antique synths and stunning krautrock grooves have made them a favourite with music fans, not least in the Clash office where the stereo regularly blasts out their last album “LP”.
The Canadian government previously ran a tour funding organisation called PromArt, which cost $4.7 million in its support of the performing arts. It has now been axed, with CBS news quoting a government representative as saying The [funding] choices made were inappropriate…because they were ideological in some cases, or the money was going to fringe arts groups that, in many cases, would be at best, unrepresentative, and at worst, offensive.”
Astonishingly, one of the groups cited by the government as being, well, a waste of money were Holy Fuck! The band’s bassist Matt McQuaid responded by saying “I guess more than anything it’s a little bit annoying that we’ve been made the scapegoat when you consider how much money we receive relative to the budget for the entire program. I think our funding comes in at something less than 0.1 per cent of the whole program. So all of these other larger groups who need money more than we do to travel abroad– like ballet and symphonies– we become the scapegoat for the cutting in their funding.”
