I've sort of gravitated to having music be my main artistic output these days; it’s just such a quick and immediate way to express ideas and feelings. But, both images and sound for me come from the same place and have the same sort of end goal. They’re good buddies and often share ideas. Sometimes a tone can evoke a colour palette and vice versa, it’s a synonymous relationship where they can easily influence each other. Sometimes things just beam into your head and you have to find a way to get it down before you forget about it yknow.

I’ve seen your arsenal of sound machines and there’s a lot of magic stuff in there. Do you have a main gear squeeze / something you couldn’t live without? 

hmmm, tough one! There are a lot of items I would never part with so its hard to pick just one, but I'd have to say my good pals the Roland Alpha Juno and the Oberheim Matrix 1000 are the stars of the show. I've gotten really familiar with editing them over the years and they are an integral part of the new record. There's something about the Alpha that’s so glossy and gooey where as the Matrix brass boy has an entirely different sparkly sheen to it. 

Midi slap bass seems to be all over your new album, how do u do that??? 

Hahhah yeaaaaah, definitely. All of my synths are from the 80s so they usually have some sort of preset for the slap cheese. My go to for this album was same setting used on the Seinfeld theme on the M1r. I generally get pretty excited when it comes time to layer in the funky little slaps, I'm kind of obsessed haha. I jammed and wrote for wayyyyy longer than usual for this one, until a whole new sonic world emerged and the slap bass was just a part of the package. I’m excited for this one to come out finally, it's beethehe longest recording process to date. 

You grew up outside of Toronto and moved downtown - I grew up downtown and moved to a quiet part of MTL. So we have a kind of country mouse city mouse thing going on…I read an interview with RAMZI recently where she talked about her work as being on her own continent and I found that really relatable for me. Do you feel ZONES is big city music, or do you have a place or like, zoo enclosure in your imagination that it exists? 

Yeah, I would relate to that statement as well. I don't feel like my music is connected to the city at all, or any geographical location really. Being here is sort of a love hate relationship, on one hand you want to stay connected to all the great people, but the city is an expensive soda slowly running out of carbonation. My studio is a retreat into my own world, my little slice of zen where I can tune out my surroundings and dig into what I'm working on. I feel like your environment can make it easier to tap into that world, something as simple as turning on some trippy lights might just take you there. I'm not entirely sure what that world is, maybe one day I’ll find out but right now it’s more of a feeling.  

There seems to be so much music coming out of Toronto, who’s been flipping ur lid recently? 

Oh jeez, tough to say. The Cosmic Range is definitely worth checking out. Every time I see New Chance play its always different and exciting. Asher’s [ZONES drummer] band Mr. Joy is kickin up some exciting psychy vibes. They’re a pretty new act, but have a couple records waiting to come out.

ARE YOU STOKED FOR THE SHOW WITH ERIC COPELAND AND MARIE DAVIDSON THIS WEEKEND?!

party time!