Last week, we chatted with Brian Borcherdt about his new solo album released on Friday under the moniker Dusted called Dusted III as well his accomplishments throughout the indie electronic music space with his band Holy Fuck. Dusted III is a mellon-collie singer songwriter album centered around themes of memory and transition. Combining echoes of the past with ruminations of the present – the album was compiled when Brian found an old laptop with a bunch of forgotten tracks on it that were strangely still relevant. In contrast to his music with Holy Fuck, which is often heavy, chaotic, genre bending and multi-layered – Dusted is stripped back, acoustic and lightly accented. We also get into how the niche genres and underground music scenes that Brian has produced projects in have reached the mainstream in a myriad of ways. These include Brian going viral on the internet for remixing old Chipmunks records, his music ending up on one of the craziest comedy TV shows to ever come out of Canada – Kenny Vs Spenny – and a Holy Fuck song being used in a pivotal scene of Breaking Bad.
Michael Primiani for RX Music
I wanted to begin by discussing your new album, Dusted III. You’ve stated that this album was inspired by finding an old laptop and going through some old song recordings on it. How did that experience lead you to return to your solo outfit? How many tracks are from the old laptop and how many are simply inspired by the experience of finding it?
Brian Borcherdt
It was about 50/50, maybe more. Every studio session begins with a chunk of songs going into it a little bigger than what I end up with at the end of it. At that point, half of it was old stuff and half of it was new. What makes this experience unique was that it was the first time I ever forgot about old stuff and I just carried it around for years. It was an unfamiliar feeling for me to suddenly realize that I’d actually lost them, like my brain had deleted some files. That was kind of a new experience for me, to find these GarageBand demos on my old laptop and everything was so forgotten that it was like I was hearing everything I knew like I was a different person than the person who recorded them. I think that was kind of what was fun about it – hearing potential in something because it was almost like it wasn’t my own. That was a real spark of inspiration to get back into the studio. So I was able to take, you know, a handful of old songs and then sprinkle in some new ones. Dusted III is the result of that.
MP
What’s interesting, and I guess a little bit eerie about that is that these songs are from ages ago but they sound like they were written and recorded in current day. There is such an emphasis on transition on this album. Everybody in the world has gone through the biggest transition in human history in a long time because of this pandemic. Also, I understand that you’ve gone through a transition yourself by moving from Toronto to Nova Scotia over the pandemic. What is the role of transition on this album?
BB
A lot of the stuff was written around the time that I wrote the material for my first Dusted record, Total Dust. I don’t know if transition was the word I would be using at that moment in time, but I think what kind of persevered and made these songs still relevant is that I don’t make very distinct and clear narratives about specific things happening. I’m not very direct, I don’t write your typical love songs. What I do write about is trying to find one’s place, trying to find answers, trying to solve matters of the heart and dealing with anxiety and depression. These things all become part of the lyrical landscape of my music, and I think it just happened to fit. It’s interesting because I think a pop songwriter has the job of ultimately writing something quite timeless so we can always relate to it. Pop songs about love and good times and all that. But I think there also has to be something timeless and relatable when we break away from pop writing. I don’t really consider myself a pop songwriter. So I don’t know, I’m trying to find something relatable and trying to find something timeless and hopefully I have because as you said – it seems to apply to what’s happening now. Even though it was written 10 years ago.
MP
I get that sense, especially on “Little More Time”, which appears to me to be about wanting more time in a situation or with a certain person or holding on to memories. There’s a line on the song that goes “are you fading from my mind? Or are you fading from my memory?” I thought that was pretty interesting, and definitely gives me the feeling of having to leave something behind and it being bittersweet and wanting to hold on to it for as long as you can.
BB
You can imagine how many times over the last few months while getting this album ready and putting it out we kept talking about needing more time, and it’s become a bit of a punchline because we needed a “little more time” before we released the single called “Little More Time” – so it became a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy with that song. You pretty much hit the nail on the head, in terms of what I was writing about. It was inspired by an individual who passed away in their sleep. That feeling of not being able to really say goodbye to someone is kind of what struck me. I then applied that to other relationships in my life. We don’t always get to say goodbye and we don’t always get the closure that we want. Whether it’s a person, situation, geographic place or a time in our lives or a moment/particularly good vibe we had that felt like it would last forever and then suddenly – it’s over. More than that, it’s about being on the other side of it, looking back and also realizing that in time. And being scared of the memories of this time fading away.
MP
I agree. I’ve definitely had some of those experiences where you feel like if you stop thinking about something or rehashing an event or an experience with a person in your mind that it might fade away. So there’s like a conscious effort to keep up a remembrance.
BB
Yeah, exactly. It’s like the power of smelling something, and that smell brings back memories. It’s a really precious thing. But there’s a fine line because you hope the smell doesn’t become ubiquitous again and we and we smell it every day because then it would lose its potency. Then it loses its connection to memory. It’s almost like you want to keep something precious. And that’s a very difficult thing to do. When everything is so ephemeral, how do we keep something physically present without overdoing it or over absorbing it?
MP
That’s a good point on smell and also for music, obviously. You don’t want to play that song that reminds you somebody so many times that it loses the memories attached to it. So you try and listen to it sparingly. I’ve definitely had that before.
BB
Yeah, you can listen to it tops once a month. Haha.
MP
Speaking about the other single, “They Don’t Know You” – there’s a line in there that I noticed, “tether me to the coast”. I assume that that is in some way about returning to your hometown of Nova Scotia. Did you always think you would you would go back there while you were living in Toronto?
BB
Yeah, it is about that. It’s about Nova Scotia. And at that point in time (of writing this song) I didn’t think I would move back although I thought about it. I guess that idea of a tether is a little bit like a different way describing that chip on our shoulder. You know, like, sometimes we have things that link us to our past, but they’re not joyful. I was trying to cope with that idea that only I can change the narrative and refresh the experience and make it more positive. But I was certainly inundated with a lot of the Nova Scotia charm and the allure that everyone feels about it being such an idyllic place that everyone wants to visit and everyone wants to move here. And yet, growing up here, I had more of the harsh realities that I’m sure exist everywhere. You have this sense of a tether like this feeling that you’re always connected to that past and my childhood and past connect me to that geographic location. It’s about eerie feeling of like never being able to escape it. Even if I never moved back. A part of me will always be there.
MP
Do you miss Toronto at all?
BB
I certainly miss Toronto. So give me 10 years and I’ll be writing about missing Toronto. Maybe in four years I’ll be making an album where I’m tethered to the Big Smoke.
MP
What do you miss the most about Toronto?
BB
It was very surreal the way things played out. I left Toronto with a really lamentable goodbye. I didn’t leave guns blazing. I was torn. I felt like it was a smart move. To finally leave and change some things in my life. But I loved Toronto. It was surreal to leave, I’m referring to leaving after everything changed in the city due to the pandemic. So what I miss about Toronto are some of the things that Torontonians miss about Toronto, you know, and what my friends miss about it who are living there right in this moment. The community, friendship, just getting out and making connections. That’s something that most of us are missing right now. I miss restaurants and bars and patios and running into my friends. I’ve seen places shut down that will never open again. And I lost a good friend in Toronto. What makes it difficult is knowing that the Toronto that I miss, isn’t there and now certain people aren’t there. Things have changed and I hope it comes back but I’ve felt that I’m missing something that doesn’t seem to exist at the moment.
Coincidentally, Brian Borcherdt appeared in a documentary called City Sonic, consisting of Toronto musicians discussing different Toronto music venues. Here’s Brian talking about Toronto staple Sneaky Dees, a late night Tex Mex bar serving some of the best nachos in the city and some of the best up and coming bands in the city in their upstairs venue. Sadly, there has recently been rumors of a condo project overtaking the spot
MP
I feel you on that one. It’s definitely a different feeling of being in the city recently where all of the university campuses are empty, and the spots that were lively before are not so lively now. The city has been opening up and seems to be coming back a bit now, though.
BB
I was supposed to be on tour with Holy Fuck this past year and it didn’t happen. I think the lack of getting out and connecting is hard on bands. I miss touring. I think more bands are gonna break up working on their next release, because of the pandemic. Without touring, it’s no fun anymore. Like, if you take the fun element away, then you have a bunch of grown adults emailing each other all the time and not getting paid for it. It’s like play having a job and play having business meetings. Without the paycheck.
MP
I want to actually bring up Holy Fuck and ask you – how is your writing process for your solo material different than writing for a group setting such as Holy Fuck?
BB
Great question. I think that from the very beginning of Holy Fuck we weren’t ever writing outside of being together. It was a bit of an experiment and part of the fun of that experiment was getting together and seeing what would materialize and so we kept that vibe going as best we could this whole time. We’d tour together, be in a rehearsal or a soundcheck and just start to play music together because it’s enjoyable. It’s part of what makes that group fun. More recently, there has been some moments of bringing things in from home being in an idea that’s quite realized, sort of like show and tell a little bit. Having an idea and then bringing it into the band and saying “I have this song what do you think about it”. That’s where there’s a bit of a gray area because for me, the joy was mostly creating on the spot with these people in a very collaborative approach. Then when I go home, and I’m not on the road with those guys anymore and I’m alone somewhere with a guitar – it turns back into something where I’m daydreaming and writing for myself. I like to pick up a guitar and start forming chords and melodies that hit an emotional connection. Writing this way is more of an emotional search and a lot more like classic songwriting from an individual and I love that. I love the balance of writing solo and collaboratively and I don’t really ever feel the need to cram them together. I like having a sort of duality between them.
MP
I see how they are opposites. Writing for a band in the same room as a band vs writing for yourself, by yourself.
BB
Yeah, and that’s what’s good about it too. I never feel pressure from my ego to assert certain things into Holy Fuck. I never feel like I didn’t get my voice heard or my part on a song didn’t get accepted by the group. It’s more of a egoless process of everybody coming up with something and that saves so much room to be in other bands, not just Dusted so I can get together with lots of different people and make a lot of different music and I feel like it’s never stepping on other bands toes, at least not yet. I mean, hopefully it continues to be really kind of organic and fruitful.
MP
I noticed that when I listen to Holy Fuck, I was listening to the Deleter album yesterday. It’s sort of like an organized chaos where you can’t really pick out “Oh, this person’s doing this or this person is doing that”. It works very cohesively.
BB
Yeah, and that’s the goal!
Witness Holy Fuck’s organized chaos in this amazing performance for KEXP
MP
So your music specifically with Holy Fuck has been featured in TV shows like Invincible, Mr. Robot and Breaking Bad. What TV show or movie would Dusted fit best as the soundtrack of?
BB
Right now I can see it working in so many situations. And I feel like it is cinematic but I think it would take a daring director. Because right now, one of the trends that we’re all very aware of, especially for movie trailers, is to take a new wave song from the 80s or something and have it sung by like a folky chanteuse who makes it kind of sad and that seems to be the crack for music supervisors right now. They can’t get enough of that. They’re always plugging that into the emotional moment in some teen drama about Superhero Kids. So I look forward to working with people who are a little more daring and apt to have more original music in their movies. I was recently speaking with the art director from the new Dune movie coming out and he was telling me that in the art department, all the sets and design of the movie was made to my last Dusted record. That’s so cool. That’s a long way away from my music being in the movie, but it’s good to know that it’s at the least the soundtrack for people’s creative process, whether it is or not in the film.
Stream the last Dusted record here, 2018’s Blackout Summer
MP
Wow, cool. And on the the topic of movies and TV shows, I’ve got to ask you about Kenny vs Spenny. I’m a huge fan of the show and I got really invested in the online fan community over the pandemic, which is actually how I got into Holy Fuck. My question is, how did that that partnership come about? And what are your thoughts on the show?
BB
It feels like a deep, deep path, because in that era – the band was probably at our most vocally celebrated in the city. I never really felt like a Toronto band. You know, we formed in Toronto, we existed in playing music in Toronto for at least 15 years so I think we’ve earned the title of being a Toronto band. But at the same time, none of us are from Toronto. So there was a moment in the mid to late 2000s, where the local press would write about us, they did kind of champion as a bit. It was around that time that Kenny vs Spenny started picking up and all the original episodes aired. I would run into the folks from the show every now and then it just seemed like they absorbed us into their show because we were such a local fixture in that time. That era of the band is when we started to break into some global success. What was most interesting is that we were actually kind of locally celebrated. I feel like nowadays people have kind of moved on and maybe forgotten about us. But yeah, in that moment, we were the toast!
Kenny vs Spenny features Kenny Hotz and Spencer Rice facing off in a variety of ridiculous competitions. This one is “First To Touch The Ground Loses”. The song featured at this time stamp is “Frenchy’s” by Holy Fuck off the album LP released back in 2007
MP
Do you watch the the show much now? Or have you seen it since it aired?
BB
No, I haven’t seen in ages. The thing is at that time, I was totally tuned out, I was so busy playing music. I left Halifax in 1999 and moved to Toronto and just as I was leaving, Trailer Park Boys was just picking up and I was friends with almost everyone in the cast. I would see them every now and then if they were in Toronto for something and we would hang out and it was really fun. But at that point in time, I’d never seen the show and I didn’t see the show until like a few years ago when it came on Netflix. It was funny watching it because that’s how I remember all those people. We kind of lost touch but I’m watching them through this time capsule where it all felt really relevant and recent and yet we’ve all aged in chains, but I was seeing the way I remember them. It was just simply because I didn’t have a TV at the time and I was always on tour. So I was aware of these shows but I never saw any of them. Movies too. For instance, I never saw Breaking Bad and I still haven’t. I’ve seen the episode that my song is in because eventually curiosity got the better of me and I went on YouTube and I found it and I watched that particular scene. So yeah, I live in my own world.
MP
All three of those shows are really great that some of my favorites. I remember hearing “They’re Going to Take my Thumbs” in season two of Breaking Bad and thinking “that’s the song from when Kenny and Spenny did the who can smoke the most weed episode”. That was my first thought. How did like the creators of Breaking Bad think to use your song? How did that happen?
BB
Yeah, that’s a good question. I actually don’t really know. Maybe some of that buzz that was happening in Toronto, I think that was indicative of what was happening in a wider community at the time. We ended up signing to XL, and that’s a great record label. It’s probably one of the better ones you could hope to be signed to in the world. We never had a publishing deal so we never really had fully vested agents out there throwing our music into the people’s laps. I do know that the reach of XL is such that people would pay attention to their releases, music fans and music supervisors alike. It’s really a mystery to me, how our song ended up on Breaking Bad. I think it speaks to the reach of XL and hopefully to the quality of the music we’re making. I think it was just different enough. At that time, there wasn’t a whole lot of “electronic music” or electronica that was popular. I think now, in 2021 we have a different kind of perspective. Holy Fuck’s music has changed and it’s no longer exactly electronic music. But at that time it was still instrumental and I don’t think there was a whole lot of instrumental music that pushed all the buttons that we did.
This scene from the season premiere of season 2 of Breaking Bad “Seven Thirty-Seven” features the Holy Fuck song “They’re Going To Take My Thumbs” as Jesse Pinkman and Walter White manufacture ricin to poison the crazed drug kingpin Tuco Salamanca
MP
Last question here. And it’s maybe the the silliest one of the bunch, but I have to ask you about it. What can you tell me about Sludgefest Chipmunks on 16 speed?
BB
Haha yeah! I’m always happy to get a plug in there for that. Yeah, it’s something I wanted to do for a long time because I love playing around with different speeds on record players. And it kind of goes in tandem with Holy Fuck, actually, because when I first started with Holy Fuck, I was kind of experimenting with household items, and pawn shop finds and stuff. So of course, my suitcase record player was just another one of these things. In fact, we would bring it around in our dressing rooms on tour. If you went into our dressing room, you’d find us in there with that suitcase record player playing Fat Boys records and Smurfs records on 16 speed and making them sound all crazy. It was something that I was always doing. It just took me a long time to get around to putting it together. I was sitting around, my wife was in Mexico working so I had some time. So I finally did an actual recording of what I’ve always been messing around with. I recorded all those children’s records and I did a little bit to them, like, I ran them through tape delays and EQ-ed them, you know, to make them sound a little better. Just simply slowing them down isn’t quite enough, it can get really dreary. So I had to brighten up the EQ and work on it a bit. Yeah, and I was excited to share it with people so I did the SoundCloud and all that, but I was not prepared for the viral success. I think that’s part of the nature of things that are viral is that by the time they take on, the individual who made it isn’t always prepared. So, you know, my one regret is that I didn’t monetize it. There’s a little bit of an issue with trademark, just because the Chipmunks images are trademarked images and stuff so it would have been hard for me to put it out properly, but it allowed a lot of people in the United States to kind of feel it and host it and get a lot of hits and likes and ad money from it and stuff. I’m proud of it. It’s a big part of who I am, as much as it sounds like novelty. If you’re trying to explain it to a friend, they might think it’s a gimmick, but I think when you listen to it, it’s actually pretty profound. It’s quite emotive, and listeners who have found it actually really like it. Especially people who are already into gloomy music and sludgy metal. So, yeah, I’m really glad it’s made a connection with people and I’m glad I have yet another viral success under my belt, One day if I have to get a job somewhere, these things will end up being my resume. I don’t know who’s going to be hiring someone who does these things, but it’s something I can be proud of. I just have to remind myself to keep doing projects that seem silly at the time, but they do get listened to. And that’s quite fulfilling, I think.
Sludgefest Chipmunks on 16 Speed in all its gloomy glory. To me it sounds like doom metal or grunge instrumentation meets the deep vocals of someone like Dave Gahan from Depeche Mode
MP
It’s all over Reddit. And the main link on YouTube has 1.9 million views as of today…
BB
Yeah and that’s somebody else’s link hahaha.
MP
Lunar Orbit, I think
BB
Yeah. somebody’s getting the glory. At least, you know, you knew to ask me, so we’ll let it keep spreading and that’s the nature of the Reddit world and the more cultish fan following stuff is it has to be a little bit obscure. So I’m pleased with that.
It was awesome chatting with Brian. If we have learned anything from this interview, it is to keep putting out silly ideas and keep on trying to push different buttons in the quest to stay creative. RX Music would like to thank Jamie Crawford of Strut Entertainment for facilitating the interview. Photo credits for all photos of Brian Borcherdt go to Anna Edwards Borcherdt. Photos courtesy of Jamie Crawford and Brian Borcherdt. Feature photo edited by RX Music’s Andre Grant.
You can stream Dusted III below:
