Driftwood

By: Lidia Vila

Some how I don’t think you got your band name from the Travis song?

We went through many band names (Confusion Fog, North League, Cobra Libra), but had over looked this one from early on. It is actually the name of the first track on the 2001 Elevator album, Taste of Complete Perspective. We didn’t want a name that was too clever or wordy, something that was too apparent. We think Driftwood personifies our style.

According to your myspace, Victor and Del went through “countless practices and configurations� to find band mates - what was that like? What were you looking for?

It was tedious and annoying. It was hard to find people with like-minded visions and work ethics. We were looking in the wrong places for band mates and found things worked better with old friends.

As Driftwood is very DIY, what do you think of the music industry regarding artists like Radiohead who give away their music and Madonna who doesn’t use the regular ticket outlets?

In both cases it is easy for them to do those things in their positions. It is important that we get the music out there, whichever way we can. In the end I do like the way that things are moving away from the music industry/ record labels and into control by the artist.

On the myspace music player for your song “Sympathyforthe21century�, it looks like you have the silhouette of male transsexual Thomas Beatie dubbed “Pregnant Man� to the left. What are you trying to say with this image linked to this song?

There was no intentional Beatie reference, but it does symbolize the next generation to come. I sympathize for the next generation and what they are going to have to deal with musically; they may never get to experience obsessively collecting records and things like that.

What is your take on the Toronto scene? How have your relationships with other bands helped you out (if at all)?

We are still waiting for it all to come together, but we really dig the bands here and what they are doing. We’re excited for what is coming out of Toronto. A lot of the people we grew up with who we thought were very talented are now starting to be recognized (dd/mm/yyyy, Die Mannequin, etc…).

What can we expect next?

Music. - www.torontoindie.com