Holy Fuck

Holy Fuck’s aes­thetic is that of organic elec­tron­ica, a para­dox real­ized by four musi­cians mak­ing com­plex elec­tronic music with­out the tools of the trade.

Born of the union of two under-the-radar Cana­di­ans, Brian Borcherdt and Gra­ham Walsh. Borcherdt was a vet of a few bands, includ­ing By Divine Right (whose mem­bers also once included BSS play­ers Feist and Bren­dan Can­ning). Walsh mean­while was an ex-member of Hamil­ton shoegaze-pop act Flux A.D., and a busy pro­ducer work­ing with A North­ern Cho­rus among others.

How these two par­layed their col­lec­tive knowl­edge of DIY guerilla tac­tics, a soundman’s ear for gad­gets, and an improv stage show into one Canada’s most talked-about bands is a mat­ter of happy coin­ci­dence and guts. Basi­cally, the duo planned to take the stage with a bassist and drum­mer, make noise with their toys, and see what happened.

They never prac­tice, and they forego the series of loops and lap­tops that often become nor­mal­iz­ing crutches for some of electronica’s most promi­nent. Instead, Holy Fuck pulls from 20 or so toy key­boards, an array of ped­als, a four-string bass, a drumkit and a film syn­chro­nizer, which sup­plies the squalls and scratches of a turntable.

One of the band’s first shows was a Pop Mon­treal slot with a last-minute rhythm sec­tion and no struc­tured songs. The result­ing onslaught was so impres­sive that Brook­lyn MC Beans imme­di­ately asked Holy Fuck to be his back­ing band at Coachella Fes­ti­val in Indio, California.Since then, the ride has not slowed a bit, and given how good-natured and over­looked Borcherdt and Walsh have been in their indie careers, it’s hard not to feel any­thing but pride at these events.