I pictured Slim Twig standing casually, wearing slippers and sweats, in a cozy kitchen as we chatted over the phone. It was not the image I expected to conjure during our conversation—I had only recently been introduced to his dark, eclectic musical style—and, to be honest, I was disconcerted by the psychological perturbation of his stormy sound, and assumed it mirrored his personality. Serves me right for judging: the 20-year-old Torontonian, setting off on a tour of Southern Ontario this week, was polite, humble and exceptionally bright.
Far from your typical, extroverted indie-pop party animal—in our conversation, he mentioned his close bonds with his family and an avid interest in reading—Slim Twig has been performing since he was 13. Now, as his solo career begins to take off, he remains intensely focused on his artwork.
“Pretty simple stuff,” he explained of his lifestyle.
But despite Slim Twig’s reserved demeanor, there isn’t a hesitant bone in his body when it comes to exploring new musical possibilities.
“When I first started, I was doing pretty traditional, confessional song writing. … That kind of approach would repulse me to make now,” he laughed.
His style has since evolved, and now uses his music to explore the psyches of other people. He’s most intrigued by twisted and complex characters, the likes of someone who might turn up in a David Lynch film.
“I like to explore the psyche of people who are a little more disturbed … or that is what I’m interested in,” he said. “It’s less telling the stories of those people, but speaking from the perspective of someone like that.
“People might say it’s a little less honest or a little less truthful, but because I’m not writing things that actually happened to me, I think that there is honesty in addressing the darker issues that I would like to explore. And in of the music, it’s much more experimental. I’m definitely a pop song writer, but half of my processes are trying to experiment with new sounds and that kind of thing.”
Twig’s exceptional creativity does not stop with music. He spends much of his time acting and starred in The Tracey Fragments with Ellen Page in 2007. But he said his acting is primarily done to make money to pursue music, his main ion.
“I find that the music is much more performance than the acting. I mean, it should be the other way around, but it’s not. The acting is kind of low key for me and I don’t invest a lot of energy into sort of creating … crazy new characters, which I do with the music. It’s more just kind of showing up and being myself.” With intellect and creativity resounding behind the veil of Twig’s soft spoken words, one may assume he would be somewhat pretentious in his taste, but quite the opposite is true. He was eager to express his respect for the musicians who inspire him; musicians ranging from Beck and David Bowie to his peers in the Toronto music scene to L’il Wayne and Young Jeezy.
“I like Tha Carter III, I thought it was a good album. I think a song like ‘A Millie’ in and of itself is kind of un-commercial, it’s totally minimally produced.
“While pop and mainstream is very slowly evolving, it is evolving … and something that is kind of un-commercial like that song can have a huge impact on the mainstream landscape which I think is an exciting thing,” he explained.
Creativity is Twig’s criteria for good music—he ires anyone who is willing to push the boundaries of normality and experiment with innovative sounds, no matter the genre.
“I guess I’m really not into manufactured rock, and mainstream spectrum bands that kind of market themselves as punk music. That is the furthest thing from the ethos and … it’s not even good pop. I don’t have a problem with pop music but that’s just poorly constructed and lazily constructed.”
Twig sets the same high standard of creativity for himself as for other musicians. In of future endeavors, he said having a single would be a great accomplishment. But just like his introverted personality suggests, Twig’s aspirations are more personally fulfilling in their nature. His goal is to produce albums consistently, each with a tone that is distinct from each other.
But when I asked him what it was like turning his ion into his profession, Twig took a long, pensive pause. Despite conflicts that might arise over the issue, he is confident music is the only thing he could spend his life doing.
“Why conflate what you love with making money?” he said. “That’s a huge conflict for a lot of people. And I can’t say that I’ve never thought that way. At the same time I feel like I would be throwing my life down the drain if I had to wake up every morning, walk to an office and do bullshit paper work like that. I honestly don’t think I could physically do that.”
All final editorial decisions are made by the Editor(s) in Chief and/or the Managing Editor. Authors should not be ed, targeted, or harassed under any circumstances. If you have any grievances with this article, please direct your comments to [email protected].