Who are you? 

Wyatt Hautonga, lead singer and songwriter behind Techno Westerns

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Why are you involved in music? 

I wanted to make a positive change in the world and do something I was passionate about. This is what I decided to run with because I loved how it made me feel to create and to consume and I felt like I could do for others what they did for me with music.

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What are some of your childhood memories of music? 

The first album I truly remember getting as a kid was Demon Dayz by Gorillaz, and I later got Plastic Beach in 2010 as a Christmas gift from my Mum, and I think that made a real dent on me mentally, because I think from there I sort of obsessed over the production and sounds and the way it made me feel and move and truly thought I could pursue it. I also started a rap group with my mates back when I was about seven or eight and I was convinced we were going to be a famous rap group.

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What influences most when writing music? 

I don’t think it’s any singular thing as much as it’s just whatever is really eating at me at the time. I think my music was quite angry when I started because I as an individual was quite angry and wanted to express that frustration. I think the music grew sound and topic wise because the well dried up with me saying I was mad. Plus I matured into an adult who could understand there was more complexity to my feelings than just anger.

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What you most enjoy about being a musician/in a band? 

I think I enjoy that what I do makes people feel things. Whether that emotion is sadness, happiness, comfort or whatever else they may feel, it makes me really proud that I can cause an emotional reaction.

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List and briefly explain your top five (5) albums. 

This could easily just be me listing Arctic Monkeys albums just because that was one of the bands that I think made me want to be in a band. Regardless, the list in no particular order would be Suck It and See by Arctic Monkeys, because that was an enormous album for me that meant the world when I first heard it. Plastic Beach by Gorillaz because I still hold that as a sonic inspiration for things I do within my own music. The 1975’s self titled album because it let me know that I could approach guitar music in a poppy way and still have that edge and distorted guitar sound. The Slow Rush by Tame Impala I think has also become a favourite album as an adult because it also hit me at a time I needed it, but it really delivered lyrics and sounds that I wanted to explore and add to my own sound. Finally, even though I have a million more, I would maybe pick The XX self titled, because it really kicked off my love with reverb. I don’t think it would have produced the slushy and enormously reverberated sound I now have sort of brought forward in almost everything I do. If I hear a dry guitar on my tracks, I want to vomit in the nearest receptacle.

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What were you doing in the 90s? 

Abso-fucking-lutely nothing of any importance. Being beaten up by some random little shits while a couple months old is what I was doing. I was born in the later nineties, so I was still developing as a human.

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Is fashion important to you? Explain why or why not? 

Extremely. No one of any fucking importance to me is listening to a band in cargo shorts and bloody sandals. It’s 2022, MTV came to prominence in the eighties, visual and aesthetic choices are an artform in their own right, and they are now in part thanks to music videos and promo a big part of the music industry. Anyone with the antiquated mindset that “music is exclusively about music” is going the way of the dinosaur, and for good reason. Music as an artform is all about reinvention and innovation, not making sure that you’re following the guidelines of some geezer who complains about the way kids dress now as if Prince wasn’t in stilettos and assless chaps back in 1986.

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How do you record your music? Any secret gear used? 

It’s extremely boring to be honest. I sit at my desk, I go through my pedalboard, and direct into my interface. I use headphones, NEVER speakers. I record bass and guitar myself. I midi the drums, and I record vocals in my car while parked in the Cineplex parking lot. I take a while to write stuff because I revise ideas a lot, so I would just be wasting an engineers time and also wasting money that I frankly don’t have.

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What challenges do you experience in your creative process? 

Honestly a lot of my issue with recording is getting the alone time to do it where I’m not having any noise or distractions. Mixing is a nightmare because I do it all on headphones and have to just go between laptop and my car to check if I like the mix. I will murder you if you have an issue with my mix but listen through phone speakers, that’s grounds for a fight. From a writing perspective, I think I get overwhelmed with a lot of different sounds I want to try or recreate, so I get distracted and the process takes forever because I want to be concise, but being concise has never been a strong suit of mine.

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Do you recall a specific time in your life when you confirmed a closer relationship to writing/making music? 

I think when I was really fresh and had just started was probably the closest I have ever been with songwriting. I thought every idea was the BEST idea and just didn’t think about the process as much. I see songwriting now as a puzzle I need to construct while blindfolded and have no idea what the end picture is. I should explain that I by no means hate that, but I think it just takes a while to connect the pieces and make it match what’s in my head. Then I get it there and decide I still need to alter everything again.

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How has writing music changed for you over the years? 

I have a weird proficiency now to what I do. I can write a song in a single sitting and usually if it changes, it’s because I just am trying to come at it from a producers standpoint of optimizing the idea and bringing out the best possible product for myself and for the listener. I think I still get emotional over the whole process the same way, and I still get goosebumps when an idea hits the way I want, but I think I just got more confident.

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What creative work are you most proud of? Why? 

It’s always changing, but I still am so proud of Contradict for what it has evolved into while staying virtually the same song. That song has always been a gut punch live. It still holds up the same then as it does now. The demo is not something I stand by, but the song itself really has stayed my set closer because it means the world to me, and it still gets people moving.

Why do you think live music performance events are important in your life/city? 

I think they’re needed for artists to just get their footing and understand that not every song will be a good live song. I think I learnt so much about playing with musicians as well as being a musician by going and playing in front of an audience.

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What is your favourite concert that you attended? Explain why. 

I guess my favourite was Arctic Monkeys back in 2014. They were tight, they were fun and energetic, it was amazing. I think from a local perspective, it changes all the time, but some acts that I loved playing live were Rumble Sons, North Pole, and Grumpy Truck. Grumpy Truck have a lot of potential in my opinion if they keep at it.

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What do you most enjoy about performing? 

Seeing how people react to the music, and having that live feedback where you can really see what people are connecting to and what kind of people are connecting to what.

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What would you like people to take away from your music/live performance? 

I think it would be lofty of me to have any expectation from the audience, if you like what I do on stage, great. If you were less than satisfied, I probably need to work on that. That being said, I hope the audience understand where the performers are coming from and that a lot of these eighteen and nineteen year old kids are just starting, and I hope they understand that as an audience member, their behaviour really shapes the perspective and approach performers have when getting on stage.

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What was the best feedback you’ve ever received about your music? 

I think the best feedback is when I’ve heard it’s helped people through their own issues. I still remember someone saying they had gone to the bathroom at work and played Cobber to just cry and get it out of their system and feel better. THAT is the reason I love what I do. I’ve been that person who needed to just play some music and feel my feelings and feel okay, so I always wanted to make music that would let people express their feelings and maybe just comfort and console them through the bad times. I honestly just want to be a voice for a generation that is constantly robbed of theirs. 

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Do you enjoy organizing music events? Explain why or why not. 

To be completely blunt on this, I hate it. I love organizing because I have more control over the situation and I’m a control freak. That being said, organizing can be an ordeal at the level I’m still sort of working at even with me slowly moving away from it. From a musician standpoint, bookers, promoters, and venue owners can be extremely predatory and unprofessional. I have an old blacklist folder on my band email of venues that wouldn’t let the band play for some asinine reason, or had been extremely disrespectful or had crazy asks before I even play. I mean, part of the reason why I and some friends started Little Depth Records was because of that exact behaviour and me wanting to really stand up to those kinds of assholes and make it a positive experience for newer musicians coming through. Shout out to Zac Strevens over at The Handlebar for being a fucking dream to work with and being exactly what this city needs from a booking standpoint. That man should run booking at every venue in this city, hands down.

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Why do you think a local music scene is important? 

Because not every family has private jet to the Bahamas kind of money. How else is an artist like myself supposed to get a foot in the door if not through local support? I know a lot of musicians just don’t have the money for work visas, gear rental, flights, transportation, lodging, etc. You would hope the city you inhabit would have your back and help lift you up a bit. The biggest thing is really making sure that safety net exists for local musicians and making sure that the musicians who want to disrupt and exclude others are the exception and not the rule to the scene.

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List and briefly explain the value and importance of touring/playing shows outside of your city.

Extremely. Part of why my band and label are looking at playing in the UK, US and other provinces is because at the moment, there are things we can’t always rely on from the city. You can partly thank the conservative local and provincial governments for the lack of resources, and you can thank the bigger artists who do nothing to help for the lack of opportunities. Until we can establish Toronto as a bigger music city that the industry keeps a closer eye on, we’re going to have to hope we luck out and play the fucking El Mocombo on a fateful night with some big wig exec drinking a rum and coke in the audience. Or we could just get our money together to play some shows and festivals south of the border or across the pond.

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