Official Blog of City Sonic Toronto

ANITA DORON is the director of the feature The End of Silence and the documentary Finding Body and Soul. She has helmed music videos for Sarah Harmer and Prairie Oyster and when she came on board with CitySonic she told us she likes her music loud. We had two words for her: Fucked Up.

LL: Give us the “elevator ride” length concept for your film:
AD: Listening to Fucked Up and digesting their hardcore punk sensibilities, their mysticism and occasional public bloodletting, I instantly had a vision of a mini Dario Argento mystical horror piece at Rotate This. When I met Damian and had a chance to hang out with him, we truly clicked. We have a very similar take on the world and a way of being in it, which is living for the experience, like a curious child allowing things to get weird if they need to, face chaos, ready to learn and explore. Damian is a person who has a confident and fearless ownership of his particular way of experiencing the world and that inspires me. I want that to be the bone marrow of this film.

LL: What was the biggest challenge shooting in this location?
AD: Rotate This is one of the most iconic, curious and infamous “musical” places of Toronto. I enjoyed the unpredictability of it, the, uhm, strong character of [manager] Brian Taylor and most of all Damian’s passion for music and for the quest of finding that incredible record. I find the parallel and contrast between Damian’s record collector persona and his Pink Eye – Fucked Up persona interesting, and this is what I want to pull out in the City Sonic piece.

LL: What did you learn about Rotate’s overlord Brian Taylor that surprised you?
AD: Realizing that behind Brian’s tough Rotate This persona lies the simple fact that he has a hard time letting go of records he loves. And I fucking love that! I will take an opinionated, arrogant, no nonsense man or woman of convictions over a fake-smiling, backbone-less, go-with-the-flow-factory-made character any day. And I sure would have loved to know Brian Taylor in the days of Youth Youth Youth.

LL: Do you have an “I was there!” Toronto music history story of your own?
AD: The first thing that comes to mind is having Sarah Harmer stand in my kitchen, her left foot resting atop a bucket full of grimy water she just used to wash the floors for a scene of the film we were shooting, and just jamming. The place was right between the Rivoli and the former 360, on the second floor where I first lived in Toronto, and there was Sarah, with that voice, making up melodies and fragments of songs on the spot and me, completely mesmerized.

Can you feel the love? It’s hard to find Damian Abraham in a bad mood when he’s surrounded by the things he loves most, records. We talked to Damian inside his favourite record shop Rotate This on Queen West and then headed back to his place to check out his own vinyl collection. Oh, and his cat Mr. Pickles. Check out the production pics from out Flickr site here.

If you’ve ever shopped at Rotate This (and if not, what’s wrong with you? You hate good music?) you know the shop environment can be ….intimidating. Even Damian from Fucked Up told us he’s at times nervous around manager Brian Taylor: gatekeeper of the holy vinyl grails. So we wondered how Taylor would take to our film crew. To nobody’s surprise, he was …. aloof. That doesn’t mean we didn’t get him though…

Toronto hardcore heroes Fucked Up have left so much damage and legend in their wake around town with their chaotic live shows we wondered which scene of their crimes would be the ideal City Sonic location. Turns out it wasn’t a club or venue at all but the independent record shop Rotate This, where lead singer Damian Abraham gets his geek on searching through the bins and coveting the rarest of vinyl. If you’ve ever spent your last dollar on a record, this one’s for you.