Purveyors of: Dancing, polyrhythms, mind explosions
File next to: Maraudeur, KEG, The Raincoats
Appearing: Deerhoof – Night Two w/ Luge + Troglos: Wavelength, June 23, 2025 @ St. Anne’s Parish (651 Dufferin Street)
More Info Here
Toronto’s cult-veteran quartet Luge weave danceability through their ceaseless maelstrom of genre denial. Each member brings their own taste and timbre to the table where ‘what-if’ chops song structure into a malleable goop still wriggling with ear-worming riffs. Their adolescent blend of curiosity and cheek holds true since Luge’s inception in 2015. They continue to dive into unmapped sonic territory, leaving no inspiration untapped and with the chops to pull it off. June 23 will mark Luge’s first performance at Wavelength in seven years, where they will be opening for inventive rock veterans Deerhoof. Wavelength’s Lian McMillan spoke with vocalist and synth player Kaiva Gotham, guitarist Tobias Hart, bassist Cameron Fraser, and returning drummer Luca Caruso-Moro ahead of their highly anticipated return.
WL: Welcome back to Wavelength! You’ve played a handful of shows with us, do you have any fond memories from over the years?
Kaiva: I remember the Bike Pirates show vividly. There is a pretty good live vid up on YouTube too. I remember cause I put a particular kind of hat on at the moment when the song turns country. That felt really good.
WL: In our last interview with Luge in 2017, Kaiva mentioned that you were big fans of Fet.Nat. You’ve since played with members of the band for a new project in Montreal! What did that moment feel like, and did you learn anything from that experience?
Tobias: We’ve been lucky enough to play with so many bands that have inspired us. We’re slowly ticking the box on every band we brought up at our first ever practice. It’s really incredible and I feel lucky every time I think about it. The thing I’ve learned is that the world is small. Some of the bands we’ve shared the stage with felt worlds away when we were 17 but you come to realize they all know the same people as you because making weird music is this close-knit thing. It’s awesome.
Kaiva: The last Wavelength interview listed Deerhoof as our “File Next To”, and here we are. I’ve learned not to think about it for longer than three seconds at a time because I get too excited and jittery.
WL: The original drummer of Luge, Luca, returned to the lineup last year. Did it feel like putting on a comfy sweater, or were there some growing pains?
Kaiva: Anyone who has seen us play with Stu can understand why finding a replacement for him felt like a totally impossible task. We always knew that, whoever it will be, things will be different and we will change. With Luca, we got the best of both worlds. He already contained the essence of Luge, so we had no doubt that it would work. And at the same time, he has brought really exciting change to the band.
Cameron: I could definitely feel the comfy sweater vibe in Luca’s friendship with Toby and Kaiva. We have a way of talking ideas through in the band that Luca immediately jumped into. I was like, “oh yeah, they definitely went to high school together”. For me, I had some growing pains because Stu and I had played in a band before Luge and as a rhythm section of like 10 years we got to the point of knowing what each other was going to play before we played it. Getting to know someone well on that deep musical level is a really special thing.
Luca: There have definitely been growing pains. Stu is a phenomenal musician with exceptionally large shoes to fill. Learning these songs has been hugely educational because of that. What a privilege that is. I’ve tried to honour his ideas and find my place among these musicians who have really honed their music and collaborative processes together. It’s felt like a homecoming and a whole new world at once. It’s been an honour to re-enter the group and see how far my friends have come in their musicianship.
WL: Luge’s music subscribes to math-rock time signatures, while still being danceable. How do you straddle that line and find that balance?
Tobias: There are two sides to “danceability.” Side A is how easy it is to dance to. Side B is how much it makes you want to dance. Side B is all that matters. If people want to move badly enough, they will figure out how.
Cameron: I think the danceability of sections of a song creates a friction that is really fun. It doesn’t really have much to do with time signature. It’s like in those big EDM drops where the sample gets chopped up into smaller and smaller divisions, it’s just about how hard the drop slaps in comparison to the tension of the build. We get to have fun with time signatures as a tool, to add tension or to add groove.
Luca: I rarely think about time signatures. The songwriting is (and always has been) about what feels right and fun. Different time signatures can give melodies and phrases more space to develop themselves, and I think the discipline in that is finding the right place to play that sucker again.
WL: Talk to us about the title of your most recent album I Love It Here, I Live Here. Why do you love Toronto? Would you ever live anywhere else?
Kaiva: I hate to break the news, but that album title came to me when I was feeling very down and very trapped in this city. At the time I was thinking “this is where I live and I have no way out and so I have no choice but to love it here, because how else could you stand it.” Anyway, feelings come and go. Most of the time I do love Toronto enormously (I love it here), it’s my home (I live here). I am here voluntarily lol. But I teeter on the edge of moving back to Latvia – my other home, which I love, but where I don’t live.
Cameron: I wrote the drum groove for the first part of “I Love it Here, I Live Here” the first week that I moved to Toronto in 2012. I was making beats on my laptop while the York University frosh week raged around me. I didn’t have any friends in the city and was a bit scared of the prospect of meeting people but I knew there was no going back. Finally using that beat in a song that was given that lyrical direction by Kaiva is really interesting. I could definitely relate to her meaning more back in 2012. This project has given so much to me personally that when I hear that beat now and I hear those lyrics I’m just so grateful for everything.
Luca: That drum groove is my favorite thing to play in any song I’ve ever participated in.
WL: The album came out in 2023. Have any particular tracks stood out or changed meaning for you the more you’ve played the album?
Tobias: I think the closer “Spoon Feeding Crab Walking” is one of my favourite things I’ve written but it’s also really hard to translate from writing to recording and playing. We have only played it live twice and it’s a total nightmare. I’m proud of it but it’s the problem child. The middle section feels completely fresh to me and I’ve been writing a few things in that style but maybe not for Luge.
Kaiva: Going back to the album name.. Playing the title track on tour has been such a beautiful and funny experience every time. We’re in a city we don’t know, we’re gonna leave the next day. But in that moment on stage when I’m singing “I love it here, I love it here, I live here” and the strangers in the crowd are singing along, the lyrics are true. It makes me feel connected to the world and to the people. And depending on where they’re at in their lives, they sing along with genuine love for their home, or with love born out of necessity, like when I wrote the line. Joy and pain expressed all in the same moment.
Cameron: I think about the swamp more and more during “Pumpuri” and I freak the fuck out when I get to play the fast part near the end of that song.
Luca: “I’ll Be Lucky” felt like sorcery to me before I learned to play it. It still does. There are parts of that song that just come out of your body in a way that is hard to describe. I can give an example: the polyrhythmic section in the middle. The drum part is this pattern I had a really hard time understanding until Stu shared the secret key, “I’m pregnant, don’t know what to do.” The notes fill that phrase when put in the right places. Hi-hat snare kick, kick kick snare, kick hi-hat. It’s a helpful phrase to remember the pattern, and also a very powerful statement.
WL: What can the Wavelength audience expect from your upcoming show with Deerhoof?
Kaiva: We’re going to play a full set of Luge originals, including some new tunes we’ll be recording very soon. So basically they can expect to have their minds exploded into oblivion and their whole lives changed forever.
Don’t miss Deerhoof’s two-night residency in Toronto, featuring the best of the city’s DIY post-punk and art-rock scenes, along with some visitors from La belle province. Expect invigorating opening sets from Kingdom of Birds and Montreal’s Crabe on June 22 and Troglos and Luge on June 23.
Sunday & Monday, June 22-23, 2025
@ St. Anne’s Parish Hall, 651 Dufferin Street
Doors 7pm
Masks requested by artist
Single tix $39.50 adv plus taxes & fees at DICE.FM
Two night pass $59.50 adv plus taxes & fees at DICE.FM
2-night pass: bit.ly/WLdeerhoof
Sunday: bit.ly/WLdeerhoofN1
Monday: bit.ly/WLdeerhoofN2
ALL AGES / Licensed