Purveyors of: Parachutes, synthesizers, cycling
File next to: Brian Wilson, Arcade Fire, Phantogram
Appearing: Wavelength Summer Thing: Downtown Edition – Night One, August 9, 2025 @ SummerSeries in Trillium Park
The energy that Rich Aucoin brings to his outlandish projects appears to know no bounds. The singer, songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist and marathon runner from Halifax is constantly innovating and experimenting. Aucoin brings a multi-sensory spectacle of a show “Part Daft Punk-inflected Dan Deacon, part DIY-driven Flaming Lips as filtered through Girl Talk” (Austin Chronicle). Wavelength’s Lian McMillan talked to him about his undergrad-length album series Synthetic and retiring his famous parachute show.
WL: Welcome back to Wavelength! For our 25th anniversary celebration, you reminisced about your first show with us in 2007. Do you think you could have pictured where you are now?
Thanks! Yeah, I don’t think so. So many twists and turns and chapters. I feel like I’m at a juncture point again just as I was in 2007 embarking on my first national tour about five months into performing. Now, 18 years later, I’m ending the parachute and with it my immersion in the crowds. Lots of new directions now of seated alt-soundtrack shows (like I was doing back then) to movies or continued scoring work (doing my third feature this fall) and then all the new electronic albums and performing. So I don’t even know what two years from now will look like compared to guessing now from 18 years ago!
WL: Themes of travel have followed you throughout your career. Do you find yourself more inspired by being on the road?
Yeah, I guess they have being a road warrior for so long and sometimes doing that across countries by bicycle. I think inspiration is always happening but traveling and its constant extreme newness really makes that more apparent. Touring and all the folks you meet is such an exciting ride too. Too much stimulus for the brain to even hold onto as so much inspiration is used and forgotten over time.
WL: Come October 30, the final edition of your four-album series Synthetic will release. What has been the most rewarding part of this journey?
I feel like i just did an undergrad in synths over these four years. It’s been nice to shift gears and genres and try new things and really go deep with this cycle. I think this series was the gateway for more series in other genres to come too. Felt very fortunate to play all these historic synths along the way too. Glad I got to do this and expand my musical palette and maybe catch up on a love for this music that I kinda detoured away from with my earlier indie rock/pop records.
WL: Synthetic features a wide variety of synthesizers. Were there any that stood out to you or surprised you?
Well there were famous ones like TONTO which is commanding as it’s like getting into the cockpit of a spaceship to play it. The Hammond Novachord (first synthesizer in history) was really interesting to play and see how close Hammond was to being synth household name but I guess they just wanted to be the best organ instead. The Ondes Martenot was the most classical feeling instrument; especially in a room full of harpsichords and piano-fortes. E-mu Modulars, Buchla 200a, Synthi and Roger Luther were all huge ones too. I still really love the Minimoog and Korg MS20 which were two synths that I remember really being into as a kid.
WL: Your live shows are known for being energetic and interactive, and Toronto’s audiences are especially known for being stoic. Do you have any special tricks for getting crowds out of their shell and to participate?
I think I just picked up folks at each show who were ready to move and do a thing together. So, after many years, it’s an all-star squad of audience members at this point. My first shows for like three years in Toronto were all non-interactive and just involved folks watching Dr. Seuss and me quietly playing keyboards and various other instruments without talking to the audience. So maybe I had a couple folks already on board too before I was like, “wanna yell these songs all together?”
WL: As you come up on 20 years of touring, you’ve mentioned that you’re trying to listen to your body more. What does that mean to you as a musician? Have you had to change how you create?
Yeah, I’m on the other end now of the gruelling middle part of the marathon. I used to get sick every tour from the various hard schedules I or someone else had set. If I do another support tour, I think it’ll be easier not having to destroy myself every show in the audience each night and if I’m touring, shows can be a little more spread out. I think that the physicality of the show dialling back will enable new ways to perform and things to do now that I won’t be lost in the crowd under a parachute.
WL: We’re lucky enough to have you bring that back to Wavelength for your final signature parachute show in Toronto. How does it feel to say goodbye to this era?
It feels right, I’ve always wanted to go hard with these shows and I’m looking forward to doing new things in performances and you can’t really make the jump to new things unless you stop the previous thing. What a fun ride it was in and with all those crowds. thanks kindly to anyone who was there.
Don’t miss Rich Aucoin at Wavelength’s annual Summer Thing, which brings two full days of live music to SummerSeries in Trillium Park. Ranging from indie folk to psychedelic electronica to poetic hip-hop, Canadian creativity is on full display. This free weekend of fun transforms Trillium Park with Wavelength’s signature immersive art and installations. Enjoy delicious food vendors, interactive activities, a mobile sauna, and an indie market by the gorgeous waterfront park and lush greenery!
Saturday & Sunday, August 9 – 10, 2025
955 Lake Shore Blvd W.
FREE + ALL AGES
5-11PM
Rain or shine
BYO blanket or camping chair
RSVP via DICE and get entered into a draw to win a Wavelength picnic pack: bit.ly/WLST25