How did the members of austra meet and what makes you guys so dynamic?
Maya and I have been playing together since we were teenagers. We were both in a band called Galaxy, and I called on her to play drums for my solo project when galaxy split. As the project became more collaborative we invited Dorian to come play bass. Recently, we’ve added Ryan Wonsiak and Sari and Romy Lightman to our live set who we knew from other bands in Toronto. Its taken a long time to put together a solid line-up, we are really careful with everyone we chose to work with, and I think thats why we’ve ended up with such an interesting group of people.

What’s going on in toronto’s music scene?
Lots of things. Fucked Up, Owen Pallett, Crystal Castles, Broken Social Scene all hail from Toronto. There are a lot of smaller scenes here, tons of folk acts, lots of indie music, and more recently a lot more people have started making electronic music, like Egyiptrixx, Diamond Rings, and Azari & III. Its hard to keep up really cause I go away too much!

 
What’s great about launching a green box in london?
London is my favorite city next to Toronto so I think it makes sense, and it’s a really cool project to be a part of.

Why did you want to get involved with the green box project?
It’s nice when someone offers you funding to do whatever you want. We were basically able to create an image without any boundaries, and we were lucky to be able to send someone to Italy to capture some stunning underwater footage.

Why did you want to work with augmented reality?
I think it’s a big part of what we do, and the philosophy behind it plays a big role in how we chose to project ourselves as artists and as a band.

What are your thoughts on beck’s
supporting aspiring artists with their art fund?
Though it may seem weird to find artistic support from a beer company, I think the way our economy runs today the only people that really have money to fund the arts are the corporations and unfortunately that’s where we have to take it from. I’m happy to have a bottle of beer labeled to what we’ve done rather than something more socially harmful.

Do you make music for your personal fun,
and would you care to share some?
I always make music for work and for personal fun. I’d love to share some, you can buy my record from www.dominorecordco.com

What’s next in the plans of austra?
LOTS of touring, I don’t see an end in sight at this point. But thats ok because we work hard and love to do what we are doing!

 
AUSTRA PLAYLIST

Thanks to Kat Chan from Protein London for the interview…