Toronto art rockers Absolutely Free share their influences and inspirations
- Text by Alex King
- Photography by Colin Medley
Toronto three-piece Absolutely Free’s live shows are hard to forget. They took their audience on an immersive-theatre-style journey through Toronto’s Kensington Market district for the release of debut single ‘UFO’, performed live during a night-swim session at a local pool and regularly collaborate with visual artists to add something special and unexpected to each gig.
Before their month-long European tour kicks off in February, we spoke to drummer/singer Matt King to find out what inspires Absolutely Free’s songwriting and spectacular antics.
Contemporary Art
Claes Oldenburg – Free Stamp 01
I’m a formally trained visual artist, and contemporary art theory informs so much of what I do with Absolutely Free. The work of Claes Oldenburg and Bruce Nauman were really pivotal to my understanding of art, language and culture. As a band, we are really interested in collaborating with visual artists for our record covers, music videos and live shows. Our three record covers involved collaborations with artists or photographers we admire: Linzi Bugeja, Jay Shuster, Petrina Ng, and David Hanes. We’ve also played shows in art galleries, such as Mercer Union (an amazing artist-run centre in Toronto) and the Art Gallery of Ontario.
Bruce Nauman – 100 Live and Die
New York Hypnotic School
Recently, we’ve been re-listening to Terry Riley and Steve Reich and have been really influenced by ideas of layering melodic polyrhythms. We are excited by creating music that is dense and complex, but simultaneously remains minimal in form. We’ve always been musicians, but with Absolutely Free, we are also taking up new roles as composers as well. We recently re-scored a selection of films by Norman McLaren, who was a Canadian pioneer of experimental animation in the 1960s. It was a commissioned project for the Toronto International Film Festival.
Richard Brautigan
Moshe brought a copy of Richard Brautigan’s Trout Fishing in America on our first European tour. His use of humour to describe things that were tragic or serious greatly influences the content and tone of our lyrics. Our lyrics often use personal narrative to discuss larger issues.
Maurizio Cattelan
Maurizio Cattelan – All, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
One of my favourite sculptors. His work also blends humour and bleakness in unexpected ways. At his retrospective at the Guggenheim in New York, he hung all of his previous work from the ceiling of the rotunda, completely re-inventing its context and form. We try to be aware of the context our music exists in, and are interested in taking recognisable forms of popular music and playing with, or subverting, those forms.
Film Soundtracks
Alongside collaborating with visual artists, we also love collaborating with filmmakers. I love Bollywood soundtracks from the 1960s and 1970s. I once found twenty Bollywood records for a dollar each in a charity shop in the suburb I grew up in, which sparked my interest in non-western music. Moshe has been listening to John Carpenter’s soundtracks as part of our research for a feature film, called Two Cares Due None, that we are currently composing the score for.
Catch Absolutely Free on tour in the UK and Europe throughout February. Their self-titled debut album is out now on Lefse Records.
You might like
Master Peace: “A Black guy making indie still makes people look at you sideways”
What Made Me — In this series, we ask artists and rebels about the forces and experiences that shaped who they are. Today, it’s indie sleaze revivalist Master Peace.
Written by: Master Peace
Inside Bombay Beach, California’s ‘Rotting Riviera’
Man-made decay — The Salton Sea was created by accident after a failed attempt to divert the Colorado River in the early 20th century. Jack Burke reports from its post-apocalyptic shores, where DIY art and ecological collapse meet.
Written by: Jack Burke
How Japan revolutionised art & photography in the ’60s and ’70s
From Angura to Provoke — A new photobook chronicles the radical avant-garde scene of the postwar period, whose subversion of the medium of image making remains shocking and groundbreaking to this day.
Written by: Miss Rosen
The lacerating catharsis of body suspension in Hong Kong
Self-Ferrying — In one of the world’s most densely packed cities, an underground group of young people are piercing their skin and hanging their bodies with hooks in a shocking exploration of pain and pleasure. Sophie Liu goes to a session to understand why they partake in the extreme underground practice.
Written by: Sophie Liu
What we’re excited for at SXSW 2026
Austin 40 — For the festival’s 40th anniversary edition, we are heading to Texas to join one of the biggest global meetups of the year. We’ve selected a few things to highlight on your schedules.
Written by: Huck
Wu-Tang Clan forever, and ever
The Final Chamber — RZA, the spiritual leader of one of the most important hip hop groups of all time explains why they won’t rest until their legacy is secured.
Written by: Yoh Phillips
