Mocky Stays Fly, He Just Does It Under the Radar

Photo courtesy of Vice Cooler

He’s produced and written for some of your favourite artists. He’s written the score to a Chinese feature film. He’s even played for monkeys in zoos across Europe. And yet, five albums and numerous high-profile collaborations later, Canadian-bred, L.A.-based composer/multi-instrumentalist Mocky is still flying under the radar—and wouldn’t necessarily have it any other way.

During a recent tour stop in Toronto (where Mocky, aka Dominic Salole, lived and worked for many years with a crew of like-minded musical iconoclasts that included Feist, Chilly Gonzales, Peaches and others) supporting his new record Key Change, show-goers marveled at the all-star roster of guests, each more virtuosic than the next—but it was Mocky himself who stole the show, grinning ear-to-ear behind his drumkit, laying down a blissed-out beat for everyone else to follow.

“It’s a good time to come home to Canada,” Mocky notes during a break in his whirlwind Toronto visit. “I’m a stateless gypsy—music is the homeland. But I feel like the time is right for this music—people are hungry for real instrumentation.”

And genuine melody and soul are what Mocky does best—something that’s been his trademark since his early days as a jazz-trained musician planting the seeds of collaboration in the Toronto indie scene in the late ’90s, where he met Jason Beck, aka piano man (and Drake collaborator) Chilly Gonzales, who was looking for a drummer for his self-described “prog-funk band” Son. That gig didn’t work out, but the two quickly formed a musical bond, sharing a studio for years.

“His musical sensitivity is off the charts,” Gonzales, who remains one of Mocky’s closest friends and collaborators, notes. “Watch Mocky play an instrument and you will see that music pours out of him as a function of joy. This joy is infectious, so having him in the studio always brings positivity.”

Mocky and Gonzales became part of a tight-knit coterie of fellow performers as talented as they were ambitious, including Feist and Peaches (who were roommates at the time, both still working out their respective solo musical styles), and Taylor Savvy (underrated melody man David Szigeti).

Anyone who took part in the city’s burgeoning indie scene at the time likely recalls the incendiary shows Mocky and Co. threw down at scrappy but influential clubs like Ted’s Wrecking Yard—and that could mean either a hot mess (NOW Magazine once panned a Mocky set in 2000 that featured him mostly rapping as “highly abrasive”) or glorious jam, since at the time the entire crew were still developing the styles that would eventually lead to acclaim.

Talent doesn’t necessarily immediately translate into fame, however: it would be a long road before Peaches fucked away the pain, Feist’s hit song helped sell iPods, or Gonzales taught master classes in tickling the ivories. One by one, the group began decamping to Europe, which seemed to offer a more open-minded setting for their artistic experimentation.

“We just needed to get out of the Canadian indie box,” Mocky points out. “Especially at that time, if you weren’t going to strap on a guitar and you were using a drum machine and doing electro-rap, you needed to go where electronic music was happening. In Berlin, we created the ‘pre-DM’ scene, and of course now EDM is the biggest thing in the world—a great time to return to acoustic music!”

After years of trying out different guises for his multifaceted approach (influenced by his childhood in rural Saskatchewan – his grandfather also had an ease with instruments and the wide-open spaces and laid-back atmosphere encouraged creativity), for his latest effort, Key Change, Mocky decided to leave his previous electro and rap efforts behind in favour of a more organic, timeless sound.

The sweeping, lushly melodic soundscapes on the new album call to mind Mocky’s hallmark as a producer—he’s been an integral part of Feist’s albums including co-writing three songs on Metals, and has also worked with British electro-soul singer Jamie Lidell.

“What Mocky brings to the room as a musician playing with me is exactly what you see when he’s behind the drums at his own show—absolute conviction,” Feist declares. “And I feel he plays with the same intention as he listens—he’s a sort of the perfect conduit for honest and integral musical goosebump-fostering.”

Just as Mocky holds fast to his Canuck comrades, Key Change was born from the connections of a new musical family, one he’s developing in his current home base of Los Angeles, which is eschewing its reputation for empty glitz and fostering an emerging musical underground. Many of the L.A. indie scene’s bright lights lend a hand on Key Change or join Mocky for the regular residencies he hosts around town, including Kelela, Moses Sumney, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, and pianist/singer Joey Dosik, who joined Mocky during his Toronto stop.

“We’re coming from the same place musically,” says Dosik, who first met Mocky when a mutual friend recommended him to play piano. “What’s happening in L.A. now is really exciting in terms of artists coming together who really believe in just doing their own thing and making great music.”

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While Key Change certainly benefits from Mocky’s savvy mix of collaborators, it’s his own knack for melody and structure that makes it a summery must-listen. The pared-down arrangements, pristine playing and understated vocals add up to a new spin on “easy listening.”

“Sometimes you can lure people in with less,” Mocky explains. “I really wanted to do something that’s relevant today, and that meant going back to acoustic instruments. That developed out of stretching out as a multi-instrumentalist—it’s never been easy to put me in a box, but the loosening of boundaries has been a good thing.”

Photo courtesy of Vice Cooler

After nearly two decades of making music, is Mocky aiming for the same kind of boldface success his peers have encountered? “I’m kind of the GZA [of the group], but I’m cool with that,” he laughs. “There are advantages to being under the radar—I feel like I’m just getting started. To me, being able to play 15 dates at home in Saskatchewan would be better than having a Grammy.”

“[Working with friends] is a rewarding way to approach life – it’s not simply a job.” His longtime musical companions concur: “How we all stumbled into each others’ lives at key pivotal moments and how we managed to stay true to each other is really the great unknown. But how lucky am I that it’s panned out this way?” Feist notes.

“Having friends is obviously essential. Friends to collaborate with, who have also devoted their lives to music – now that's worth maintaining!” Gonzales adds.

While he might not be looking to sell out stadiums or hit the Billboard charts, Mocky continues to carve out a career very much in the same way he and his crew did in their younger, hungrier Toronto days: by making music with a unique voice, in his own way.

“The way the music industry is these days, I define success as creative freedom and longevity,” Mocky says. “If I'm still in the game and releasing dope shit in another ten years, that will be success. Everyone in our crew has a role to play, and it's a beautiful family.”

Tabassum Siddiqui is a writer living in Toronto. Follow her on Twitter.