Pants and Tie. I find the name humorous, and I'm not going to pretend like my interview with them had nothing to do with their name. I admit it; I was curious. It's also probably worth mentioning that the electronic rock wave, that is ever-present (in varying degrees) in Toronto's indie scene, is of great interest to me.

That accounts for two of the three reasons that I met up with the three members of Pants and Tie at Nirvana. The third reason is simpler and makes a lot more sense - they're pretty good and worth talking about.

The band was first conceived of by Rory Hanchard (guitar, electronics) and a former member in Edmonton, but it wasn't until moving to Toronto that the music really came together as the trio formed. Rory took me up to the present state of the band.

"It started as a studio project with my friend Tim [aforementioned former member], and one day Mark [Colborne, the present vocalist] came down to the studio out in Edmonton and two songs sort of just happened. Mark moved to Toronto and kept bugging me to come out and make some music. A couple years later I did."

It was Mark that found the missing third man, Chris Trigg [bass, backing vocals], so he took over the story: "I was at a party for a friend and there was this guy there who I didn't recognize and who clearly didn't know anybody"

Chris: "Hey, I had gone with someone, but they just hadn't arrived yet. It's not like I just crashed the party by myself..."

Mark: "Haha, yeah well we got to talking about American Literature and eventually the band came up."

Pants and Tie have been playing the Toronto circuit roughly once a month for the past couple years and their next show is scheduled for Saturday, July 18th at the Horseshoe Tavern.

The guys are in no rush to push out a recorded product other than something to get them gigs around town. They are in the process of recording a full-length, and Rory had this to say about their studio progress.

"We're in the middle of recording a full-length - the muddy middle. The problem is that none of us really have the time to dedicate two or three weeks straight. We're more concerned with having a product that we're happy with then getting it out at a specific time. There's no point in rushing out a piece of crap."

Although Rory sees the band as occupying an "uncomfortable middle spot", I think that Pants and Tie are a perfect fit in the 2009 indie scene and that has nothing to do with their name, which by the way....

When Rory was spending time in Scotland, he learned that a derogatory term for things was "pants". Example: "Oh, this beer is pants!" Meaning the beer was of poor flavour. Upon returning to Edmonton and suggesting the name to the former band member, he found that his friend thought that the name Pants... was pants. So Pants and Tie emerged as the band name.

Mission accomplished!

Photo by Virginia LeBlanc