Wild Domestic Excited for LOLA

Londoner Zach Hoffman, bass player for Wild Domestic, opens up about his excitement for LOLA and musical influences.

Q. How did you get on board to play LOLA?

A while back we played a show with Ian Doig-Phaneuf of A Priori at a place called the Practice Loft [near] Richmond and Dundas. They were blown away by our set and our show and afterwards he came up and asked if we wanted to play LOLA. We were very honoured. For all of us in the band it has been a really big influence musically in London.

Q. Other than your own, which performance are you most looking forward to?

I am probably going to be there all weekend. The one off the top of my head that I am really excited about are Born Ruffians. For me they have been a pretty big influence and [are] one of my favourite bands. That is the thing about LOLA — I am excited to see the bands and when I run into people I know they are like “you should really check out these bands.” Like White Rainbow, I was told to check out [and] My Brightest Diamond for a while. She has got a gorgeous voice, so I am really excited to see that. There are so many. I am going to try and be there all day to see everything.

Q. In what ways do you think festivals like LOLA can help the local music scene?

Andrew Francis has done so much work getting all the bands coming in. They seem to have a really good, nice mix of local talent as well as other bands from North America, but also last year they had a band called Polar Bear that are from the U.K. They somehow are able to bring all these bands together in a way that is appealing to almost everybody. It exposes so many aspects of art, not just musically, but throughout the city all the galleries are putting on these shows. It is amazing. I think there is something for everybody and they are not just confining it just to one person — they are keeping it open-ended.

Q. If you could play along side another band who would it be?

I am going to say this, because I have been thinking about this — I was hoping I would be able to mention a band that has been highly influential to me [called] Godspeed You! Black Emperor. They went on hiatus in 2002 and they just decided that they are coming back and are starting to play a few shows. They are a completely instrumental band [from] Montreal. They started out in the early 90s. They have been a huge influence on me and how I write music [and] it would be just phenomenal to get to play with them.

Check out Wild Domestic Friday at 2 p.m. on the Rogers Main Stage.