Louie Short tells Toronto-orbiting rock ‘n’ roll stories found in between liminal spaces of love and life.

Growing up between Toronto and Los Angeles, Louie Short found his spark for creating early on when writing a book of poetry for his grad school’s program. Ever since, despite getting laughed at by his vile classmates, he stayed on the path, only shifting his focus to music-making. Today, after making sense of composition written over the past two chaotic years, Louie is about to come back with a second album, ‘Omw 4ev’. Today, he gives us a sneak peek of his hard-banging new record.

Can you tell us who you are, where you’re from and about the music you make?

I'm Louie. I'm from Toronto and Los Angeles. I make rock n rolllll.

How did it all start?

My family used to drive from California to Ontario every summer and during the trip, I'd write a book of poetry to submit to my grade school's summer writing program. I'd get made fun of heavily but the teacher would show me love.

If you were to describe your sound to someone who’d never heard you before, what would you say?

I always struggle with this but recently I realized no one really cares what you say and they are usually alarmed when you look stressed by the question so now I just smile and say rock n rollllll.

How are you feeling about the release of your new album Omw 4ev?

I'm feeling great! I go through periods of not hearing the music for a while but when a single is about to come out I listen to it again and remember how hard it bangs!

Can you explain the concept behind On My Way Forever?

The album is really just a collage of moments I found interesting from 2019-2021 but they share the quality of focusing on the liminal spaces of love and life. The stories don't really have beginnings or endings, just a bunch of converging middle parts.

Can you tell us more about how you produce your music?

I usually make an absolute mess of composition, producing, and mixing, where I bounce between 10 unfinished project files on my computer adding, deleting, and mixing things until they feel finished. I'm still sort of doing that but this time I didn't record much into a project until I had the song pretty well laid out in my head. I use a lot of overdubbing to control sounds but there is one song on the record that was recorded live off the floor. It made mixing so much easier.

Can you tell us something interesting about yourself that doesn’t have anything to do with music?

I make a mean pizza pie.

What advice would you give for anyone trying to achieve a similar sound to your music?

Focus on intent and energy. Use a different mic or a different combination of mics for each sound and try varying polar patterns - my mics are all mid-low grade. If you like how something sounds, commit it to audio so you can't mess with it anymore.

How has Toronto influenced your music?

Irrevocably. Toronto is where I first started seeing bands play live. My friends and collaborators here are so talented

If your band were a film or TV show which would it be?

We're like 'The Sopranos' because we are the greatest band of all time...

Name an album you’re still listening to from when you were younger and why it’s important to you?

I just listened to sum41 again and they are incredible. There are like 3 hit songs in each song.

What do you hate right now?

Cops.

What do you love right now?

Watches. My dad gave me his old Birks Rideau wind up watch. It's worth like 50$ but it's such a perfect machine. It's 60 years old and has been sitting unused for probably 50 years and it's keeping perfect time on my wrist after a single wind.

What comes next in the Louie Short story?

I'm going to play some shows and release this silly little record.

Start Listening To: Louie Short