Favourite Spaces: July Talk's Leah Fay and Peter Dreimanis transform family home into their creative hub

Although modern in their vivacious approach to rock 'n' roll, July Talk have always had a flair for the vintage pillars of the genre: duelling vocals, rolling drums, crisp shirts and that all-black-and-white esthetic.

Catching a virtual glimpse into the home that lead vocalists Leah Fay and Peter Dreimanis share, the retro influence becomes crystal clear. 

"I inherited the gift of affordable Toronto housing when I moved into my grandparents' house after university," Fay says. "They came to Canada after the Second World War as displaced people from Poland who survived Nazi camps, met in Parkdale outside the library and fell in love. They paid off the mortgage decades ago by renting rooms to other families, with up to 13 people living in the house at one time — among them: my mom, babcia and grandfather."

Fay says it wasn't rare for her "artistically-inclined" grandparents to accept art in place of rent money, if a tenant was unable to pay. 

The band's first album in four years is set to be released on July 10, with their latest single, "Identical Love," adding a glimmering, '80s-influenced romance to their repertoire of roaring rock. An earlier single, "Governess Shadow," received the isolation video treatment, showing the two singers performing in the space — "technically, it's just a laundry room," says Fay — they've grown to love during this time.

Below, Fay and Dreimanis share stories from their revamped basement as part of Favourite Spaces — a series highlighting where artists are spending their time while staying home and socially distancing to help control the spread of COVID-19.

Editor's note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Fay: "When I moved into the house it hadn't really been touched. My grandmother had to leave it all unexpectedly due to illness and died about a year later. Since all I had left of my grandparents was in the rooms of their home, I had a really hard time getting rid of things. A lot of it just got put into boxes and stacked in the basement. So there's a lot of that, and a lot of things left behind by old roommate-friends who may or may not be back to collect them one day. I think the walls and near-ancient foundations of the house are happiest when shared, so I'm not too worried about it. I came downstairs last week and Peter had turned half the space into an art-directed, bunker-esque rehearsal space to the delight of the house-spirits and myself alike."

Dreimanis: "When the quarantine first started, I happened to have a bunch of our gear in the van from a recent show. There's an unfinished basement in the house that we've never really used to jam before, but I cleaned it up and brought in the amps and guitars. My teenage bedroom was an unfinished basement, so it was particularly nostalgic to crank up a guitar and play through Neil Young's "Powderfinger" when it was all set up.

"Once we started doing remote isolation recordings with Ian (Docherty), Josh (Warburton) and Danny (Miles) a couple weeks later, it seemed like a perfect space for recording "Governess Shadow." I had a blast setting it up as a space to get creative. In the past I would go to our jam space if I wanted to make a racket, and normally only play acoustic, Wurlitzer and piano to write at home, but playing loud guitars at home reminded me of the importance of noise in the conception of music. Sometimes feeling that loud energy right at the moment a song is born can inform its identity, you know? Anyway, we feel really grateful for the space now as a place to let loose and tear through some of the quarantine fog."

Fay: "Sorting through my grandparents' things and putting them to new use brings me an overwhelming sense of joy. Their taste was pretty eccentric, so I'm happy Peter and our other housemates are into it, too. When we were looking for things to decorate the space with I came across my babcia's hair curling kit and decided to put some rollers in my hair when we recorded our live version of 'Governess Shadow.' We'd watched Singing in the Rain and Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator as a household recently and I think a lot of that 1940s and '50s musical comedy movement style got into my body. Peter was laughing and egging me on and it's impossible to not feel joy when you're dancing around like an idiot. I usually just go down to the basement to do my laundry or search for a particular size of nail so making art down there was refreshing."

Dreimanis: "When we realized it was a great space to film a 'Governess Shadow' isolation video, we decided to set it up with a bunch of relics from the history of the house. Jozef and Stella (Leah's grandparents) left so many incredible pieces of their lives here, so it's always a treat to dive into the old storage boxes and see what you can find. Their spirits are palpable throughout the house, and the basement in particular has always felt like a loaded space to me, as it was Jozef's workshop. He was an incredible inventor/artist (and a set painter for decades at the CBC!) and various walls and ceilings around the house are adorned with these immaculate stencils and murals he made. As you can imagine, making work down there feels both intimidating and inspiring. 

"We set up a camera and weighed the tripod down with some sandbags so that it wouldn't move an inch. We found some old posters from Leah's time at Concordia University in Montreal that displayed women in various war efforts during the Second World War, which felt strangely fitting for the song. We hung fluorescent tubes from the ceiling and a piece of Mylar to reflect light back onto our faces. Once Leah and I had received Danny's drum take via email, we filmed ourselves performing the song to it in various ways, moving through the space. It was so cathartic to perform in that way, considering we had accepted the reality that we wouldn't be playing live for months.

"As I jump-cut the different performances together, I almost expected to see Jozef appear in one of the images, working in the corner on some brilliant invention, years ago. I'm so grateful to be a part of the history of a place that has provided shelter to dozens of artists since the 1950s. The group of us that live here now do so in the hopes of continuing that legacy. I hope this video preserves that history in some small way, along with all of the art that has been made here in the past, and all of the ideas yet to come to fruition."

Fay: "The cats aren't allowed in the basement because if they sneak in and someone closes the door they get trapped! But it's their favourite spot for some reason — when they are successful in their sneaking, they always re-emerge, sneezing and wearing little cobweb veils. There are some giant 45-year-old centipedes down there, too, but you don't see them often. Peter swears my grandpa visits him down there, too, but he prefers to communicate with me through the house's light fixtures."

Dreimanis: "I've been doing a lot of music video editing recently, but those basement stairs have been calling for me like a siren as I edit. It's definitely a space to lose track of time and suddenly realize it's the middle of the night."