Catching Up With: Walter Sickert and Edrie of Walter Sickert and The Army of Broken Toys

The cast of characters that make up the group Walter Sickert and the Army of Broken Toys come from all types of backgrounds. I use the term group, rather than band in this case because the folks that make up this collaborative assemblage are more than just musicians. They are artists, both visual and performance based. What they churn out is more than just listening to some songs, it’s a full sensory experience and they pour a whole love of themselves and their hearts into that. They are some of the hardest working folks in this music town. I caught up with Walter and Edrie to talk about the RPM challenge birthed new record, shows, and their art…catch it below.

1) For those that have been living under a rock, tell us a little about the band. What kind of vibe to expect, the sound, the inspiration?

Walter Sickert: The band is made up of seven unique members of varying backgrounds in music. We have everything from a conservatory trained violist/conductor of orchestras to a punk drummer and everything in between. We use all of our influences to create music that shifts through different genre while maintain a unique but cohesive sound. We find that freedom exciting and it makes for entertaining shows as we try to pair over the top musical atmosphere with outlandish visuals.

2) You recently participated in the RPM challenge. So what does that entail?

Edrie: The RPM Challenge is run by The Wire NH and is a challenge wherein you make an entire album over the month of February. It’s been running for 9 years and Walter has been a part of the challenge since day 1! We come up with some pretty fun concepts and interesting songs for the albums.

One of the things we do each year is not only create music, but create intricate art for the entry. When we did DEAR MOON, Walter created a 10 minute film short to go with the entry and we played the video on a loop through a little theatre box I created so people at the launch party could watch the video. Once we did a real working ViktaGraph that played our album when you cranked it. We’ve also done a puppet theatre and a 4 foot tall glowing sculpture. This year we created an old-fashioned paper scroll box that told the story of the album as you hand-rolled the paper.

3) The output of the RPM challenge was a 22 track (!!!) recording of songs, skits, and all out creativeness. Tell us about the process for coming up with this and why you made the decisions that you did for this? Its more than just a record really, it plays as a theatrical listening experience of sorts.

WS: The magic about RPM is that improvisation often leads to inspiration that results in telling its own story and all the pieces fit together. Every concept album we’ve made has always had an organic origin. RUINED YOUR CHILDHOOD came out of a desire to make a kids album and became the story of a child being swallowed by a demonic television and being forced down a cathode rabbit hole.

Edrie: We made the first ever children’s album that comes with a Parental Advisory!

 

4) What inspires you as a musician and as a group of musicians creating?

Edrie: Inspiration comes from everywhere. The band is as inspired by Dali as they are by the Muppets. We’re such a diverse set of strong personalities. We each bring a little something unusual to the band.

5) Boston is known by its musicians for its community and being more supportive than its counterparts when it comes to “band envy” and competitiveness. How has that affected you as a locally based group over the years?

WS: Part of the fun of living in a city with so much awesome artistic and musical talent is collaborating with fellow artists to put on spectacular events that, in my opinion, make Boston a better and more artistically fertile place to be a working artist and for people who support those artists by going to shows and buying our art.

Edrie: Boston is better with no boundaries. We’ve put on shows with every kind of band from hip hop to metal; we created and performed a musical with great theatre folk, and we routinely work with dancers and circus performers and purveyors of fine food and drink. It’s a big supportive community of artists and patrons who all work with each other, support each other and go to each other’s shows.

6) Tell us anything and everything else you want us to know about the band and what the future holds.

Edrie: We have a ton of projects coming up – we’re already in the planning stages for some fun theatrical type collaborations in Spring of 2015, but before that, we’re headed back to the studio to do a new album, we have more videos to showcase from Soft Time Traveler and we’ll be doing some fun shows. The next big one is at the Middle East Down on 5/9 with Planetoid (ticket link -> https://armyoftoys.bandcamp.com/merch/ticket-to-mid-east-down-show-on-may-9th).  We’re giving everyone who buys a ticket from us a limited edition art card which features a special print of the art for the show poster. We’re not doing very many big rock shows in town, so we’re going all out on this one. It’s happening the same month the Shining came out – so our set will be Kubrick themed. It’s going to be crazy!