You may know the players, but you may not be familiar with the band…yet!

Toque, pronounced TO͞uK, consists of proud Canadians, Todd Kerns (Slash and the Conspirators, Heroes and Monsters, The Age of Electric), Brent Fitz (Slash and the Conspirators, Alice Cooper, Gene Simmons), Shane Gaalaas (Japanese rock superstars B’z) and Cory Churko (Shania Twain, Kelly Clarkson).

In 2012, Toque was formed after the boys played together at a charity event in Winnipeg, Canada. The setlist was comprised of all the Canadian songs they cut their teeth on as kids. 

With the release of their new single and video, “Something for the Pain,” we recently had the privilege of speaking with the Swiss Army Knife of rock himself, Toque’s lead vocalist and guitarist, Todd Kerns.

I love that the definition of “Toque” is the first thing on your website. Tell us exactly what a toque is, and why you chose that as the name of this band.

Todd Kearns/Toque: “When we first started as a bunch of guys who grew up in the Canadian prairie, we wondered if we would we be able to entertain ourselves and others with this music that is very specific to our neck of the woods. The band never had a name back then, it was just sort of a thing we did. But then we found ourselves enjoying it so much that we had to figure out what to name it. We decided to name it the most Canadian word we could think of. If you go anywhere in Canada, people know what a toque is. It’s basically a beanie with a pom-pom on the top – you know, what the kids on Southpark wear! And that name just sort of stuck.”

You play every instrument. You sing. You write, produce and tour constantly. What is your favorite part of what you do?

“I started with an acoustic guitar as a kid and then my dad thought I needed a bass. As I got older, I would have been happy to just play bass on stage for an audience. Playing music with people and traveling was sort of enough. But then there was a realization that “oh, this guy can sing.” And then it starts this next chapter when you’re challenging yourself. And you love it so much that you find yourself delving into things that you don’t normally do. So when people start talking about all of those categories, it’s hard for me to separate them because to me, they’re all part of the same thing. 

If I had a gun to my head, I suppose I would probably land on being a singer who plays guitar and writes songs. Because song writing is probably the most rewarding and most complete thing that I’m a part of.

That said, if the Slash band would just keep going, and I was the bass player who sang all the harmonies, I would be perfectly content. But with time off, I’m sure I would be finding ways to write and record my own music, too. I do all of these things because I actually enjoy doing them. 

Trust me, I’m not a great drummer, but on several occasions I’ve threatened to put together garage bands just so I could be the drummer! Just to say, OK, now I’ve done that. When I have to list an occupation on an official form, I usually just write “musician,” which in most people’s eyes, isn’t a real occupation anyway!”

“Up to You,” “Never Enough for You” and now “Something for the Pain,” are original Toque songs that could be legit rock-radio hits. 30 years ago, songs like these would be burning up the charts. How frustrating is it in today’s music industry to break through the noise and get your songs to the masses?

“I’ve said to the guys many times, if this were 1993, we’d be signed, there would be huge radio promotion behind this and there would be a big clamor for this band. In all the different things that I do, Toque is the most shamelessly unafraid of being pop and hooky, but still being rock. Back in the day, you put a band together, you played as much as you could, you recorded all your songs, you showcased for labels and you hoped you got signed. Things are so different now, but in a way, much the same – whether you’re selling your CDs out of a van or trying to push your Instagram or Spotify. It’s all sort of the same thing, but now you really have to question the need for a middle man, and what was the middle man’s role all along?

For Toque, we really distill it all down to our love of making music. In our world, we just make music and see what comes out the other end. We still have something to say. I always find it fascinating that a song didn’t exist today, and then tomorrow, it’s a thing. And it can change your life completely. It gets picked up by movie, or whatever. There’s always that mystical thing that a song didn’t exist until you sat down with your friend to write it, and now it can change your life or the lives of the people who hear it. And that’s something I’ll always hold onto!”

You have an enormous catalog of songs in your head. (You absolutely KILL on the vocals of the cover of “When I’m With You!” by the way). Could you play most of that material right now if you had to, or would you have to re-learn it?

“I think if you’d put it in front of me like an exam, I’d probably get like an 85%! You just have to go into dojo mode and prepare for it. Someone once asked me to play “Spirit of Radio” by Rush. These Rush songs have a lot going on. But I’ll say that the human brain can do amazing things. When you get into the act of doing it, you find your brain just sort of soaks up these lyrics and things and they end up sticking better. Just do the work – meaning the act of memorization. 

Slash once asked me if I wanted to play “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.” I said, sure, I played it when I was 13! For whatever reason, it’s just in there. And that’s not to say that I haven’t deleted a ton of things in my head. Sometimes I get lazy when I do “Raiding the Rock Vault,” here in Vegas. I don’t listen to any of those songs. I just show up and go, OK, it’s all just muscle memory…here we go! There have been moments when I’m about to walk on stage and think, maybe I should have listened to these songs again, but it’s too late at that point!”

I imagine one of the frustrating parts of having so many irons in the fire is not being able to tour and play these great songs live. Any plans for a Toque tour in the states? A new album?

“I think it’s an interesting thing. It started as such a fun thing to do, and we’ve seen it slowly growing and turning into something else. I think it’s a distinct possibility. We’ve played Monsters on the Mountain and were well received. I think people find that we’re a tight, solid band and that the guys are great at what they do. As far as playing the States, it’s probably an inevitability. Right now, we’re on hiatus. Cory is out playing with Shania Twain for a good chunk of the year, so that kind of puts things on hold. 

We wanted to put out this new video, knowing we had a hiatus coming – to keep everybody entertained and not to let them forget about us. We’re slowly working towards the idea of compiling a bunch of original music. Slowly backlogging material and figuring out what to do with it. We may just consider releasing singles instead of full albums. It may be like releasing 45 records in the 1950’s, like hey, here’s “Hound Dog!” 

But what I’ve learned from playing live shows is that a lot of people like to own the music. Kind of like the old punk rock adage that if we can sell some shirts and some 7-inch records, we might be able to buy enough gas to get to the next town! The music business is changing and getting more nuanced every day. All you can do is just roll with it.”

Just for fun – I would be remiss if I didn’t ask you about hockey. Who’s your team? 

“This has been an ongoing debate because where I grew up in Saskatchewan, there wasn’t an NHL team. We all loved the Winnipeg Jets, but then one day, they were just gone, so it was very easy for me as a kid to follow the Edmonton Oilers. I would go to see Gretzky, Kevin Lowe, Mark Messier, Grant Fuhr, without even realizing how rare it was to be witnessing all of this greatness in real-time. I also like to remind my friends that when I briefly lived in Calgary, the Flames won the Stanley Cup! 

Now that we’re in Vegas, we float in and out of the circle of the Golden Knights players and management. It was such a cool thing to witness when they arrived as a Canadian living the States. The games are ridiculous here. They make it a big thing. It’s nothing like the old school hockey barns back in the day. People are just so passionate about the Knights here. They’re beloved. So, I think I land on the Knights and the Oilers as my favorites.”

I’m Music Magazine Writer Steve Pawlowski