He’d been writing and polishing a set of songs for some years, a sequence of sounds and aesthetics that more or less chronicled his development as an artist and listener. And while Preoccupations are at rest after their winsome run of tour dates following last year’s fantastic Ill at Ease, Wallace decided the time had come to put his vision to fruition. In order to help shape this vision, he brought in his friend Dean Tzenos, from the Toronto electro-industrial group Odonis Odonis.

“I’d been sitting on this batch of songs. But having gone through all these phases, it was all really scattered. When you’re a band, you can keep each other in lane a little bit. When you’re on your own, you go on all these tangents. It’s fun and liberating in a way. But I needed help wrangling it all in,” he says.

Aside from exercising full creative freedom, part of the pleasure of igniting CITIZENRY for Wallace has been dipping his feet back into the DIY ethos. The project was started very unostentatiously, and the shows he’s been mounting have largely taken place in squats, jam spaces, house parties and “gnarly” punk clubs. For Wallace, those are the best places to be – he notes that both CITIZENRY and Preoccupations hit their performative stride and sound far better in these small sweat-sodden understaffed rooms, rather than curated engineered spaces.

The set-up for CITIZENRY’s live shows is also an interesting one, more closely resembling contemporary experimental electronic artists. It primarily consists of Wallace on the kit, vocals and synths, as well as the rig he has set up – sensory percussion that uses programmed triggers. In addition to this, Wallace has invited friends and peers to jump in spontaneously and add guitar and other instrument parts. He also credits having to adjust to the particular kinks and bends of borrowed drum kits at every show with giving CITIZENRY shows a further off-the-cuff feel.

Aside from one early show in Canada, the project has so far been Europe-based, with Wallace hanging back after the Preoccupations tour wrapped, to put final touches on everything. That said, he seems elated to return and unleash CITIZENRY onto the home front. And so far, the reception to his futuristic take on distinctly European post-punk has been thrilling:

“After my first show in Catania, this Italian kid came up to me and said ‘You’re like if David Bowie could play the drums and went cyberpunk.’ I’ll take it! Thank you!” he laughs.

This brings us to “Certain Days,” CITIZENRY’s exhilarating new single and video. Shot in a patently arthouse style in big open spaces and cathedrals, the song is a heady combination – a post-punk mid-tempo anthem cloaked inside a proto-industrial metallic march. 

The shooting of “Certain Days” wasn’t without adversity, with Wallace tearing his heel pad, causing intense pain in his foot and making him barely able to walk. According to Wallace, if you look closely into the video, you can see him leaning, favouring the uninjured foot.

“The tear was on my hi-hat foot, which is the worst, because you sometimes play on your toes, which really stretches the tendon, and then you play on your heel, which is quite delicate,” he explains.

“Certain Days,” like the rest of the album, represents the singular fashion in which CITIZENRY creates. Since drums are their primary instruments, the songs are written rhythm-first, as opposed to melody, with all ameliorations, chords and found sound being introduced after the skeletal percussive pattern is set in place. Towards the end of the song, its high register parts are beautifully handled by Desiree Das Gupta from art rock outfit Kali Horse, another Toronto mainstay. Das Gupta’s spirituous croon appears on half of the album’s tracks.

“I love the idea of keeping this project collaborative. It adds a lot. We’re all still evolving and finding ways to keep this fun. There’s no point in making the same record over and over,” Wallace says, commenting on both the people who helped CITIZENRY along, and continuing to move forward with artistic pursuits in general.