Fighting to Clik into place

On a bitter March evening, a few dozen folks huddled into
Venus Envy on Barrington Street to listen to Lucas Silveira play an
acoustic set. He previewed a few tracks from The Cliks’
then-forthcoming album, Dirty King.

Silveira revelled in the intimate setting, cracking jokes about
pictures popping up on Facebook of him playing against the backdrop of
a wall of dildos. (Naturally, a slew of photos did appear. The toy
rainbow made for a rather docile back-up band, standing in for Cliks
bassist Jen Benton and drummer Morgan Doctor.) But scrolling through
Silveira’s own Facebook photos, it’s the shots with his arm around Beth
Ditto, singing onstage with Cyndi Lauper, Debbie Harry, Perez Hilton,
Tegan and Sara and Margaret Cho that ascertain his celebrity
status.

“There is nothing normal about this life,” Silveira says now. “And
that’s what’s bizarre about it—when I first started coming home and
doing interviews all day, I said to myself, ‘This is totally strange. I
don’t know where my head is from my ass.’

“You think in time that you’ll get used to it. You don’t. I was on
tour with the True Colors tour with Cyndi Lauper, and she was
complaining about packing and unpacking,” he says. “I said that I
figured she’d be used to it by now. She said, in an accent, ‘Kid, you
never get used to it. Keep getting used to not getting used to
it.'”

Noted as the first transgendered musician signed to a major label
(Warner Music in Canada, Tommy Boy’s Silver Label in the US), Silveira
has become the poster boy for trans-visibility. The album cover of
Dirty King portrays Silveira as a snarled-face boxer in the
ring, bloody and covered in bruises, with a crooked crown resting on
his head. His rather posh bandmates are gussied up in 1920s
attire—slim-fitting long dresses, hats with veils and pearls. The
image plays on Judith Butler’s theory of gender as a performance and
nods to the butch/femme paradigm.

“Dirty King speaks to this sort of duality of being on the
road, being like a musical persona and being who you are,” Silveira
says. “The album sort of came out of the experience I had when I was
touring.

“I’m not insane. I’m not losing my mind. I don’t think the human
body and psyche is supposed to be in motion all the time,” he says. “We
are supposed to be still, we are supposed to reflect. There is no
ability to reflect on tour. Then you are told, ‘Go reflect, go write
songs.’ I don’t know if I have a handle on it yet.”

The Cliks released Snakehouse in 2007, and found themselves
on a merry-go-round schedule of touring. Dirty King came out
last month, produced by Sylvia Massy (Tool, Henry Rollins, The
Deftones) in her studio in Weed, California.

“There was a big sign that said ‘Weed like to welcome you,
population 3,000.’ Sylvia is such an interesting person,” says
Silveira. “Everyone has this idea of Sylvia Massy being a rock ‘n’ roll
goddess, but she’s so funny, cool and easygoing.”

Instead of packing their bags and hitting the road, The Cliks have
made post-release appearances at home in Toronto for NXNE,
Xtra‘s 25th anniversary party and the MuchMusic Video Awards.
Silveira says it could, in part, be due to the recession, though their
performances at Halifax Pride and Calgary’s Virgin Fest with Pearl Jam
will see them through the summer. There has been talk of touring come
September but nothing’s confirmed.

“Bands aren’t supported like they used to be. There are so many
right now,” Silveira says. “Because there is so many and people have
the access to all of this music, the idea of making a comfortable
living as a musician is impossible. The whole Michael Jackson thing
doesn’t just represent Michael Jackson as a human being or as a
diddler, whatever. It’s the death of the pop star. It shocks me, like
how long is this going to last? It doesn’t seem to last the way it used
to.”

But it’s not about long-lasting fame for Silveira. He wants to make
music, that’s his purpose in life. The Cliks have weathered various
line-up changes and saw Silveira through his transition (female to
male). The trio is still learning to navigate the high seas of the
tumultuous music industry.

“The biggest lesson, I don’t know if I’ve learned it officially, but
we are human beings that work in an industry that is based in the
creation of art,” says Silveira. “The people who create it are the most
vulnerable because they are so attached to it, but the people around
you who believe in you, they see it as a product.

“They see it as something that needs to be sold. It’s really tough
trying to tough to balance the soul and the sale,” he continues.
“That’s the part where I have the most trouble with; that’s where I
feel the most exposed. As an artist, you have a vision, then there are
the people who try and sell what is marketable. I’m having a tough
time. I think the music industry is so volatile. Music is viewed as so
disposable, what people forget is the people who make it aren’t
disposable.”

Shannon Webb-Campbell is a journalist, writer and
photographer. She’s Paris-bound come September to live in a bookstore,
write a novel and take pictures.