John O’Regan; every time I’ve seen the unreasonably tall musician and artist in person, he’s been wearing a vintage basketball jersey. I don’t know what the deal with this is. I’m not sure if he really just likes basketball, really just likes irony or really just has a thing for sports swag. Perhaps some things should just be left as mysteries and O’Regan’s penchant for tank tops is merely another one of the numerous eccentricities about the guy that make him such an interesting character.

O’Regan: eight-foot-whatever, lanky, plastered in David Bowie-proportions of makeup and dressed in an eighties Seattle Supersonics jersey and short shorts peers out at the darkened NXNE crowd at the Rivoli from behind a keyboard draped in a rainbow flag emblazoned with a unicorn. His Ziggy-esque alter-ego, Diamond Rings will put on far and away one of the most memorable performances of the festival; an emotional, haunting and powerful show of vulnerability and theatricality from a one-man band armed with a synthesizer, drum machine and electric guitar.

Days later he is charming and articulate John, an immediately likeable twenty-four-year old in thick-framed glasses and  - this time – a Charlotte Hornets jersey. He is sometimes known as the lead singer of local post-punk group The D’Urbervilles and he possesses an effortlessly indiosyncratic way about him that makes him an extremely engaging personality unto himself.

However, as Diamond Rings he is spellbinding, he is son of Ziggy Stardust; a relentlessly captivating space alien scaling the stage equipment, the lights reflecting heavily off of his profoundly rouged face. He is easily one of the most engaging one-man acts I have ever seen.

“You’re up there and people have paid money to go sit in a dark room with no windows for three hours and listen to loud music,” he says, of his outlandish and powerful performances, “You might as well do something while you’re there other than… which I feel is so much of what you get. I think that for a while that was cool – that you could play a show and wear your street clothes and kind of shuffle around up there. You should try to give people something special.

“I think it’s [the makeup and theatricality]– for me – just a certain nod to a lot of influences that I’ve had. Growing up I’ve really liked and have been intrigued by bands that take every aspect of the live performance into consideration and do things that are maybe unexpected or unusual. It’s fun, but it’s also kind of empowering. You’re up there with – not necessarily a mask, but in a way it’s allowing you to bend and shape your identity in ways that you aren’t afforded growing up in jeans and a t-shirt.”

The D’Urbervilles in 2008 released their debut album entitled We Are the Hunters, an album that earned the Joy Division-esque quartet some very good buzz with press from the Village Voice and Exclaim!, to name a few. They are currently at work on a follow-up, while at the same time, O’Regan busies himself preparing for the first Diamond Rings LP with the help of James Bunton, drummer of local indie-folk band, Ohbijou.

“He’s been really great, he helped our band out a lot when we were starting. Over the past few years he’s gotten really into recording, doing some really great things – they put out a compilation every year called Friends in Bellwoods, which is the house that they live and practice in on Bellwoods near Queen. They basically get all of their friends and friends’ bands to record exclusive material for this album they put out to benefit the Food Bank in Toronto.

“So he’s been recording all of those, he’s gotten really good and I’ve been working on a lot of stuff with him. I pretty much make beats and the backing tracks on my own computer at home and bring those to him to kind of sort through and mix and he tells me if it sounds totally wack or not. And then we do the vocals together. It’s good, because I miss having in the solo material that kind of – it’s nice to have in a group, people to tell you to keep things going in that direction, keep you from going all over the place and tell you ‘You know, that sounds like shit, stop what you’re doing.’

“But yeah, we’re working together, they’re going to be going on tour in the fall but we’ve both got this time in the summer so we’re just kind of chipping away and seeing what will come out of it… We’ve got about four tracks done, more on the way – which is exciting because we’re still figuring out just what it’s going to be.”

In the meantime, Diamond Rings will be putting out a split-7” with Kingston-based art-rockers PS I Love You. O’Regan’s side will feature the track “All Yr Songs”, a fabulously catchy guitar-pop song featuring eerie harmonies and a primitive drum machine loop – not to mention a monster of a hook that for such a lo-fi track is liable to rattle around your brain for days unnoticed. Upon first listen, I was describing Diamond Rings to people a being ‘One-Man Joy Division’, however, O’Regan’s pop is not nearly as brooding as the legendary Mancunians’ motorik shuffle. Diamond Rings is sophisticated indie-pop with a glammy-tinge, a quirky, clever blend of jangling guitars and unusual electronics that is as exciting as it is affecting.

“There’s certain sounds that fit with what I want to do, I really like the idea of having digital drum loops and things of that nature which obviously we don’t use in the band. I’ve also got his whole Phil Collins vibe that I’m trying to explore. It’s just me, so when you’re up there on your own, I feel like I’ve almost got to do more as far as being an entertainer goes. It’s a really unique feeling, I’m still kind of getting used to it and exploring the different boundaries of what is kind of possible in my format.”

During our interview, O’Regan, instead of the David Bowie references that I was expecting, mentions Phil Collins and Gordon Lightfoot repeatedly. On his myspace page, up until recently, the biography section read that "Diamond Rings sings very personal songs about relationships" and indeed, as he tells me, being apart from The D’Urbervilles allows him to explore his songwriting on much more intimate basis.

“The lyrics are always the main focus for me, whether alone or with the group. What’s exciting about Diamond Rings is that it allows the lyrical focus to become a lot more personal, because I’m singing – you know, you’re singing to people, but ultimately, doing music, it’s got to be for yourself because you’re the one putting in the work and putting in the effort. It’s impossible to control what other people are going to think about anything, so ultimately you have to be happy with what you’re doing. Not having the group behind you means that suddenly you no longer have to worry about speaking for a collective, it’s all you projecting your thoughts and feelings to the audience.

“I listen to a lot of music and a lot of the things that I hear are really, really great, classic love songs; whether it’s Gordon Lightfoot or Phil Collins or certain Bowie tunes. It’s like the one constant that I see kind of running through pop music are these artists that are really great at capturing these emotions that I think can transcend genres and audiences. I think people can relate to this idea of the love song and romantic-type lyrics in ways that you can’t with other things. Trying to do that without making it insincere I think is the challenge and that is what I’m working towards. And it’s hard, because there are so many bad songs and you listen to enough Boys 2 Men… but then you have songs like “If You Could Read My Mind” by Gordon Lightfoot and other ones like that and you hear them and there’s definitely a degree of sincerity and honesty to them that some people have and some people don’t”

In addition to his work as a musician, O’Regan, a recent graduate of the University of Guelph’s visual art program, runs a website called Hype Lighter which he uses not only as a outlet for his design projects, but also as a record label and distributor of curiosities.

“I’ve been designing posters and things since I was in school, doing posters for my shows and for my friends’ shows; we had a pay-what-you-can show promotions collective there called Kazoo which we started two or three years ago and modeled after Wavelength in Toronto. It’s really the banner under which I do my design work, but recently it’s been expanded to include artists’ books, zones and the record that I was talking about. Small-scale vinyl publishing, pretty much collectibles.

“The record we’re putting out is going to be a really small run, maybe three hundred and it’s going to have silkscreen covers and colored vinyl. I’m really into the idea of giving people something special at shows. People aren’t into buying music anymore, it’s kind of a plain fact and whether or not that’s bad or good is beside the point because things have been changing for long enough now that it doesn’t matter that downloading is killing music. Downloading exists, so how are we going to respond and react to those changes? I think that having something really nice for people to buy is important and people will still put out the money for something that’s worth it, that they’re going to have and it a unique item. So it’s just about creating lasting and unique things for people that are into that.”

Diamond Rings lives in Toronto and is a way cool guy, so if you see him around give him a high-five or something. There will be a launch party for the  Diamond Rings/PS I Love You split-7"  at 225 Sterling road near Bloor and Lansdowne on August 14.

Diamond Rings