PUREHONEY 140

6/1

CULTURAL COUNCIL for PBC: Jazz Series ft

Mickey Smith Jr.

REVOLUTION LIVE: Battle Royale

RESPECTABLE STREET: Pride Party

THE PEACH: “Deep Roots” Peach Art Walk, Bryan Del Toro at el Segundo

MAGIC 13 BREWING: Blood Moon Mafia

BANYAN LIVE: DOWN SOUTH: Ultimate Country Dance Party w/ DJ Swiftie

SANDBOX: Funkin’ Grateful

ARTS GARAGE: Tito Puente Jr

BAR NANCY: Nil Lara

PROPAGANDA: Pride Month Kick Off Party, Taylor Swift Social

GUANABANAS: Tasty Vibrations, Tru Phonic

CRAZY UNCLE MIKE’S: Greatest Decades Of Rock

6/2

REVOLUTION LIVE: Skilla Baby, Rob49, Loe Shimmy

MIAMI BCH BANDSHELL: Urban Fitness Xtreme Miami

THE PEACH: Peachin’ the Gospel Brunch

CRAZY UNCLE MIKE’S: Soul Of Motown

6/3

THE PEACH: Comedy Workshop / Open Mic, Drawing / Acrylics Class

BAR NANCY: Gatoe Jam

6/5

THE PEACH: Artist Talk & Critique, Creative Corner

RESPECTABLE STREET: Karaoke

GUANABANAS: NYF

CRAZY UNCLE MIKE’S: Green Buddha

6/6

REVOLUTION LIVE: Robb Banks

THE PEACH: Tacos Tequila Techno

TIN ROOF FTL: Blood Moon Mafia

NSU ART MUSEUM: Mini Muse Free Art Making

CRAZY UNCLE MIKE’S: The Brenda Johnson Band

6/7

REVOLUTION LIVE: Gimme Gimme Disco

THE PEACH: “Relief to Print” FAU Group Show

RESPECTABLE STREET: Chaos Culture

NORTON MUSEUM: Art After Dark –

Neil Bacher Quartet

ARTS GARAGE: Art of Laughter w Irene Tu

PROPAGANDA: Pop Disaster (Green Day , Blink-182 Trib), Longest Hall (Operation Ivy Trib), Perro Negro, The Ableists

GUANABANAS: Dubble James, Funkin’ Grateful

CRAZY UNCLE MIKE’S: The Flyers

6/8

MIAMI BCH BANDSHELL: Monsieur Perine

REVOLUTION LIVE: Hard Wired (Metallica Trib),

Billion Dollar Babie$ (Alice Cooper Trib)

RESPECTABLE STREET: Body Paint Party

THE PEACH: Mangrüve at el Segundo, Music Video

Workshop w/ Film Co-Op

TIN ROOF DB: Blood Moon Mafia

BAR NANCY: The Kitchen Club

ARTS GARAGE: Dr. Gianni Bianchini & the Type 1 Trio: A Tony Bennett Tribute

GUANABANAS Joey Tenuto, Green Buddha

CRAZY UNCLE MIKE’S: Funkin Grateful

6/9

MIAMI BCH BANDSHELL: Eric Andre

NORTHWOOD WAREHOUSE: Beats & Brunch

ARTS GARAGE: The Color Purple

CRAZY UNCLE MIKE’S: Jeff Prine Group

6/10

REVOLUTION LIVE: Idles, Ekko Astral

THE PEACH: Comedy Workshop / Open Mic, Drawing / Acrylics Class

BAR NANCY: Gatoe Jam

6/12

THE PEACH: Artist Talk & Critique, Creative Corner

RESPECTABLE STREET: Karaoke

BAR NANCY: Nicolle Chirino and Smurphio Jam

CRAZY UNCLE MIKE’S: Mitch Herrick, Homegrown Sinners

6/13

RESPECTABLE STREET: Worn Out Trend, Comedy Relapse

THE PEACH: Tacos Tequila Techno

ITHINK AMP: 21 Savage

BAR NANCY: Stereo Joule

CRAZY UNCLE MIKE’S: Monthly Jam by Adonis

6/14

RESPECTABLE STREET: Hometown Losers

REVOLUTION LIVE: The Taylor Party

MIAMI BCH BANDSHELL: La Mosca

THE PEACH: TV Dinner & Movie

ARTS GARAGE: Dissonance

NORTON MUSEUM: Art After Dark – Lee Boys

PROPAGANDA: Comedians in drag doing comedy

CRAZY UNCLE MIKE’S: 56 Ace

6/15

CULTURE ROOM: Silversun Pickups

REVOLUTION LIVE: The Menzingers, Lucero, Dirty Nil

RESPECTABLE STREET: PBC Food Drive ft. Billy Doom, Dominic Delaney

MIAMI BCH BANDSHELL: Caramelos de Cianuro

THE PEACH: Johnathan James at el Segundo

THE BRIDGE: Las Nubes, Gravess, Adhesive, Superbitch

ARTS GARAGE: CELEBRATE: A Tribute to the Great Vocal Harmony Groups of the 60s and 70s

CRAZY UNCLE MIKE’S: Mixtape

6/15-8/3

CULTURAL COUNCIL PBC: Sarah Knouse

6/16

RESPECTABLE STREET: CHEW

MIAMI BCH BANDSHELL: Collie Buddz

CRAZY UNCLE MIKE’S: Gutaca Latin Nights

6/17

REVOLUTION LIVE: Archspire, Aborted, Carcosa, Alluvial

THE PEACH: Comedy Workshop, Open Mic, Drawing, Acrylics Class

6/18

ITHINK AMP: Red Hot Chili Peppers

6/19

THE

Artist Talk & Critique, Creative

BAR NANCY: Carlos Escanilla

CRAZY UNCLE MIKE’S: Truphonics

6/20

MIAMI BCH BANDSHELL: North Beach Social feat Dav Julca & Friends

THE PEACH: Tacos Tequila Techno

ITHINK AMP: Alanis Morissette

BAR NANCY: Songwriters in The Round and Jam

PROPAGANDA: Drum & Bass Party

CRAZY UNCLE MIKE’S: Jaden Lehman & Friends

6/21

REVOLUTION LIVE: The Garden, The Spits RESPECTABLE STREET: Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows, Savage Hands. Downswing, The Requiem MIAMI DADE COUNTY: Make Music Miami! FREE Performances on the Longest Day of the Year – MakeMusicMiami.org

MIAMI BCH BANDSHELL: Etienne Charles’s Creole Soul

KEMISTRY NIGHTCLUB: Clan of Xymox, Curse Mackey, Sine

NORTON MUSEUM: Art After Dark – Pride Night

ARTS GARAGE: Julius Sanna and the Positively Africa Experience

PROPAGANDA: Mind Virus, Revelations, Dissectomy, Culture of Conflict, Lifeless

CRAZY UNCLE MIKE’S: Tand

6/22

CULTURAL COUNCIL for PBC: Jazz Series

feat Edlene Hart

RESPECTABLE STREET: Disco Never Dies

THE PEACH: Pierr Arnau at el Segundo

BAR NANCY: Mad World

ARTS GARAGE: JD Danner: A Tribute to The Women who Rocked the 70s

CRAZY UNCLE MIKE’S: The Prince Experience

6/23

ARTS GARAGE: The Heart of Rock & Roll – A Tribute to Huey Lewis & The News

6/24

THE PEACH: Comedy Workshop / Open Mic

6/26

THE PEACH: Artist Talk & Critique, Creative Corner

RESPECTABLE STREET: Karaoke

CRAZY UNCLE MIKE’S: Dan Carlos & the Kameleons

6/27

THE PEACH: Tacos Tequila Techno

TIN ROOF FTL: Blood Moon Mafia

PROPAGANDA: EC Undergound

CRAZY UNCLE MIKE’S: Mark Telesca Band

6/28

MIAMI BCH BANDSHELL: Ciro y Los Persas

RESPECTABLE STREET: Mom Rock

THE PEACH: TV Dinner & Movie

BAR NANCY: Alexa & The Old-Fashioneds

NORTON MUSEUM: Art After Dark – Brothers United

ARTS GARAGE: An Evening w Jean Caze

PROPAGANDA: Goth Celebration 2024 ft Martyr Whore (Paris), Shadow Reborn, MADAME EVOL, Mingo Indus, DJ Jason

CRAZY UNCLE MIKE’S: Wooden Fish

6/29

REVOLUTION LIVE: Pantera Experience, Electric Head (White Zombie Trib), Candles of the Mass (Candlemass Trib)

ARTS GARAGE: Crystal Shawanda

PROPAGANDA: Goth Celebration 2024 ft Dead Cool, ÆON RINGS, I Am You, The Abominable Dr. John, DJ Jason

CRAZY UNCLE MIKE’S: Southern Blood

6/30

THE PEACH: Zach Couron

ETIENNE CHARLES

by abel folgar

Even in fast-growing South Florida there There’s the jazz school of thought that pushes the “it’s the notes left out” agenda to explain the quirk and eccentricity of jazz genius, and then there’s the other camp that recognizes the genius of the notes played. For virtuoso Etienne Charles, it’s that second group that benefits from the intricate stories and sounds told via his lush trumpet tone, varied compositional textures and pulsating percussive grooves.

Quips aside, the Trinidad-born trumpeter, percussionist and composer is renowned for his ability to weave captivating narratives through music. A 2015 Guggenheim Fellow and 2022 Creative Capital Awardee, Charles delves deep into cultural exploration, immersing himself in the traditions of diverse regions to inform his compositions. His work, including acclaimed projects like 2019’s Carnival: The Sound of a People Vol. 1 and 2013’s Creole Soul, serve as a bridge between Afro-descendant communities, shedding light on marginalized voices and historical legacies.

His latest work, 2023’s Traces, features Vincent Segal on cello and percussion, Jorge Glem on cuatro — the four-string Venezuelan guitar — and Or Baraket on bass. The album blends Charles’ inspiration from the magnificent brass bands of yore, vintage calypso, and soca, the 1970s Trinidadian and Tobagonian hybrid of African and East Indian rhythms. The album illuminates the unique migrations of Afro-descendants and Sephardic Jews through South America and the Caribbean. With his ongoing Creole Soul project, Charles is taking a deep dive into the interconnectivity of pan-Caribbean musical forms. This work is the basis of an album due this summer, Creole Orchestra, featuring vocalist René Marie. It stems from Charles’ explorations of his great-grandfather’s homeland of Martinique and pays homage to the legendary French Guiana-born composer Henri Salvador — credited by the great Antônio Carlos Jobim as the influence for bossa nova.

Beyond the stage, Charles is a committed educator, lecturing and performing at institutions worldwide. He also spearheads Carnival bands in Trinidad, preserving cultural traditions and bringing joy to communities. An Associate Professor at the University of Miami, he continues to inspire the next generation of musicians while championing the universal language of music.

Etienne Charles and His Septet present Creole Soul, 7pm Friday, June 21 at the Miami Beach Bandshell. etiennecharles.com

MAKE MUSIC MIAMI

by amanda e. moore

An offshoot of the eclectic Fête de la Musique in Paris, the Make Music Miami festival ushers in summer solstice, June 21, with a musical pulse that echoes across as many as 2,000 Make Music event locations globally. It’s the Magic City edition of a worldwide happening that promotes kinship through music and vice versa. Founded in 1997, Make Music Miami calls on just about everybody who’s up for it to attend live shows and participatory events scheduled across The 305, or create one of their own.

“Make Music Miami is both an invitation to enjoy music and a call-to-action to make music happen in your neighborhood,” main organizer Justin Triegar, also known as the cofounder of Buskerfest Miami, tells PureHoney. “We want to empower artists and people who own or manage property to self-organize events for Make Music Miami.” There’s an open-call “match making” portal on Make Music Miami’s website to find creative partners for new events. Anyone and everyone in Miami-Dade County can join the musicians, bands, dance groups and venues — both traditional and non-traditional — assembling under the Make Music banner. And every Make Music event is free to attend.

With Miami Beach Bandshell as a flagship venue, many of South Florida’s grassroots stars are already aboard. Jazzy serenader Etienne Charles, Vincent Raffard of the French Horn Collective, veteran punk rockers Mr. Entertainment and the Pookiesmackers, swamp troubadour Lone Wolf One Man Band, singer-songwriter Alexa Lash, and the funky triumphant grooves of Charles TRAD305 are just some of the attractions booked for a day to remember.

In conjunction with the Bandshell sets, “The festival is meant to demonstrate the potential of bringing live music to nontraditional venues like small businesses, libraries, public parks, urban centers — really anywhere that people can gather to celebrate the arrival of summer,” Triegar says. Triegar remembers one year a group of people gathered in Shenandoah Park carrying nothing but flower pots as makeshift drums. “It was a powerful reminder of the transformative power of music,” he says.

Make Music Miami events take place at Miami Beach Bandshell and across Miami-Dade County on Friday, June 21. RSVP or create events at makemusicmiami.org

IDLES

by tim moffatt

“Punk rock” is a Rorschach test that brings out the listener’s latent or, in some cases, stated intentions and ideology. Idles have been known to reject that label even if it fits them. But isn’t that what any self-respecting punk rock band would do in the year of our lord 2024?

In a world divided by causes and seething with political division, nationalistic jingoism, and blatant contempt for everyone and everything that isn’t in line with personal ethos, who the hell wants to be punk?

It’s exhausting living in a polarized time where everyone either wants to smash the state or lick its boots. No, Idles are a lot of things, but the band that once made an album called Joy As An Act of Resistance does not belong to the No Future crowd or care to promote glue-sniffing ennui. An Idles show is an outlet for happy aggression, a catharsis that is the antithesis of toxic masculinity. The band goes about its sets with reckless abandon, steps up to challenge stereotypes, and almost dares participants not to feel the overwhelming care and honesty in their music.

Is it aggressive? Sure. We live in a red-meat world during vegetarian times, but that’s the point. It’s okay to be angry; the key is to channel that anger into positive change or release it in a joyous, raucous way where everyone can scream, sing, and dance it out.

In 2023, Idles toured with Big Freedia and LCD Soundsystem, which might seem an oddly eclectic and mismatched line-up. But once the festivities were underway, the vibes matched beat for beat. Perhaps that’s what the world needs: more rock, less talk. If everyone is always angry, it may be time to try something new. Idles’ current tour, in support of a new album, Tangk, is called Love Is the Fing. Perhaps the world needs a little more of what the late Georgia congressman John Lewis called “good trouble.” Joy as an act of rebellion, how prescient.

Idles with Ekko Astral play 7pm Monday, June 10 at Revolution Live in Fort Lauderdale. idlesband.com

BLACK MARKET PRESENTS

June 1 BATTLE ROYALE

june 2

SKILLA BABY & ROB49 WITH LOE SHIMMY

june 6 ROBB BANKS

June 7

GIMME GIMME DISCO 21+

june 8 HARDWIRED BILLION DOLLAR BABIE$

june 10 IDLES AT THE BACKYARD WITH EKKO ASTRAL

june 14 THE TAYLOR PARTY 18+

june 15

THE MENZINGERS WITH LUCERO & THE DIRTY NIL

june 17

ARCHSPIRE WITH ABORTED, CARCOSA & ALLUVIAL

june 21

june 29

July 5

THE CHILI POPPERS AMERICAN IDIOTS A TRIBUTE TO RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS A TRIBUTE TO GREEN DAY

july 12 BOSSMAN DLOW A TRIBUTE TO METALLICA A TRIBUTE TO ALICE COOPER

july 13

THE GARDEN AT THE BACKYARD WITH THE SPITS FELLY

THE PANTERA EXPERIENCE WITH ELECTRIC HEAD WHITE ZOMBIE TRIBUTE & CANDLES OF THE MASS CANDLEMASS TRIBUTE

july 19

THE AQUABATS WITH AGGROLITES & LEFT ALONE

july 20 THE MOSS

july 25

july

august

THE SPITS

by abel folgar

Arriving in the early ‘90s as if they’d stepped through an ’80s haze, The Spits might be the most important thing to come out of Michigan’s “Mall City” after Glenn Miller & His Orchestra immortalized the town with 1942’s “(I’ve Got a Gal In) Kalamazoo.” Their lo-fi angst propelled by the droning misuse of synthesizers, The Spits have either defied or redefined their hometown pedigree from day one, forging a reckless and unkillable career out of stripped-down punk rock snottiness.

The story goes that John Waters once introduced them — at the old Total Trash Burger Boogaloo festival in Oakland — as the best punk rock band on the planet. The raw energy and unapologetic attitude of brothers Sean and Erin Wood continues to support that claim. After an early relocation to Seattle and the release of their debut single, “Tired and Lonely,” in 1997, The Spits became known for wild stage antics, relentless touring and fashion choices ranging from monks’ robes to Ronald Reagan masks. The Woods brothers’ commitment to high-octane live sets and a breakneck pace of studio output survives through external cultural shifts and internal lineup changes.

Sean’s drowned, almost mechanized vocals are one of the most instantly recognizable in punkdom. Imagine a cross between Canadian popsters the McRackins, the bedroom distortion of Nobunny and the punk blues fuck-all of Oblivians. The Spits’ latest numerically self-titled LP landed in 2020 and saw a return to their roots with a potent dose of deceptively simple punk rock. In less than 20 minutes’ run time, the album reaffirms The Spits as instigators and legends. Recorded by Erik Nervous on cassette four-track, VI features ten selections like instant crowd faves “Kop Kar” and “Broken Glass” brimming with chainsaw punk riffs.

For a while now, The Spits have operated from different cities, convening for tours and splicing emailed tracks like some bastard Voltron piloted by the aforementioned Pope of Trash himself. They’re currently on the road with The Garden, another brother act embracing theater and punk synths.

The Spits and The Garden perform 7pm Friday, June 21 at Revolution Live in Fort Lauderdale. facebook.com/thespits

august 26

september

october

november 12

november

JOHN GENTILE

MONSIEUR PERINE

by olivia feldman

Bogotá, Colombia’s Monsieur Periné are headed to the U.S. this spring with a catalogue of jazzy, folkloric, Afro-Latin pop that is offbeat enough to invite “alternative” as a shorthand and a sincere compliment.The duo of singer Catalina García and multi-instrumentalist Santiago Prieto met in 2007. She was studying anthropology. He was studying music and production. They began playing Latin music covers before releasing their debut album, Hecho a Mano, in 2012. A slot at South by Southwest followed and, in 2015, they played an NPR Tiny Desk show that has 14 million YouTube views.

“We started making music without a plan,” García tells PureHoney. “It was fun. People were excited about what we were like.”

For their latest album, 2023’s Bolero Apocaliptico, they had a plan: to conduct a kind of experiment on their chemistry. They’ve always collaborated — with Dominican rocker Vicente García, for example, on 2015’s swinging “Nuestra Canción.” But the guests are more numerous — Brazil’s Natiruts, Chile’s Ana Tijoux and Puerto Rico’s Pedro Capó, among others — and the production is sometimes otherworldly. The lo-fi, lost-in-time strumming and metronomic knock of the opening track, “Prométeme,” signal a shift for Monsieur Periné even as Garcia’s reassuringly winsome voice bubbles up.

“We were looking for a hybrid sound,” Prieto says. “We’ve always been very acoustic, but in this case, we wanted more to go to processing, to use production to create texture and tone, a sound something like between machine and human, but without losing everything human.” For the album’s lead single, “En La Oscuridad,” Prieto and teamed with Argentina’s Bandalos Chinos to achieve a classic orchestral disco feel that also picks up on Monsieur Periné’s roots with an opening flamenco flourish. The song ends with a bopping horn section outro that turns frenetic — like Monsieur Periné hurtling through that apocalyptic last dance. It’s a hybrid sound suited to a fan base that spans the Americas. “We want to see everybody there to share this energy that life and music has and the power of healing,” Garcia says. “The power of expression, of freedom.”

Monsieur Periné plays at 8pm Saturday, June 8 at Miami Beach Bandshell. mperine.com

June 14 - 16

FILM

June 21 - 23

SILVERSUN PICKUPS

by david rolland

For my money “Lazy Eye” is one of the great rock songs of the 21st Century. In just under six minutes, the 2006 track by Silversun Pickups covers the full range of human emotion one could ever expect from rock n roll. It organically flows from catchy blissfulness to angsty horniness to a full throated rage to sonic chaos and then all the way back to mellow.

Threre’s a ton of other gems to find across the Los Angeles indie band’s six-album discography: the aggressive alienation of 2009’s “Panic Switch” or the dreamy clanginess of 2007’s “Well Though Out Twinkles.” But “Lazy Eye” is the song I keep going back to, from a debut album, Carnavas, that somehow perfected an American version of shoegaze The Smashing Pumpkins seemingly gave up on after Siamese Dream

Their Wiki bio has it that singer/guitarist Brian Aubert and bassist Nikki Monninger met on a flight from L.A. to London when Aubert spied Monninger stealing liquor from the drink cart. Keyboardist Joe Lester told this writer in 2016 that he joined the group less anecdotally: They just appreciated his skill at manipulating sounds. “We like to add weird samples from other records,” Lester said. “And Brian and I enjoyed the idea of not knowing what was guitar and what was keys.”

Days later, Silversun Pickups played a blistering, passionate 90 minutes for a sweaty and packed Culture Room — a show whose specialness Lester foreshadowed when he told me, “We’ll play wherever you put us, but honestly smaller shows with everyone so close together are easier to get into.”

They’re back at Culture Room in June with a new-ish album, 2022’s Physical Thrills (2022) that has them dwelling in a latter-day Radiohead realm. But don’t worry, they’ll undoubtedly play “Lazy Eye” while you cathartically scream to “I said we really need to fight to relate” and then dreamily sing along to “the room the sun and the sky”.

Silversun Pickups with Hello Mary play 7:30pm Saturday, June 15 at Culture Room in Fort Lauderdale. silversunpickups.com

THE GARDEN

by tim moffatt

The Garden are unlike anyone you’ll ever hear or see. Sonically, they have few obvious points of comparison, and very little attachment to any specific musical genre. Visually, they somehow resemble an amalgamation of Insane Clown Posse and Bon Jovi. Under the grease paint, flannel and leather are twin brothers Wyatt and Fletcher Shears. They have modeled for Yves Saint Laurent, Hugo Boss, Ugg, and Balenciaga, and one would think that would be enough to lean into: Pretty siblings making eccentric music adored by the cognoscenti. Nope. It appears that whatever keen-eyed sleuths try to deduce The Garden will do next, they don’t.

Their music is a blender filled with elements of Mindless Self Indulgence (if they were less mindless), Ariel Pink (because rules no longer apply), and some punk-influenced electro-pop.

The brothers call their look thrift store glam and their sound “Vada Vada” — “an idea of pure creative expression that disregards all previously made genres and ideals,” in their words. It makes sense that this lo-fi, high-minded duo would first land at Burger Records, a bastion of DIY attitude and eccentricity. The brothers Shears started out in 2011 on a split cassette self-release, then signed with Burger, and channelled Beavis and Butt-head on the cover art for their self-titled 2012 Burger rollout — 12 tracks, mostly instrumental, each titled “The …” something, none longer than 1:10, everything sounding like a high schooler’s GarageBand tryout for music placement in TV promos.

But the spark, confidence and referential ease were apparent right away. More albums followed. Punk mainstay Epitaph Records joined forces with The Garden, and indie stardom was assured. Today, there’s no more label patronage — The Garden went their own way with 2022’s self-released Horseshit on Route 66. They played Coachella in 2023, and that album — their latest — is a big reason they were tapped for such a prestige gig even as a newly-unsigned act, Check it out and hear for yourself what this kaleidoscope of an album does to your brain.

The Garden play with the Spits 7pm Friday, June 21 at at Revolution Live in Fort Lauderdale. thegardenvadavada.com

TONI DEMURO

by kelli bodle

Island dweller Toni Demuro brings his whimsical visual world to the pages of PureHoney this month, and with him comes a long list of distinguished credits. Sardinia, Italy-based Demuro has provided illustrations for The New York Times, National Geographic and, of particular interest, Penguin Random House publishing.

Among the dozens of book covers he’s designed, many feature solitary figures in strikingly small scale against a vast landscape. Paired with a twilight palette — black, slate blue, burnt umber — the final product evokes magic, melancholy and nostalgia. Imagine the thoughts of a solo traveler who has spent a long night out in a foreign land and is witnessing the break of a new day.

“My images tell a lot about me and the people I love,” Demuro says in an interview. “They arise from a conversation, from a story, from a feeling. Each image has a specific reference to what I experience emotionally on a given day; it’s like a diary in images. Sardinia is my land; time and space here have a profound and ancestral meaning, influencing my existence and, therefore, my work.”

The terms used to describe Demuro’s work — poetic, strange, emotive — have also been applied to an author whose book covers Demuro is frequently chosen to design: Haruki Murakami, the Japanese worldwide best-seller for titles such as Norwegian Wood and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.

Demuro muses that the affinity between them is “perhaps because my illustrations are evocative of an inner world, between reality and dream. As Murakami does, I like to arouse curiosity and oscillate between balance and precariousness.”

The literary characters in Demuro’s portfolio and the figures he creates for himself aren’t dissimilar: Businesssuited men with retro radios for heads, silhouetted tree people, and figures removing masks to reveal a drastically different face beneath populate both realms.

While each viewer will have their own interpretations, Demuro has offered clues to his symbolic imagery. Some characters, which he calls bird-men, are styled to look like birds but cannot fly: Like Icarus, they strive to achieve more than what nature has equipped them for. A desert landscape suggests introspection because of its unending nature — a reminder that no matter how far we walk, we cannot escape ourselves.

“Some of my characters seem to be wearing a mask, but in reality, that is their face,” Demuro says. “The main intent is to make the character mysterious and aesthetically pleasing. I find that we all wear masks, there is nothing unnatural about it, it doesn’t mean pretending or hiding our true nature, it means playing roles, it means wearing the various aspects of our personality.”

As for the surroundings these figures inhabit, Demuro’s landscapes are informed by his environment. Sardinia is both coastal and mountainous, with desert-like beach dunes, limestone hills, rocky plains, and old-world cities and villages in between. But local features take on a surrealistic air — familiar geography bent and stretched like a Salvador Dali object until it becomes something uncanny.

Demuro drew early inspiration from one of the original surrealists, Giorgio de Chirico. “As a boy, I was greatly inspired by De Chirico. I was fascinated by his Italian squares, the colors, the symbols, and the suspended atmospheres,” he says. “Today, however, I draw inspiration from my inner world. It is as if everything I have studied and loved in my past and the emotions I experience today were transformed by my unconscious.”

Demuro finds music to be a crucial supplement to the unconscious and metaphysical aspects of his practice. “I listen to various genres ranging from indie-rock to country, from blues to jazz,” He says. “It depends on the mood of the moment and what I want to convey about my interiority. I can’t say that it directly influences my art, but it certainly helps me evoke the images I have inside.”

For all its strangeness, Demuro’s work aims to create feelings of peace, harmony and beauty. “I try to focus on the magnificence and majesty of nature toward humans, who are only temporary guests on this planet,” he says, adding, “We’re doing more harm to ourselves than to nature.”

Find Toni Demuro at tonidemuro.com and @tonidemuro