It was Christmas Eve and a pouring Saturday night in Toronto. I was headed to a local punk benefit show, the banner read 'Ask-A-Punk.' Considering it was held in the apartment of a fellow scene member, the address was on a need-to-know basis.

For privacy's sake rather than secrecy. Punk apartment/house shows in the underground music scene are common practice in the GTA, these intimate settings are rooted in community.

Hardcore/punk bands Koroshi, Neurotic, and Strawberry Cough were ready to perform their last 2023 show.

After a few months of attending hardcore shows across the city, I have come to understand the nuance of operating on musician time. An hour into the night punks and musicians begin hulling in, scene kids, and bands make their entrance. The drum set comes in, the amp follows, and the cramped living room transforms into the musicians' centre stage.

My target was set on Koroshi, a Toronto-based hardcore/punk band that has managed to make a name for them- selves in the Toronto music scene.

Koroshi played with The OBGMs, one of Toronto's infamous local punk bands. I have become fascinated with how these young musicians are making their mark on the city. One often overlooked for its talent and unique sense of community.

The mosh warms up and erupts into action. Headbangers and punks sway, swing and swarm across the cramped apartment for Strawberry Cough's set. Yet, it was Nick Bonnic's Neurotic that turned up the heat.

Windows foggy, Bonnic screams and revs his guitar, and the crowd follows.

After their eclectic show, I snagged a conversation with four members of Koroshi and Neurotic: Bonnic, 18-year-old bassist of Neurotic and vocalist of Koroshi; Walter Smallbridge, 19-year-old guitarist of Neurotic, Grubba, (another local hardcore band), and Koroshi; Koroshi guitarist Matt Dubs; and DeAndre Pinnock, vocalist and bassist in Koroshi and Grubba.

Musically Evolving Through Connection: The Metamorphosis from The Forest Hill Project to Koroshi

What is now Koroshi first began as The Forest Hill Project. With only two members at the time, Nick Bonnic and Matt Dubs turned their pastime and hobby into creating a future, permanent passion.

"It started with Matt and I. We've been best friends since the first grade, and eventually I started [noticing] that [Matt Dubs] was showing interest in the guitar. And I always played drums, so I was like, [you] got to come jam. So we started jamming. We started a little band called Forest Hill Project," recounts Bonnic.

Matt Dubs explains the Forest Hill Project as being their "first attempt at making music" and acquiring their sound. "We got better...and decided, since this is the stuff we released [when we were younger] it's not terrible, but it's punk rock we wrote when we were 14. It's a good [idea] to distance ourselves from it and take a step up, that's Koroshi."

As Bonnic recalled, he and Dubs, "came up with the name on a random name generator. We ended up growing a bit of a fan base. Nothing too crazy, but people started to like us. And then, we decided to metamorphosis into Koroshi."

The Do-It-Yourself essence of the punk scene was harnessed by Dubs and Bonnic during their music debut, "Everything...Everything was kind of like D-I-Y.

It's all back to the community where you can help each other for the sake of it," mentions Dubs. "Other people who share a common goal," chimes in Smallbridge.

"So," continues Dubs, "all the covers I made on my phone were on a pic collage app. The cover for our EP is my mouth and a toilet paper roll and like I took a photo, and gave it an edit. It's just D-I-Y." Bonnic mentions his mom originally made their merchandise too.

"That's the essence of what punk is, I guess," continues Dubs, "... you do it because you want to do it, you do it yourself, and no one's [forcing it]. You have the free will."

Yet, the loose ends were not all tied up. Bonnic and Dubs were still on the lookout for the missing members of the puzzle that would make up the original Forest Hill Project. What turns out to be a creative coincidence, a bar in downtown Toronto, Houndstooth is where Dre approached Bonnic for the first time.

"We found Dre at a bar. I met him when I was 14, at a bar called Houndstooth and [DeAndre] said I look like the singer from Green Day," mentions Bonnic.

DeAndre Pinnock was first referring to none other than Billie Joe Armstrong, and I agree Bonnic is the spitting image.

The greenlight was sparked for a new musical connection Bonnic continues, "We invited [Dre] to come audition for [The Forest Hill Project] and it’s been that ever since and then recently Schmall [a.k.a Walter Smallbridge] joined the band because we did a little trade-off."

Pinnock recalls that for the first few punk shows, their shared passion was what ultimately united him and Bonnic: "I think at for least two or three of them Nick was [there]. And for at least two, I didn't know him. Eventually, we got together and even just that is amazing. The fact that [music] was able to bring us together, and we were able to start a band out of that. We saw something going on, took it in, [drew inspiration] and we started something because of it. That's amazing. Now, we're trying to do the same thing for other people, which is beautiful."

A year and a half ago, 19-year-old Walter "Schmall" Smallbridge joined the band. Originally being part of Neurotic, with his connection with a mutual friend, the transition "made sense."

"I have been friends with Chris [a mutual friend], similarly to Matt and Nick. I have been friends with Chris, the other guitarist from Neurotic since the second grade so I've been [with Neurotic first]. I've been friends with [Koroshi] for a [while] now. Nick started playing bass in Neurotic, the switch kind of made sense. And it sounded good. We've just kind of been running with that and everything's going well," mentions Smallbridge.

As for Smallbridge's first live music show ever, "…It was these guys," he chuckled, "when they were still The Forest Hill Project. It was at this bar in Brampton, Ont., called Ellen’s which they played quite frequently. It goes back to family. I didn’t feel alienated or scared to talk to them. They were my friends from the get-go, and it just turned into this. That's exactly what it’s all about."

As Dre Pinnock puts it, Koroshi now "takes things way more seriously. We're trying to think about touring and releasing more music. Think about merch seriously and growing, getting to the point where we’re professionals."

GTA’s Mosh Pit, a Collective of Greater Toronto’s Creative Expression

What began as a playlist DeAndre Pinnock made a while ago, Bonnic reflects on GTA's Mosh Pit expansion. "Since the day I met [De-Andre], he always talked about how we wanted to expand on GTA’s Mosh Pit. It's nice that we are finally able to progress. We [now] have the resources to expand on it. We [now] have a good crew of people, that come together and are always willing to work with each other. I feel like that was something we felt was missing from shows, and in general, of the Toronto scene."

Despite feeling the sense of an "all for themselves" mentality that might make up aspects of the Toronto music scene, Koroshi's members wanted to create an art community that would fill that missing gap.

DeAndre Pinnock defines GTA’s Mosh Pit as a "collective of artists; you could put fans in there, skateboarders, artists, videographers, photographers. It's all about helping each other build, and it not [turn into] something where it has to be about money." Smallbridge echoes, "That's the community we are trying to build."

"Everyone was for themselves, we wanted to bring everyone together so we could grow with each other; like one band growing. It's not just music," mentions Bonnic. "Any form of art," chimes in Smallbridge. "It does not matter who you are, it's a collection of people who feel the same way. And if you feel that way, you're [automatically] a part of it."

Pinnock finds labels within parts of the music community might hinder growth and collaboration. He feels GTA's Mosh Pit moves away from that, "[Often] we label things as punk or hardcore. Let's just say music. Let's just say the scene instead of the hardcore scene or the punk scene. There are many different people doing music. The scene needs to have a sense of being together, labels some- times, add to the division..."

The ethos of GTA's Mosh Pit lies at the heart and soul of any creative. Their message embodies core artistic traits: self-expression, innovation, and embracing community. Their success can be chalked up to those very human qualities. Whose importance might not have been lost, but temporarily forgotten due to the pandemic.

Members of Koroshi felt the weight of the pandemic, which understandably left behind a streak of pessimism—not only in their attitudes but the city as a whole.

Walter Smallbridge emphasized how GTA's Mosh Pit is an example of their perseverance, born beyond the limitations of a pandemic. Dubs notes "Being afraid to meet up with Nick," the anxiety of meeting with people during the pandemic is, to my understanding, a shared trauma.

"I feel like [until] recently there has been a [limit to] doing things, [going] back to the pandemic. Everything was closed and there were rules around things. [Now] I think it’s a time for people to prosper, change positively and express themselves. I think you don't realize you have that free will until it's [stolen], not that it [completely] was, but there wasn't an opportunity to be at shows and practice together."

"I was afraid to meet up with Nick," adds Dubs, "we're gonna get seen in public and get fined."

Dubs expressed this sense of defeat that sits when tackling the realities of real life as a Torontonian today, "You go to the grocery store, stuff is insanely expensive. It just is. The pandemic was the pandemic, and it just is. And all this stuff, it just is. Nobody's story should end there." Dubs emphasizes, "You can make it and make a change."

When it comes to what kind of change these young artists look for, Pinnock puts the power and definition of change in his own hands or anyone's hands for that matter.

"[Change] can be anything you want, any issue, anything you care about or value. You don’t even have to call it punk. Or, it could just be your inspiration. It’s about not putting yourself into a box. It’s about expressing yourself and making the change. It comes back to you."

Dubs mentions that a goal of GTA’s Mosh Pit is "bringing everyone together, and making everyone conscious of the whole that we are."

At the show that night, DeAndre highlighted how it was for some attendees, their first hardcore/punk show. "What's great about that is, in front of my eyes they're experiencing something for the first time. They're just astounded."

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The "All-Ager Rager" held August 25th, 2022 at The Rockpile in Toronto, has become one of GTA's Mosh Pit's proudest accomplishments. The event included, as part of a highlight reel of their work from 2022-2023 on YouTube.

"[For] so many people, [The Rock Pile] was their first show, and people went crazy. It was a [great] night. We were able to put a video together, a 30-minute video of everything we've done from 2022 to 2023 on YouTube," mentions Bonnic.

DeAndre and Bonnic each note that every show hosted by GTA's Mosh Pit had consistently sold out, rather quickly.

"This is going to sound boastful," prefaces Dubs, "but I think the actual community we've built is seriously [tightly-knit]. All the bands that have played on GTA's Mosh Pit or we've [met], we feel at least that like we could all just hang out." "...and we do!" adds Bonnic.

Overall, GTA's Mosh Pit distinguishes itself from so-called 'cult-like' stereotypes associated with the punk or hardcore scene. They are a union of creatives with a common goal; staying true to the art of self-expression, however that may appear.

This article is from Youthquaker Magazine, a print arts & culture publication pushing youth-driven journalism on untapped multidisciplinary subject matter.