Toronto's ASD Band Looks To Raise Autism Awareness By Example

For the first few months of the COVID19 pandemic, Spenser Murray was afraid to leave his house.

"I was literally scared to leave the house, like even just ordering groceries was like freaking me out," Murray says. "And I turned 30 during the pandemic and that was the point where I was still kind of really freaked out about going outside."

Murray has Asperger's syndrome, a condition on the autism spectrum. Autism is a developmental disability and, while experiences can vary widely, it's common for people on the spectrum to have "some difficulty making sense of an aspect of the social world," pediatric neurologist David Black previously told NPR.

Eventually, though, Murray had to leave his home because he had music to make.

Murray is the drummer for a new band called ASD, named for Autism Spectrum Disorder because all five in the group are on the spectrum. It's the brainchild of Andrew Simon, ASD's manager. He got the idea after seeing three of them perform with Roger Hodgson — of Supertramp fame — during a concert last year, hosted by Toronto-based autism charity Jake's House.