Additional Information
Klaus II is neither a monarch of Northern Europe, nor an illustrious descendant of Ostrogothic warriors, and certainly not Santa Claus’s grandson. Klaus II is the title of a second album by Klaus, a trio founded in 2028 that became a duo during the long gestation of this second chapter of the project led by François Lafontaine and Joe Grass. The official launch of this album, released on the Simone Records label, is scheduled for December 10th at L’Esco. Given the stature of its members and their position in the Quebec indie scene, it was essential to speak with Joe Grass and Frank Lafontaine, who are clearly proud of their work.
PAN M 360: Klaus falls somewhere between your personal projects and other collaborations. Since 2018, two albums, the second of which has just been released. A side project of the trio (formerly with Samuel Joly) to the current duo, composed of François Lafontaine and Joe Grass.
François Lafontaine : This is really not a side project. In fact, we started the album in 2020. Then, well, there was the personnel change…one less member… disagreements on many personal or musical matters…life… And then there was the pandemic.
Since the last album, Joe has released a solo album. When he finished his album, we started working together again at a relaxed pace. A lot of things happened after that; Karkwa wanted to start again, I worked with Marie-Pierre (Arthur) and also with Galaxie. Then Joe also toured with his solo show and other projects.
PAN M 360: So you’ve been doing this for a long time. On a sporadical basis? When you had the time? And at some point, it became more focused, is that right?
Joe Grass :Exactly. Last January, we made a big push. We had enough equipment, we set deadlines.
François Lafontaine : Until the album is finished! We would really like to tour with this, we are currently organizing it with our team.
PAN M 360: Would you like a one-year or two-year cycle on stage with this?
François Lafontaine : Yes, that’s the plan. It’s cool because we really enjoy playing together. We want to bring this album to life.
PAN M 360: How have you changed with Klaus II?
Joe Grass : The first album was more of a collage. We were experimenting, which created more abrupt contrasts. But this time, I think we’ve found a vibe. We tried to delve deeper into a single feeling and write songs that stem from that vibe, without forcing things to be interesting. We tried to be a bit more subtle in our choices.
François Lafontaine : It’s more cohesive. It’s normal that it is; we learned to compose together on the first album. We didn’t tell ourselves that the next one had to be more tightly structured; it happened naturally. Sometimes, you progress in the creative process, you work on snippets of songs, and then one ends up defining what the album will become. The form becomes clearer, a narrative thread emerges, and that helps with the rest. So this album is less “pizza” than the first, which was still fun; we enjoyed creating that collage and forcing things that didn’t necessarily go together.
PAN M 360: Another phase, then.
François Lafontaine : What best defines the album is the homogeneity of the songs, which is in no way a bad thing. On the contrary! From the first track to the last, there’s a real arc; it’s coherent.
PAN M 360: So the song form is more important, whereas in the first album, the instrumental form was prominent. Here, you’ve reached a kind of balance between the two, is that right?
François Lafontaine : Exactly. The first album was a mess. Sometimes you get carried away. You want to try and cram as many ideas as possible into a song. But this time, we just thought, OK, that’s cool. It breathes. We don’t need to add things just for the sake of adding them. But ultimately, I think it’s better. More cohesive and more focused.
PAN M 360: The song form can lead to this homogeneity. Instrumental music or any music without lyrics leads elsewhere.
François Lafontaine : Yes, absolutely. And if we made another album, I don’t know what it would be like. I have no idea. But there’s one thing that fundamentally unites Joe and me: melody. We’re melody fanatics! Yes, then there are the chords, the arrangements, the sound of the words, what you say in the songs, etc. But…
PAN M 360: How does the creation process work?
Joe Grass : Often, one of us (either of us) brings an idea. A seed, you lay the groundwork: “Look at this, I think it’s cool,” and then the other person chimes in. It makes me think I’d like it to do this. And you try to bring that to the table. We’ve got a great beat here, we’ll see if it works. Back and forth, trials, a continuous process. At the end of the day, you listen to it. It’s cool, but I don’t know. I don’t think it’s worth it. Maybe we’ll keep this little section for something else. We left it open, we went with the flow. We also talked a lot about the meaning of these songs, the feeling of these songs. We found a path between the songs. I think it worked out well!
François Lafontaine : Once we had a somewhat developed structure, we would indeed start asking ourselves quite early on what it would be about. I don’t write lyrics myself, but we consulted each other on this question. Very early in the process, the meaning of the songs was determined.
Joe Grass : Often, we had a couple of lines, the work consisted of finding the other colors, the vocabulary… The first results obtained were a kind of North Star that guided us.
PAN M 360: A very open process, in short.
François Lafontaine : That’s what I love most about Klaus: when you have an idea, a chord progression with a melody, or anything else, it’s always worth trying. There’s never a “no,” we try it right away and see where it leads. That element of the unknown is absolutely fantastic. So we proceeded in a workshop-like fashion, if you will. Sometimes we started our day with absolutely nothing. Other times, Joe would arrive with something. Other times, it was me. It was a really great creative exercise, and I think that’s what we should hold onto.
PAN M 360: Can we create a narrative framework for this album? What is the arc?
François Lafontaine : Naturally, we thought about the order of the songs. For every album you work on, the question arises at a certain stage of the creation process.
Joe Grass : We knew clearly when we had our first songs, it was obvious. And things started to fall into place gradually. It’s a bit like turning on the light in a dark house: you see this corner, you see that other corner, here’s a room here, here’s a room there… It starts to make sense.
François Lafontaine : The first song, yes, that was clear, and at a certain point, it was just as clear for the one that concludes the album. Without realizing it at first, there’s a choir on the first song, Wider Sky, and when you get to the very end, that choir returns on Coldest Cold. Little things that seem trivial, but in the end, it makes perfect sense.
PAN M 360: Tell me about the studio instrumentation, and then we’ll see how it translates to the stage.
François Lafontaine : Well…how can I put it? It’s true that we went from a trio to a duo, a lot of things were done with machines, beatboxing, synth bass, etc. Joe and I did pretty much everything. We thought about adding instruments, but often it worked well with what we had used initially.
Between the album and what happens live, however, it’s two worlds: you can’t reproduce everything you did on a live album, unless you’re playing with backing tracks. At some point, you need a bassist and a drummer.
PAN M 360: Several are now playing out sequences. It’s less suspicious to arrive with a background storyline and a real-time intervention.
Joe Grass : Yes, but we like things to move differently. On this album, there’s more room to play, so these pieces lend themselves well to a show where the musicians can really play. We’ve done a few concerts already, and these songs translate really well to the stage. It’s instantaneous! It’s also so much fun to do this with Jonathan Arseneau (bass) and Robbie Kuster (drums). We’re super happy with this band.
PAN M 360: The album is released on November 28th, and when will you actually start playing it?
François Lafontaine : On December 10th at L’Escogriffe, we’ll be filming in 2026, the festivals and everything…
PAN M 360: Remind me what Klaus means, I’ve forgotten!
Joe Grass : There aren’t really any, haha! It made us laugh… I don’t know… You can give it an identity if you want.
François Lafontaine : Well… it’s fun that it’s a first name, like a fictional character. It’s perfect that the question arises and that there’s no answer!
