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The building is vast and the outside looks like an abandoned postal office. Inside it’s a maze full of artist lofts, wayward businesses, and jam spaces. The hallways never seem to end and you can easily get lost in the space, as I did many times. After a bunch of rights and left turns, I open a door into a dimly lit studio. There are five musicians; two guitarists each with their own scattered pedal setup, one drummer, a bass player, and a vocalist standing near a synth.
This is La Sécurité, a new art-punk outfit made up of members from other projects such as Chose Sauvages, Laurence-Anne (who is one of the guitarists), Silver Dapple, DATES, and Jesuslesfilles. I later learn that the drummer, Kenny Smith, has his own whacky new wave meets post-artcore project, Pressure Pin (read our review here.)
La Sécurité is in the middle of rehearsing a couple of songs—art post punk burners that sound a bit Blondie, Television, and Devo—they have written while a man in a funky black and orange short sleeve shirt, Philippe Larocque of Mothland, runs around with a vintage handheld camera.
“So he’s filming us playing and then we are going to play it backward and that will be the video,” says the bassist, Félix Bélisle.
He’s talking about the new DIY music video for “Try Again,” the second single, following up “Suspens.” This time, “Try Again,” is sung in English and led once again by vocalist/synth player Éliane Viens-Synnott.
The song has a curious atmosphere to it with its jumpy backing noise-rock guitar, smooth bass, and a playful synth line, as cowbells, woodblocks, and motorik drum beats. Much like the first single “Suspens,” “Try Again,” is full of cryptic wordplay, kind of a patchwork of phrases about euphoria and paranoia all linking back to a theme of conquering failure. You could derive your own meaning, but Viens-Synnott admits the lyrics are quite random and spontaneous.
“I think I’m used to writing in an abstract kind of poetic way. I’d say writers like Jack Kerouac are an influence,” she says. “Eventually everybody is going to jump on backing vocals though. That’s the plan.”
La Sécurité started when Viens-Synnott and Bélisle started making a few bass and synth demos on Abelton. Eventually, they got guitarist Melissa Di Menna on board and found Kenny, who frequents and DJs at the popular punk rock underground dive bar, L’Escogriffe.
“It was all kind of a vibe thing,” Viens-Synnott says. “I was a DJ back at L’Esco like two years ago and we started chatting about music, he showed me his insane solo project [Pressure Pin] and we just became buddies.”
La Sécurité is looking at recording the album in the Fall and for now, it seems like the group is up for any ideas to get their name out there and their music heard. Just check out their tongue-in-cheek Instagram stories that feature images of traffic pylons, exit signs, potholes, etc., all with the caption “Stay Safe.”
“We’re kind of just in a period of experimenting with everything right now,” Viens-Synnott says. “I’m not even sure how the live show setup is going to go and that’s why we wanted songs in French and English. I’m from the West so I want to be able to play things like Sled Island at some point.”
La Sécurité’s first show will be at Entrepôt 77 during Distorsion’s second concert series of the year from July 22 – 24.
