Interviews Archive - Page 10 of 125

Johnny Jewel, Misstress Barbara, Matias Aguayo, Ambassade, PAURRO, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Flore (back-to-back with Nahasah), and Jacques Greeene (back-to-back with Martin Bootyspoon) are among the artists scheduled for the Futurs Antérieurs event, taking place June 5th and 6th at the Society for Arts and Technology (SAT). Three decades of SAT have led to this expertise in combining cutting-edge digital research with the pure enjoyment of music and immersive audiovisual experiences. Alexandre Auché, the lead programmer of this event, which is both a commemoration of the past and a harbinger of the future, explains Futurs Antérieurs, which highlights the remarkable maturity achieved by the SAT team.

TICKETS AND INFO HERE

PAN M 360: So this program is both a look back at the SAT’s past and its vision of the future? If not, what is the primary motivation for this event?

Alexandre Auché : Yes, but without wanting to create a nostalgic event. The idea behind Futurs Antérieurs was rather to show how certain electronic aesthetics and cultures that marked the SAT continue to evolve today. Above all, we wanted to create an event that truly reflects the SAT, with a blend of music, experimentation, immersive experiences, and club culture.

PAN M 360: What were the objectives of the programming?

Alexandre Auché : The main objective was to create a truly immersive experience across the three floors of the SAT. We wanted people to be able to move seamlessly from one space to another, from one atmosphere to another, while maintaining an overall coherence.

We wanted to blend live performances, DJ sets, audiovisual projects, and installations, but also offer some more exclusive moments with artists presenting new projects or albums, such as Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Ambassade, and Hyd.

PAN M 360: It’s still a massive event, with two dozen performances on stage?

Alexandre Auché : Yes, absolutely. We’re activating practically the entire building at the same time, which is quite rare at the SAT. Exceptionally, there will be three spaces open simultaneously: Espace SAT, Satosphère, and Galerie SAT.

The main challenge was maintaining coherence between the different spaces. Each floor has its own energy and identity, but everything is designed so that the audience experiences it as a seamless journey, not just a succession of shows.

PAN M 360: What is the balance between discoveries and sure bets?

Alexandre Auché : There are artists who already have a long history in electronic music, like Misstress Barbara, Johnny Jewel, and Matias Aguayo, but what interested us most was bringing them together with more recent or unexpected projects.

The festival is largely based on this idea of balance between established artists and new forms, without compartmentalizing styles or formats.

PAN M 360: What are the local and international proportions?

Alexandre Auché : It was important to us that the Montreal scene be truly represented. Montreal has an extremely strong electronic and experimental scene, so we didn’t want it to be just “around” international artists.

We even dedicated an entire stage to local artists in the SAT Gallery, with projects that represent different facets of the current scene, both club-oriented and experimental.

PAN M 360: What are the highlights of June 5th?

Alexandre Auché :

Johnny Jewel

Johnny Jewel has a very cinematic approach to music and visuals. His A/V live show is likely to transform the space and create something quite hypnotic.

Misstress Barbara

Misstress Barbara has been a major figure on the Montreal and international scene for decades. The fact that she is also celebrating her 30-year career during the SAT’s 30th anniversary creates a beautiful parallel.

Matias Aguayo

Matias Aguayo always brings something very lively and unpredictable. There’s a freedom in his sets that works particularly well in a context like that of the SAT.

Ambassade

Ambassade develops a very strong work combining sound, image, and visual storytelling. It’s exactly the kind of hybrid project that makes sense in Futurs Antérieurs.

PAURRO

PAURRO perfectly represents this new generation of artists who navigate between ambient, experimental, and electronic dance music. His performance in the dome promises to be a truly unique and unforgettable experience.

PAN M 360: What are the highlights of June 6th?

Alexandre Auché :

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith creates very organic and sensory live performances. There is something both very soothing and very rich in the way she constructs sound.

Flore b2b Nahash

Flore has long championed a very open vision of electronic music, blending bass music with rhythmic experimentation. Her approach perfectly aligns with the spirit of the festival. Nahash is a French-Montreal artist who recently released an album on Flore’s label.

Jacques Greene b2b Martyn Bootyspoon

The back-to-back match between Jacques Greene and Martyn Bootyspoon in the Satosphere is likely to be one of the highlights of the weekend. They have different approaches to the club, but precisely because of that, they are very complementary.

PAN M 360: How did you come up with the visuals?

Alexandre Auché : The visuals were never conceived as mere decoration. We truly wanted the installations, lighting, and immersive content to contribute to the overall festival experience. Each space has its own distinct visual atmosphere.

The Aube collective will transform the SAT Space with light installations, while Skeletron.tv will present a cathode-ray tube installation in the SAT Gallery. In the dome, performances will be accompanied by the visual worlds of BunBun, Alex Vlair, SULFATION, and al11z, featuring immersive 360° VJing.

PAN M 360: What will happen with this masterclass with Flore? Who is participating?

Alexandre Auché : The masterclass with Flore also adds a more exchange-oriented and knowledge-sharing aspect to the festival, which has long been part of SAT’s DNA. It’s aimed at both emerging artists and people curious to understand the creative processes involved in electronic music and audiovisual practices.

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She is 22 years old. She is Haitian. She has lived in Montreal since 2020. And on May 1, 2026, she released her debut single, “Bye Bye,” under the label Général Walky Productions. Born Dorlèan Saadaèlle, Shady first began singing in church in Haiti and later in Montreal. But it was the call of zouk and konpa music that inspired her to launch her solo project, a genre she listened to extensively during the pandemic. After being part of several Haitian groups as a backing vocalist and singer, she learned from all these experiences and also benefited from the guidance of Poppy Duverne, a renowned pianist I mentioned a few years ago, at the 2024 Afropolitan Nomad Festival. Shady is therefore in good hands and has surrounded herself with professionals to launch her career. Sandra Gasana was able to speak with Shady to learn a little more about her journey for PAN M 360.

Last April, the final Dynastie Gala, dedicated to Quebec’s Afro-descendant communities, honored our esteemed contributor Keithy Antoine in the “People’s Choice / Dynastie Media” category. Entrepreneur, interviewer, host, committed artist, mother of two very promising young adults—and much more—this Quebecer and Montrealer of Haitian origin, Keithy Antoine, is a natural communicator with a creative spirit. Clearly a role model for her contemporaries and for the rising generations in Montreal and Quebec! That’s precisely why PAN M 360 didn’t hesitate for a second to recruit her in January 2024 so she can grow and shine alongside our intercultural community, which is still in its early stages. Alain Brunet thus conversed with Keithy so that the large family of PAN M 360 users could learn more about him… and remain glued to all his interventions on our platform.

WATCH THIS INTERVIEW!

ABOUT THE DYNASTY GALA, IT’S HERE

A decade earlier, the Molinari Quartet presented the complete cycle of Dmitri Shostakovich’s 15 string quartets, the most famous composed in the 20th century. In the spring of 2025, the 50th anniversary of the great Russian composer’s death, a last-minute cancellation forced the Montreal ensemble to postpone this marathon in a new configuration with the arrival of violist Cynthia Blanchon in the Molinari Quartet, alongside cellist Pierre-Alain Bouvrette, violinist Antoine Bareil, and artistic director and first violin Olga Ranzenhofer, who shares with us here all her excitement before the execution of this colossal task.

FULL PROGRAM HERE

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The choreographer and artistic director of the Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal, Ivan Cavallari, is about to commit an act of lèse-majesté. The Lake, the title of his next creation, presented from May 28 to June 7, 2026, in the grand Wilfrid-Pelletier Hall at Place des Arts, is indeed a rather bold transformation of the classic among the Classics in ballet: Tchaïkovski’s Swan Lake. What is, in truth, more emblematic of the romantic, fairy-tale, and magical ballet with tutus, pointe shoes, curses, princes, talking animals, and wicked sorcerers than this 19th-century Russian masterpiece?

Magical realism to replace Fairy magic

In this new reading, Cavallari transposes the story of a typical fairy tale kingdom into the contemporary world, but one still inhabited by the spirit of magical realism. This artistic movement, which appeared at the beginning of the 20th century, first in visual arts, then extended into literature and produced masterpieces such as One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The idea is simple: in a realistic narrative framework, fantastic elements appear. Is it a dream, an illusion, a true permeability of reality with the supernatural world? One never really answers the question, because the essence of the approach is rather to serve the psychological exploration of the characters, as well as a reflection on contemporary society.

In short, the “magic” becomes a very useful symbolic tool, but ultimately almost secondary compared to the fundamental objective of the work, which is rather to delve into certain current issues.

It is here, then, that Cavallari’s approach will make complete sense, at least that’s the intention.

The fairy-tale kingdom from the original story becomes a film set for a perfume commercial here. Odette, the original White swan, is here a young dancer fresh out of school, who comes to shake up the already present team and especially Odile, the current face of the Vertige Noir perfume, the “Black swan.” Odette will have to fight to become the face of the future new best-seller named… the White Swan. The world of fashion and luxury thus serves as a pretext for a critique of the rigid codes imposing a vision of the body, beauty, etc., but also the unhealthy relationships that come with them, jealousy, envy, and ultimately, the erasure of one’s identity.

The guiding principle identified by Cavallari is Odette’s strength, who must rediscover her humanity (read: her own identity, beyond the clichés and norms imposed on her).

In Swan Lake, the evil sorcerer Rothbart is the main antagonist. This time in The Lake, Cavallari has made it a trinity, because, he says, it is a powerfully symbolic number in Christian religion and that Evil can insinuate itself there. The three characters thus summoned in the synopsis, who will appear and disappear several times in this new version, can be associated with the original “designers” of the ballet: Tchaïkovski, Marius Petipa, Lev Ivanov. “It could also be Armani, Versace, and Ivan Cavallari!” In short, the three entities, whatever their name, multiply the forces that stifle Odette’s personality, and in the end, will make her victory an even more resounding achievement. At least, that’s the goal. We’ll see if it works as intended. A risk fully embraced by the choreographer.

Tchaikovsky in place of Tchaikovsky

The other interesting aspect in Ivan Cavallari’s reinterpretation is his decision to touch upon Tchaïkovski’s music. A memorable, powerful score, and inextricably linked to this ballet, indeed to all ballets! However, the Montreal choreographer decided to amputate part of the original score to replace it with another piece of music that is powerfully personal and emotional, by the same composer: his Sixth Symphony, “Pathétique.” Why?

There is a lot of “entertainment” music in the ballet. For example, I eliminated the entire part where the princesses come from all over to seduce the Prince and marry him. In the context of the updated version of The Lake, I found that we no longer needed this Russian dance, Neapolitan dance, etc. I wanted to compensate for music that is deeply connected to death. This symphony was completed a few days before Tchaïkovski died. There is an immeasurable power in the score. And I find that it symbolically aligns with Odette’s journey, for whom transformation is like death before a new life.

A frankly interesting idea, let’s admit it. In the end, for Ivan Cavallari, the updating, in the form of magical realism, of this musical and danced tale is an opportunity to deliver a message: that it is not necessary to have princes and princesses to show a character who has nobility. It is this inner struggle for authenticity, truth, and dignity, with all its resonances within ourselves (the audience), that Cavallari wished to illustrate by taking the gamble of quite radically transforming, for the first time in the world, a story that we had become too accustomed to thinking untouchable.

Let’s meet at the Wilfrid-Pelletier Hall to judge if it works or not.

INFO AND TICKET FOR THE LAKE

This Friday, May 22, Capella Regalis Choirs will present a program of secular and sacred works for choir, organ, piano, and percussion, several of which are taken from their album *Songs of the Sea*, released in June 2025. We invite you to sway to the rhythm of these lyrical offerings, “a musical journey ranging from Gregorian chant to sea shanties,” as summarized in the official program of the upcoming Classica festival. This world-class choir is internationally renowned, and its founder, Paul Halley, has won several awards for his work, including prestigious Grammys. In the context of Classica, we caught up with his son—a singer, percussionist, and choir director—in Halifax to learn more about the program being presented in Boucherville, specifically at the charming Sainte-Famille Church.

TICKETS & INFOS HERE

PAN M 360 : We are with Nick Halley, a percussion player and also choir director for Halifax’s Cappella Regalis Choirs, a family affair : his father Paul Halley is playing the keyboards (organ and piano), his sister Vanessa is the main choir director and CEO of this choir established in Maritimes. Historically, it was a Men and Boys Choir and… Nick, can you explain what happened next?

Nick Halley : Just two things I would say. One is that the choir is going to be men and boys and girls, because we started a girls choir a number of years ago and we’re bringing on tour members of the girls choir and members of the boys choir and members of the men’s section, the professional men’s section. And in the second half of the concert, my sister Vanessa will be conducting and I’ll be playing percussion. But in the first half, I’m the director.

PAN M 360 : Okay, so you share the direction.

Nick Halley : Exactly. And Paul, our father, is always playing the piano or the organ.

PAN M 360 : Yeah, I understand that your father started this choir and you pursued.

Nick Halley : That’s right. My sister and I both grew up singing in a choir that was started by my father in the United States. And so, actually, she sang in the Cathedral Choir in New York City, where my father was the director of music at St. John the Divine in New York City. So, we come by it. It’s a slippery slope.

PAN M 360 : And when you were in the States, were you American citizen or Canadians living in New York at that time?

Nick Halley : We were born to Canadian citizens living in New York. So, I’m an American citizen as well as Canadian. And so, I just got back from there doing some work and things, going to that crazy land right now. And I’m very happy to be back here in Halifax and coming to Montreal!

PAN M 360 :Yeah!, Halifax is a beautiful city, has a beautiful community, excellent restaurants, beautiful sights, and the ocean is magic. I’ve been there. I really enjoyed Halifax and Nova Scotia in general.

Nick Halley : I couldn’t agree more!

PAN M 360 : So you’re going to present at the Classica Festival. You’re opening this festival the first night, with the program entitled Chants marins et hymnes sacrés, you are going to perform in Boucherville at the lovely Sainte-Famille Church. I suppose that this title’s program has something to do with the choir album’s Song of the Sea, released exactly one year ago. Right?

Nick Halley : Exactly.

PAN M 360 : And this album was recorded by men and boys, which is different from the ensemble touring this spring.

Nick Halley : Yes. So the girls choir is a new addition. And that recording we made with just the men and boys choir because the girls were then singing other stuff and the men and boys had learned some sea songs. But now the girls have learned the sea songs too. And so, we’ll take them on tour.

PAN M 360 : So, it’s going to be a little different. Well, not that little, because there will be a clear difference because of the feminine presence, which is very important in this choir now, if I understand.

Nick Halley : That’s right. And so, it’s a mixed choir now. We might sing something where just the girls sing, something where just the boys sing, just to change it up, keep it interesting for all of us. But they all know all of the music. And they really feed off of each other, all the singers. Even on a few pieces, I probably won’t be able to resist having Vanessa sing. My sister, she’s a beautiful singer. She’ll sing alto. And also, our training choir director, Hillary, will be on the road with us. So, probably have her sing. When there are beautiful voices in the room, it’s hard to resist having them, letting them sing. And so, they’ll cover some of the alto parts or they’ll help us out with alto parts. And then, the men sing tenor and bass. And I sing too. I sing tenor with the choir.

PAN M 360 : And how did you assemble those Songs of the Sea?

Nick Halley : Thank you for the question! It was a process. There are so many great songs that I would have liked to do. So, I was tempted to call that record Songs of the Sea 1, Volume 1. But I think that at some point, we’ll just come out with Volume 2, maybe 3, 4… I mean, we could go on and on.

There are these collections of sea songs from this part of the world, from the Maritimes, Nova Scotia especially, that were put together by Helen Creighton, the Creighton collection of songs. They’re just folk songs. They’re not all Songs of the Sea. But I mean, there are so many, so many songs in there. And so, we just picked a few of our favorites. Some songs from Newfoundland, there’s a couple songs from England, and then a song or two from Nova Scotia. And then my father did most of the arranging. I also did a little bit of arranging. And we would arrange a song, and then teach it to the choir, and then we recorded it. And we didn’t have a lot of time. At that time, we didn’t tour it until it was already recorded. And so, it’s nice now to get to perform it live.

PAN M 360 : All those songs from the Maritimes have Irish roots, Scottish roots and English roots.

Nick Halley: That’s right. If it comes from Newfoundland, it has an Irish sound to it. If it comes from Cape Breton, it sounds Scottish. And then there’s the sort of English mixed in there. I mean, there’s, for instance, the leaving of Liverpool, which, of course, for us means Liverpool, Nova Scotia. But it probably comes from England.

PAN M 360 : Yeah, it’s always very present in your own legacy of songs in this area of Canada.

Nick Halley : That’s right. It just feels right to sing that music here. I mean, I’m a minute away from the North Atlantic, the open ocean. So, it really felt appropriate for us to sing those songs in foggy Halifax.

PAN M 360 : This is popular music. It’s folklore, traditional music. And you’re also trained as classical players and singers. So, it’s an encounter between classical heritage and folkloric or traditional heritage.

Nick Halley : That’s exactly right. And that’s very compelling. It’s a beautiful marriage when it works well.

PAN M 360 : Yeah. We must acknowledge that It’s hard to achieve, I mean maintain the qualities of the folk song way of singing and also perform with operatic skills. So, you have to be somewhere between both.

Nick Halley : Young people, children, have a natural ability to do that. So, my job is just not to mess it up! Because they will communicate the story the same way a person would in a pub in Ireland, where it’s just, okay, it’s time for a song. And then you hear those and you’re telling a story. The first track on that record is Petty Harbour Bateskip, it’s a very sad story from Newfoundland. But you just have to lean into it and tell that story. But I think it’s in the arranging that one’s skills are really tested that way. Because to keep it interesting for all of us, the listener included, but not lose the character. And I think that in my unbiased opinion, my father, Paul, is a bit of a genius at that. So, the arrangements are quite beautiful.

PAN M 360 : So, your father write most of the arrangements for the choir?

Nick Halley : Yes, in this case. And we’ll even do some pieces of his, just fresh compositions of his, especially in the second half. In the first half of the concert, the sacred anthems, we are also singing a piece of his that I love, which is just choir and organ and very much in the classical tradition. But the second half with the folk songs, it’s largely his arrangements. It’s sort of built around that. I arranged a Sky Boat song from Scotland, and I play percussion, and he plays piano.That’s unusual, I’m learning, because I grew up with this sound, which is piano and organ, piano and pipe organ. So, you have the percussive quality of the piano, but the wind instrument of the organ. And something about that combination of piano and organ with choir is magical. But the piano and the organ need to be in tune with each other. So, that’s always an interesting challenge, because very few people do that. Usually, you sing with piano or organ.

PAN M 360 : So, you pick songs from this recent album, and you also pick in your large repertoire

Nick Halley : That’s right. Throughout the year, we’ve been singing all of these, the sacred anthems part of the program. It’s just picking and choosing from the services and concerts that we’ve sung throughout the year.

PAN M 360 : Is the choir touring a lot? Anywhere in Canada and the world?

Nick Halley : We have not traveled so much with this choir, but we did a lot of touring in the Maritimes. As a percussionist, I’ve traveled all over the place, but the choir has not. And I’ve always said, even when I go somewhere, even if I go to Europe, I still want to do a Nova Scotian tour, because it’s an amazing place to tour. That being said, we’ve always wanted to go to Montreal and try to get as far as Toronto. And this time we’re finally doing it!

PAN M 360 : So, it’s very, very exciting for us music lovers to have you for the first time at Classica Festival, to enjoy this choir and also enjoy the Maritimes singing experience, which we know more, as we said, more about the folklore, the traditional music, but not about this approach, which is an excellent blend between classical and popular music.

Nick Halley : Oh, thank you! We’re so excited to share.

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Mezghena de Montréal is an association dedicated to Arab-Andalusian music. This North African style originally developed during the 8 centuries of Muslim occupation in the Iberian Peninsula, particularly in Andalusia (Al-Andalus), and then continued its evolution in the Maghreb after the fall of Granada in 1492 and the expulsion of the Moorish populations.

A few centuries later, waves of Maghrebi emigration to the West gave rise to Arab-Andalusian music practices, including in the greater Montreal area which has the Mesghena Montreal association, founded in 2014 and whose large orchestra has been performing since 2016.

This tenth anniversary will be commemorated with a special concert on Saturday, May 23, at 6:30 p.m. in the Désilets Hall at Collège Marie-Victorin. To learn more about Mesghena Montréal, PAN M 360 presents this interview with Sidali Mohand Arab, principal conductor and artistic director of this unique orchestra.

INFO AND TICKETS HERE

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT MEZGHENA OF MONTREAL, CLICK HERE

Elle Barbara combines performance art, dance, theatre, and music, diffracting the current context through her lens as a trans artist and a key figure in Montreal’s underground scene. Presented at Théâtre Outremont, this unique evening on Friday, May 22nd, marks Elle Barbara’s triumphant return to the stage, following the release of her recently published work, Word On The Street. A One Man Show, a purely self-produced work like the album that forms its core, is the banner of this transdisciplinary event, a performance where mainstream pop rubs shoulders with the strangest contours of the avant-garde, as well as a critical stance: a rejection of gender, racial, and consumerist biases, a denunciation of the material poverty faced by creative minds, and an invitation to find substance through celebration and entertainment. For PAN M 360, Elle Barbara explains the ins and outs of this project in this interview conducted by Alain Brunet.

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This group lives up to its name, as the concerts described by Johnny Shango, the band’s leader, feel like truly immersive experiences! After playing with several rock, funk, punk, and jazz bands, he’s ready to launch his own project, blending the worlds of 70s music and film with extravagant costumes. Johnny Shango is a singer, guitarist, trombonist, and dancer, and will be accompanied by several musicians who have played with him over the years, notably during his time with the band Colectivo. Influenced by artists like James Brown, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Lenny Kravitz, Johnny Shango proudly champions his project, which he describes as unclassifiable. In fact, festivals sometimes struggle to categorize them into a specific genre, as they draw from a variety of styles. For their June 5th concert at Turbo Haüs, VSE is preparing an eclectic evening, during which you’ll have to leave all your troubles behind and let loose. Our journalist Sandra Gasana spoke with Johnny Shango for PAN M 360.

Anyone familiar with progressive rock knows the significance of English drummer Bill Bruford, particularly within King Crimson’s most memorable lineups (Larks Tongues In Aspic, Red, Discipline, Beat, Three of A Perfect Pair), but also with Yes, UK, Genesis, Gong, not to mention all those other jazz-tinged projects that have delighted even the most demanding music lovers—Earthworks being a prime example. Now 77 years old (as of May 17), Bill Bruford has never stopped playing the drums and is returning to Quebec in a purely jazz setting, as part of the trio led by British guitarist Pete Roth. On May 30 at the Palais Montcalm and at Club Soda on May 29, this ensemble will share the bill with the group led by guitarist Mark Lettieri, a prominent member of Snarky Puppy. As he is by far the most famous musician in this double concert, PAN M 360 sits down here with Bill Bruford, a most courteous man, generous with his words… as well as his beats!

PAN M 360 : I’m 68 years old, so I know you since I’m a teenager. I started to listen to your music when I was 14, something like that.

Bill Bruford : Wow. It’s been a long time back!

PAN M 360 : Yes and do not worry, we’re not going to go through your whole career.

Bill Bruford : Thanks! You know what the most frightening words are to a musician?

PAN M 360 : No.

Bill Bruford : I’ll tell you : « So tell me, Bill, how did you get started?” … What that means is that I’m in for about two hours worth of trying to talk to somebody through my entire career, which of course is all online anyway.

PAN M 360 : No problem, I’m not a nostalgic person at all, however I respect your geat career and playing. Of course we know you mainly the progressive rock golden age but there is something else. Earthworks, for example, was started in the mid 80’s or something like that. So you’ve always been interested in improvisation music and jazz forms and also fusion forms with jazz and your own background and other kinds of musical interests you have.

Bill Bruford : Indeed so. I grew up with jazz. And I sort of fell into rock. You know, in London in 1968, any red blooded young man aged 18 or so would have gone into rock, which is much more exciting. I mean, it’s on the one hand of Jimi Hendrix. And on the other hand, there was this very political jazz which wasn’t very appealing to most people. So, you know, naturally, naturally, people like me gravitated towards rock.

Although when we first started, yes, I think, you know, I was very much a jazz head. So I thought I thought we were going to be a jazz group or I thought we could maybe be one or so. I didn’t really know. So you can hear me determinately playing, trying to play jazz on the first year’s album.

PAN M 360 : Yeah, that’s true. But at the same time, you’re not exactly a jazz drummer because your playing always had a strong rock attitude, even if it was jazz in a way. Am I right?

Bill Bruford : Yeah. I’m a kind of half breed, you know, a foot in both camps. I love jazz and I love rock and I hate both of them equally. I somehow find myself in the middle. I don’t know why. I thought I’d like to speak clearly and articulate clearly, particularly on a drum set. And if at the back of 20,000 seats you play too many notes, you’re just going to get lost in a roar of rubbish. So better to be clear. And that’s something that’s not primary in jazz. On the whole, jazz likes ambiguity. Was it this? Was it that? Could it be this? Oh, he played a wrong note. No, he didn’t. The pianist has made it sound nice now with some lovely chords behind it. Is it a duple rhythm or a triple rhythm? I don’t know. It could be either of those at the same time. So this sort of stuff goes on in jazz, which is why I love jazz. But you can’t do that on a rock stage.

So clearly people like me have a lot of influences. And in a trio setting like the Pete Roth trio group I’m in now, all that can be brought to bear as and when. It’s not a problem because you’re not playing for vast numbers of people.We like small rooms if possible.

PAN M 360 : When I listen to Pete Roth recordings before your arrival, the music is different. The guitar’s tone was cleaner, and then it embraced more saturation in the chords, the textural approach became different, and it fits very well with your playing.

Bill Bruford : Good. I’m glad you think so. I won’t try to describe Pete’s work or what he does or why he makes those choices. He just turns up and we play together. We don’t talk endlessly about sound and that kind of thing, the level you’re at. I’m not very good at describing other people’s work. I can describe my own, certainly.

PAN M 360 : I see, but at the same time, the new relationships in music change the musicians sound. So, there’s an evolution in this collective work with the Pete Roth trio. I saw that Mike Pratt was the former bass player, but I read in the program in Quebec that Stefan Redtenbacher would be on bass?

Bill Bruford : Unfortunately, Mike has had to have a shoulder operation. Well, we’re rather hoping he’ll be back soon. While he’s recovering, Stefan is doing a wonderful job and will be with us in Québec. We’ve only had two or three playing together, but I can tell Stefan is doing a great job. It’s fresh, it’s exciting for us.Nothing in so-called jazz or instrumental music is likely to be boring, I don’t think, especially with only three people on stage.

PAN M 360 : Your fans probably acknowledge that you’re a jazz drummer too, and you’re playing in a trio concept, which is totally different from what you did with King Crimson or Yes, for example.

Bill Bruford : Yeah, I don’t mind any of that now. We do a lot of press and public relations. We explain to people what’s on offer. We have agents and so forth who explain things to people. I think the important thing is that the listener, over many years of attending concerts that I’m in, and bands that I’ve led, have come to trust me. That on the whole, they feel that if they see the name Bill Bruford up there, either leading a band or being a sideman in a band, he won’t be wasting his time bringing you something that’s not interesting, at least interesting, and something that’s exciting. I think people have come to trust me to do that. So I have produced people with names like Alan Holdsworth, and Jeff Berlin, and Django Bates, and Ian Ballamy, and David Torn and stuff. And these people were all around, but perhaps the Québec audience was not familiar with them, particularly at the time that I managed to bring them to Québec.

PAN M 36 : Yeah, I remember when you came with Django Bates in the late 80’s and early 90’s. I love Django Bates, he’s an excellent musician and a prolific composer.

Bill Bruford : Yeah, he’s terrific! I remember a gig when we were outdoor at the Montreal Jazz Festival. Well, I have been to Québec a lot, so some of those gigs are getting a bit blurry as to who I was playing with, when, and playing what. But the main thing is people can trust me to do something interesting for them, I think.

PAN M 360 : Sure, sure. And also, one thing is very interesting in your playing and your evolution as a musician in the long term is it’s never too busy, but at the same time, it’s tough. So you’re not trying to play a busy set as would do some jazz fusion drummers. It stays very clear, but it’s different also to the minimalism of certain swing jazz, modern jazz drummers. So you’re somewhere in the middle, I would say.

Bill Bruford : Yeah, I think so.m omewhere in the middle, that’s right. As they say, you know, too jazz for rock and too rock for jazz.

PAN M 360 : Or enough for both!

Bill Bruford : Yeah, or enough for both. I mean, I think a lot of the time, people like me are thinking, what can we contribute here on a drum kit? There’s a lot of brilliant drummers around, of course. So how can I, you know, a lot of people play way better than me, especially young people. So what is it that I can contribute here? Well, one thing I would look for is differentiation. How can I make myself sound different? In what context can I do things differently? Or interestingly, in ways that perhaps other people haven’t thought of? So that’s partly what I’m doing up there, I think, is trying to find interesting ways of doing things that are not necessarily the same as the next guy. And I certainly can’t outgun, you know, the fast young kids today who are terrific.

I absolutely love their drumming, except that for me now, particularly at my advanced age of about 30 – just kidding. It’s, you know, I can’t… What do I want? What am I looking for here? Character, I’m looking for character on the instrument rather than kind of particular virtuosity. Yeah, be ourselves.

PAN M 360 : And there is always an possibility to demonstrate that you are unique.

Bill Bruford : Oh yeah, I think that’s exactly right. I like to do that if possible and show other ways that people might do things. Because I’ve sort of found my own path after many years doing these things.

I think what’s more important these days is, you know, it’s really what you think up to play in the moment. What do you think up to play? It’s of more interest, I think, to listener and performer alike than whether you have the ability to execute it flawlessly. I have sufficient technique, but more interesting is, wow, why is the drummer doing that? Or why is he playing so simple when the other guys are being so complex? Or why is he being so complex while the other guys are being simple? Or why is he playing so few notes now with no hands? You know, all that stuff. You’re hoping to raise questions in the audience.

PAN M 360 : Yeah. Then the experience of the musician becomes more important sometimes than his technical skills. So this is the experience, the beauty of the experience is there.

Bill Bruford : Yes, I think that’s exactly right. Technical stuff is my business. I think I usually… I’m an untrained musician, and these days many of the great drummers have fantastic technical lessons, particularly in North America. And therefore I have to be careful. Well, not be careful, but I’m unlikely to run to technique just to blind people with science. I don’t want to blind anybody with a lot of notes. I want to blind people with notes that are carefully placed.

PAN M 360 : Well, this is very well put. And as you said, there are so many fantastic drummers today. Well, this is like Olympic sports, you know? Yeah. You know, Jesse Owens was the fastest in the 30s, but now there are thousands that run faster than him,

Bill Bruford : Sure. If you’re going to get confused between sports and athletics and music or an art form, then you are in deep trouble.There’s much more to drumming than just acquiring an ever-faster paradiddle.

PAN M 360 : I remember that when I was a teenager or a young adult jumping into music journalism, you know, all my friends were checking about the performance, etc. And finally, at that time, in rock we could pinpoint a few drummers, in jazz we could pinpoint a few drummers, and it was like more or less between 30 and 50 people. Now, the same exercise leads you to… towsends! So it’s not necessarily relevant to think about it now.

Bill Bruford : Yes, and there’s also two kinds of drummers. One is the kind of person who is on YouTube a lot and maybe gives drum clinics and works from home a lot. That’s what you might call stay-home drummers, and they can reach fantastic levels of technical ability. But there are other drummers, and myself is in a second group, who are more interested in what it’s like playing with other people.

So I don’t have any particular interest in hearing a drummer on his or her own in her bedroom. I’m more interested in what that person does when on a stage with other people, in front of an audience, with some music that they’re not entirely sure of. That’s what… I’m more interested in that.

PAN M 360 : And this is what you’re going to do again in Quebec! Also I know that you will give a conference during your stay in Quebec City.

Bill Bruford : Absolutely, there will be some sort of an interview.

PAN M 360 : Yes with Nicolas Houle, the main booker for Palais Montcalm who knows his shit. He is a former journalist, working for Quebec City quality press. So he will surely ask you very good questions!

Bill Bruford : Okay! And we also play other gigs, 5 or 6 I think. We will be in Montreal on May 29th and at Palais Montcalm the night after.

PAN M 360 : Recordingwise, Sounds great. I saw videos where you are performing with this trio, but no album was found.

Bill Bruford : True. We haven’t made one yet, although we are in the process of making one, which should be available in October.

PAN M 360 : Excellent, thank you so much for this generous and substantial interview.

Bill Bruford : Thanks a lot to you either. Cheers!

In the wake of the recent release of his beautiful album Adouna (read our review HERE), the Senegalese Cheikh Ibra Fam granted us an interview that reflects his image and that of his music: generous, smiling, well-supported, and intelligent. The Senegalese artist now settled in Réunion offers us in this album a product deeply rooted in modern Afropop, though informed by his roots, dressed with bright brass, colourful flutes, guitar, and energetic percussion. I quickly fell under the spell of the work, but also of the boy himself. I think you will be, too if you take a few minutes to listen to him here:

In the days ahead of Palomosa, as the city readies its best alternative outfits, nervously eyes the weather report for hints of sunshine amidst the rain, and speculates on what an MGMT DJ set may entail, PAN M 360 sits down with Mathieu Constance: The booker for Montreal’s newest, coolest festival.

A year-round show-booking extraordinaire, Constance has outdone himself with this year’s lineup. And despite the fact that he’s come down with a cold this week, no doubt due to the extraordinary pressure of maintaining the festival’s exceptional success streak, he’s as psyched as ever to welcome Montreal’s club kids to Parc Jean Drapeau this weekend, rain or shine.

We caught up with Mathieu to get his take on how Palomosa stacks up against more established festivals, his sleeper picks to see this weekend, thoughts on controversies in years past, and which ritual sacrifices to perform to get your favourite bands on the bill.

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PAN M 360: For those who don’t know, could you tell us a bit about yourself and your background in the festival and booking world?

Mathieu Constance: I’m the booking director now for Multicolore, so I receive all the bookings for Piknic Électronik, Igloofest, and Palomosa now. We also do a lot of hard ticket concerts and club shows throughout the year in between our festival seasons through the (Avec) Courage! brand. Upwards of a thousand shows a year.

PAN M 360: What’s different about working on Palomosa versus these other festivals you’re involved with?

Mathieu Constance: Palomosa is kind of our foray into the more ‘live’ side, and more alternative sounds. We never had a festival place to put these acts on. Historically, Piknic and Igloofest have been very DJ-focused and very electronic. And while that remains a part of the DNA, we’re doing more and more alternative, cloud rap stuff, more indie and punk, and a little bit of everything. And we’re realizing that there was no real place for these artists to showcase themselves on a festival stage in Montreal. So it came out of that, and the way it’s been received since the first year has been pretty validating—there are definitely people who want to see this, so I’m very excited for our return this week.

PAN M 360: Who are your standouts to see this year?

Mathieu Constance: There are a couple of less obvious names I’m really excited about. One of them is Ear, who’s really been blowing up. We were lucky enough to have them on the Yung Lean show we did at MTelus back in October. And they’re really one of the cool new bands to keep an eye on.

And Poison Girl Friend—a trip hop legend that’s still touring and still doing shows. I think that’s gonna be a really cool, mellow vibe in the middle of that mainstage day on Friday, which is going to be really sick. And on Saturday. I’m very excited to see one of the local artists called kinji00, who’s kind of our incarnation of the Bladee and Yung Lean sound in a French, Québécois setting, which is really interesting. And to see that influence and to see how big he’s become here has been really special. So we’re excited to have him at the festival for the first time. Those would be my kind of sleeper picks for this year.

PAN M 360: How are you discovering some of these more niche, online artists, and balancing those with more mainstream acts?

Mathieu Constance: We always try to balance it out, in general. We have some more established names on the lineup, who were obviously big before this whole internet culture emerged.

But I think it’s interesting to see the way music is being consumed now. It’s changed so drastically in the last couple of years. And the fact that names are popping off and blowing up on socials in a month’s time and becoming superstars overnight—it’s clearly had an impact on how music is consumed and how shows are performing in general. So it’s a balance between keeping an eye on that and seeing how kids are reacting to different trends. We tapped into that, and with Palomosa specifically, we’re curating to this crowd. So we need to be aware of what they’re interested in and make sure there’s a place for them.

PAN M 360: The festival has consistently had these bigger names to help anchor it down. Which begs the question, what kind of blood ritual did you have to do to get MGMT on the lineup this year?

Mathieu Constance: Sometimes it’s just leverage. Sometimes it’s just sheer luck. We were lucky enough to have Andrew (VanWyngarden) from MGMT play a solo set as one of the first club shows we did for Palomosa, a bit more than a year ago. That went well, and there was some intent to keep it going, and this year, the stars kind of aligned, the blood ritual worked. We got it done, and I think it’s gonna be really exciting to see what they pull out of their DJ bags.

PAN M 360: Is there a dream artist you’d like to book for Palomosa someday, even if you don’t know if it would ever really happen?

Mathieu Constance: I think there would be something really interesting about a whole day of programming around someone like Skrillex, really leaning into the different influences of his sound, whether that’s the more pop stuff he’s been doing, some of the more Latin sounds, and some of the more OG dubstep things. I think that would be something really cool to do curatively that would speak to multiple generations of fans. So that’s always on the table, one of the first things we love to look at, but it’s not been very easy to land.

PAN M 360: On the note of bigger artists, did your life flash before your eyes at all when MIA went on her Trump rant onstage at Palomosa last year? Did that affect booking this year?

Mathieu Constance: …Well, I mean, it was pretty obvious we weren’t going to rebook a headline for the second year in a row. And it’s not something that we would want to get into at all in the future. It seems there was an incident recently on the Kid Cudi tour that she was pulled off of. So, honestly, yeah. It was pretty stressful.

PAN M 360: Lastly, what are you hoping people will take away from this year’s Palomosa? Maybe a dry weekend for a change?
Mathieu Constance: Yeah, a dry Palomosa would be a bit of a first, we’d be really excited for that. But for me, come as early as you can. I know a lot of people are coming to see Fakemink and MGMT. But we have this programming that can reach these people. And I hope a couple hundred or a couple thousand people can walk away and be like, ‘I really loved Ear or Sophia Stel,’ when they weren’t familiar with them, but now they have a memory to hold dear. Because most of these, we strongly believe, will be blowing up soon, if not blowing up already. That would feel like mission accomplished for us.

Magical realism to replace Fairy magic

Tchaikovsky in place of Tchaikovsky

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