Interviews – Page 42

This year, PAN M 360 brings you Igloofest from a new angle that of behind-the-scenes at the event, shining the spotlight on behind-the-scenes workers. After Stéphanie Cléroux, Production Director at Multicolore, we continue this pair of interviews with TiND, responsible for Igloofest’s VJing programming this year.

PAN M 360 invites you to dive into the creative world of Montreal-based VJ TiND, short for ” thisisnotdesign “.

Active for over twenty years, collective TiND has collaborated with the SAT and Moment Factory among others, the organization has known how to evolve with musical and visual trends, forging a solid reputation in the Montreal art scene. We spoke to Francis Théberge, one of the collective’s co-founders.

PAN M 360 : Introduce us to TiND in a few words.

TiND : We founded the collective in the early 2000s, there were 3 of us originally. We started out at raves, which is classic. Then big industrial parties, experimental music. Our specialty was really visuals that were very rough, sampled from pop culture. The classic VJ of the late 90s and early 2000s. Later, in 2005, we officially formed as a collective registered as a nonprofit organization. Then we all became moms and dads, which diminished the group’s activities. At the moment, I’m the main active member, with my wife in charge of archives and organization.

PAN M 360 : How did the collaboration with Igloofest come about?

TiND : If I’m not mistaken, we did the VJ booking in the third year, so that was over ten years ago. Then it was other great VJs, including Marion Carassou-Maillan aka VJ MA – she really worked hard to get us a great spot. Then there was Marc-Olivier Comeau aka VJ Binocle, a veteran of big stages and U.S. tours. Then there was Catherine Turp of Moment Factory, who has been booking for years. This year I’ve taken over the programming, with the aim of keeping the spirit of the Montreal VJ scene alive. We take care of the B stage, the smallest stage, and with the Montreal music program, it really feels like a local scene.

PAN M 360 : How have VJing practices evolved over time ?

TiND : Headliners are increasingly coming with their own visuals. We started to feel it several years ago, I’d say even before the pandemic in festivals like ÎleSoniq, Osheaga that I did a few years. I don’t think the place of VJs has quite been won. We’re obliged to play the content given by the artists without having much time to prepare. This is happening more and more with the big headliners. The artist choices were perhaps more balanced with a better representation of the underground. Obviously, the visual field has evolved a lot, technologies are more and more accessible. For example, someone who knows a lighting console very well will be able to operate visuals quite easily.

PAN M 360 : Do you have carte blanche for Igloofest ?

TiND : Yes ! Igloofest gives us a lot of freedom. The programmer supports the artists’ applications, and then the choice is made on the demos, whether it’s a series of images or ideally a demo clip. Of course, there’s production validation, but I’ve never seen an artist turned down unless the content was really inappropriate. There’s a diversity of visual styles represented, from the more experimental (like me) to stuff much more motion closer to the graphics you see in animated advertising. They’ve got a good eye, they know what they want, but it’s a really nice carte blanche. This year, we’ve made room for people who are just starting out, and we’ve taken them under our wing. I like the idea of including several generations of VJs.

PAN M 360 : In terms of content creation, how do you strike a budgetary balance between your visual universe, your signature, your style and the artist’s style?

TiND : There are VJs who are very good at adapting, creating or remixing visuals to make it work very well. On the other hand, there are VJs who have huge banks of visuals, who are also very malleable in general; they have a style that will stick with just about anything. It’s all a question of selecting the right clips, setting up the right set in the right software, whatever it takes. After that, it’s a question of feeling the music on site, and of craft. Sometimes you realize that the artist plays very differently from the sets on SoundCloud or MixCloud that you’ve been listening to in preparation. There are surprises. The primary role of the VJ is to have enough content to adapt to different styles and rhythms of music, and that’s important. Then you have to be able to improvise on the spot. In some cases, there are more specific mandates, where we’ll be asked to create visuals tailored to the artist, which requires collaboration between the labels and the artists, but unfortunately it’s very rare for us to be in direct contact with the labels or the artists.

PAN M 360 : What are the challenges for VJs at Igloofest ?

TIND : It may seem strange despite Igloofest being a big festival, we’re so well supported by the technical team on site, it’s incredible. Honestly, it’s very easy. As much as you can play a simple signal that takes up all the space and becomes really immersive, you can also cut out each tile, play different layers of visuals or a color more to the left, more to the right… It’s extremely flexible.

PAN M 360 : You emphasize the importance of the technical teams in enabling you to carry out your work. What is the dynamic like with the lighting designers with whom you collaborate very closely ?

TiND : I’ll be very transparent with you: in many cases, it’s a love-hate story! (laughs) Sometimes hate, it’s more because there’s miscommunication between the two artists. I’d like to stress that the lighting people, as much as anyone else on the technical team, even if you call them technicians, I call them artists. There’s no doubt about that. For example, the lighting technician on stage B this year is fabulous. He’s a young man of 19/20 who has already played for MUTEK. He’s very patient with us, calm, and communication is excellent. Despite me being chaotic and colorful, we manage to find a balance, and then at some point give each other more space. As soon as there’s good communication, it works really well, even if it’s improvised. Because these people are extremely good at improvising. In an ideal world, with more budget for preparation, there could be synchronization, which produces an incredible show for the audience.

TiND – Igloofest x SAT

TiND – MUTEK

We’re all trying to make sense of this world as it gets more and more twisted and confusing. Living is almost to a point of reaction instead of planning and artists have been writing songs about this since they could walk. While you could generally categorize that as ‘songwriting,’ for Tom McGreevy the lead lyricist and rhythm guitarist of Ducks Ltd., it’s kind of his M.O. A Ducks Ltd. song usually sounds bright and full of life, with a steady momentum, as if finishing or overcoming a race or an obstacle, but the lyrics are nine times out of ten about the frailties of human relationships or straight up societal collapse.

This is probably the most present on Ducks’ newest release, Harm’s Way which will have an album release show this Saturday, Feb. 10 during Taverne Tour. We quickly chatted with McGreevy before the show to learn more about his artistic process and Harm’s Way.

PAN M 360: There is always this momentum with a Ducks Ltd. song. Especially on Harm’s Way. I kind of always feel like running when I listen to it…

Tom McGreevy: Haha yeah thanks. I definitely feel like we always have the innate impulse to make the song slightly faster. It always ends up going that way. There’s a pretty long process with the editing of the lyrics too. I tend to write the lyrics a little bit slower, but when it gets to the point of playing it out with Evan, we will always push it an extra 5 bpm faster or something in the demo. Historically, I think there have been only like two or three instances when we’ve had to slow down a Ducks song.

PAN M 360: And even though this album kind of pushes that Ducks jangle pop sound further, I feel like you’re one of the only bands where I can take a song and put it anywhere in your repertoire and it fits, almost as if they were written around the same time or place.

Tom McGreevy: That’s interesting and I’ve heard that a bit before. But the truth is most of them start in my bedroom and then we take them to the studio. For this album, some of them were written while we were on tour. I think I find personally that when I’m doing my kind of side of it, which is more in a sort of solitary space, it’s often that I’ll be working on a thing for a really long time. It will be like eight or nine months of just sitting on it. And it’ll come in pieces, and then the pieces will eventually be locked together and coalesce the way I want it to. Sometimes you just have to walk away and wait for that epiphany down the line y’know? I rarely write a song in one sitting. Usually, I’ll let the second verse hang for a while.

PAN M 360: So going off of that, I feel the studio process must be quite methodical and not very spontaneous?

Tom McGreevy: Yeah we are quite meticulous and there is very little spontaneity. The way we approach to stuff is definitely with rigour, but every now and then I will get stuck, but I need to get something down in the studio. So it will be like 11th-hour shit and we have to go with what I got. That used to be worrisome, but now I think we have more confidence. Of course, there’s always that one line that I hate right, or it annoys me. It’s a deadly struggle that I think I only notice.

PAN M 360: The music is very upbeat and feel-good. But if you read into the lyrics, they’re pretty bleak. The world is drowning, kind of a cynical take. Would you consider yourself to have like a bleak outlook on the world?

Tom McGreevy: I try to stay optimistic, but I think reality resists that (laughs). It always comes from me trying to process these difficult realities. And so I think that tends to be part of maybe why it comes through in that way. At the same time, it’s like, I think if I’m being honest, is a pretty accurate reflection of my worldview most of the time.

PAN M 360: There is something to that with the jangle pop kind of genre; depressing lyrics and upbeat music…

Tom McGreevy: I think it’s just in pop music in the broader history of like, you know, commercial music as a medium. Think of somebody like Smokey Robinson’s “The Tracks of My Tears.” Like, that’s a pretty bright-sounding song. I think that juxtaposition is sort of core to the appeal of a lot of music. And I think it’s like, sometimes less present in our current moment, but I think it’s, it’s interesting to me. Many of our influences are fthe guitar music from the UK and New Zealand in like 1980s, and that was something I was aware of, but I think it’s just one sort of element in the medium.

PAN M 360: You guys were really able to tour these songs, kind of road-test them. How did that tie into the recording process for Harm’s Way?

Tom McGreevy: I think it taught us about how the songs work. Not just live, but on a basic level. Historically, we would write the song, write the parts, and then never play them until we had to learn them for the live show. When I think the thing that was kind of different with this one was that because we did play it so much, we talked about it all the shows. I think we kind of got a better sense of like, how a Ducks song works and what a Duck song does. So when we were kind of making this record, it was a lot, almost easier to do because it was sort of like sort of knew innately what was going on and we didn’t have to think about it as much. It was a lot less sort of hitting a crossroads in a compositional process. It was like ‘Well, obviously, it will go like this.’

PAN M 360: I wanted to ask you specifically about the song “Train Full of Gasoline.” That might be my favorite track. I like it reminds me a lot of The Cure, but also that metaphor of this huge train of gasoline being like a volatile relationship … such a great metaphor

Tom McGreevy: Thanks. That’s in part about the train disaster in Lac-Mégantic and the one thing that struck me after reading about it and learning about the clean up in the community was there wasn’t like one, central mistake that was made that caused this to happen. It was like this series of small, like failures that like just compounded on each other. And I thought that was like, kind of compelling as a metaphor. Like, the description of most human folly is these things where it’s small things that pile up and don’t get observed and don’t get addressed. That theme definitely comes up in Ducks music all the time.

Photo by: Colin Medley

Ducks Ltd. Plays Taverne Tour w/ The Wesleys, and Dresser at Quai Des Brumes on Feb. 10

Internationally renowned soprano and specialist in the modern operatic repertoire, Canadian Barbara Hannigan is also a maestra. Now a respected conductor, this exceptional singer has developed a singular style of orchestral conducting that does not exclude her original artistic practice, this time in the service of Francis Poulenc and Richard Strauss. More specifically, she will sing and conduct La voix humaine, by composer Francis Poulenc and librettist (and celebrated author) Jean Cocteau. Prior to this, she will conduct a 26-minute work by post-romantic composer Richard Strauss. Joining us in Paris by videoconference, Barbara Hannigan discusses the complex issues involved in her planned double task with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and the works on the program for next Wednesday, February 21 and Thursday, February 22.

ARTISTS

Orchestre symphonique de Montréal

Barbara Hannigan, conductor & soprano

Barbara Hannigan, Denis Gueguin, Clemens Malinowski, staging and vidéo

Clemens Malinowski, cameras in real time

WORKS

R. Strauss, Métamorphoses, TrV 290 (26 min)

Poulenc, La voix humaine, tragédie lyrique, FP 171 (40 min / Texte de Jean Cocteau)

With staging and projections

Concert without intermission

crédit photo: Marco Borggreve tirée de la page FB de Barbara Hannigan

For info, it’s HERE.

Since making his name with the garage-noise band Pussy Galore in 1984, through Boss Hog, Heavy Trash (with the Sadies and Matt Verta-Ray), a few rounds with RL Burnside, and, above all, the famous Blues Explosion, Jon Spencer has gone through several incarnations without ever really deviating from his unique guitar sound and his typical way of singing and imposing himself on stage. Blues, garage, punk, soul, and noise assimilated, crushed, and spat out with a class of its own and a lot of style.

Now, barely a year after his appearance at the Ritz with the HITmakers, the ever-charismatic Spencer is back to present a new project under his own name, accompanied by two young fearless musicians. With this new entity, the New Yorker revisits part of his repertoire, focusing mainly on his prolific Blues Explosion period, with a few new bonus tracks.

PAN M 360 went to meet him on his birthday, just before this mini-tour which will take him to Quebec, Ottawa, and Montreal, as part of the seventh edition of the Taverne Tour.

PAN M 360: You’ve had several incarnations since Pussy Galore, tell us a bit about this new one.

Jon Spencer: The two musicians I’m currently playing with, Spider Bowman and Kendall Wind, are both excellent players. We had a really nice tour in November and December, so I’m very confident. I think we’ll be able to pull it off and play some good shows. We’ve just spent the past five days mainly working on new material, which I hope to be playing in our upcoming shows over the next week. And when we’re done with this tour, we have plans to go into the recording studio.

PAN M 360: So in fact you brought in the rhythm section from the Bobby Lees.

Jon Spencer: That’s correct. I think the very first time I met them was when the Bobby Lees supported Boss Hog in Hudson, New York, maybe four or five years ago. And then I produced an album for the Bobby Lees a few years ago (Skin Suit, 2023), and got to know Kendall and Spider, more commonly known as Macky, a little bit better. And back last summer, I was offered some shows supporting Samantha Fish and Jesse Dayton. Samantha and Jesse made a record (Death Wish Blues, 2022) that I produced. I wasn’t working much during that period; The HITmakers were sort of on ice because Sam Coomes was very busy with Quasi. So I wanted very much to play and wanted very much to work. That’s why I accepted the shows supporting Samantha and Jesse on their Death Wish Blues tour. It then made me think about what kind of band I would put together for that tour. And I really love Kendall, I love the way she played on that Death Wish Blues album.

Part of my job as a producer was to put together a band for those Death Wish sessions and Kendall was the bass player for that. As you know, I had experience working with her in the studio before when I produced the Bobby Lees. Kendall is such an excellent musician, she’s also super quick to pick anything up. She’s a great bass player. So I asked her if she might be interested in playing with me on these tour dates. And then it just kind of seemed obvious to get Macky, her drummer partner from the Bobby Lees, aboard. Since the Bobby Lees are on hiatus, Macky and Kendall were up for the challenge, and I’m very happy that they agreed to play with me. Just for now, it’s been billed under my own name. I’m trying to think of a band name, because it would be nice to have a better name. But yeah, these are just Jon Spencer shows. So we’re a power trio if you will.

PAN M 360: What I gather is that you mostly revisit some of your old songs with this new project?

Jon Spencer: With this new band, I think the focus is more on revisiting some of my greatest hits. The main focus of this new thing is the Blues Explosion. Most of the set is Blues Explosion songs, but we do play HITmakers songs and we do play Pussy Galore songs. And then it’s a real pleasure, real joy, to play with Kendall and Macky. I mean, Kendall had the interesting challenge of interpreting Judah Bauer’s guitar parts on an electric bass, and she’s really done a fantastic job. Things really clicked and so now we’re trying to make some new songs.

PAN M 360: How did you select the songs? Was it a difficult choice?

Jon Spencer: Well, you know, I guess most of the songs I’ve picked … it’s because I want to play them, I picked them for very selfish reasons. But there are some songs I’ve picked because I figured that’s what people would like to hear. And there were a couple of songs I wanted to try but they didn’t translate well, so we didn’t end up doing them.

PAN M 360: Did you rearrange the songs or you tried to stick as much as possible to the original versions?

Jon Spencer: A bit of both. Things are getting rearranged. Things are changing anyway with the addition of a traditional electric bass guitar. It’s neither the Blues Explosion, nor Pussy Galore, nor the HITmakers. None of these bands had electric bass.

PAN M 360: Did you miss playing these old songs?

Jon Spencer: Maybe I did… I wasn’t aware of it. It’s been really nice doing the shows with Kendall and Macky, especially playing these Blues Explosion songs, it feels really good. it was a bit of a strange process for me, you know, relearning this material, because I guess I’ve changed the way I play guitar and the way I sing, it changed not by a lot, but by some small degree. So at times, I had to really look for live video footages of the Blues Explosion and try to figure out how things were played; and try to remember what I was doing there on the guitar. In addition to that, it’s also trying to teach the songs to a bass player who’s trying to interpret some electric guitar parts. And also a drummer, you know, trying to have him get the finer points of what Russell Simins did on the drums. And it’s not just exactly what Russell played, but also a lot of his intensity. Russell is an extremely intense drummer.

PAN M 360: So getting Russell and Judah back on board was out of the question?

Jon Spencer: There are very real concrete reasons why the Blues Explosion does not play anymore. No, it’s not really possible. There are reasons why the band stopped. We’re still friends, but … it could not continue sadly.

PAN M 360: You were talking about some new songs that you will play on this tour. Can you tell me a bit about this new material?

Jon Spencer: I suppose it’s closer to Blues Explosion than it is to HITmakers or Pussy Galore, but ultimately I hope that it will be kind of its own thing. You know, I’m very enthusiastic about how this material will sound and evolve on stage. So far it’s sounding and feeling really good. But I think songs really mature and really come together when you’re playing them out at a club. So I’m looking forward to this week’s set of shows as a way to really figure out these songs. But I would like to think that this new material is using the strengths of this new band, you know, specifically the strengths of my bandmates Kendall and Macky, and that the new material we’re working on is designed for this trio.

I should make a point though, if I may. With the Blues Explosion, we wrote together, we would get together the three of us, me and Judah and Russell, and we would jam on, you know, we just played. And that’s how we wrote songs. It was a collaborative thing. But with this new band, I’ve written songs, and that’s what I was doing with the HITmakers as well, I would write songs on my own. That may change, you know, but that’s just how it works so far … Anyway, we will do our best on stage.

Even though we’re kind of freaking out people and bumming out some of these white blues crowds, you know, people saying “That’s not blues, that’s just punk rock!” which I take as a compliment, there were always people every night that would say to me “Holy shit! Where did you find these people? That bass player is amazing! That drummer is incredible!” They’re both excellent musicians and natural-born stars. It’s so nice to play with them. So yeah, I think it’d be a good show!

Photo Credit: Whit Lane

Jon Spencer plays Taverne Tour w/ Population II on Feb 9 at La Tulipe. Tickets Here

Renowned for his significant collaborations with Robert Plant, Tinariwen, Rachid Taha, and Juldeh Camarahe the distinguished English guitarist, Justin Adams, took the time to talk to us and shed light on his latest project with Italian folk-artist, Mauro Durante. Justin and Mauro play at Club Balattou on the 9th of Feburary at 2100

PAN M 360 : Hey there Justin, thanks for tuning in. Did I catch you in London?

Justin Adams : Well actually I live in a town about two hours away from London. I’m a Londoner by origin, but I’ve become a bit of a country man.

PAN M 360 : I see. And so you’ll be starting your tour with Mauro pretty soon then. What exactly is this little circuit you’ve got going on?

Justin Adams : You know, it’s us dipping our toes into an ocean really. We’ve been touring around Europe for a couple of years. On and off. And we’ve just done two gigs in the United States, but we haven’t played in Canada at all before, at least not as this duo. It’s very exciting. And although we’ve done things with people who are well known, we’re not necessarily ourselves particularly well known. So the question is, is anybody going to come up and see the shows?

PAN M 360 : When I saw you were playing, I was kind of stoked. I heard about you thanks to the TinyDesk x globalFest show, and as a guitarist myself I really like what you do. Very cool to hear the different guitar styles coming together in your playing. I saw that you have a diplomatic background, and I can see how that might have influenced your musicality from a young age.

Justin Adams : Well, that’s a really nice thing to say. I mean, I suppose I’m kind of a guitarist for whom it’s not really about the guitar. I’m more interested in the overall vision of music and how I hear music as a music fan. And I guess, you know, my own particular history of listening to music was growing up with my parents in the States in the 60s.

That was the time of the Beatles, but also, you know, like Joan Baez and all of that. So that was very real. And I had elder brothers and sisters and I also felt that huge kind of generational change, and the role music played in all that. Then I got used to hearing some Arabic music as a child, and since I didn’t speak Arabic, you get used to really kind of listening to the emotion in music and really listening to the rhythms and the colours of the sound. I love the Arab idea of what they call Tarab, the enchantment that one gets from music, the catharsis. And I got to experience that when I got back to the UK but in a totally different way, now it was punk. The Clash, the Pistol, Patti Smith, television. I saw all those bands, you know. The lovely thing was the connection with Reggae. So I saw Bob Marley and Burning Spear and Culture and Black Uhuru. We used to go to Carnival in London and listen to the sound systems. My God. Yeah. Just incredible.

So when I look at the guitar I see the connections between Africa, the Arab world, you know, India, Pakistan, right through Europe to the States and Canada. I feel that I can see the history of this instrument as it travels from place to place.

PAN M 360 : Do you find yourself treading new ground with this project specifically, getting out of your comfort zone?

Justin Adams : In a way there’s always continuity, you know, because you try and sort of find your voice and the things that interest you. And the more I look back, I sort of think, well, it’s always the same, the same old stuff that I’m interested in. And yet it’s completely new. I’d never played in a duo before. And when we first started working together, we had no idea, we thought, well, we might need to get a bassist or a drummer or a singer. We started playing together and we started to realise that actually it had something quite different when you just have two people playing together.

One person locking with another. There’s something really cool and special about that. So when we make records, we don’t have any extra elements, you know, it’s just like the two of us just playing. So that’s a new thing. And I really am into the amount of space that you have and how big a guitar sounds when you don’t have a bass or a keyboard or a drum kit with it. The guitar is a massive sounding instrument, electric guitar, you know, like especially if you take your low E string down to D or C. Sometimes on recordings I do, I’m thinking, wow, did we put a moog on that? Just the bottom string of my Les Paul. And it’s because you haven’t got anything else in there. It’s got so much space. That’s new. And also, I really didn’t know very much about the traditional music of Southern Italy until I started this project.

I was interested in it because of its percussive nature and the idea that it’s a healing music that can be used for trance, and I was like wow, they have that in Europe? You know, I know I could tell you examples of drumming and trance and healing in Brazil, Cuba, but not so much in Europe. And I was like okay, cool, here’s a Southern European tradition that is clearly linked to North Africa.

PAN M 360 : And how did you come to meet Mauro?

Justin Adams : I got invited to this festival. They have this incredible thing, night of Taranta down in southern Italy. His band has been responsible for a huge revival in this kind of folk form of music, which was dying out. It wasn’t a professional form of music, it was like mostly peasants playing it in the village squares, and they were all aged 90 and dying. And his father, who was a teacher, started really recording things and going and making like recordings of old ladies singing songs. So, Mauro’s father was one of those 1970s leftists who was like, no, no, this is a valuable, popular tradition, you know, an oral tradition. So he started researching it. And then it’s become kind of like a really popular thing. So you like the first time I went down there, they had a free festival. There were 100,000 people doing the dance to the rhythm, you know. People were bouncing to it, young people, you know, which is cool and they’re into mixing it up with more music and they sort of dubbing it up and having heavy bass lines with it or whatever.

PAN M 360 : I had never heard of Taranta either, sounds really fascinating.

Justin Adams : Well, I think the legend is that women would be bitten by a poisonous spider and they would be knocked out by it. And this music is the thing that heals you. But there were no poisonous spiders. It’s like a metaphor for the hardships of life. Life is the spider, man. It was like life was hard, you know, life was hard for those people. So this music was a way for the community to kind of raise the spirits of everybody.

PAN M 360 : So what was the writing process like for your compositions? I’m curious as to how you navigated all these different traditions and styles.

Justin Adams : If you’re going to play music that has that hypnotic trance feel, the listener is a big part of that. So it’s not like a composed piece of music that exists outside of the listener because what you’re doing is you’re all together getting on something. It’s a bit more like the way that a DJ works, because for instance, if you suddenly feel that the audience are with you on a certain groove, you’re gonna play that groove a little bit longer. You might just give them a little bit more, you know, and so you might you’re really playing with the unit. So an improvisational element is really key.

For us, probably a song would be based on a groove, you know, a beat and and then a key or a mode, you know, and then that way it can and then it can change. I’m really interested in the way rhythms connect, you know, where one rhythm turns out to be related to another rhythm. It’s fascinating when, if I can be playing something that kind of is like a North Mississippi kind of repetitive riff, but it really is locking with the Taranta. And there’s a reason for that because all these things, they’re all based on the tension between three and four, syncopation.

PAN M 360 : I suppose after 12 beats it all works out anyway. Thanks so much for taking the time Justin, very much looking forward to the show!

Now that the days gradually start to become longer again, Taverne Tour comes back from February 8-10with a new colourful edition that celebrates the nightlife of the Plateau Mont Royal. Partnering with PAN M 360, Montreal artist Laurence-Anne will be performing at L’Esco on 8 February, before travelling to Mexico for a five-date tour at the end of the month. Blending dream/art/synthpop with coldwave and experimental influences, her latest album, Oniromancie, released on Bonsound last autumn, follows the path of an artist who has spent a long time contemplating the illusions of the night.

Hugely fond of David Lynch and Cocteau Twins, her music creates generous, dreamlike layers of sound to guide listeners through narrow doorways and to protect their hearts from the apparitions that haunt them. The night is hardly always merciful, which is why Laurence-Anne finds inspiration in both the gentleness of her reveries and the denser, darker side of her paralysing nightmares. In the darkness, the frightening appearance of a phantasmagorical entity trying to speak to her ended up being a salutary experience. PAN M 360 spoke to Laurence-Anne about her artistic journey, which constantly swings between reality and fiction.

PAN M 360: I’d like to start by looking back to your early artistic career. You’re known as a 2017 Francouvertes finalist or through your journey as a backing vocalist for Klô Pelgag, alongside N NAO and Lysandre. Your debut album Première Apparition made it onto the longlist of the Polaris Prize in 2019. When exactly did you start making music?

Laurence-Anne: I started singing when I was a child. I did my first singing shows in primary school simply out of passion, without taking any lessons or training. During secondary school, I started playing guitar and composing songs. Things got more serious in Montreal when I met other musicians. One thing led to another and I started arranging my own songs and being supported by a band. But in the end, music was always there.

PAN M 360: When did you move to Montreal?

Laurence-Anne: I moved here in 2012. After high school, I left for Mexico to do a gap year and then I came to study at the CÉGEP in human sciences in Montreal. It was also a good opportunity for me to meet other people who played music. When I moved to the Plateau, I started hanging out at Quai des Brumes and Esco, where I met other musicians.

PAN M 360: You’re playing at Esco on 8 February during Taverne Tour. I suppose it’s a bit like playing at home for you?

Laurence-Anne: Yes, I haven’t played at Esco for a long time. It’s kind of where it all began. I did one of my first shows at the old Esco, back when the bar was still very tiny. I can’t wait to play at home. I’ve got some surprises in store for you.

PAN M 360: Your albums Musivision and Oniromancie were written far away from the city, in the countryside, during getaways in chalets. Is it important for you to get out of the city to write music?

Laurence-Anne: Yes, it creates a creative bubble. I need to disconnect so that I can concentrate on creation. There are too many distractions in everyday life. Throughout the year, there aren’t many moments when I feel creative. But from the moment I decide to isolate myself somewhere with my instruments, I can lose track of time and nothing can take me out of this creative bubble. It’s really in those moments that I can compose without limits and create a whole album in a week!

PAN M 360: You’re originally from Kamouraska, a small town of 700 inhabitants on the south shore of the St. Laurent River. Can you tell us about the environment in which you grew up?

Laurence-Anne: It’s a fairly rural part of the Bas-Saint-Laurent region, mainly based on agriculture. There aren’t any big towns around. I grew up surrounded by fields, in Saint-Pascal de Kamouraska to be precise. It’s a rural area that’s a bit further inland. From my parents’ house, we had a view of the river and the Côte-Nord.

PAN M 360: You consider yourself to be a self-taught multi-instrumentalist (guitar, percussion, bass, synthesiser). You mention that you found more freedom with the synthesiser. What did you discover with the synthesiser that you didn’t find with other instruments?

Laurence-Anne: I love the range of sounds, tones and textures you can achieve with a synthesiser. There are no real limits. With a guitar, you can add effects pedals of course, but that work is easier to do on a synthesiser. When you don’t have any musical knowledge, it’s perhaps easier to find chords or sounds than with a guitar. The world of synthesizers has really helped me to push my creativity further, I feel I can let myself go more.

PAN M 360: Your artistic process is based on automatic writing. Can you explain how you use this rather peculiar technique?

Laurence-Anne: Lots of artists like to call it their ‘yoghurt’ (laughs). Basically, when you compose a melody, there are words that appear spontaneously. If you let these fragments of ideas go on a loop, something can start to emerge on its own. When I write a song, I don’t think about a particular subject. It’s by creating this ‘yoghurt’ that I can understand what I want to talk about. I let the subject appear instead of thinking about it.

PAN M 360: In your creative process, you give a lot of importance to dreams, which you see as a gateway to your subconscious, your anxieties, your desires and your ideals. Oneiromancy is actually a divinatory art that involves writing down your dreams in a notebook. How did you start this practice?

Laurence-Anne: Dreams have always been a source of inspiration for my music. At first, I used these themes unconsciously. I’ve always leaned towards creating poetry based on abstract imagination rather than tangible reality. I’ve always loved this freedom to create landscapes that don’t exist or to create images that take you out of reality. Throughout my work, I’ve noticed recurring themes, like night, space, the feeling of something bigger than ourselves that we can’t understand. In Oniromancie, I focused much more on what the dreams brought me. It’s an indefinable universe where the possibilities are limitless. I love drawing on this infinite source of inspiration.

PAN M 360: Apart from your artistic activity, is this something that helps you in your private life?

Laurence-Anne: Yes, particularly when I have recurring dreams. As I kept reliving the same situations, I started to ask myself questions. That led me to realise certain things that were mirrored in my life and to start making changes. It’s like having some kind of great connection with yourself if you can open your mind to that. It often appears as messages about things you don’t realise. They’re right there in front of you, but you can’t quite assimilate them. With dreams, things suddenly become clearer. I think it’s important to listen to them.

PAN M 360: Your videos give us a better understanding of your dream world. They are absolutely marvellous and well-crafted. We always find you in beautiful costumes, in a cocooned atmosphere, as if we were entering your bubble. Your album covers are also very well done. The Musivision cover, created by Montreal artist Aeforia (Alexy Préfontaine), gives the impression of falling into an endless labyrinth. The cover of Oniromancie, from a series by Bulgarian artist Mia Novakova, reminds me of the dreamlike atmosphere of Jean Cocteau’s film La Belle et le bête. Is it important for you to develop this visual world?

Laurence-Anne: I think it’s important to have visuals that go with the music so you can share it on networks or on YouTube. When you make ethereal dream-pop music, I think it’s even more important. It adds another dimension to the music so that listeners can absorb themselves in that world.

PAN M 360: In your song “Indigo” on the album Musivision, you say it’s your favourite colour of the rainbow. Why is that?

Laurence-Anne: I love dark purple colour palettes! I’m a very nocturnal person. The colour indigo reminds me of the colour of a starry sky, when you walk far away in the forest and there’s no light pollution. For me, it’s the colour of the night by excellence.

Laurence-Anne will be playing at the L’Escogriffe on 8 February as part of the Taverne Tour festival with Sun Entire.

Deli Girls was spawned around 10 years ago in the vibrant and rapidly growing queer, counter-culture, leftist, abolitionist scene in New York. The noisy rave punk meets digital hardcore group is now a flexible, rotating cast of collaborators, all under the artistic wing of founder, Dan Orlowski. Part of the same scenes as names like Dreamcrusher, Machine Girl, or even Show Me The Body, Deli Girls music is raw and powerful, feeling like a rowdy street fight in the middle of a rave; courtesy of the hair raising screams and vocal work of Orlowski. The lyrics are straight to the point, trading out flowery language for direct vocal bombs about grief, depression, apathy, injustice, and other topics to rightfully scream about. We spoke with Orlowski about the humble beginnings of the group, activism, and keeping healthy for those nail-biting screams, before the Deli Girls’ performance at Taverne Tour.

PAN M 360: What is the lineup of Deli Girls now? Is Tommi no longer part of the band? Is Hatechild now a core member of the live shows?

Dan Orlowski: Deli Girls is now a conglomerate, a flexible entity. I performed and collaborated a lot with Dani Rev, and Hatechild in the last 2 years. They have both been core members in that time, but I want to keep it open. We recently performed with John Bemis on live drums at Pioneer Works. I want to do more with live drums. Maybe guitar.

PAN M 360: You wanted to be a painter originally right? How did you fall into music?

Dan Orlowski: Kind of classic art school to musician pipeline. I became really disenfranchised with the art scene-the galleries, the white walls, the art hoes…the art market is basically just a money laundering front for rich people, right? You start to realize most of the people in the art world came from upper middle class/money. Bourgeoisie values. Music feels much more democratic when it can be. A crowd. The mutual release. Immediate, sweaty.

PAN M 360: The latest self-titled album is pure madness and straight queercore arcane, what was it like to collaborate with that many talented artists?

Dan Orlowski: Honestly, extremely liberating and inspiring. It was great to get into a flow with other artists/their processes and keep it feeling fresh every track. Lots of possibilities. Hectic to coordinate all myself. New ideas, new directions for ideas. Getting to direct the project felt like a lot of responsibility, but creatively very worth it. My agency and self-realization has been emboldened by that project.

PAN M 360: And to call it Deli Girls is kind of a statement in itself? I know when bands do that it’s like “Here is our best and brightest concoction of songs that make us, us”

Dan Orlowski: Perhaps you are picking up on something there, haha. I wanted to make a non-statement with the title of this record, yet edify what the band IS now.

PAN M 360: The first time I heard Deil Girls was during a trans march protest I was covering back in like 2015 or 2016 in Alberta. I’m sure you know this, but Deli Girls has been very important for the queer community in terms of empowerment and making statements against hurtful rhetoric… how does that make you feel? And do people tell you this?

Dan Orlowski: I’m fortunate enough to be able to say that people do tell me this. I’m really grateful to the activists who have included me in/around their work…there’s truly nowhere I’d rather be. One of the best things anyone has ever told me was this group of activists in London called Pissed Off Trannies who collected a bunch of trans piss and doused the entrance to the public health building there in order to protest gender markers on ID cards being needed in UK to use public restrooms. They apparently created a public health biohazard, had to lock down the whole building with government employees inside…police were apparently scared of getting piss thrown on them, hahaha. They used a DG track over the documentation footage of this protest, and were lovely to hang with at the show. That was iconic and really inspiring. Things like that make the project feel really worth it. Stories like that cancel out all the social climbers and cringe parts of being a musician.

PAN M 360: Your screams are just so powerful, they sound like they hurt. Do you have vocal training/ do you have to warm your voice up before a performance?

Dan Orlowski: No warm-ups or training other than trying to build up the scream stamina/always stay active with it like a muscle. Doing it for a really long time. I’m constantly doing a lot of little things to take care of my body to make sure my throat is optimal (no dairy, exercise, gut care, no coffee, no smoking…boring but real).

PAN M 360: Do you have to ‘get into character’ so to speak to perform? Like screaming live, do you have to feel angry or remember your thought process when you wrote the song?

Dan Orlowski: I used to feel more like that, now I guess the process is more automatic/intuitive. I have always felt there is a bit of acting performance involved in vocals because you do have to ‘be there’ for it to feel genuine. It’s a challenge to constantly return to the same place I was in when I wrote the song for the first time.

PAN M 360: What kind of themes always seem to come back to you when writing the lyrics for Deli Girls?

Dan Orlowski: Whatever infuriates me in my bowels. Unfairness, injustice, whatever is hurting me the most at any given time. Sometimes sarcasm, criticism. More recently, grief.

PAN M 360: I find the vocals very direct, like no real flowery metaphors, but just straight to the point “This country’s abusive / now we’re all abusers”…

Dan Orlowski: I try to be as economical as possible with words. I usually dislike flowery writing because it’s pervasive and often covers up a lack of content.

PAN M 360: I heard from others at your past shows that your crowd is one of the best for moshing etiquette, y’know having a great time but being safe and having zero discrimination. Why do you think that is?

Dan Orlowski: I’m pretty sure most people who would be at a show we’re playing are already contentious of these things. Queer, leftist, abolitionist, etc. it’s really just a reflection of the excellent community I’m lucky to find myself in. We’ve never had to deal with TikTok or 4chan trolls, skater punks, etc. who might be on the cis/male/edgy end of the spectrum. That’s not who the music or the community is for.

PAN M 360: Take me back to some of those first Deli Girls shows in little DIY halls in NY or shitty bars…
And now you’ve been able to play places like Berghain, Primavera, Unsound Fest, is it crazy to you how much you kind of exploded and now get these opportunities?

Dan Orlowski: It’s … absolutely crazy, haha. I’m thankful every day. But that’s how everyone starts right? Moshing in the club used to be such a wild concept and now it’s regular. There’s a lot that used to be avant-garde that’s standard now, and I’m thankful for those things (trans rights as a given within the scene, discussions of accountability, prioritizing BIPOC, ethics, criticality of gentrification, harm reduction to name a few). You have to appreciate the wins (while still fighting for a better world) or you will lose your mind.

PAN M 360: Anything you’d like to add?

Dan Orlowski: Free Palestine.

Deli Girls plays Taverne Tour on Thursday Feb. 8 w/ Slash Need, and Alix Fernz at Le Ministere
FOR TICKETS CLICK HERE

This Sunday, 4 February, No Hay Banda will host a concert with Canadian cellist India Gailey at the Sala Rossa in Montreal. The programme includes a performance of Problematica, the independent artist’s new album, in which she plays compositions for cello/voice/electro by Fjóla Evans, Nicole Lizée, Julia Mermelstein, Andrew Noseworthy, Sarah Rossy, Joseph Glaser and Thanya Iyer. The first part of the concert will feature the world premiere of a work by Montreal composer Zihua Tan, what came before me is going after me. To find out more about Zihua Tan and his composition, listen to an interview with him here.

I spoke to India Gailey. Here’s a summary of what she had to say:

PAN M 360: Hello India. It’s a pleasure to welcome you. You’re originally from Halifax, and you’re still based there, aren’t you?

India Gailey: Yes, but I studied at McGill for several years…

PAN M 360: You’ve got just the thing for the Montreal scene…

India Gailey: I love that scene! I know several artists there, and it’s always a great pleasure to meet up with them again.

PAN M 360: You’re in the middle of a Canadian tour with Problematica, which you’ll be performing on Sunday 4 February at the Sala Rossa in Montreal (with stops in Toronto on 31 January and Guelph on 1 February). What is Problematica?

India Gailey: First and foremost, it’s an album that will be released soon (at the end of February) on People Places Records. This album is the result of a series of commissions I made to several Canadian composers: Fjóla Evans, Nicole Lizée, Julia Mermelstein, Andrew Noseworthy, Sarah Rossy, Joseph Glaser, and Thanya Iyer.

PAN M 360: What is your main aesthetic?

India Gailey: The one I generally use in my concerts and in the choice of works I play. You could say a kind of post-minimalism that blurs the boundaries between indie pop/rock and contemporary music.

PAN M 360: Where does this interest in contemporary music come from? From your youth?

India Gailey: I loved the cello when I was very young, once I’d touched it. But I didn’t immerse myself in “classical” music straight away. I first played in rock bands, but it was during my further studies that I discovered a world of possibilities that had eluded me. And I enjoyed exploring it.

PAN M 360: Let’s get back to Problematica. What “problem” is there?

India Gailey: None (laughs)! Technically, according to the dictionary, it’s a substitute for taxon, used for organisms whose classification cannot be determined. In simpler terms, I’m interested in the notion of duality and, above all, in breaking out of it and going further in terms of identity.

PAN M 360: How does this translate into the music?

India Gailey: Through all sorts of contrasts and superimpositions between the voices in the scores. There’s the cello, of course, but also my voice (I have to sing!) and sometimes electronics.

PAN M 360: Playing the cello and singing at the same time! How much more demanding is that?

India Gailey: Oh, it’s very demanding! Even though writing for voice takes my vocal abilities into account, I still have to step out of my comfort zone here and there. What’s more, I have to prepare twice for each concert: the cello and the voice. I have to be careful not to talk too much, to protect my throat and so on. It’s unusual for a cellist.

PAN M 360: We wish you an excellent concert, and look forward to hearing all about it.

India Gailey: Thank you! It will be a pleasure to see Montreal again!

Every year, McGill Music students, graduate and undergraduate alike, come together to stage an opera. This season, Cendrillon, by French composer Jules Massenet, will take the stage at the Monument-National. This opera is remarkable in its scale: many singers are required. A notable challenge, that even professional opera companies rarely decide to take on.

At the source of this production are Stephen Hargreaves, Opera McGill’s director, and David Lefkowich, guest stage director. Having both many years of experience in directing and staging operas, both locally and internationally, both on the professional level and in university settings, they took on the challenge of Cendrillon. This was their first time working with this piece, which they however already knew and loved.

PAN M 360 had the chance to talk to them a few days before the opening night. We spoke about their work together, what makes this opera by Massenet so unique, and their common concern to create the best environment in which the students can learn and develop their art.

PAN M 360: Thank you so much for being here today! How are the last rehearsals going?

DAVID LEFKOWICH: It’s been fantastic! I think the students are really rising to the challenge that Massenet has presented us, it is really exciting to see them all sort of blossom within the last few weeks.

STEPHEN HARGREAVES: Yeah. In many ways, this is a stretch for McGill and Opera McGill. And it’s a good bit. It’s one of those things where it asks a lot of people to do a lot of things on stage. There are a lot of students for whom this is their first experience being on stage. I can’t imagine a better eye-opening experience in terms of what’s happening. We had our final piano dress rehearsal last night, and this evening, we added the orchestra, which had rehearsed somewhat separately in previous weeks. And now we have to add that new layer, which will be the last big piece.

PAN M 360: How did you decide that Cendrillon by Jules Massenet was the work you were going to do this year at McGill Opera?

STEPHEN HARGREAVES: At McGill, we try to tailor the repertoire to the students. And that’s a challenge, it’s a challenge for every institution. For example, we need to give opportunities to the graduate students in the master’s programme to be on stage, those students are only here for two years. And we have all these people coming in who are new students. And we had a large class coming in this year, also. So, I listed all the singers that we had, and I looked for a piece that would really feature many of these students and get them on stage, because I think that’s really the only way that the students can learn what is like what opera is. And this piece just came up, which I always wanted to do, it’s a fantastic piece.

PAN M 360: Massenet wrote many operas. What distinguishes this one from his other works?

DAVID LEFKOWICH: There’s a really lovely balance between realism and fantasy and magic. There’s always a bit of these elements within his pieces, but in this one, it’s a little bit more expanded. For example, when you look at Manon, you know, it’s a story and it plays out and it’s a beautiful story at that, but this one, it’s a classic story that we know. And so we have the sort of realism aspect where we have Cendrillon, we have her sisters and her stepmother and the father, things that we recognize. But when it goes into more of the world of the fairy, instead of making it like an afterthought, it’s like a major aspect of the show. And I think this is really unique. I haven’t seen it in a lot of his pieces. And so that fantasy aspect is magnified through Massenet’s lens. And it’s exciting to sort of juxtapose those scenes alongside more traditional court and palace scenes and with the ballet and the things we sort of come to expect with French grand opera. It’s awesome.

STEPHEN HARGREAVES: From a musical perspective, a lot of the magical aspects are present in the orchestration, the sort of lightness, the ephemeral, ethereal qualities. Sometimes, it’s just one little instrument doing a pizzicato and other times dancing flutes. There’s another moment in the third act where it’s almost like Steve Reich, where this sort of eerie minimalism is happening. And you hear the fairy godmother and the spirits singing various things and trying to help solve the problem of Cendrillon and the prince. And so, it’s interesting how that magical element is woven in, you know, the prince and Cendrillon are kind of touched by that magic, whereas everybody else is kind of somehow separate. It’s really just stunning storytelling.

PAN M 360: This opera is a bit of a challenge, especially for students who will be on stage for the first time. Why is that so?

STEPHEN HARGREAVES: I think that the challenges in this piece are for everyone, not just one or two or three singers. The challenge is that you have to interact with each other, even with the relatively smaller roles. But also, it’s not a marathon for Cendrillon, the lead role. It’s an opportunity for them to really work on their craft and interactions with their colleagues.

DAVID LEFKOWICH: From a staging point of view, it’s also a challenge. When Patrick [Hansen] called me up and told me he wanted me to direct Cendrillon, I was like “Oh, how will we cast it? How will we do this? It’s impossible.” The Met can do it and Santa Fe can do it because they have very large budgets and lots and lots of singers. But it’s more difficult in a university context. And when it is a stretch, it’s a good stretch in the sense that it’s accomplishable and the students will find success and not sort of fall down on the job. That always can happen.

And what’s incredible about this program is that we don’t have one cast. We have two. The fact that a program that’s a university academic program could have two sets of all of these incredibly difficult roles is astounding. But it’s what I’ve come to expect at Opera McGill.

PAN M 360: Tell us a bit more about how your collaboration started.

STEPHEN HARGREAVES: So we had met briefly when David attended the auditions for the opera McGill students. And I have to say, I love working with David. He is a supreme collaborator. We’re aiming in the same direction. I feel like we have been on a great journey together and we’re absolutely in sync. I mean, it’s great to have somebody like David who has a wide range of experience in this repertoire for this this piece is new for both of us.

This allows us to do some level of exploration with the students. What works, and what doesn’t. How do we pull out these performances? I think many of the students are at a near professional level, and that this is an environment in which they can hone that energy and we can help them build the experiences that they don’t have yet.

DAVID LEFKOWICH: I find that these collaborations can be very scary for the first time because we’re sort of embarking on this journey. I had a lot of trepidation, not about working with Stephen, but just about sort of how this was going to happen. And on the first day, we sat next to each other, and it was like we had been doing this for years. And what’s been amazing is watching the singers, like one of us will give some instruction and the singers would try it and it may work. It may not. But then the other one of us jumps in and sort of brings something else to the table and suddenly there’s that “a-ha!” moment with the student and you see them rise to the challenge and that takes both of us sort of working together able to help craft this experience for the students.

PAN M 360: What should the public expect from this production of Cendrillon?

DAVID LEFKOWICH: Come ready to be joyful. I think that this opera has incredible music and a great story that we recognize. It’s told in a slightly different way. I think there are still some nice surprises along the way. But what’s great is that the scenes are short, so things keep changing, and this opera always brings surprises to the table. And so I think especially for a first-time opera goer, this is a perfect way to experience opera. It’s a very safe, very easy to listen to, and very easy to enjoy piece. And the impact at the end is quite strong.

STEPHEN HARGREAVES: I would add that I think it’s new for Opera McGill. It’s a large group of people on stage. And I think that you know, with both casts counted, there’ll be thirty-nine people singing on stage. There are thirty-nine orchestra members, and opera on that grand scale hits in a different way, you know, and it’s interesting because, as David was saying, you never feel like you’re stuck in one world. It dips into all sorts of different sides of things. And when we have that opportunity to just bask in the grandness of it all, it’s just thrilling. It’s an experience I would recommend not missing because they just don’t happen that often.

Cendrillon, and opera by Jules Massenet, with Opera McGill and the McGill Symphony Orchestra. Presented at the Ludger-Duvernay Hall of the Monument-National, on January 26 and 27 (7:30 PM) and January 28 (2:00 PM). TICKETS AND INFO HERE!

In the third row of New York’s Beacon Theatre, Mahnoosh Arsanjani is on her feet, singing in unison with her idol. She and her friend Bita Zavari have flown in from California to see Iran’s greatest pop singer, Googoosh, on stage one last time. “I couldn’t miss it,” says Mahnoosh. My family came to the U.S. when I was seven, and Googoosh’s songs accompanied my childhood. Even if it’s a bit of our parents’ music, it’s ours too!”

For several months now, the artist has been bidding farewell to the stage as part of an emotional world tour, entitled The Last Chapters, after 70 years (you read that right!) of a career rich in songs, films, and bans. Pan M 360 caught up with her on the eve of her last ever New York concert.

Every nation has its diva. We in Montreal have Céline Dion. The U.S. has Barbara Streisand and Diana Ross, the Lebanese have Fairuz, and the Italians, have Raffaella Carrà. The Iranians have Googoosh. Born in 1950 in Tehran, Fāegheh Atashin was put on the stage by her father at the age of three, and rose to fame at a very early age, before becoming the propeller of cultural Westernization in the country in the 1960s and 1970s. In the ‘70s, she sang disco and pop hits such as “Talagh” (Divorce), “Makhlough” (Creature), and “Pol” (Bridge), songs that today can often be heard remixed or sampled for the dancefloor. While some consider her too commercial, a majority of Persians have elevated her to a living goddess status.

In her suite on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue, the 73-year-old singer, with hair and make-up done to perfection, looks petite, a contrast with the powerful, humorous persona she portrays on stage. The tour is scheduled to run until 2025. It’s her way of thanking and saying goodbye to her beloved public, a relationship she’s nurtured since childhood. After New York, Dusseldorf awaits her later in January, followed by Abu Dhabi, Istanbul, and London.

Time to wrap it up

“I think it’s time to wrap it up,” Googoosh says. “After 70 years of singing and acting, with the exception of 21 years in my life. I have many other projects, I’m working on a book, I have a foundation, called Pol Foundation, which aims to support young artists in their artistic education.”

After the Islamic Revolution of 1979, women’s voices in Iran were silenced. Googoosh was condemned to isolation for over twenty years until she left the country for good in 2000. Since then, she has lived in Los Angeles (except two years in Toronto between 2000 and 2002), resumed touring, and has released about a dozen albums.

On stage at the Beacon Theatre, the day after our meeting, she shows great generosity towards her older audience, who saw her grow up, as well as her younger crowd, who consider her a bit of an endearing godmother. The 2600-seat theater is packed with people of all ages and social classes. People dressed up, taking photos as if to say “I was there.” The vast majority are of Iranian origin, and the diva speaks only Farsi on stage. The concert opens with a heartfelt rendition of “Talagh,” accompanied by images on the screen of Iranian women fighters and photos of Mahsa Jina Amini, the 22-year-old Kurdish girl murdered by morality police in September 2022 for allegedly wearing an inappropriate headscarf.

Googoosh has never hidden her support for the Women, Life, Freedom movement, and the LGBTQ2S+ community. In 2014, the video for her song “Behesht” (Paradise) featured a gay couple being the victim of repression. While she doesn’t verbally condemn the mullahs’ regime, she never ceases to celebrate those who resist it.

Celebrating freedom

She knows what she’s talking about. Her 21 years away from the stage represent a dark period for the star. Most of her colleagues and friends in the entertainment world had already fled. “It was very hard for me,” she recalls. “They took away my art, my profession, my love, my life, everything. From the age of three, I was on the stage. Somehow, I was born for the stage and then, it was taken away from me. I thought I was finished forever, I thought nobody wanted to hear me sing at that point.”

She was wrong: during her isolation, her songs and films remained in demand on the black market and among the diaspora. Thanks to new technologies, such as the Internet and clandestine satellites, she saw that her love from the Iranian public never died. When she left Iran in 2000, she embarked on a world tour, entitled The Comeback Tour, a real reunion with fans. “In 2000, I was excited, moved, and happy. I was reunited with the public that I love. In contrast, this tour today is full of sorrow. I cry a lot on stage, and I have to learn to control myself. Saying goodbye isn’t a pleasant feeling. It’s bittersweet.”

The context has changed since her departure. Women are still not allowed to sing alone on stage in Iran, unless they perform in front of an all-female audience or are accompanied by a man. On social media, a new generation of artists defy these prohibitions, sharing their music with the world. “I am so happy and excited to see these new faces, Googoosh says. “I forget their names, I’m bad with names, but I hear their voices. I have access to these fantastic singers through social media and I am grateful for what they’re doing, what they’re trying to show. They show that women can sing very well, even better than me. Because they are the new, the future. I’m part of an older generation. I’m so happy that they are rising.”

A stage cannon

On stage, the sadness the star says she feels is transformed into a genuine connection with the crowd, who sing along, laugh at her jokes, cry, and shout words of love. She knows what her fans want: the great pop and disco hits of the pre-Revolution era. The diva sings “Pol”, “Hamsafar,” “Kooh,” “Mano To” and “Jaddeh,” among others. Her ten-piece band; (keyboards, flute, two guitars, bass, drummer, backing vocalist, violin, percussion, and electric double bass) reproduces the sounds of the 1970s with a contemporary flavour. On the giant screen behind her, nostalgic images of the young Googoosh merge with the concert broadcast.

After a long intermission, the artist returns to the stage. She has changed from her long crystal dress to an olive-green pantsuit with sequined fringes. She goes on with “Hejrat” and “Maah Pishooni.” At the first recognizable notes of “Makhlough,” her smashing hit, the penultimate song, the room erupts in tears and cries as people rush to the front to cheer her on and blow kisses.

According to Mahnoosh Arsanjani, the California fan, there are some nasty rumors going around: Googoosh might be now too old for the stage. Mahnoosh disagrees. “But you see what she can do. The voice is there, her power is still there!”

Photos by Siavash Rokni

Born just before the sleepy lockdowns of the early pandemic, Hank’s Dream emerged as the manifestation of singer-songwriter Henry Cobb. Releasing their eponymous debut EP in the summer of 2020, the band – now featuring Henri Bouchard on bass, Frédéric Ferland on guitar, and Zach Lalonde on drums – is on the verge of turning a fresh musical chapter with a brand new single, “All Over Now”. The band graciously extended an invitation to their practice session, just ahead of their eagerly anticipated launch show at Bar L’Escogriffe.

PAN M 360 : Hey thanks for having me here. Big show coming up.

Frédéric : Yeah, our first full band show since September. We’ve been playing like a couple of duo shows, me and Henry, but it’s been a while since we’ve had everyone together on stage. That’s really exciting for us.

PAN M 360 : You must have lots of stuff you want to show us!

Frédéric : For sure. We will play some classics, like from the 2020 EP. Of course we will play the single we release in June, “San Francisco”. But most of the songs we are playing now are unreleased and they are from an album that we’re hoping to get out in the summer.

PAN M 360 : So you’re getting to try out the new material in a live context?

Henry : I wouldn’t necessarily say like trying out because like we’ve actually had these songs written for quite a while now. There’s just kind of like a stockpile of songs that needs to be recorded.

Frédéric : We’ve been playing them since like 2021 pretty much. A lot of them. We have like a book of like 12 songs that are not released, and we’re hoping to get them on tape.

Henry : Yeah, but it is nice because, for example, the song we’re about to release, “All Over Now”, is one of the ones that people really like when they play at shows. And so because we’ve had it around for a while, it was easy to record quickly because we’ve played it a million times.

PAN M 360 : And so when you say you’re about to “release” the song, what exactly does that mean?

Henry : “What does it mean?”

PAN M 360 : Well I understand that it will be out on all the streaming services and everything, but people have to know about it, right? So it seems like a release has basically become an instagram post.

Henry : Yeah, it’s the way it is now. We haven’t really done any physical releases of any of our stuff yet. I mean I would like to, but I think the market for it is very niche. You know, like your friends might buy it, but except for my friends who drive cars I don’t know anyone who actually even listens to CD’s. I like records, but that’s maybe more long term.

But then again I don’t know, I think I used to be really attached to the whole physical medium aspect of music, but one thing that is really cool about streaming is how people all around the world can access your stuff. We had sort of a meme moment a few days where one of our songs was on a playlist in Finland. So suddenly we had a spike in the number of streams coming in. Yeah, it was probably AI bots or something.

Frédéric : It was the second country in the world that was listening to most of our songs. We had 300 listeners in Finland.

Henri : We will probably go on tour there now.

PAN M 360 : I suppose I was trying to touch upon how underwhelming it can be at times. Here’s a post and there you go.

Frédéric : And then it’s over. Yeah, it’s a big thing.

Henry : Well, honestly, we made a big deal out of it, though. We are doing a show on the same day and then we’re also releasing a music video that we’ve been working on for a long time. So I feel like you can make a big deal out of these things.

PAN M 360 : For sure, and I’m sure your fans are thrilled. Can you tell me about the new single?

Henry : “All Over Now” is a tune that I wrote in 2021, I believe. It was sort of in response to the passing of Norm MacDonald, who’s my favourite comedian. It’s kind of partially about that but I mean, like all of these tunes were written with the music first and the lyrics second. So, I had the tune for a little while and then I sort of play around with words till something fits, and in this case, the first line that just came was ‘it’s all over now’. And I wrote the rest of the song around it.

PAN M 360 : Is it exploring a different sound or theme than the other ones?

Henry : Well, it’s the same layout. In the sense that it’s like bass, drums, guitar, synthesiser, and voice, but it’s definitely got a darker sound to it. The synth has more of a pad-kind of role. I would say that this song is like really dream pop. If you wanted to put it in a genre, whereas “San Francisco” is more yacht rock.

PAN M 360 : Ha, is that what you feel best describes your music?

Henri : It’s pretty accurate. We had never heard that term before but then last summer when we released “San Francisco”, we had like a bunch of people saying, oh, this is really giving Yacht Rock vibes.

Henry : Yeah, anyways. I don’t know, I think it’s pretty poppy music. But that’s the thing, I feel like our tunes are really different like from song to song. Some of them are really easy to categorise, and some not so much.

PAN M 360 : And what about “San Francisco”, what’s the story behind that one?

Henry : I think it’s a bit tongue-in-cheek…I wrote it during the pandemic, which really sucked, and I guess it’s about this guy who has an immature idea that getting away to another city is going to solve all their problems and stuff like. Yeah, I don’t know. It’s kind of just like a stupid goofy song too.

PAN M 360 : I’m curious about everyone in the band’s favourite song to play.

Henri : I love when Henry plays solo tunes, and I get to cry on stage.

Zachary : I think maybe “San Francisco”.

Frédéric : Maybe “Just 23” for me, which is like a big super high energy song that we’ve been playing for a while. It’s super fun to play.

PAN M 360 : And what’s the next big thing for the band?

Frédéric : Well, I think the biggest dream right now is to get to do the record. I mean tell me if I’m wrong Henry, but I feel like it’s pretty much the next big thing that we’re looking to do. Right. And when it’s going to be done, I think it’s going to be super satisfying because we’ve been working on it for a long time.

PAN M 360 : So do you have a plan for that yet? Or is it kind of still just an idea for now?

Henry : Well, basically, for like the past six or eight months we’ve been in the process of applying for grants. So we’re sort of basing the production schedule off of that. If we get them, then we can hopefully start recording the album like in March, and then have it out by the summer. And If we don’t get them, then that’s like a whole other story.

PAN M 360 : As a band singing in English to you feel at a disadvantage for those opportunities?

Henry : I feel like actually the opposite. I was expecting that to be the case, but we play tons of venues that are maybe more francophone oriented and it goes really well. Like we have tons of fans that are francophones, maybe even more so than anglophones.

Frédéric: All of us are playing with other francophone projects too, so for us it’s like more like making links than separating people.

Henry : We did do a thing one time at our release show, and we had like a poll at the beginning about which language we should speak between the songs, and it was pretty 50-50 but French won.

PAN M 360 : Well no matter what language, Montréal is a city that loves music. Have an amazing show !

Blanche Moisan Méthé built her career as a trumpeter, tubist, and vocalist, collaborating with a wide cast of musical groups before embarking on the path of a singer-songwriter. Now performing under the moniker of BLAMM, she released her first LP, Balivernes, earlier this year. Her compositions, infused with much irony, are inspired by the music of New Orleans, the rich poetry and folk traditions of Quebec, and the urban wisdom that comes from living in a city like Montreal. We sat down with BLAMM to talk about her story, her first release, and her coming performance at Club Soda.

BLAMM opens for JP « Le Pad » Tremblay at Club Soda on the 22nd of December at 8PM.

PAN M 360 : Hey BLAMM, thanks again for being with us. You released Balivernes about six months ago now. And I imagine that’s a very interesting place to be. To be six months after the release of your album.

BLAMM : Oh definitely.

PAN M 360 : Maybe you can tell us a bit about what that feels like?

BLAMM : Okay, well first of all, I really enjoyed those last six months. I got to tour quite a bit this summer. So as I was releasing Balivernes, I was also booking my summer gigs pretty much. You know I’m doing it all myself, and now that I’m back here I realise I didn’t spend any time booking for the fall ! So I’m going back to that and also working on some new ideas. I think I’ve got my mindset on starting the process for the second album now.

PAN M 360 : Yeah, I suppose you can’t rest on your laurels too much.

BLAMM : Well, it’s fun to do ! But I’ve been writing some new songs and that’s generally what I feel I should be spending my time doing when I have some time off.

PAN M 360 : So the experience of releasing your Balivernes was really a positive one? One that encouraged you to want to get back to it?

BLAMM : Yeah, definitely. But coming back from all the touring and having so many upcoming gigs, it’s like, oh, I have to get back to the grind of booking gigs and sending emails and applying to things, which is not the most fun part of it.

PAN M 360 : Well, I wonder when you release something, do you try to promote it as a way to play more shows, or vice versa.

BLAMM : Yeah, I suppose my goal is really to play more shows. And I think making an album is in service of that goal too, to play live. Of course I love being in the studio but really my biggest fun is to play shows.

PAN M 360 : So you think the artistry of BLAMM really comes together in the live experience?

BLAMM : I do really enjoy the studio though, but the process of making an album, the proportion of studio time is kind of small compared to all the work that you have to do. So the studio time is really fun, but a lot of the other stuff is administrative work.

PAN M 360 : And maybe you can just introduce the project of BLAMM to our readers.

BLAMM : Sure. It’s a singer-songwriter project. It’s definitely very Québécois. BLAMM is a sort of an extravagant character who speaks quite frankly, with lots of local expressions and lots of themes that I think are uncommon to the music we tend to hear a lot. A lot of things that are maybe considered too banal, or very simple things that everybody goes through, but nobody talks about, like doing your tax report.

PAN M 360 : Well, you do it in a very interesting like sonic universe too, you know, the way you choose to present these themes.

BLAMM : Well, I’ve been playing music for almost eight years, playing in so many different projects. And so I guess all those years of being an accompanist and an interpreter shaped my musical world a lot. Those other experiences are all somewhere in there. It’s influenced my writing for the music. And of course the album is centred on brass a lot.

PAN M 360 : So was a brass instrument your first musical instrument?

BLAMM : Yes, it was trumpet in high school. So I’ve been mostly a trumpet player and now I’m coming out as a songwriter all of a sudden.

PAN M 360 : Could you tell me a bit about that transition? Were you always inclined to explore this direction?

BLAMM : I’ve been singing for a long time, not my original songs, mostly like traditional jazz songs. And I’ve always had some mixed feelings about that because I really love singing those songs. I think they are amazing melodically, but the lyrics are not so, well I don’t feel connected to them quite so much.

So I’ve been wanting to write songs about what I want to talk about, and I tried a lot in the past and nothing was coming out at all. Until one day I was in New Orleans and I bought a banjo, a tenor banjo. I thought I was buying it for my friend who plays guitar in my band because I thought he could use it to play banjo in my band instead. But then I ended up starting to noodle on it and I really liked it and I never gave it to him in the end.

PAN M 360 : Is that the peculiar four string guitar that you play?

BLAMM : Actually no, we’ll get to that. So I started on this cheap banjo and as soon as I got the hang of it I started writing songs. Like, right away. I played piano before but it never inspired me to come up with songs like that. But then after a while of playing it a lot I began to think that the banjo is kind of stuck in one style, well not really, but it’s a very particular tone that doesn’t fit in every kind of music. I kind of wanted to go outside of those styles and I happened to have a friend who’s an amazing luthier and I had another banjo playing friend who was ordering a tenor guitar from this guy and I know this luthier likes to do them twice, two at a time because it’s more efficient that way. So I knew it was the time to order it.

PAN M 360 : Wow, so that’s the instrument that’s at the heart of a lot of these compositions?

BLAMM : Yes. Some of them I wrote on the banjo of course, but a lot of them I wrote on with the guitar.

PAN M 360 : And was your fascination with the music of New Orleans because of your love for brass?

BLAMM : Yes, it’s perfect music for brass. It’s festive, it’s happy, it’s contagious. Even those who’ve never heard that kind of music are going to enjoy it and I busk a lot, so I played on the street a lot with this music.

PAN M 360 : Yeah. It’s interesting to hear its influence on your creative work. Because you take this sound but then, as you said, explore these absurd banal themes.

BLAMM : Yeah, there’s a circus vibe to it. I didn’t want to just copy the style and make it French. I really wanted to go somewhere else with it.

PAN M 360 : And so your album is very Québécois at the same time, was that a big frame of reference in making this music?

BLAMM : For the music, maybe not so much. There’s not a lot of brass in our music. And I grew up listening to music from all around the world, not really so much Québécois music. Now I listen to way more of it. But for the words and lyrics, absolutely it was a big reference.

PAN M 360 : So for you, the lyrics were really quite an important part of this.

BLAMM : Absolutely and I think that’s why it took me so long before I started writing because I didn’t know what I wanted to say and it’s not a filler for me. I can just make instrumental music if I really have nothing to say. So it was important for me to like, even though it’s silly at times, it’s still something I want to say and I think that’s why I started writing. And I get some nice comments about my lyrics actually.

PAN M 360 : Well « Si hier était demain » and « Vie D’ange »especially are really powerful! So does Blamm feel something like an alter ego?

BLAMM : Yeah, for sure. I think I’m quite introverted as a person but I feel like this opens up a new side of me and I can say whatever I want, I can be super silly, make stupid jokes on stage, and like sometimes I’m sort of sassy too. I think I can be like that too when I’m super comfortable with close friends but like in a social context where there’s more people, not so much. I also feel that people know me better if they hear my music.

PAN M 360 : And so a lot of these songs started off as kind of core singer-songwriter songs. Did you then arrange them as well?

BLAMM : Yes, I did the arranging. Some of them, because I play a lot of the instruments that are on the album. Well I don’t play tuba on the album, but I do play tuba.

PAN M 360 : Oh how come?

BLAMM : Because we played it live and I hired the best tuba player in town, well one of the best for sure. And yeah, playing it live I can’t do both for sure. So I had to have someone else. But when I was arranging, I could play tuba and record it to come up with the parts because I know how to play the instrument. I made mock-ups of the songs like this and then came to write the charts and stuff. But also there was a bit that was also done just during rehearsals with the musicians. They have better skills than me.

PAN M 360 : I mean your band is very talented. That’s for sure.

BLAMM : I’m lucky to have a good network.

PAN M 360 : So what’s the main difference in what you would say between the music in the studio and the music played live?

BLAMM : I have performed a lot of shows solo, duo, trio, and some shows with the five piece. The album launch was with 11 people. And so of course, the arrangements are way more complex with everybody, but I really enjoy playing in the smaller bands too. I find for music with lyrics especially, it’s usually better with a bit less going on and you have a better contact with the audience.

PAN M 360 : And what’s the band for your show this month?

BLAMM : It’s going to be the five-piece. That’s kind of the core band I would say. And it will be a short show, it’s just an opening act. But it’s a big venue at Club Soda. We’re opening for JP « Le Pad » Tremblay, a singer-songwriter from Quebec.

PAN M 360 : Okay, nice gig ! So you’ve been doing some networking? Is that how that works?

BLAMM : I suppose so. I met the right people at the right time and they needed an opener !

PAN M 360 : And so how has your experi

ence been kind of as an independent artist navigating the industry side of things? Well, is there one?

BLAMM : To me, it still sounds like a myth. Like all those bookers and those, I’m like, where are they? Who are they? I’ve been a professional musician for like eight years and barely ever met anyone like that. With all the bands I’ve played with, we book ourselves. And now I’ve met some people who have bookers or are signed to labels and they’re not so satisfied with them either. So, as I was preparing the album launch, I was sending emails and trying to get in those things, but I mean, there’s too much demand for what they can take, you know?

But also after I did it all by myself, I was quite happy. I had 15 shows this summer that I booked myself. They’re not big shows in fancy places, but I don’t need it to be big. I really like the small venues and being close to people. Of course I wouldn’t say no to having people helping me doing those things, but I’m kind of accepting that it might not happen anytime soon.

PAN M 360 : What would you say it’s your biggest kind of dream with this music? Or where do you ideally want this project to go?

BLAMM : Or asking myself that a lot these days. But I think my main drive is to keep playing live shows. So I managed to do it last summer by myself. And I’m going to keep doing it by myself if some people want to give me gigs or have a deal with me, that would be sweet. But I’m not expecting that to happen. And there’s a lot of artists that I really admire that do it by themselves. And I feel like you have more power over what you get to do. And if things go wrong, you only have yourself to blame. You know, if the gig is bad, if whatever is bad, it’s your own fault and you don’t get frustrated with whoever you’re working with.

PAN M 360 : A sign of the times BLAMM. Wishing you all the best with your music and your upcoming show. We look forward to the next album !