Interviews

To call Billy Childish (Steven John Hamper) a prolific artist would be an understatement. A painter, writer, poet and musician, the Chatham, Kent native co-founded the Medway Poets literary movement, founded the Stuckist art movement and the Hangman Records label. A fervent defender of amateurism and free expression, the tireless musician, singer and songwriter has (re)defined garage lo-fi punk, under names such as The Pop Rivets, Thee Milkshakes, Thee Headcoats, The Buff Medways, The Chatham Singers, The Spartan Dreggs and Wild Billy Childish & CTMF. Not only does he have one of the longest discographies in the history of music with hundreds of albums and singles, but he is also the author of more than 40 books of poetry and nearly a dozen novels, has made several films and photographs and painted more than 2,500 pictures, often under the name William Hamper. 

In recent years, music has become less important than painting. Hamper makes a living from his paintings, but Wild Billy Childish is never far behind. Having recently recalled his two old accomplices Bruce Brand and Johnny Johnson for the Tribute to Don Craine EP (the late leader of the British R&B band The Downliner Sect) under the name of Thee Headcoats Sect, a short-lived band that also produced the 1999 album Ready Sect Go! Recorded last year at Ranscombe Studios in Rochester, Irregularis (The Great Hiatus) features 12 tracks of pure Headcoats, with perhaps a more pronounced blues and R&B bent.

The trio’s last album dates back to 2000 (I Am The Object Of Your Desire), so a chat with the undisputed king of garage rock and punk was in order. Captured in his home town of Chatham, Billy Childish kindly gave us some of his precious time to answer a few questions (we would have asked him thousands!). A meeting with a larger than life artist.

PAN M 360: You recently got back together as Thee Headcoats Sect to make the Tribute to Don Crane EP. Did that lead to the reformation of Thee Headcoats?

Billy Childish: Essentially. I saw it as a good excuse to do a 45 for Don. And then Johnny, our bass player, would have to come out from Sicily. And since he was coming and the other fellas were keen to do it, I saw it as an opportunity to record an album. Which is a normal thing with me: if we bother getting the canon out and loading it, then we might as well go one step further. So I said to the lads ‘’do you fancy doing an album?’’ and I had a few tunes in mind. They seemed keen. 

PAN M 360: Two birds with one stone then.

Billy Childish: Yeah, essentially, the same thing happened with the Singing Loins. A friend of mine died a year ago he was in the Singing Loins. I recorded their first two albums 30 years ago. They’re a folk group, and we did a folk variations of an album of mine. And then Chris Broderick died last year, and I said to the two lads, ‘’why don’t we do a 45 for Chris?’’. And we did it. And I said, my usual trick, I said ‘’well, we’re recording the 45, might as well do an LP!’’ (laughs)

PAN M 360 : So there weren’t any rehearsals? you just spontaneously jammed around?

Billy Childish: Johnny came over on the Friday, we met in the studio, I showed them the tunes… It’s actually how we record most of the stuff these days cuz we don’t really rehearse. I often work out a tune and then show the other two and we do a run through and then press record. And you know, first, second, third take. and we go to the next one and the next one and the next one. 

PAN M 360: It’s kind of a trademark; since your first albums, you seem to favor a simple and spontaneous approach to recording. 

Billy Childish: That came about because in the Pop Rivets, where I was the singer in 77, I knew nothing about music or how to record it, and I still don’t know much of the technicalities of it. But I go by the sound I like, and we were told what we could and couldn’t do. And things were not sounding as exciting as the records we heard when we were kids. I was brought up on rock and roll music, 60s music, and I couldn’t work out why it sounded worse. So we did have an old ReVox… well, we still got it, we use it sometimes, it’s a ReVox half track, early 60s tape recorder, and we used to record ourselves on that and found out that recording things very simply and straight sounded a lot more exciting and a little bit more like the records that we liked, with a bit more performance involved. So then, by trial and error, we managed to translate that into recording into a studio as well. And even in a digital studio, we’ve been able to get enough good equipment between us and the digital recording to make it sound like real music as far as we’re concerned.

PAN M 360: You have always claimed a more authentic approach to rock and roll with a more raw and direct sound and concerts in small, human-sized venues. 

Billy Childish: Yeah, well, it’s a funny thing because I’ve been accused of being lo-fi. But music is incredibly snobby in that way. If you consider that a rough charcoal sketch could be in the highest Museum but a cassette recording of a tune couldn’t be on Top of the Pops… it’s very strange. It’s like a very strange snobbery this idea about what raw is, or what they call lo-fi. And I don’t try to sound lo-fii. I’m not interested, strangely. I mean, even when we were in the Milkshakes, people talked about garage music, and we always referred to it as rock and roll essentially. And one of the things I liked about the Clash, very early on with their first album, was that they referred to it as rock and roll. There’s a strand of punk rock that came through, which may be with Joe Strummer, slightly with the Damned and the (Johnny) Moped, which came from a rock and roll background. A lot of the other stuff in punk rock, which I was unaware of at the time, came through the glam channel, which I’d call pantomime dame rock and roll. And I hated glam music when I was a kid. I actually used to listen to Buddy Holly and people like that during the early 70s, whereas my friends were listening to David Bowie. So to call it raw, it’s sort of a fair enough description, but it’s got this sort of pejorative thing to it, you know. It’s a bit like talking about indigenous art, or primitive art. It’s trying to put something into a ghetto to make it less viable in a way. I mean, it’s okay for people like us to like, for a better word, to like the rawness of it. But the thing is, it’s not really the point. It’s like, trying to categorize it into a subdivision. Whereas really, I would think it should be, in a way, the mainstream. For me, it’s like, do you want to see the Rolling Stones at Wembley, or do you want to see them at the Eel Pie Island in 1963? And the idea that the sound that the Stones had in 63, or the Downliners had in 63-64, is somehow inferior to high fidelity now, but the things you hear on stage through these mixing desks is absolutely diabolical and tinny, and it’s got all this horrible top end all this horrible bottom end. I mean, the Jimi Hendrix Experience wouldn’t even be able to play now. Because they wouldn’t be able to use feedback, the sound isn’t in the control of the group. It’s like some sort of homogenized sound. We just played in Berlin, and we still use a vocal PA. And we don’t go for off stage mixing. The reason we don’t do it is because you have all this bass end that you get through these massive PA’s and all this weird high top end… You know all this boom and bottom, and then all of this weird scratchy top end. And then the drum sound completely inauthentic. Whereas we go for how a jazz drum sound like. If you listen to classical stations, which still record jazz groups, some of them still have the drum kit sound like a drum kit. I mean, regardless of what the music’s like… So really all we want is the drum kit to sound like a drum kit, a Selmer amplifier, a Vox amplifier that sound like a Vox amplifier. And the vocal to sound like it’s going through a PA, which is part of the the suite if you like, of what music is meant to sound like. I mean, you’ve got all this snobbery about people wanting to use a Vox amplifier but they don’t want to use the drum kit that goes with it, or the PA that goes with it… It’s a bit like having a Georgian house with plastic windows in it. I will tell you that the amount of times I talked about sound and music on interviews in the past, and how uninterested anybody is in it is quite incredible, because they believe that the technology is advancing continually. We’re in a situation now where we’re at the height of digital technology, but people try to masquerad it as old technology. You know, can it sound like a tape? can it emulate a tape record, and valve audio equipment, everything’s trying to pretend to be valve, when all of that plus stuff was put in a skip.

PAN M 360: Do you apply this method, or philosophy, to your other projects? For instance when you paint?

Billy Childish: Yeah, because I don’t like plastic. I like oil. We use charcoal and use linen, like the finish. There’s a quality and integrity in material. And a you know, it’s a bit like having a whole grain bread rather than a Mother’s Pride,  something that’s actually made of wheat. You know, or meat that comes from an animal that lives in the sun and grass, and not in a barn and injected with all sorts of stuff, you know, or a good example would be like an apple that you picked from your garden, which might have a worm in it, and might be irregular, but tastes twice as good as the factory farm apple. I think people are so used to a modernized lifestyle that they react very badly to what they think is dirty or unclean. I think it’s all part of that modern world, to have this sort of like germ free adolescents, to quote X-Ray Specs.

PAN M 360: Getting back to the new album, would you say it’s maybe one of your more bluesy or more rhythm and blues record yet with Thee Headcoats?

Billy Childish: With Thee Headcoats? Mmmm… Well, possibly it’s a little bit more that, in the sense that there might be slightly more blues and R&B encapsulated on one record. But we certainly did a lot of bluesy or R&B stuff over the 15 or so albums, I don’t know how many albums we made… But you could make probably a few R&B albums out of what we did. If you’ve put those pieces together, you can make a couple of punk rock albums out of what we did, and a couple of maybe rock and roll albums out of what we did too. But as far as it goes on one album, it’s feasible, without me knowing because I don’t know what we’ve recorded, It’s a bit more R&B. But we did do a blues group called the Chatham Singers, which is obviously a lot more bluesy.

PAN M 360: And you have a great version of ‘’Cops and Robbers’’ also on the album…

Billy Childish: Yeah, I was unaware of the doo wop version of it when we recorded it. I wish I’d listened to that sort of early 50s version before, which is a quite strange version. I thought it was by Bo Diddley. It’s really quite good and it rhymes right away. It makes sense when you hear it. Bruce found it and he sent it to me after we recorded. It’s quite interesting. Well, it’s like ‘’Have Love Will Travel’’, it is originaly a doowop song, isn’t it? You know the version the Sonics do? The original to that was sort of a doowop number. Ba bum ba bum ba bum ba ba ba ba ba bum…

PAN M 360: Tell us about the closing song ‘’The Kids Are All Square’’. Usually it’s the kids who accuse the adults of being squares. Now, its more and more the other way around it seems.

Billy Childish: Well, you know, we did an album called The Kids Are All Square with Thee Headcoats many years ago and I often thought ‘Oh, well, I need to write a song about that.’ So I think I wrote it about four years ago, or five, maybe 10 years ago… But the album was probably 20 years ago. But the reason we did The Kids Are All Square album in the first place was because I always thought about “The Kids Are Alright” by the Who. I thought it was a very patronizing title. So we were already well aware, 25 years ago, or 20 years ago, that the kids were square. Because, you know, no one wanted to know what we were doing or what we’ve done. We were so outside the mainstream of culture with what we were doing and what we believed in. And I just updated the lyrics a little bit for this version. I think we’ve got Billy… is it Ilish? Billy Eilish? Billy Eilish, or she’s called, I don’t know… she’s got some name a bit like mine. And then Beyonce I think has an appearance on the song, in the lyrics. Yeah, we’ve mentioned these style icons, Billy Eilish, she’s some sort of girl with blue hair. Beyonce, some sort of lady with a large buttock.

PAN M 360: Where Bruce and Johnny hard to convince to get back with Thee Headcoats?

Billy Childish: I never bother convincing anybody, you know? It was like a suggestion. And if they’d have not been interested, I’ve got other things to do.

PAN M 360: So does that mean it’s an official reunion of Thee Headcoats? Should we expect more albums? Or maybe shows?

Billy Childish: I don’t know. The difficulty is John living in Sicily. And I don’t really like reunions much. But it would be possible if it was good fun. I mean, we’ve been asked to go to Japan. But although we’re sort of like respected, don’t forget, I still don’t have a manager. We don’t have management or agents. So no one looks after our corner. I mean, Thee Headcoats album is recorded because I paid for it to be recorded. You know, and no one else asks me to do things. I mean, when I said to Damaged Goods I’m doing an album, they said ‘’great, we’d love to have that’’ and they gave me an advance to cover the costs of two or three days work, And then giving Johnny some airfare and we get a bit of spare. But it’s like, we don’t have a machine behind us, or a management or an agent. Even when we’re in Berlin, with CTMF, my current group, we’re playing a little bit, we like playing small venues. We like using local PAs. And we like nobody telling us what to do or how to do it. And it actually makes it much more awkward using the equipment we do. And also people would prefer it if we use modern equipment, which is the big irony. So we’re sort of like doing something that no one else does. And also, when you do it, the way we do it, you’re much more exposed. And you can’t hear what’s going on so well, the holes are more apparent, the mistakes are more apparent. So you’re laying yourself open for a lot of problems using the gear we use. But for me, the whole thing is the sound and the feeling. And if it can’t be the sound and the feeling I want. I’m happy to stay indoors and have a cup of tea instead.

PAN M 360: You have to find a venue that will fit your standards.

Billy Childish: And also someone who will lend us the gear if we’re going abroad. Yeah, we’re playing with CTMF in Reno, or near Reno, in Nevada in July. We’re doing one show in the States. People who are fans got a Vocal Master PA, we use a real drum kit, and we use use amplifiers, so that we can have the sound that we like. I mean, we’ve just been asked to go to Serbia, but who’s got the crap we use in Serbia? Or what promoter understands what we do? They don’t understand, because everyone would prefer if we’d play a big venue with the modern equipment. Even in the Milkshakes people said to us, in the early 80’s in Germany, ‘’if you use the big boxes, people would like you’’. Because we used to take a vocal PA with us and do it the way we want it. But for us, it’s the homegrown. It’s a small corner shop, not the supermarket. And it’s the analog sound, it’s the way we want it.

PAN M 360: It would be great to have you guys in Montreal. I think you’ve played only once, many years ago.

Billy Childish: We did that with two amplifiers, I think, because you can get that sound there. We flew over, we did it as a weekend. We flew one day, did the gig the next night and flew home the next day. Julie (his wife and partner in many projects) found it a bit intense.

PAN M 360: Is it going to be the same thing with the Reno show? 

Billy Childish: Julie is American and we’re gonna visit the family and California. So we’re gonna be out there. It’s actually a family holiday. Because I haven’t been there for a long time. And then someone roped us into doing a show in the middle of it, which I agreed to.

PAN M 360: You do a lot of stuff. You’re a musician, you’re a poet, you’re a writer, you’re a painter… What are you working on right now?Billy Childish: I published a novel in secret, like in chapters, last year. And that was part of a double novel that I’ve been writing for 12 years. So I’m writing this novel on the punk rock period, which I work on every day. I’ve done about 32 drafts of that over the last 12 years. And then I started a quarterly magazine, small press poetry. People just subscribe. I’ve got an exhibition opening in England in July with my English gallery. There’s a couple of other things but I can’t remember… I’m working on a couple of films of some of the concerts we did recently… What else do I do? I do quite a lot of things. I’m writing and painting, doing the poetry. There’s some other things I do, but I can’t remember. I’m working with about three or four different groups at the moment as well. And the painting takes quite a lot of my time, it is my main job, being a painter. There’s an art fair in Hong Kong, I mean, at the minute. And then there can be Art Basel, which is another big art fair, which is coming up as well. But I’m not signed to any art galleries either. You know, we just did a big show in New York.

PAN M 360: And what are these four other groups? 

Billy Childish: The Chatham Singers, which is the blues group, the Singing Loins, which is the folk group, the William Loveday Intention, which is sort of like another strange group, the Guy Hamper trio, which is with James Taylor, which is like an Hammond organ instrumental group, CTMF, Thee Headcoats, which we’ve just done… I think that’s it. 

PAN M 360: Well, that’s quite prolific. Thank you for your time!

Billy Childish: It’s a pleasure. Oh, and if someone’s got a vocal PA and the right gear in Montreal, we might consider coming over!

(Photo: Alison Wonderland)

The singer-songwriter, Maude Audet, unveiled her fifth album, We must leave now, last Friday.

After a short stint in English with Translations (2021), the Quebecer offers a new project of eleven luminous and poetic titles. As usual, she draws much of her inspiration from the 1960s and 1970s, an era she dearly cherishes. This time, Maude Audet adds her voice to orchestral arrangements that she has jointly concocted with Mathieu Charbonneau (Avec pas d’casque, and Organ Mood).

Mostly created during the pandemic, We must leave now is the result of many questions and the artist’s personal journey. The texts are neat, simple and release both the pain and hope experienced by Maude Audet in recent years. The project ends with “I’m so afraid,” a collaboration with Mara Tremblay. With gentleness and sensitivity, this title addresses the fear of women in the face of feminicides and represents a highlight of the album.

Photo Credit: Fred Gervais

Maude Audet will bring her fifth opus to the Gesù stage on April 20.

PAN M 360: What is your album about You have to leave now ?

MAUDE AUDET: The themes I address in this project are both personal and universal. It’s a bit my way of composing starting from something of myself. The first few times I started writing about personal matters, I touched people more. At the end of the day, we all experience a bit the same things, even if we are all different. We all have heartaches, bereavements and difficult times. Of course, from one album to another, it’s always a challenge to renew yourself and not repeat the same things. It’s an album that started to be composed during the pandemic. We have all been through things, we have all found ourselves, at times, isolated, more than we would have liked. There are habits that we realized that we didn’t want to keep for the future. I have questioned myself a lot during the pandemic about the person I want to be and my future. These questions are at the heart of this record, that’s for sure.

PAN M 360: How did your creation go during the pandemic?

MAUDE AUDET: Not being able to go to the studio for part of the pandemic kind of allowed me to polish my tracks more, and that’s good. So when I arrived in the studio, I had even bigger ideas than usual. I worked a lot with the orchestration for this album, and it was really nice to finally be in the studio and create with real humans. It went really well.

PAN M 360: Tell me about your musical influences and your attachment to the 1960s & 1970s?

MAUDE AUDET: I love those years. I like the folk side of this era. I also like a panoply of contemporary artists who are also inspired by that era, like Lana Del Rey, Weyes Blood, Father John Misty. I draw a lot of inspiration from that, but I find that my music is still 2023 because I incorporate current elements into it. It is sure that it remains very organic music, I find that it makes my music timeless. I’m also a ’90s teenager, so there’s a rawer side to the way I compose. It probably comes from my grunge influences, even if my music is not in this musical style at all.

PAN M 360: You mentioned artists like Lana Del Rey who are in this musical genre and who have had their share of success. What is the place of this type of music today?

MAUDE AUDET: I’m most likely a bad judge, but I love that kind of music. Take Lana Del Rey for example, she has millions of listeners, she is extremely prolific too, she makes almost an album a year and her fans are always there waiting. She is an artist who really reinvents herself a lot, then who also draws on something very urban, despite the fact that she is inspired by the 1960s & 1970s. In this type of music, there is comfort and I think we will always need it. I’m not saying that other genres don’t bring it, on the contrary, there are rap or hip-hop artists who have extraordinary texts. I find that there are really good things happening in all genres at the moment, you just have to choose your niche and choose what you like.

PAN M 360: Your new title “On ne se dire plus que je t’aime” particularly appealed to me on your new album. How was this song born?

MAUDE AUDET: When I composed it, I had mourning in mind, but in the end, it’s more about the memory of someone with whom we shared things in the past and their absence. There are several ways to interpret this title, it could speak of a heartbreak or of someone who is no longer present in our life, but whom we loved very much. Also, it talks a lot about the forest, about nature. The older I get, the more I am soothed by the grandeur of nature and it has become a bit of a refuge for me in difficult times. That’s why I tackle this theme in “On ne se sera plus que je t’aime.” 

PAN M 360: For the first time, you ensure the co-production of one of your projects. What does your creative process look like?

MAUDE AUDET: I’ve always been very involved in the production, and I was even more so for this album. Often my compositions start with the guitar. Then I add backing vocals and other instruments. I develop my own models and my colleague Mathieu Charbonneau helps me bring my ideas to life. I am surrounded by several excellent musicians.

PAN M 360: We must leave now ends with “I’m so afraid,” a collaboration with Mara Tremblay. What is the story behind this title?   

MAUDE AUDET: “I’m so scared,” it’s a song about feminicides. At one point during the pandemic, it felt like there were two a week. Every time I saw such an event on the news, I said to myself that it didn’t make sense that there were women who still suffered from this violence. This is what inspired me for the creation of this title. Initially, this song was not supposed to be a duet. One day I had the idea that this song could become a mini-choir of women supporting each other. I thought of Mara because she is one of my favorite artists in Quebec. Also, the themes of my song resemble certain ideas that Mara Tremblay has approached in the past. She agreed to join me and I was really happy. I had already met her in the past, and I took a chance by asking her.

On March 17th, after releasing two EPs in the last year, Anna Valsk released her first album Morphologies, for which she has been the songwriter, the performer and the producer. Her project takes us on a spacious musical journey, exploring the changing seasons and their effects. The songs take us through an entire cycle of seasons, from winter to fall, with a concert of folk, electro and experimental sounds. To learn more about this album, which reveals a passionate approach and work, PAN M 360 spoke with Ariane Vaillancourt aka Anna Valsk.

PAN M 360: Is Morphologies a project that comes from afar? When did the idea come to you?

Anna Valsk: I would say that in total it took about 3 years. I had a vague image of the project for a long time, and it took a while for that image to define itself and show its direction. When I got the idea of the cycle of seasons and the cycle in general, I could really get into the production.

PAN M 360: And this idea of the cycle, did it come suddenly or was it already there?

Anna Valsk: Before the pandemic, my partner and I went to live in a small house in the Lanaudière area. There, it seems that the seasons are more intense. Personally, I’ve known for a long time that the changing seasons affect me. They affect everyone, but collectively we find it normal. So I wanted to observe the effects of these changes on myself and on what I feel around me. We can also talk about the cycle of the seasons of a life, which change through the decades. In short, it’s a great source of inspiration… an infinite source (laughs).

PAN M 360: The theme of water is very present in your album. Were you near a stream, a lake?

Anna Valsk: Yes, in Lanaudière, I was in the woods, but also by the water! Water is something that has always fascinated me. The concept of hydrotherapy, the idea that water can be regenerative. For example, I love cold baths, and I can’t wait for the lakes to start thawing before I go for my first swim. Cold water is good for the body and the mind.

PAN M 360: In terms of sound, too, water can be a kind of white noise. Many people fall asleep to the sounds of rain, river, waterfall.

Anna Valsk : Yes. Precisely, in “Wash your soul”, I say “And you, you dream to the sound of water”. Springtime is the sound of water coming back. It’s very reassuring… I’m passionate about water! (laughs)

PAN M 360: Your lyrics on the album seem to be very worked out, and the structures of the songs too. Did the lyrics come before the music?

Anna Valsk: I always (or mostly) start with the music. But often, in the music, there are words that stand out. It has to flow. The words have to come with the music. For me, when the music of a song becomes clearer, it means that the theme of the song becomes clearer. What I have to say, I do it musically, and then I support it with words.

PAN M 360: Making an album about the seasons and how they make us feel is about affect. Did this side transpose itself in your approach? Did you approach the music through theory or rather through its qualitative properties?

Anna Valsk : I think so. If I have to write an arrangement, I really see it as a texture or a color. For example, for the song “Jamais”, I had an image in my head of a humid, orange summer morning, where the sun is coming through a window and there are two people lying in a bed, and you can feel their skin beading. When I was composing the music, I wanted to make you feel like you were in that place. So yes, I work a lot with textures, colors and sensations.

PAN M 360: You took charge of the production of your album. Did you have to change your attitude towards your creations when you went from being a singer-songwriter to being a producer?

Anna Valsk: It wavered. Sometimes I felt more like a director, other times I felt more like a songwriter. It’s hard to have some perspective on your own music, your own voice, your own interpretation. At first, it was Pierre Girard, who mixed the album, who encouraged me to do it myself. I had the direction, I had the vision, so I went for it. But that brought its own challenges. It gets hard to delineate come to mind questions like “Is this the songwriter or the director talking?” At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter, they’re all the same person, and I think that comes through.

PAN M 360: Was there any other music that guided you during the creation of the album?

Anna Valsk: For sure, all the music I listen to is in me. I think my influences are also pretty clear: I’ve always loved the imaginary and musical world of Patrick Watson. What I like about his albums is the cohesion from start to finish, like taking a long walk. I wanted my album to be listened to a bit like that, from beginning to end like an adventure, a story. I also listen to a lot of classical music, because I like the textures of the instruments. I love electro when it’s mixed with the real thing, it becomes like a character. Otherwise, the last album of Chloé Lacasse had a big effect on me. I also like “Le ciel est au plancher” by Louis-Jean Cormier. It’s an album with a lot of space, and that was something I wanted from the start for my album; I wanted to let the music breathe and include interesting transitions.

PAN M 360: Do you see your project as a “concept” album? Is it more of a straitjacket or an exercise in creativity for you?

Anna Valsk: I see it more as a frame to be undone. To hold my image, I needed a frame. My frame was my concept. It helped me gather my ideas. Afterwards, I hope that people, when they listen to the album, don’t think only about the “concept”, don’t try too much to intellectualize the thing. It’s more a pretext for me, a guideline, a mantra.

PAN M 360: Thank you Anna!

Under the name of his electro-pop project, Super Plage, the Rimouski resident Jules Henry unveils this Friday his fourth opus, Magic at midnight.

Since the creation of Super Plage towards the end of 2019, the artist has not stopped creating: he already has three albums and a remix compilation to his credit. Quickly, he carved out a place for himself on the Montreal scene with a refreshing and dancing sound. Under the Lisbon Lux Records label, Jules Henry also participated in the 2021 edition of the Francouvertes competition.

Greatly inspired by artists such as Polo & Pan and L’Impératrice, the project reveals itself as a portrait of Montreal nightlife. Magic at Midnight represents those evenings where everything seems fine and of which we would never like to see the end. In this opus composed of ten titles, Super Plage affixes more often than usual its vaporous voice to its own productions, and we are not complaining about it! His texts are simple, effective and add more lightness to his sounds. Also, Jules Henry calls on the artists Virginie B, Meggie Lennon and Le Couleur who breathe an additional dose of sweetness into his art.

The Midnight Magic launch will take place at Ausgang Plaza on April 13th.

Photo credit: Marie-Michèle Bouchard

PAN M 360: How did the development of Magie à midnight go? What does your album say?

SUPER PLAGE: It must have been almost two years since I started creating Magie àmidi and I finished it about six months ago. It’s the first album that I started knowing that it was going to be produced by a record company. Despite everything, it’s a project that I did by myself, with all my friends. I started the whole thing when we couldn’t always get out of our house towards the end of the pandemic. I wanted to create a picture of Montreal’s nightlife and the festivals I’ve experienced in recent years. For example, “Rue Dandurand,” the collaboration with Le Couleur, talks about the incredible parties we had at our studio on the street of the same name. It’s a project that has a good vibe. I want people to listen to this in the afternoon at the park or in the bars. My music is simple, I’m not someone tormented in life, I won’t pretend to be to make music that doesn’t sound like me.

PAN M 360: Exactly, let’s talk about the artists who appear on the project. Who are they and what do they bring?

SUPER PLAGE: The artists Virginie B, Meggie Lennon and Le Couleur are present on the album. For me, it’s really exciting the stage where they come to add stuff to my demos and I hear my models differently for the first time. This is often where I understand what the vibe of my tracks is and whether I like them or not. Almost all my friends are my co-directors. My friends and I, we show each other our demos and we’re like “oh yeah, I’ll change the bass on that part” or “I think this part is a little too long.” I really learned a lot by producing with people around me. This process is never-ending and my songs are always improving thanks to the ideas of others. If I had to redo Magic at midnight, it would surely be very different. I don’t think I’ll ever release the album I want to release on the day it comes out, if you know what I mean. I always release the album that I wanted to do a few months ago. Telling me that motivates me to continue producing, to see how far I can go.

PAN M 360: What tools did you use to create your album? Do you have a favorite plugin ?

SUPER PLAGE: I work in Pro Tools. There are not many people who like it to produce in Pro Tools, they find that MIDI is not beautiful. Me, I really like it and I’ve been creating in it for a long time. In the past, I had a great teacher who spent five hours after class showing his projects to interested students. I thought the workflow was really good with Pro Tool. For the creation of Magic at midnight,we incorporated theremin and pedal steel. The album is really a happy mix of stuff, with a few instruments here and there that make it more organic. My synthesizers are all Omnisphere or Serum. Then my favorite plug-in, I think, is the Brauer Motion. It passes the sounds from right to left with a different pattern . It makes everything more alive, and I love it. I think the key is the movements in my music. That’s what makes your shoulders start to move. I like doing that kind of music because it’s so reactive. It shows directly on the dance floor if a song is good or not.

PAN M 360: In your universe, what importance do you give to writing and lyrics?

SUPER PLAGE: I still attach a lot of importance to the lyrics. Personally, I don’t put a lot of lyrics and I find that some artists put too many words in their songs. I really like the phrase of the group Bon Enfant which says “A place in pastel colors where everyone laughs at my jokes. ” I find that it demonstrates a beautiful fragility and naivety, without going through a lot of lame metaphors. This is the kind of writing that inspires me. I like it to be minimalist, while giving great importance to each of the words. I don’t wear any that I don’t like. Besides, I sing more than usual on this album. It’s probably because Midnight Magic is more personal.

PAN M 360: What is your piece “Laurence” about ?

SUPER PLAGE: My manager’s name is Laurence and she is retiring very soon. She has been with me for three years and we are good friends. The last few years have not always been easy for her, but she has always been there for my project. She has always been very motivated towards Super Plage and I am very grateful for that. I created this track last summer when she was feeling down. “Laurence” is both a song to celebrate, but also a professional farewell to my friend and manager.  

PAN M 360: What is your vision of the future of the electro scene in Quebec?

SUPER PLAGE: It’s interesting because we really live in a bubble where this musical genre is not super popular. I found it funny at the last Gala de l’ADISQ ceremony, it talked about electronics as being a marginal and endangered category. In Quebec, I know a panoply of electronic producers who are excellent and who are not listed with ADISQ. This scene is much more alive than a lot of people think. I believe that Quebec is a little slow to embark on the wave of electro that has already started for a very long time in Europe. That said, L’Impératrice had a solid success here and it proves that Quebec loves this kind of music. 

In the future, I think the next musical direction is going to be house-pop. Recently I saw a documentary about the golden years of britpop from 1993 to 1997. At some point, everything stopped and this musical style ceased to be on top. While I was listening to this, I thought to myself “is it going to be the same for electro-pop? Do we have to plan for it, do we have to leave the ship before it sinks?” I don’t think it will happen, but you never know.

French-based in Montreal, KORVN is a committed emerging techno DJ and producer, as evidenced by his multiple collaborations with the Montreal techno activist label MFC Records. After a first participation in the compilation Strangers In their Own World (2021) whose objective was to raise awareness of civil rights and homelessness, KORVN reveals the extent of its talent with a first EP, Tidal Waves, which reminds us of the climate emergency we face. All proceeds will be donated to the David Suzuki Foundation of Canada.

Techno music has often been associated with activism, particularly in its ability to bring together diverse communities and promote progressive ideas. The roots of techno music go back to the black countercultures of the 1980s, carried by artists’ collectives like Underground Resistance (Detroit), defining themselves as “A movement that wants change through a sonic revolution” (our translation, excerpt from their manifesto ).

Although it has become globalized and commercialized (sometimes excessively), techno music has remained a means for artists to convey political and social messages relating to the fight against discrimination, the promotion of equality and opposition. to oppression. Techno music festivals such as the Detroit Electronic Music Festival and Berlin’s Love Parade have also served as platforms for peaceful protests and advocacy for minority rights.

Today, techno music continues to inspire activism, and vice versa. She is a source of inspiration for young and old generations of committed DJs and producers who seek to promote social change and justice. KORVN is one of them.

Photo credit: Flore Boubila

PAN M 360: You have already collaborated on the first MFC Records compilation in 2021, so you have a history with this label. Can you tell us more about this?

KORVN: I can’t not mention MFC without mentioning my friendship with Camille Bernard alias BitterCaress who is the mother of MFC Records. We met five years ago when I joined the OCTOV collective to organize events, and for which I am now a resident DJ. We’ve always had a bit of the same musical interests, we got into music at the same time, it inspires me a lot and one thing leading to another, after participating in the label’s first VA, playing for the podcast Mixing For A Cause, she gave me the chance to do my own project, my first EP.

PAN M 360: With your EP Tidal Waves, you decided to raise awareness of the climate emergency, why?

KORVN: It’s a subject that takes up space but is also sometimes difficult to put forward because there are so many other serious things going on. There, it is sure that we are going through difficult times, we cannot deny the other socio-political issues in the world with the war in Ukraine for example. However, I think that global warming is a problem that is just as global and that will necessarily generate other situations of instability because of climate refugees, resource problems, loss of biodiversity and for these reasons it is important to continue to express oneself on this subject. It’s also close to my heart personally, because I’m part of a generation that has a lot of eco-anxiety and that asks itself a lot of questions about the future, pessimisticly.

PAN M 360: How does this thought translate conceptually into the EP?

KORVN: I thought about the EP songs with this vision on the environment. The EP is called Tidal Waves which refers to the rising waters we are already facing. The environment is not just biodiversity, it’s also the people who will be uprooted from their culture, who will have to leave their environment, as is the case for example in Panama. “I’m Dying” is yet another call from the planet which is quite equivocal. “Second Skin” is the idea that the planet is a living organism that will eventually recover, even if we no longer exist to see it, so it’s a bit of a revival.

PAN M 360: You have chosen to donate the profits to the David Suzuki Foundation, can you tell me more?

KORVN: There are many foundations and organizations working for the environmental cause. I would say that it is not that it is better than the others but first of all, it is a Canadian foundation. I found it important to be close to what is happening a little more locally. I also like their vision, they are based on the idea of ​​empowering people to do things on their scale, it’s an interesting approach.

PAN M 360: On a daily basis, how are you committed to the fight against global warming?

KORVN: I eat less and less meat and I pay attention as much as possible to the origin of the products I consume, even if it is not easy because it is expensive. I bring my gourd as much as possible with me. These are small gestures. As a DJ, I participate in the eco-rider initiative launched by Bye Bye Plastic which aims to promote the accountability of event organizers, for example to limit single-use plastics. In my rider , through my requests, I can encourage good practices. And above all, I talk about it around me, I make it a subject of discussion.

PAN M 360: Can you introduce us to the artists with whom you collaborate on this EP?

KORVN: I’m really happy to have been able to collaborate with Lucas so URUBU, Aisha and Lifka, they are all artists that are close to my heart. URUBU is an artist and a producer whom I respect enormously and with whom it is really a pleasure to collaborate. We’ve worked together before and the track on the EP comes from a draft track we did for our first collaboration, it’s been there for a long time. Lifka is a German artist that I greatly appreciate. What I find cool is it’s not exactly the same style of techno, but I’m a very eclectic person, even in my DJ sets and suddenly I’m quite happy that he wanted to reclaim his this track and take it completely elsewhere. And Aisha that I discovered during my creative process and that I haven’t stopped following ever since. She’s a rising artist whose slightly psychic touch I love. It’s one of the things that have always made me trip, I had discovered a little electronic music with the teufs in France and the shrink was part of the evenings that I rubbed shoulders with. These sounds have always appealed to me and I’m very happy that it’s on the EP, even if I hadn’t anticipated it.

MORE INFO ON EP LAUNCH EVENT – April 21, 2023 at Newspeak. $1 per ticket will be donated to the David Suzuki Foundation.

BUY THE EP . All proceeds from MFC004 music sales will go to the David Suzuki Foundation.

The Ensemble ArtChoral (formerly the Ensemble vocal Art-Québec) is currently undertaking the ambitious project of tracing the history of choral singing from the 16th to the 19th century. This historical journey, which began at the beginning of the pandemic, will unfold in 11 discs recorded by ATMA Classique, as well as several concerts and video recordings. The project will take place over three years.

After the release of volume 7, devoted to Christmas carols, the ArtChoral Ensemble is now offering volume 3, entitled Baroque II. This one is dedicated to the late baroque, and therefore contains pieces composed from the second half of the 18th century. On this album, well-known composers and discoveries are mixed together.

PAN M 360 spoke with Matthias Maute, conductor of the ArtChoral Ensemble, who is behind this great project. We wanted to know more about the proposed listening path, the particularities of this album, as well as its inclusion in the overall project.

PAN M 360: How did this great project to trace the history of choral singing come about?

Matthias Maute: This project was born during the pandemic. We were able to find funding to do concerts and create this great project of records that will last for three years.

PAN M 360: The ArtChoral Ensemble did a lot for the music community during the pandemic. Can you tell us more about this?

Matthias Maute: Our project does not stop with the recording of 11 discs. ArtChoral is also working to create partnerships with other choirs to organize tours with the singers. Choristers are the lowest paid people in our music business. During the pandemic, there was a lot of work that went unpaid. We also want to honor the great choral tradition we have here in Quebec. The ArtChoral Ensemble has a history of over thirty years, and I am very happy to be able to lead this ensemble and to be able to present this project.

PAN M 360: How did you choose the pieces that appear on the album?

Matthias Maute: As far as the repertoire is concerned, it’s very easy to fall into the German repertoire. Especially in Germany you find repertoire for singers, it was very anchored in the culture of the time. Composers wrote for a cappella choir.

PAN M 360: So the theme that would unite all the pieces on Baroque II would be German a cappella music?

Matthias Maute: The treasures of the a cappella repertoire of the second half of the 18th century are to be found in the Germanic tradition, so it was a great pleasure for me to draw on this repertoire.

PAN M 360: Some of the composers on the album are lesser known and few of their works have come down to us. Was there a process of reconstitution necessary? How did you choose the repertoire for the album?

Matthias Maute: There is no real need to reconstruct. It’s surprising how vast the sung repertoire is in the Germanic regions. So I started my research with the Bach family, since Johann Sebastian Bach is in himself very important for the choral art, especially with his motets. Bach was like a sun, with many composers working around him. Homilius, some of whose motets are on the disc, is very little known. He was a student of Bach.

PAN M 360: What is the listening path proposed by the album?

Matthias Maute: All the pieces are religious, in the Lutheran tradition, with the exception of the piece by Lotti. The first motet begins in darkness and chaos. So on the album we have a kind of story, that is to say, at the beginning there is the depression, and at the end you have the illustration of the soul that finally tears itself away from the body and rises to the top. Through work and effort, one manages to detach oneself. There is this wonder, this light that allows us to reflect on the problems of our life. This journey from the bottom to the top is represented in the musical language of each piece and throughout the album.

PAN M 360: The ArtChoral Ensemble’s project also includes a video part. Why did you make this choice?

Matthias Maute: Indeed, the videos are the other part of the production. There are several reasons for this. We realized that less and less people have CD players and that less records are being bought than before. Also, since the pandemic, life was very much on the computer. To reach people globally, through the computer, proved to be a good avenue for us. We produced videos of our concerts for the global community to see. And, in general, it is a good tool to promote our project. So everyone can see and hear our work.

PAN M 360: In this context, what would be the difference between preparing for a record and preparing for a concert?

Matthias Maute: For me, there is not really a difference in the preparation. There is a difference in the way you organize the program. For a record, you always have a hook at the beginning. There are also all the technical requirements, everything has to be perfect at the same time and you can go back and listen to the pieces again. During the concerts, you have to keep a strong moment at the end. For the group, for the choir, it is also very different in concert, since there is communication with the public, the sound and the hall.

PAN M 360: And finally, what is next for the ArtChoral Ensemble?

Matthias Maute: We have already recorded a lot! We have two more albums to do, which will be recorded in the fall of 2023.

The albums of the ArtChoral Ensemble are recorded by ATMA Classique. Two of the 11 discs tracing the history of choral music since the 16th century are already available: volume 7, devoted to Christmas, and recently volume 3, Baroque II.

The diversity of her art, her talent as a multi-instrumentalist, her idea of the body as a musical instrument and her penchant for collaboration are all reminiscent of the cultural abundance of her native city.

Originally from Recife, Brazil, Montreal-based Lara Klaus is a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and educator around the world. She is also a member of LADAMA, a group of four women from different countries with whom she has performed at NPR Music’s famous Tiny Desk studio.

Her solo music presents a mixture of styles, borrowing elements from the South to the North of America to Africa, presenting mainly electric and acoustic guitar, as well as different types of Brazilian and African percussion. She participated in the Syli d’Or de la musique du monde des productions Nuits d’Afrique, and is about to play at the Ministère de Montréal as part of the RADAR event which starts this Tuesday.

PAN M 360: You come from the city of Recife, in the northeast of Brazil, and now you live in Montreal. Why did you decide to move here?

LARA KLAUS: It’s interesting, because I have another project that I traveled a lot in North America with, and we came to Montreal in 2018 to participate in the Nuits d’Afrique festival and other festivals in Ontario. That’s how I got to know the city. Then, a year later, my partner decided to come study here. It was a happy coincidence, and it made things easier with my projects. I found that Montreal opened its arms to Brazilian music and to my work.

PAN M 360: You are a percussionist. Is that the instrument that got you started in music?

LARA KLAUS: Actually, the first instrument I learned to play was the keyboard. Then I learned the acoustic guitar, which I studied for a long time. When I discovered percussion and all its cultural events that were very strong in my hometown, it made me want to play it and to start playing drums. After that, it was singing (laughs).

PAN M 360: So singing came last?

LARA KLAUS: I always liked to sing when I was playing guitar by myself, and when I started being a professional musician and working with other artists, my voice was often in the background. At some point, I decided I wanted to sing for myself.

PAN M 360: When you compose, do you start with percussion? Guitar? Is it different every time?

LARA KLAUS: It depends. Sometimes it comes from a rhythmic idea, other times it’s from a sound I hear. But even when I start with the guitar, the percussion is there, because I have a very percussive way of playing. All the elements are close to each other. When I make demos or start producing songs, it’s often guitar and percussion that are present.

PAN M 360: In relation to this process, it’s obvious that you are a fan of collaboration. You are part of the band LADAMA, you have several songs with other artists, especially on your solo album and on your more recent singles. How important is collaboration to you? Is it the basis of everything?

LARA KLAUS: Yes, absolutely. My solo project comes from my collaborative project. I always invite other people to be part of the process with me, whether it’s on stage or in the studio. Since I started playing, I have a need to share, I really don’t have a solitary approach. Of course, I start with a little idea of my own and then I bring it to others. Most of the songs I’ve written have been done with someone else. I think it’s always better to have other people’s ideas and voices, not only because it’s convenient, but also because it’s the symbolic idea of a community. I come from a place where if you play in the street, there will be a band with you, there will be a parade.

PAN M 360: Not only are you an artist, you are also an educator. You teach music and percussion to young people around the world in conferences and workshops. Do you think that teaching music in this way inspires you to explore its limits?

LARA KLAUS: Totally. Teaching is a constant learning experience for me. For me, it goes back to the idea of community and sharing. What we share has meaning, and it allows us to connect with our culture. I find it important for the people I teach that they in turn succeed in connecting with theirs. It’s really about knowing yourself. For a long time I taught people with disabilities. It doesn’t matter what type of person you are, everyone receives and integrates information differently.

PAN M 360: It’s this idea that you can always learn, even from someone who knows almost nothing about your subject.

LARA KLAUS: Right. And teaching is not just about, “Here’s what I do, here’s the rhythm that’s played in my town,” it’s also about, for example, discovering the use of the body as an instrument.

PAN M 360: Speaking of the body as an instrument, in a TED-Talk you gave with your group LADAMA a few years ago, you quote the great Brazilian percussionist Naná Vasconcelos: “The first instrument is the voice, but the best instrument is the body.” Can you talk about what that means to you?

LARA KLAUS: Yes, when I found the quote, I thought, “My God, that’s exactly right!” He was a great master. He traveled the world using his body and percussion as instruments, and led the way in playing with greats like Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock. But, yes, at the core, his idea is that we have everything we need inside of us, and if we have that base, there are no obstacles, no barriers that can stop us.

PAN M 360: Before we leave, we wanted to know if you are working on a new project right now.

LARA KLAUS: Yes, I have a few songs that I plan to release soon. I would love to have something out in time for the summer. I’m always working with different artists, and I have my touring band that I play with and collaborate with, obviously. I have shows planned for June and July!

PAN M 360: Finally, can you tell us what to expect from your show when you perform?

LARA KLAUS: You’ll hear my songs, which I’ve written with different people, and you can expect me to alternate between several instruments that I’ve learned along the way. I just hope to give a light performance that people can feel at the end. It’s always a joy for me to play on a stage, and I want to convey that feeling. Even though I sing in Brazilian Portuguese, I believe that music transcends language, and that I can show the best side of who I am and where I come from.

Since debuting in 2016, Debate Club has gone through a sort of sonic resurgence since the music opened back up in Montreal. On Égarements Vol. 1 the band honed in on its shoegaze and dreamscape indie roots, what lead singer and guitarist, Philippe Hamelin calls an exhausting process. We spoke with him briefly about the new EP, and when we might expect volume two.

PAN M 360: Égarements Vol. 1 kind of has you going back to your shoegaze and dream pop roots. Was this a natural progression?

Philippe Hamelin: Absolutely, the pandemic slowed everything down, including our music. The raw energy that was driving Phosphorescent slowly faded and turned into something with a bit more depth and a few more layers. We are adamant about keeping the writing process organic, Égarements simply happened.

PAN M 360: What are some of the themes that inspired Égarements? 

Philippe Hamelin: One of the recurring themes in our songs is anxiety – not sure if it’s the world’s current state but it seems to affect most people, so it very often makes its way into our writing, this release is no exception. We also always keep a place for friends we love and family we miss because it would be meaningless if we didn’t.

PAN M 360: In dreamscape/shoegaze music, there is always an aura of obscurity in what the song is about to the listener. My example would have to be the Cocteau Twins. Does this make it hard or easy to write music in this genre?

Philippe Hamelin: We try not to get too hung up on the genre we might be doing. Égarements was written and we sort of looked back and said, “oh yeah, there is definitely some shoegaze in there.” Writing music is always an exhausting process, regardless of what you are doing.

PAN M 360: This is Égarements vol 1. Is vol 2 on its way already and written? Will it have the same vibe?

Philippe Hamelin: Volume 2 and 3 are written for the most part. The vibe is definitely the same, but we’ll throw a few surprises in there as we like to improvise a bit through the recording process.

PAN M 360: What was the recording process like in the thick of the pandemic?

Philippe Hamelin: In a nutshell, it was complicated. We produce most of our stuff ourselves, so we had some flexibility, but attendance was kept at a minimum when we needed to and mixing was partially done remotely. We adapted, I guess we’re more resourceful now that we’ve done it in those conditions.

PAN M 360: How has the Montreal music landscape changed since it reopened after the pandemic? Will it ever get back to the way it was?

Philippe Hamelin: It unfortunately made it a bit difficult for small indie bands like us to play live as venues were slowly ramping up to their normal capacity. It seems every artist out there is fighting to be heard, it can get tiring at times.

PAN M 360: Do the instrumentals influence the music? How do you know when to go heavy or when to ease off?

Philippe Hamelin: We have two writing formulas. The first one is simply building on songs someone has partially written already and for which they can guide the rest of us through, including the intentions behind every part of it. The second is simply building on a riff one of us has come up with. The riff then becomes the mood and we build from there, challenging each other in the direction it should take. We definitely feel we do better with the latter.

PAN M 360: Who are some Montreal bands that you are really excited about right now?

Philippe Hamelin: You should definitely check Tu/Lips, their video “Les bêtes de joie” is definitely a coup de coeur of ours.  You should also check out Yoo Doo Right, Yocto, DDWD and Seulement if you haven’t already done so.

PAN M 360: What is next for Debate Club?

We are starting to plan some live stuff for the rest of the year, and of course some new music. Stay tuned, we’ll be in touch very soon.

How do you create your own inclusive spaces in a context of exclusion? How do you occupy the public space when the system invisibilizes you as soon as you reach a leadership position? How do you reverse the trend when your image is exploited or when you are subjected to different forms of violence at all levels?

In response to this reality of systemic discrimination, whether conscious or unconscious, the queer/bipoc/trans/allied community has founded the Federation for the Nocturnal Arts to ensure the safety, sustainability and solidarity of a thriving nightlife culture in Montreal.

This non-profit organization, although only recently founded in 2022, is a telling sign that the tide is turning. Using an online questionnaire, the founding team – Lou Seltz, Olivier Philbin Briscoe and Taher Gargouri- assessed the needs of the community in terms of challenges, needs and opportunities to sustain their careers and, most importantly, ensure their decision-making. The results will be made public in May 2023.

In addition, a panel discussion was held on February 25 on the issue of spaces for these communities with rising artists and activists such as Syana Barbara or Crissemarqueur.

FANTOM is in the process of raising funds to ensure the viability of the project in order to create an application to identify safe spaces for this community, to better sensitize municipal policies to take into account their specific needs and to find permanent spaces for their nocturnal activities to flourish. A launch event is scheduled for April 25.

PAN M 360 talks to one of the founders of the project, Taher Gargouri, to better understand the ins and outs of this organization that will certainly revolutionize the Montreal scene!

PAN M 360: Taher, what is your background and your involvement in the Montreal music scene?

TAHER: Taher aka Crissemarqueur, I am a DJ and rave organizer. I started as a percussionist but I also followed a path through studies in cinema, design and photography. I’ve been multidisciplinary for about ten years and I got into the techno scene with this background. The first organization was Slataprod, focused on creating safe spaces for visible minorities. The idea was to put forward artists from visible minorities: trans, colored, Maghrebi too. I am Tunisian and it is important to me to be in solidarity. Since then, other projects have come to fruition such as Tangerine or Latex. My experience of life in Berlin gave me the taste to transpose this atmosphere to Montreal where the techno scene merges with the queer and racialized scene in a relaxed atmosphere. This series of events is in collaboration with Shibari, pole dancer and swana artists.

PAN M 360: How did the idea of creating FANTOM come about? What was the trigger?

TAHER: For the last 2 years I have gained experience in organizing several events and I have been confronted with a series of very problematic situations. First, we lack information on processes related to organizing as safe venues. The older ones do not share their experience because the competition is intense in our environment. We could avoid making mistakes if we were better informed. Second, as a racialized and queer person, techno spaces are very white. The “care” is not meaningful enough towards diversity. As a crowd, we don’t always feel comfortable. Some collectives are sorely lacking in diversity. Thirdly, we would like the city of Montreal to offer more information to support safe organizations. It would be interesting to have regulations on venue rental rates, access for diversity, a charter of good conduct between stakeholders, etc. Lou and Oliver met and discussed solutions to these problems. This is how we created Fantom.

PAN M 360: What are the goals you want to achieve?

TAHER: We wanted to reach this audience to identify the needs and challenges of the racialized and queer community in the face of these issues and try to find solutions. We thought of creating an application, soon, on which we could already exchange and share information. We wish to mobilize politicians to our cause to obtain more benevolence. It is essential to compensate for the shortage of venues in Montreal. We could also think about training centers. In the long term, we could see ourselves as a union with our own consultation table.

PAN M 360: Since the foundation of FANTOM, what have been the reactions to your demands?

TAHER: Overall, the reactions have been positive. People are waiting for concrete actions. We want to change the game quickly and move forward positively.

PAN M 360: What do you think of the situation in the music industry with regards to decision-making, leadership and programming positions in Montreal?

TAHER: Montreal is full of white promoters and it lacks diversity. When you’re intersectional, it’s very difficult to move forward. You have to put in a lot more energy and find a lot of tricks to get to the same level as white people. In reaction, we have to create our own spaces of inclusion in this context of exclusion. In the end, we evolve in parallel universes. And even if we are just as successful and creative, we remain ghostly in society. We want to break this persistent and unjust glass ceiling.

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From Cape Town, South Africa, Derek Gripper adapted some african music to his classical guitar training. He is known worldwide for his transcriptions of  the great kora player Toumani Diabaté’s recordings – One Night on Earth (2011) and Librairies on Fire (2016). He also played in the Symmetric Orchestra led by the famous griot. Since when the guitarist has played original pieces of his own, he defines « extended cyclical structures ».  More precisely, he draws from the oral and improvised traditions of African griots as he does from the South African cyclical traditions known as Koortjie. Then he adapts it to his classical guitar langage and creates a fabulous hybrid. So he can perform compositions from J.S. Bach or Arvo Pärt, as well he can adapt African music from Salif Keita, Fanta Sacko or Baaba Maal. In fact, Derek Gripper’s path is to bring together very different musical forms through a rediscovery of the nylon strings guitar.Because he’s performing on Thursday, March 23th, at Balattou Club, PAN M 360 wanted to learn more about his craft.

PAN M 360 : So you’re from South Africa. After listening to one hour or two or two hours of your music, we can have an idea of what you do but we must learn more. So how did you build that?  

DEREK GRIPPER : So I’m, I came from classical music, classical guitar. And have been always looking for different things, different ways to use the guitar followed by you know, my interest and what is moving and what I love. And one of those things was the music of Toumani Diabaté and that I made, you know, very direct classical transcriptions of his music because I felt it was important for us to realize that this is an a great tradition of composition as well as you know, how we abnormally understand it as a griot traditional blah, blah, etc. Now, I’m actually playing with Ballaké Sissoko who recorded with Toumani, a very important album in the 90s called New ancient strings. So that’s wonderful, like coming back to that tradition in a very real way. But bringing my things, I was writing music of my own before, I really investigated Toumani’s music. And I’m still writing music. So what I do live, is I improvise a and I, I remember things spontaneously, and I travel between these different things from Bach to South African music, to the kora music to, you know, completely improvised things to things that the guitar suggests… everything.

PAN M 360 : So you you started as a classical while you had a classical training, and your training was in South Africa.

DEREK GRIPPER :Training was in South Africa, partly and also in other countries traveling, you know, to master classes and festivals, but yeah, my main training is in Cape Town, South Africa. It’s not a big thing in Cape Town. I mean you can study classical guitar at the conservatory if you want, but I can’t say that South Africa  has produced many classical guitarists. If they are really serious about it, they leave. It’s not an easy place to make a career. So I’m very lucky. I’m probably the only nylon string player who’s making, you know, concerts all around the world and being able to really make a living from performance.

PAN M 360 : And also probably your transcription of Malian music. did help because it’s a very good idea.

DEREK GRIPPER : Yeah, I think that was a you know, it was harder for people  to understand what I was doing before, you know, because it’s even hard enough for people to understand but the Malian transcriptions is something very clear. And I took that for 10 years in North America and Europe, Australia. And that was clear for people. « This person has translated choral music for guitar », you know, and that made it easier. Otherwise,  it’s a strange mix between improvised music and classical music. Is this guitar music classical? The classical people don’t think it’s fully classical, it’s not jazz either. So it’s hard for people to understand.

PAN M 360 : So, more specifically,  how did you develop this langage?

DEREK GRIPPER :  Well, when I was playing this kora music at the beginning, I was working from transcriptions I did. So I would take a recording, and I would transcribe it and I would perform that as a composition, like a piece of Bach, because I wanted people to experience this specific piece from West Africa. And then as I learned the music, I learned how to improvise inside this music, I learned how to make my own improvising of it. Then I had my own compositions, which were different. But slowly, those two aspects have come together, and so it started to be a bigger and bigger language.

PAN M 360 : There are now many ways to develop the classical nylon string classical guitar. In an African way, there is no lineage for that king of playing that kind of guitar. The  string instruments in Mali are kora or n’goni or other string instruments of that type.  

DEREK GRIPPER : Actually Ballaké and I just recorded this album, we haven’t released it yet. We recorded it in London a few months ago. I’m busy finishing the production. What we’re doing and what I’m doing is a sort of improviser’s guide to African music. And what is improvisation in African music is very different to improvisation in jazz and other musics that includes improvisation. It’s collective and it’s about collective memory. But it’s also about spontaneity, and it inhabits a very different space in music.  It’s a kind of mimetic improvisation.

PAN M 360 : Well, this is similar to ragas in South Asia and maqâms in Arabic, Turkish or Persian cultures : musicians have to learn and remember beats and phrases, and after improvise with those elements in real time.  

DEREK GRIPPER : Yeah, exactly. It’s the recognition and the assumption of the collective. You know, solo improvisation with someone like Keith Jarrett is a great inspiration for me as an improviser. But the myth of the individual improvising his own ideas as a blank stalte, this very western concept that everything comes from the musician, is very different from the griot idea of improvisation. When you listen to someone like Ballaké improvising, he is always aware of what has gone before him. For him, music comes from the collective wisdom.

PAN M 360 : And so it’s a great playground to develop yourself and remaining in Africa even if it’s hard to be understood with what you’re trying to reach.

DEREK GRIPPER : Yeah, slowly, it becomes clearer to me and then to others.

PAN M 360 : It’s not your first time in Montreal, isn’t it?

DEREK GRIPPER : No, I love Montreal. I arrived in Montreal for the first time many years ago. I think it was in the winter series. I went to Balatou in the night time, I walked out of the snow and I walked into Africa, it was incredible. So, coming from Toronto, which for me feels very familiar in the sense of colonial Cape Town,a  bubble in Africa, you know, so I’m like, yeah, Toronto, it’s an English colony but then you arrive in Montreal and it’s like, okay, this is a different story. I’ve always had such a good feel for Montreal and I was there last year for Nuits d’Afrique. I played then with the Montreal kora player Zal Sissokho. I have amazing respect for people like Zal, who take their music to this other place completely, especially a place with a hard winter where you can die (!) and you have to create a whole new world for yourself. 

PAN M 360 : But this time there won’t be any people on stage but you.

DEREK GRIPPER : Just alone, which is nice because that gives me the best freedom in terms of what I can do. The solo concert is like a realm for me, it’s a free space. I can arrive really with an empty head and then just respond to the audience and the environment and the guitar and the day in and how I am. Just make something fresh happen.

Built around the exceptional legacy of Claude Vivier, who tragically died 40 years ago, the program of La Semaine du Neuf ends up with the ensemble Paramirabo performing (notably) the piece “Paramirabo”, this Friday at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal. PAN M 360’s guest is Paramirabo’s musical director and also the artistic director of Groupe Le Vivier, whose name was chosen for the reasons one can imagine. Thus, under the direction of flutist Jeffrey Stonehouse, Paramirabo ensemble explores two works by the late composer as well as two others by eminent composers who were also his teachers: Karlheinz Stockhausen and Gilles Tremblay.

PAN M 360: You have built this Semaine du Neuf around Claude Vivier, one of the most played Quebec composers in the great constellation of contemporary music on an international scale. This is your first signature as artistic director and we can guess why you chose this theme. What do you think about it?

JEFF STONEHOUSE: The idea is to create an event around a theme. This year it’s Claude Vivier and for future editions it will be something else. I like the idea of themes that are linked to a composer or another art form. A theme can be a trigger and generate a ripple effect. So, never rule out the potential to reach the audience by offering them something that interests people.

PAN M 360: For the benefit of our audience, please remind us why the Paramirabo ensemble is called that.

JEFF STONEHOUSE: The founding members of the group met over this piece, and that’s why we have the name. We were actually students (at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal) in the contemporary music class of Véronique Lacroix. We studied this piece, we played this piece. For me, it was my first point of contact with Vivier through this work. Afterwards, it really opened a lot of doors for me because I listened to all of his repertoire and I realized how much it was coming for me. This is also the case with Paramirabo, the ensemble.

PAN M 360: We see that this program has regular members and guests.

JEFF STONEHOUSE: There’s nothing here for the full band – Paramirabo is a sextet. Here, we break into subgroups to play works by Vivier, Stockhausen and Tremblay, with whom Vivier had studied.

PAN M 360: What do you think are the intrinsic qualities of Paramirabo, the work itself?

JEFF STONEHOUSE: What’s interesting about Paramirabo is that the flute-violin-cello trio is really treated as if it were one “organism”. So we observe several motifs in homorhythm, the blend is very important, the rhythmic precision too. The piano is here an almost solo instrument, it has its own part. One of the things that always strikes me about Vivier’s music is the mixture of complexity and almost childlike motifs. In Paramirabo, it is through the whistling of the musicians that this more childlike tone is given. Also, the three musicians (flute, violin, cello) evoke a bit of liturgical or religious music, like a Gregorian chant emanating from the three instruments that become one.

PAN M 360: This sudden candor in Vivier, these more playful moments relax the listener after the more dense passages, more rooted in the idea of Western contemporary music.

JEFF STONEHOUSE: In Vivier’s music, there’s definitely an emotional side that’s present. Because there’s also this fascination with death and a little bit of tragedy that you hear as well. It is slightly less present in Paramirabo than in some of the others.

PAN M 360: Since we’re talking about Vivier, we’ll talk right away about his piece Proliferation, which is the conclusion of the program and the title of your concert. After that, we’ll go to Stockhausen and Tremblay.

JEFF STONEHOUSE: Proliferation is a very interesting work. It has the presence of the Ondes Martenot played by Daniel Agnès. The instrumentation is a bit strange and it gives a very particular flavor. It is a challenge for the musicians to set up but also to understand the score, these open sections that require choices among the performers.

PAN M 360: Now, if we look at the interventions of each one in this and the collective work. How do you see all of that in this context, in the interpretation that you want to do?

JEFF STONEHOUSE: Yeah, I’m definitely speaking for the colleagues here because there’s no flute in this one. I would say that the collective sound is treated differently from Paramirabo. Proliferation is a work that comes early in Claude Vivier’s repertoire – late 60s. And so the style is a little different. I was saying that at the end of the 70s, his style became more precise and we discovered music more typical of his work as we perceive it today. With Proliferation, we see a different period of the composer.

PAN M 360: Let’s move on to the works in the middle of the program, first Stockhausen’s Refrain.

JEFF STONEHOUSE: The connection is obvious: Vivier was a student of Stockhausen. The instrumentation of Refrain… it’s something! Piano, vibraphone, woodblocks, celesta, composed a little earlier than Vivier’s piece, but with similar instrumentation. And so what I find interesting is that there is a texture with a short refrain that comes back. The textures are almost transparent and the audience can perceive them along the way, which makes it a very different work.

PAN M 360: The other work on the program is by Gilles Tremblay, who is part of the first generation of contemporary music in Quebec, we’re talking about Pierre Mercure and other Serge Garant.

JEFF STONEHOUSE: Yes I would say that it is the door of the European music in Quebec. For me, it’s mostly through Gilles Tremblay. I love Triojubilus. David Robbins and I have played it 3 times in the last few years. It’s a work with strange instruments. Here we have the flute and an assortment of cowbells of all sizes – over 40 of them! It really produces an effect where you feel the gamelan music. There’s really something special about the resonance of the cowbells – you could call it something else… Triojubilus is one of the works influenced by Asian percussion music, including the Balinese gamelan. The structure is interesting. It opens with a rather furnished flute solo, then the harp and the cowbells really act together in homorhythm. In Tremblay’s music, there are also playful moments, games between the performers. For example, the harpist has to respond as quickly as possible to the interventions of the percussion. This creates almost comical moments at times, where the musicians can play tricks on their interlocutors.

PAN M 360: These four works create a beautiful corpus and revive the work of Vivier and his colleagues. We’re finally waking up!

JEFF STONEHOUSE: In Quebec, I think we are a little slow to wake up. In Europe, for example, his work “hits” much more than here. I also know a broadcaster from Toronto (Soundstreams) who has made his career largely on adaptations of Claude Vivier’s music. He tells me that in Europe, he has no problem imposing this repertoire because there is a real interest. Vivier is one of the well-known composers who are accepted in contemporary music programs. I have been in Quebec for 15 years and I had never heard Bouchara until the opening night of the Semaine du Neuf!

TO CLOSE THE SEMAINE DU NEUF, THE PARAMIRABO ENSEMBLE PERFORMS THIS FRIDAY, 7:30 PM, AT THE CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC OF MONTREAL

INFOS & TICKETS HERE

PROGRAM

PARTICIPANTS

With this seventh effort, UK Grim (twelfth if you count albums prior to Andrew Fearn’s arrival), Sleaford Mods follow up the popular 2021 album Spare Ribs, which managed to crack the UK Top 5. At the time, the UK was grappling with the pandemic, Brexit, and turbulent political and cultural unrest. If the lockdown helped focus the duo’s anger on Spare Ribs, UK Grim sees them reacting to an increasingly complicated post-pandemic world and is a real middle finger to the prevailing gloom. 

Led by singer Jason Williamson’s acerbic attacks and Andrew Fearn’s austere, minimalist production, UK Grim is probably one of the Nottingham duo’s most scathing and hard-hitting records. But while there is plenty of rage on UK Grim, there is also plenty of heart, introspection, and subtlety. The album also features a collaboration with Perry Farrell and Dave Navarro of Jane’s Addiction and Florence Shaw of Dry Cleaning.

“In England, nobody can hear you scream,” Williamson chants on the title track. He may not scream, but he knows how to make himself heard, and we listened to him and his partner in crime Andrew Fearn, who is not usually prone to journalistic chatter, in a recent interview with the pair.

PAN M 360: There isn’t a shortage of topics to write about. War, the pandemic, inflation, despair, poverty, UK politics… So many that it might even be hard to choose! How do you come up with lyrics for a typical Sleaford Mods song?

Jason Williamson: It could be anything, really not necessarily politics, although that plays a big part into it. It could literally be anything, whatever springs to mind, whatever I feel is satisfying my need to express some anger, or some sorrow, or whatever. You know, I mean, there’s a lot of introspective stuff on the new record. And that kind of trend continues from Spare Ribs. For whatever, really, it can be nonsense, absurd. You know, it can be completely weird, whatever, whatever sounds right, even if the words don’t mean anything.

PAN M 360: Then Is it harder to find beats that will go along with the lyrics? Andrew, I was wondering how much time you spend creating those beats and how you work, to try not to repeat yourself but rather reinvent yourself.

Andrew Fearn: I make music all the time, even if I wasn’t successful, I’d be making music every day. It’s quite good because I can just make stuff that I think will work for Jason. I can just send over a load of stuff.

PAN M 360: So you both work on music, or it’s mostly you, Andrew.

Jason Williamson: It’s actually, Andrew, yeah.

PAN M 360: And what comes up first, words or music?

Jason Williamson: Words or music. It doesn’t really matter. The words mean something but they don’t get elevated until Andrew sends music over.

Andrew Fearn: After 10 years of doing it together, I kind of know what’s something that he can get his teeth into, We’re not to reinventing the wheel here, you know, it’s quite obvious. Quite often the tracks are the wrong way around as well. So what sounds like the chorus will be the verse and vice versa. For as long as there’s like two parts, which are usually the same thing. (laugh) I mean, we’re keeping it open. But making something that’s enjoyable to put some lyrics to ultimately.

Jason Williamson: You know, it always looks after itself. I mean, obviously, I have to write lyrics and obviously, Andrew has to write music, but when the two meet, they kind of look after themselves, almost, you know what I mean?

PAN M 360: On this new album, you have again some collaborators, as for the previous one. This time it’s Florence Shaw from Dry Cleaning, who is featured on the track “Force 10 From Navarone,” and Perry Farrell and Dave Navarro from Jane’s Addiction for the track “So Trendy.” For the former, it’s a bit of a given, but for Jane’s Addiction, it’s a pretty strange combination, isn’t it?

Jason Williamson: Well, we did some demos in  March 2021, before we went on tour, and one of those was “So Trendy.”  We put it into the back of our minds and we went on tour for a year. But around sort of like May time, Perry Farrell’s manager got in touch and asked if we’d liked to write a song with him. So we said yes, even though we’re not avid Jane’s Addiction fans. But we’ve always thought he was quite interesting. And that became apparent as soon as me and Andrew were like, “Yeah, why not? He’s a cool bloke, you know?” So it took about six months to write that song, it was going back and forth. It’s different.

PAN M 360 : So did he contribute to the lyrics too?

Jason Williamson: Yes, he did his own verse, and, came in with the choruses and added that really nice harmony behind mine on the chorus. It’s quite a bright song, but at the same time, sounding very not bright at all. (laughs) It’s quite dark as well. And it’s got that kind of metal machine, Dead Kennedys guitar sound to it, you know what I mean? it’s really quite abrasive. It works, you know.

PAN M 360: So that’s Navarro’s guitar?

Jason Williamson: No, it’s Andrew’s guitar. 

Andrew Fearn: Dave only does it once in the track, near the end of the track, a little guitar riff thing. 

Jason Williamson: We didn’t feel it needed too much of it, you know. So it’s an interesting try, one that initially I was a bit concerned about, because it’s quite bright, but it works!

PAN M 360: And what about that one with Florence Shaw? That was more obvious, I believe.

Jason Williamson: It’s a little bit more in keeping with our sounds, yes. But again, it’s quite sinister. It’s possibly some of the best music Andrew has done, I think. It’s really good. I don’t know what it is, to be honest… But yes, I would say it’s closer to the Sleaford sound.

PAN M 360: Would you say that UK Grim is more of an English album than the others?

Jason Williamson: I mean, we’re quite English, you know? (laughs)

Andrew Fearn: I’d say it’s a bit more international, in a sense. It definitely got more similar themes or vibes. I think it sort of reflects the fact that we’ve been out and seeing bits of the world in some way. Not directly, obviously.

Jason Williamson: I think the title, the jacket of it is very English. And the optics are very centered on this country.

Andrew Fearn: No getting away from that, isn’t it?

Jason Williamson: No. it’s the post-lockdown album, where the energy hasn’t been released, and where the aggression and the anger and the unreasonableness are at a very high level in a lot of people since lockdown. So I kind of looked at it like that lyrically, you know?

PAN M 360: There was a lot of stuff that happened in Britain in the last few years. Maybe it inspired you to write about those topics and have a more Britain-focused album somehow, lyrically speaking.

Jason Williamson: Yes, but I guess all our albums are really English. Because we do sound so very English. So, therefore… And the music, I think in a lot of respects, is of this country, it just reminds me of the rhythms and the feeling and the energies of this country. Yeah, that’s an interesting observation.

Andrew Fearn: Well I suppose the influences are a bit more like late ’80s hip-hop, and, you know, smash someone up a bit more, rather than sounding like some sort of punk. It’s still very British, but it’s more ’90s British musically in a way, you know? All electronic, which is still a very British identity. Britain’s had some great electronic bands through the ’80s and ’90s. 

PAN M 360: On the song “D.I. Why,” without naming them, you poke at certain types of bands. I mean, your feud with Idles was well publicized, so will this song stir up some more shit? But maybe it’s what you guys expect?

Jason Williamson: I didn’t do it to stir some shit, I just did it because I think they’re such cunts, you know. Somebody reviewed it and said that my Achilles heel was letting people like this bother me and that we should be above them. And they’ve got a really good point, to be honest. At this stage in our career, we shouldn’t even look at it. But I always remember what it was like to be nothing, and then to feel like I was being lectured by these idiots … I kind of almost automatically responded to it. Because I know that they’re all a set of jealous bastards who can’t do anything themselves, and they’re still in the same situation, releasing the same music. Some of them might be happy with that. But as you and I well know, this industry is full of people who want to get somewhere. So, you know, it’s just me having a go at them really. It’s not me being right. And it’s not me being wrong either, I suppose.

PAN M 360: So you guys have been accused of what exactly? Selling out or succeeding?

Jason Williamson: Oh God, yeah, selling out… I got accused because I kind of had a more reasoned view of Spotify. That didn’t go down too well with some of these people that believe that it should start paying you. It’s not going to pay, Spotify will never pay you ever, look at it. I’d be surprised if it did, you know. It’s just not Bandcamp. So the idea was just to skirt around it. It’s an obstacle you need to get over, like any obstacle. You know, they’re always there. If it’s not corporate record labels, it’s always something else. So, then I got accused to be in this, and I was obviously softened by success. Just bullshit fucking bullshit. It’s just naivety, you know, but at the same time, I find myself moaning about it and it’s quite petty really, isn’t it? And I like the pettiness… The pettiness really feeds into the lyrics sometimes, I am attracted to the idea of intelligence to a certain degree, reasonableness, and pettiness. They pepper lyrics in a way that makes me feel like I’m speaking something that is legible and truthful, rather than just being whatever, just talking about dog shit that nobody can really relate to.

PAN M 360: So rather than asking you to name a few of these bands, I will ask you which band or artists you really like. Obviously Amyl & the Sniffers and Dry Cleaning. Any others?

Jason Williamson: Oh, that’s really nice. Lovely. Thank you. What bands that we like currently? Dry Cleaning. Obviously. LoneLady, I’m listening to a lot of. She’s from Manchester, she’s been around for about 10 years. She was signed to Mute. I think she’s left Mute Records now but she’s really good. You ought to check her out, quite minimal, it kind of reminds me of Andrews’s music a little bit. What else? What are you listening to Andrew?

Andrew Fearn: No thoughts really… I mean people that are small. There are these guys from Newcastle called Badger. They’re like a two-piece sort of electronic music-style band. Yeah, a lot of things, really a lot of unheard-of artists. But then I buy a lot of records as well. So I bought some more Autechre reissues today. An Adrian Sherwood record too, Dub No Frontiers. It’s absolutely brilliant. It’s like dub-reggae but the vocals are all female. Like the first track is sung in Mandarin, then in Japanese, Hindi… And it’s just cool hearing females singing in different languages overdub. It sounds fresh. 

PAN M 360: You both are at an age where one usually settles down, comes down, resigning itself. And you’re just the opposite. So how do you explain this refusal to, let’s say, fall in line? 

Jason Williamson: (sigh) Well, I mean, some people say we fell in line a lot a long time ago, you know? But, no, it wouldn’t sound very good if we fell in line, would it? It would sound absolutely terrible (laughs).

Andrew Fearn: Jason was in a relatively low pay job. And I was in part-time working, or unemployed… so, you know, it’s not like we’ve come from any kind of privileged background. We’re from that kind of scene. I mean, why can’t we be successful? You know what I mean? It’s the best thing to do! (laughs)

Jason Williamson: I mean, we wouldn’t fall in line. We won’t get producers in at this stage. I don’t think we’ll ever do that. Because it would just kill it. And who is going to step forward and do something as good as Andrew? Unless someone’s gonna step forward and blow us both away. Then even that, you know, you kind of feel a bit cheated.

Andrew Fearn: You don’t want to have Mark Ronson come in! You would think “Who is that?” 

Jason Williamson: Oh that would be fucking terrible (laughs). To me, this is what falling in line will be, getting a producer. And, I don’t know, just being a bit more shiny, having everything like fucking tuned up on your songs. Not good. We just don’t because we care about music. I really like the music. It really turns me on, it’s fucking great. You know, every album, every demo he (Andrew) sends over, it’s a challenge, it’s interesting, it’s colourful. And I wouldn’t want that to change. 

Andrew Fearn: We’ve been able to do it our own way. We’ve been able to create our own style. And, you know, we’re not making hip-hop, or we’re not just adding to a genre that’s already there. We create our own music. So I don’t think anyone will be able to do it. You know, they could impersonate what I do, but I think you’d be able to tell that it wasn’t made by me. And that’s not me showing off. I’m quite flawed in the way I produce music, but then that’s what gives it a lot of character.

PAN M 360: I read recently an interview you guys gave, I think it was with the NME, that the further you go with this, the more you both feel like stepping out of the mould. So what mould are we talking about? 

Jason Williamson: That was me saying that. I think that we both feel as if like, we can relax a little bit with the strict formula we had before. You know, loosen it up a little bit and warp it, and mold it a little bit more, and try other things out. Like the collaborations; we initially were skeptical about them, but they really work. The production from Andrew’s side has improved, it just got better. His variations on the stuff he does, and how he makes his stuff. Quite a lot of things can be possible with the sound. And I would imagine that, as we keep going forward with this, other things will reveal themselves, you know … There’s a cycle of shouting male, white bands in this country that keeps going round and round… I think the main thing, from my point of view, is not to be worried about what’s going on around us so much, and just do what we do.

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