Expressivity, vitality, integrity, high precision, these are all words that can be used to describe the Ensemble Masques, recognized throughout the world of baroque and early music, particularly in Europe. Founded two decades ago, Masques has come a long way since then. Along this way, many paths were taken and lead to JS Bach and this is the object of the program we are dealing with here.
The ensemble takes its name from a form of Renaissance high society entertainment that became popular at the court of King Henry VIII, the father of Queen Elizabeth, and continued into the Elizabethan era. A Masque was a lavish and dramatic entertainment involving poetry, drama, dance and music, often performed in verse by masked actors dressed as mythological or allegorical figures.
In this case, it is essentially a question of music: the Ensemble Masques is made up of high-level performers, whose six members have careers as soloists and/or performers in international early music ensembles and orchestras. The ensemble is directed by Montreal harpsichordist Olivier Fortin.
Masques is “transnational” in the sense that it is made up of Australian violinist Sophie Gent, Toronto violist Kathleen Kajioka, Montreal violist and cellist Mélisande Corriveau, Finnish violinist Tuomo Suni, Brussels bassist and violinist Benoît Vanden Bemden, and its Quebec musical director Olivier Fortin.
Beyond our local classical or baroque milieu, the Ensemble Masques is well known on the European circuit and still deserves to be better known on this side of the Atlantic. Here is an opportunity to acknowledge its great quality: this Thursday, the group performs at the Bach Festival after returning from a tour in Iceland where PAN M 360 joined Olivier Fortin to talk about the Montreal program presented this Thursday, November 24, at Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours in Old Montreal.
PAN M 360: The music of the 17th century is dominant in this program.
OLIVIER FORTIN: In fact, the first part of the concert covers works written in the mid to late 17th century while the second part is devoted to Bach. The idea is to trace the composers who influenced Bach’s work in the way they composed and used harmonic language. From more or less far from Bach, there were musical currents at the time, including that of France, notably the music of Lully, which took a large place on the European territory and which each one took up in his own way. So we open and close with a French suite by a German composer and we end with Bach who always went further than anyone else, in such a personal and brilliant way. We propose a journey towards Bach, in a way.
PAN M 360: From Georg Muffat (1653-1704), then, you open with Fasciculus I from Florilegium primum.
OLIVIER FORTIN: He was very much inspired by the French style. He was a follower of the music that was going on in Europe, but he didn’t have the genius of Bach. We open the concert with an orchestral suite, an overture and dances, and we end with another Bach suite, thus putting the rest of the program in brackets. The first part of the program consists of music older than Bach, while the second part begins with his son Wilhelm Friedemann. And we want to show that he still played a little bit in the style of his father but in a very different way in the language.
PAN M 360: If we go inside the program, we find ourselves with Giovanni Legrenzi (1626-1690), Sonata sesta – La Cetra (Venetia, 1673).
OLIVIER FORTIN: JS Bach met neither Muffat nor Legrenzi, nor any other composer on the program except his son, but their music reached Bach, since he had already written fugues on themes by Legrenzi. This powerful, rich and expressive Italian language influenced Bach in his youth.
PAN M 360: The next piece is by Johann Heinrich Schmelzer (1620/23 – 1680): ,
OLIVIER FORTIN: There you go, this is very beautiful, very moving lamento on the death of Ferdinand III, who was a great lover of music and patron of the arts, humanly close to the artists. We have played all this music, we are very comfortable playing it, it’s a bit like breathing. It’s part of our DNA. People often think it’s too old. But it’s extremely expressive. Schmelzer was a great violinist. He wrote hybrids that Bach took up and synthesized.
PAN M 360: What about the sonatas of Johann Rosenmüller (1617-1684)?
OLIVIER FORTIN: Rosenmüller composed in Germany, he was also a keyboardist and violinist. He had to escape secretly Germany for reasons of morals, a sort of me too with who knows whom. He ended up in Venice at the time of Legrenzi. He wrote in a style from which Bach took on certain forms.
PAN M 360: What about the Sonata XI Opus 1 (1695) by Romanus Weichlein (1652-1706)?
OLIVIER FORTIN: Weichlein was a Benedictine monk who was a student of the next composer on the program, Biber. This is music for violin that makes Biber’s music, very improvised, great passacaglias, music that makes the strings sound good. Weichlein spent his life as a monk in Austria. He belongs to the school of composers for virtuoso violins. This music has won us several prizes in Europe.
PAN M 360: And then we go to the master with the Sonata III, Fidicinium Sacro-Profanum (Nuremberg, 1683) by Heinrich Ignaz Biber (1644-1704).
OLIVIER FORTIN: There you go. We have seen what the student does, now we see what the master does. It is very difficult, harder than Weichlein who is difficult for the violin whereas Biber is difficult for all the voices in the ensemble. Very virtuoso.
PAN M 360: So we move on to the Bach family.
OLIVIER FORTIN: At first, we would have liked to play only orchestral suites by JSB but it was too many people to travel so we often do this suite by his son, we see how the French style is treated in Wilhelm Friedmann in another harmonic world than that of his father, pre-classical. The last movement is a fugue but different from those of his father, which does not take the same path. One feels that it is the end of something and we end with this suite in the French style, which is very well known by the master Bach.
PROGRAM
Georg Muffat (1653-1704) Florilegium primum – Fasciculus I
Giovanni Legrenzi (1626-1690) La Cetra – Venetia, 1673 Sonata sesta
Johann Heinrich Schmelzer (1620/23 – 1680) Lamento sopra la morte Ferdinandi III
Johann Rosenmüller (1617-1684) Sonate a 2, 3, 4 è 5 stromenti, da arco & altri – Nuremberg, 1682 Sonata nona à 5
Romanus Weichlein (1652-1706) Opus 1 – 1695 Sonata XI
Heinrich Ignaz Biber (1644-1704) Fidicinium Sacro-Profanum – Nuremberg, 1683 Sonata III Wilhem Friedemann Bach (1710 – 1784) Ouverture – Suite for orchestra, in g minor (formely attributed J.S. Bach, BWV 1070)
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) Ouverture – Suite for orchestra, in D major BWV 1068
ARTISTS
Ensemble Masques Olivier Fortin, harpsichord and conductor Sophie Gent, Tuomo Suni, violins Kathleen Kajioka, viola Mélisande Corriveau, basse de viole & cello Benoît Vanden Bemden, violone & contrebasse
Madison McFerrin turned 31 a few days ago and she also ended her European Tour. Her soft voice and her sense of humour go with a thoughtful and kind spirit, turned towards people, the belief of music as a healer and the importance of being part of a community. Pan M 360 asked her some questions about her last few projects and her personal growth since the pandemic.
Pan M 360: In 2018, you were cited as a rising independent artist. Where are you now in this process?
Madison McFerrin: I am still independent, which I think is great. We are in a day and age where you can actually have a viable career and stay independent, so I really have been trying to build this in a sustainable manner, that’s where I am. The team has expanded, and new music is coming, so it’s definitely building wax.
Pan M 360: Alright, that’s great. Where and when did you learn to produce on your own?
Madison McFerrin: I really just started in the pandemic, so 2020 is really when it started. I was producing my acapella stuff but in terms of adding different instrumentation that really started during the pandemic, in my living room. Since we weren’t going out or anything, I was like “alright, here we are”.
Pan M 360: The EP “You+I” was made with your brother.
Madison McFerrin: Yes, he produced No Room, Try, Unwise, and Fallin, and I did Re:intro and Know you better.
Pan M 360: What did the collaboration with your brother bring you?
Madison McFerrin: Working with my brother is something I really wanted to do. I look up to him and I think he is incredible, you know, just sibling love. I appreciated.
Pan M 360: Speaking about Know you better, we talk about your vocal dexterity. How do you build your harmonies? Where do you pick your inspirations?
Madison McFerrin: I think my biggest inspiration is just life in general. I always start with chords first and whatever melodies I come up with are definitely also an inspiration. They kind of motivate what the topic is going to be about because since I write my melodies first, I really find the words that fit with the melody and that reveals what the song is from a lyrical standpoint when I write.
Pan M 360: About the song Stay Away, which came out recently, this is a mix of soul and house music. What are your current tastes and influences?
Madison McFerrin: A friend of mine who goes by the name L’rain. She is really incredible. I wrote the song before Beyonce’s album came out, but in terms of dance house music, this has been big for me at this moment. I think it is really fantastic. I am a big fan of Jamila Woods, and Nick Hakim. I am grateful that a lot of people that inspire me are also my friends.
Pan M 360: This song’s musical mood is contrasting with the topic. I saw you were very involved in mental health promotion. How much is this subject important to you?
Madison McFerrin: It’s majorly important to me, especially now. In this time, we are still living through a pandemic, there’s a lot of collective grief and trauma and I don’t think a lot of us have been able to process, especially in the United States, you know there’s been a big emphasis on just getting back to work and getting back to life as usual without allowing people the space to really process what we have gone through. I mean over a million people have died in the United States and people have lost their entire families you know the idea that we are just supposed to move on is pretty sick in my opinion. For me, music helps contribute to my positive mental health and I recognize that it is true for so many other people and so I really see myself and my music as a conduit through which people can find healing in happy songs or sad songs, or songs about anxiety, I am taping into what I feel understanding that so many other people feel them as well and maybe my music can put words to their feelings that they have been unable to articulate.
Pan M 360: Does that help you?
Madison McFerrin: Oh, totally!
Pan M 360: How easy is it to show yourself and your feelings?
Madison McFerrin: For me, showing it in music is probably the easiest way. I write in a journal just about every day and that is helpful, but I think in terms of really getting all of the expression out, music is definitely the place where I feel I can flow the most freely with my feelings. Music is the best place for me to be able to do that.
Pan M 360: You said in your song “undefined is a reminder I ain’t done so stay away,” what does that mean?
Madison McFerrin: I have been spending these last few years trying to define myself and my art and trying to figure out who I am, and not just as an artist but as a person. So the idea is that like if you are undefined, if you haven’t figured out what it is, it just means that you are not finished yet and it doesn’t mean that this is the end and so the “stay away from me”, what I am speaking to is that anxiety, that pressure of like “you don’t know who you are,” it’s like “you can stay away from me” because I am figuring myself out and I recognize that I am still on this journey and being on the journey is okay.
Pan M 360: You named two of your EPs “Finding Foundation,” did you find yours?
Madison McFerrin: Yeah, I think so. The meaning behind those titles was, I had taken some time to really figure out how I want to express myself as an artist and as a solo artist specifically because I have done some stuff in other groups. I come from a rich legacy of vocal music and even the first song I wrote in college was one where I couldn’t figure out the chords on the piano so I’d sing them and I ended up writing an acapella song and kind of getting back to that original root of my songwriting and that coupled with my familial roots, that’s what “finding foundation” was really about.
Pan M 360: Can you tell me more about your familial roots?
Madison McFerrin: My grandfather was the first African-American to sign a contract [editor’s note: Robert McFerrin was a baritone singer who sang negro spirituals] to the Metropolitan Opera. His wife, my grandmother was a renowned vocal teacher who was recognized by the state of California. My father is obviously a ten-time-grammy-winning vocalist, my oldest brother Taylor is a producer, and my middle brother, he’s an actor but he can sing too, he played Hamilton on Broadway. I am sure that it goes even further back than that. The musical legacy is incredibly rich in ways that tap into my familial roots.
Pan M 360: So finally, how do we learn to get true to ourselves?
Madison McFerrin: That’s a good question! If I could answer that, I think I would be a much more fortified human being [laugh], but ultimately, I think it comes down to really tapping into yourself, taking time for yourself, meditating, and journaling. I think also community is really important to that. Self-discovery doesn’t only come through yourself, it also comes through the dynamics that you have with the people around you and how they motivate you, how they push you because we are kind of told that we are supposed to be highly individual when, really, we are supposed to be communal, so I think that all that self-discovery comes through having a positive community.
Pan M 360: About composing, you said that you first sing before you play?
Madison McFerrin: I always start with the chords whether that’s me singing them in loop fashion or playing on the piano. Interestingly enough sometimes with production now I start with a drum beat and then I add chords to it but I definitely need some chords in there to be able to sack the melody and ultimately write the lyrics.
Pan M 360: Do you have some new projects coming or any projects aside?
Madison McFerrin: Some new music is on the way. Stay tuned.
Pan M 360: Is there something else you would like to add?
Madison McFerrin: I am just grateful to be back on the road and if anybody wants to connect with me, shoot me a DM, I am always down to connect with my fans. I am really looking for to be back in front of audiences.
Pan M 360: Have you already played with fans?
Madison McFerrin: I have done some lessons and I also have people joining for soundchecks. People will send me stuff in DMs and I do my best to listen to everything, give some advice, and I also have like a texting number where people can text me and we can chat that way, that has been useful during the pandemic.
Pan M 360: Thank you very much!
Both born in 1685, Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel are the great German composers on the program for this evening of the Festival Bach, courtesy of the London Handel Players. Scheduled for Monday, November 21 at Salle Bourgie, the connection is ideal: a British ensemble playing Handel, who spent most of his career in England where Baroque music flourished as it did in Germany, France, Italy, etc. And that is exactly why PAN M 360 talks to the violinist, conductor and artistic director of the London Handel Players, Adrian Butterfield, who was in England a few days ago.
PAN M 360: Although Handel lived most of his life in England, the corpus of this program is German. We won’t repeat the biography of JS Bach and Handel, would it be better to comment on each piece in the program.
ADRIAN BUTTERFIELD: Sure! Well, we begin with Handel’s beautiful Trio Sonata, Op. 5, No. 1, in A major, HWV 396. It begins with one of his favorite pieces of music, I think, because he used it several times, including in what we might now call his violin concerto. In my opinion, it is very nice that he brought back favorite pieces of music several times in his work. You can tell how proud he was of it and wanted more people to hear it. It must also be said that this work is interesting because it allows us to observe once again that he wrote German music throughout his life. And that we are very fortunate to have these beautiful works to perform.
PAN M 360: We move on to JSB’s Sonata for Violin and Harpsichord No.6, in G major, BWV 1019, which precedes two others.
ADRIAN BUTTERFIELD: Bach was such a pioneer that we don’t think of him as a very modern composer even today. He was a visionary for the centuries that followed his existence. In terms of these sonatas, I think the idea of putting the harpsichord at the center of chamber music, and then the concertos, was really new at that time. In a sense, he initiated the idea of the duo or trio sonata, which his son, Carl Philipp Emanuel, took up as did Mozart and Beethoven later. There is a real sense of progression from there. It is also worth remembering that Bach and Handel were the great keyboard players of all time. It’s really amazing that they were born in the same year, just a few miles apart, and never seemed to meet. So I’ve played these sonatas many times over the years, but it was very nice to rediscover them with Silas (Wollston), our keyboard player, and we spent a lot of time playing them together with him and my wife and I.
PAN M 360: Your wife is flutist Rachel Brown.
ADRIAN BUTTERFIELD: Yes! When we got married some years ago, we already had most of the household items that we needed and we thought what, because people always want to give you something for your wedding. So we decided to ask people if they wanted to contribute to the purchase of a harpsichord. And so we ordered this beautiful instrument. Which is lovely because the band comes to our house for rehearsals. We don’t take this harpsichord out very often, so it doesn’t get abused. So the instrument doesn’t travel except for studio recordings. Silas loves to play this instrument, he keeps coming to our house to rehearse. It’s great to see him having so much pleasure with the harpsichord.
PAN M 360: The second trio sonata on the program is “The Musical Offering”, BWV 1079. What about it?
ADRIAN BUTTERFIELD:This is one of those epic Bach pieces that is demanding of both the listener and the performer in terms of the intellectual effort required to listen and appreciate. There are so many amazing aspects to this piece and it refers to that fascinating story of JS Bach going to visit his son Carl Philipp Emanuel at the court of Frederick the Great. Apparently, the son had been told that his old Bach had arrived. While there, JS Bach admired the brand new keyboard instruments. It also seems that Frederick the Great tried to test Bach by imposing particularly difficult themes on which he had to improvise, and he succeeded in making a three-part theme on the spot. But he apparently said that an improvisation on a six-part theme was beyond his abilities. That he had to work on it, which of course he did. So this Trio Sonata has a large-scale construction, a very special moment in the middle of the work. It is indeed very difficult to play, but very challenging. It’s extraordinary music that is unlike anything else.
PAN M 360: Did you build this program specifically for the Montreal Bach Festival? Or are you presenting this program in many places?
ADRIAN BUTTERFIELD: We’ve performed it before, but we thought it was particularly appropriate for the Montreal Bach Festival. We are, of course, the London Handel Players and we have a very strong connection to the London Handel Festival, which was founded in 1978. Twenty years earlier, the same organization had founded a Bach Festival in which we participated. So we share these two great passions for Handel and Bach. But the founder of the Handel Festival also founded a Bach Festival 2025 years before, which I still direct myself, so the bar can handle its two great passions and I think it’s, we have so much fun bringing the two composers together. They are contrasting figures in many ways, Handel being obsessed with opera and Bach never having the chance to write an opera, I mean write in an operatic style at that time.
PAN M 360: As English musicians, isn’t it an extraordinary exercise to play Handel and put him in relief with Bach?
ADRIAN BUTTERFIELD: Absolutely. Handel was a man of the theater and Bach was a man of the church. And to put the two in relief is a fascinating contrast. Having grown up in London and having seen so many places where Handel worked, it’s amazing to be in those spaces where we know he worked. Handel was such an important figure in London, so dominant but not in an unpleasant way. Of course, he had a few clashes with musicians, but he was such a positive influence and had a wonderful sense of humor. It is said that he often spoke in several different languages at once, and that his German accent never disappeared. But you know, he traveled a lot and was interested in singers and how to approach them. And he had this ability to strike you with emotion, and that’s particularly obvious in the second part of the program for this concert.
PAN M 360: You are talking about Da tempeste il legno infranto and Se pietà di me non senti, arias from his opera “Cesare in Egitto”, HWV 17.
ADRIAN BUTTERFIELD: Right. When Rachel did her research at the British Library, she found all these arrangements of Handel’s arias for flute. John Walsh was her publisher and saw an opportunity to make money from his most popular arias so that people could play them at home. Of course, there was no such thing as a recording, and this was the only way they could hear again the pieces they had discovered in Handel’s operas or oratorios. And it’s amazing how direct Handel is with his emotions. He really tugs at the heartstrings and knows how to persuade you of tragedy or great joy. We love playing the arrangements of these arias, we recorded some years ago and have explored a number of new areas since then. So there’s a lot of fun to be had playing these arias, and then Tilas will play Handel’s Harpsichord Suite in F major, HWV 427, and then you’ll hear the music of the other great keyboardist on the program, Bach’s Trio Sonata in G major, BWV 1038. These pieces all represent an enormous challenge for the performers.
PAN M 360: How do you see the collective sound of the London Handel Players and the individual sounds of each of the key players progressing?
ADRIAN BUTTERFIELD: The adaptation of the ensemble to the baroque flute has been important. Having played with Rachel for so many years, I felt it was essential to listen to the sound of the flute and adapt the sound of the strings to it. With an oboist, for example, it’s a completely different sound and the strings have to play differently, because the sound of the baroque flute is softer in general. But we’ve been doing it this way for several years and I hope we’ve found a good blend.
PROGRAM
George Frideric Handel (1685 – 1759) Sonate en trio, opus 5, No. 1, in A major, HWV 396
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 – 1750) Sonate pour violon et clavecin No.6, in G major, BWV 1019 Sonate en trio from The Musical Offering, BWV 1079
George Frideric Handel Suite pour clavecin, in F major, HWV 427 Da tempeste il legno infranto et Se pietà di me non senti, from Giulio Cesare in Egitto, HWV 17
Johann Sebastian Bach Sonate en trio, in G major, BWV 1038
ARTISTS
London Handel Players Rachel Brown, flûte Adrian Butterfield, violin Gavin Kibble, cello Silas Wollston, harpsichord
Based in Vancouver, BC, alternative rock group Kamikaze Nurse is finding inspiration in unlikely places. On their sophomore album Stimuloso, the band pairs heavy guitar riffs with KC Wei’s forceful, droning vocals, forming an eerie fairytale with moments of bliss and periods of ravaged emotion. Kamikaze Nurse brings the intensity of a forest fire to tracks like “Work + Days” and “Stimuloso,” and playful energy to songs “Never Better” and “Come from Wood.” The band’s range is vast, and yet the album sounds cohesive and intentional.
Each member has their hand in other facets of the Vancouver art scene, from John Brennan’s sound installations to KC Wei’s editorship for the film and literature review magazine STILLS: Moving Image Tract. Literature, poetry, and film are some of the source materials for the band’s lyrics and explosive sound.
Comprising members of different ages and experiences, the band connects on their shared love of being at home. Cats, for example, feature prominently on the album in songs like “Pet Meds.” Layered on top of rapid drumming, Wei and vocalist/bassist, Sonya Eui delicately weave together a mix of chanting, spoken word, and animalistic noises to create a bizarre narrative journey. In “Boom Josie,” a track dedicated to guitarist Ethan Reyes’ baby daughter, the band expresses the fear and euphoria of new life.
On Stimuloso, Kamikaze Nurse uses diverse interests to their advantage, composing a sonically rich and lyrically interesting record. Ahead of their performance at M For Montreal Pan M 360 talked with Kamikaze Nurse about domesticity, David Cronenberg, and sharing success with other Vancouver artists.
PAN M 360: What was it like writing and recording Stimuloso at home during the pandemic?
KC: Yeah, that was a very long, long drawn-out process. It felt like we wrote maybe, like, four of the songs before the pandemic. And then, before the pandemic, I think we were planning to just keep on writing and had this idea for, like, ‘Yeah, let’s go, let’s make a second album.’ But with the pandemic, we did take, four months off, basically, when the first wave happened. And it just felt like we were stuck in limbo, like, you know, everyone else in the world for a while. But then, we just did mostly in this room for, like, the instruments. And so we just would try to find the time when, you know, our neighbours weren’t jamming, and just record parts, piece by piece.
That took a few months. And it was also us trying to figure out, you know, how to set up the mics and mixing and everything. So there were a few songs we had to do over and over and over again. And then after that, we went to the recording studio to just finish the vocals. And that took, like, a day or two days. Yeah, how was it for you guys?
Sonya: I took more time off during COVID than the rest of you from what I recall, because of my job. So I remember coming in, and I was like, ‘Oh, we’re gonna play some songs.’ And they were like, ‘We’re recording now.’ I felt very confused about what was happening. It was nice, I liked it.
Ethan: Yeah, it was fun. It took so long to schedule, like, weeks in advance to book to come in and do overdubs for just one song. At least for me, because it took me a really long time to write my parts. And most of my parts were just written, like, as soon as I sat down and John pressed record. Like, ‘OK, let’s figure this out.’ It was a really unique way to do it. In some ways, I almost like doing it that way better than our previous album, which was just live-off-the-floor kind of recording. Doing it this way, there was a lot more control over the writing process and just, like, perfecting things.
PAN M 360: Many of the songs on this album involve fixtures of domesticity. How did you find rock in home life?
Sonya: I don’t even know if it was. I mean, obviously, I think the baby and the cats happened in the pandemic, some because of the pandemic. I don’t know about the baby, but certainly the cats.
Ethan: That wasn’t pandemic related. That was just blatantly accidental. It could have happened at any point.
Sonya: I think it would’ve happened this way anyway, to be honest, we just had a lot of cats on our minds. That was the big thing.
Ethan: Did you guys get all your cats during the pandemic?
KC: I didn’t.
Ethan: You had Jiffy.
KC: But like, Motya was a stray and just came into our place one night and had a fight with Jiffy for his food.
Sonya: I don’t know, I think it was just a phase in life.
KC: I think the domesticity, I mean, I’m personally quite like a homebody person. Or, I don’t know, now that I’m thinking about it, there are a lot of things relatable about the mundaneness of life or something. And for it to inspire a rock album, I think it makes sense to me. I mean, that’s where maybe it came from, like, speaking for myself.
Sonya: Yeah. I don’t know if it’s weird to say but we’re all different ages. Some pretty drastically, actually. The common thing with all of us is we’re all very home-oriented, I would say. Family and all that. Because I don’t know how much just in terms of daily experience, I don’t know how much we would have in common otherwise. We would, but the dramas and the emotions are different.
KC: Yeah, that’s really interesting to think about. We come together and play together as a band and we draw from our pretty different daily lives. Just in terms of the lyrics or the songwriting. I wonder if I have more to say about that. It’s interesting that you picked up on like domesticity as a kind of the theme of the album. I think that’s cool. Like, more and more, I think I’m more used to hearing, like, you know, the death and decay and love for our creatures and stuff like that. But just like, actually, the domestic is such a powerful space. And maybe it’s cool that, like, this album conjures that, because that’s not usually not typical of rock music, I guess.
PAN M 360: Yeah, that’s exactly right. It is very atypical but in the best way possible. KC, you didn’t start playing music until you were 26, after attending art school. You’ve recently returned to academia as a PhD candidate. How does your fine arts background affect your music?
KC: I think maybe it’s like an attitude towards, playing in a band where I didn’t play an instrument until quite late. So I’m not going to shred as hard as people who have been playing obviously, for a really long time. So I have to figure out how to write songs and create them in a different way. And I think that’s where being an artist kind of gives me the confidence to just even try that. And then I guess, being an artist helps me, I guess bringing different interests into the music from literature or movies or something. So writing things in a way that like, I didn’t grow up listening to music or like live bands and like playing in live bands. So I think my approach is a little bit from a different angle. So maybe that’s what makes the songs a little bit unique. I mean, we all, I think, bring very neat elements to it, but that’s where I guess I come from.
PAN M 360: Tell me about your relationship to David Cronenberg, particularly his film’s influence on your song of the same name, “Dead Ringers.”
KC: Oh, yeah, I’ve watched it. It’s my favourite Cronenberg film. I haven’t seen all of them. I haven’t seen the new one yet, but like, every time I watched that one, it’s just so sad. Have you guys seen it? Oh my god, it’s like, it’s the saddest thing I’ve ever seen. I think we had the riff for the song for a while but it wasn’t until … Maybe like the timing of watching the film and then being like, ‘Oh, it’s time to write lyrics for the song.’ It was just very emotionally affected. If you guys want to watch it, it’s on Netflix, I think. I mean, yeah, have you watched it? Are you into David Cronenberg?
PAN M 360: I’m a big David Cronenberg fan. What about it, in particular, did you find sad or at least emotionally evocative?
KC: Well, I guess just the love between, like the very twisted codependent love between the brothers. And then the kind of love interest just kind of screwing up their, like, I don’t know, their dynamic, and how in the end, they return to each other, but in this most tragic way. It’s like being on two sides of existence, but together. It’s like they’re basically … I love how in the film though, it’s like, there are certain scenes that are so visual. Because they’re wearing red scrubs and that crazy claw art that when he goes to the gallery he’s transfixed by, and anyway, it’s just, I’m not sure. I’m trying to think about the lyrics now and how they relate, but it’s kind of more the emotional place I was in when, and how that emotional place kind of opened up kind of like a way to write lyrics. Because I’m not writing about my own experience, or like, my own pain. It’s more kind of like the pain or the feelings that come around through another artwork, which I find really that it’s kind of like, the goal of art for me, or like, you want it to make you feel something that you’re unable to feel without it. So I think that’s kind of where I was coming from when writing lyrics and just kind of wanting to continue that flow of energy. Like, if that film made me feel this way, to write the lyrics to the song this way. Maybe if somebody hears that they’ll be… it’ll invoke something. It’ll open up something for them.
PAN M 360: Sonya, does your background in classical music influence your approach to rock? Is this rebellion?
Sonya: I think I always knew. I mean, I got into classical music because that’s a very easy way to get into music. But I grew up in a very rocking family. So I think I always knew that I would be doing something like that. But what I will say, I mean, obviously, a classical background makes a lot of things easier. It makes understanding music easier. I don’t know, just even like, especially playing with this band, playing with John especially. Being in the rhythm section with John who has a very solid background, academic background in music makes it very easy for us to connect.
PAN M 360: Electroacoustics, right, from Concordia?
KC: Yeah, and definitely jazz. He’s a very jazzy guy.
Sonya: Like that part’s fun. I feel like me and John get to play around a lot with time signatures and rhythms. Which is not always the case in rock bands. So I guess, to sum up, my classical background makes rock music extremely fun to play with people who also have a similar background, then you can do so much with that. And also, like, technically, it’s really cool to get better. Like, I feel like I have the ambition to be better at my instrument because it was like, beat into me, figuratively and literally.
PAN M 360: “Work + Days” plays with the anxiety of making a living. When does making and playing music feel like work to you?
Ethan: Yeah, it’s an interesting question. It feels like, playing music can be both a really freeing experience and a nice, nice way to kind of let go of the stress of work and making a living, but can just as easily feel like an obligation as well. It’s hard to strike a balance there. Especially when you’re just really busy and have a baby and have to work full time and like it sucks having to feel like you need to carve out, make an effort to carve out time just to, like, let go. Like, that should just happen. I wish we were all neighbours and had a jam space in the basement. You can just, like, chill and do that every night just, like, you know, hang out and play music. Like, I have to drive half an hour down here [to the studio].
PAN M 360: Yeah, it sounds like turning a creative job into a sort of structured, nine-to-five where you have to actually figure out when you’re going to get your shit together and join up and play.
Ethan: Yeah, my 100% favourite parts of being in a band are practicing and being on stage. Literally every single other part of being in the band I don’t care for. Recording, I don’t care for. Dealing with the label. Dealing with the label is the worst part. If we could find a way to just practice and play shows, that’d be amazing.
Sonya: He won’t shut the fuck up about this baby.
PAN M 360: Yeah, Josie. How is she doing?
Ethan: She’s great. She turned a year and a half today.
PAN M 360: Oh, happy birthday, or half birthday!
Ethan: We got her a smoothie for her half-birthday.
PAN M 360: A smoothie?
Ethan: She got a banana smoothie and we went to the swing set.
KC: Let’s write a rock song about that.
PAN M 360: Your most recent music video for “Never Better” was animated by Lianne Zannier, an artist based in Vancouver. What drew you to work with her?
KC: Oh, we’re friends. We used to be co-workers at this art centre. And Lianne spent a lot of time in Montreal and New Brunswick. It was just mostly a friend connection. And John really wanted to make an animated music video. And we did two music videos already. So I think we didn’t have any more ideas about what we wanted to do as music videos. So Lianne kind of stepped in and just kind of gave her idea or her concept. So we just went with it.
PAN M 360: I don’t know if this is intentional, but it sounds like you’re naturally creating this sort of mutually beneficial ecosystem with artists in your circle. Has this come up in other instances that you can think of?
KC: I mean, maybe with the art rock stuff, because I used to do this concert series in Vancouver, where I’d just invite people. It was a monthly concert night that I would program and stuff. And I would just ask people to come to play. I didn’t think it would be anything, but it ran for three years, maybe more than three years. And there’s, like, 32 iterations of it. And over time, I kind of feel like you can’t be, and I don’t want to be, a band that succeeds without sharing it as much as I can with my friends or the community I care about. It’s really hard sometimes. We’re all constantly exhausted. And we do get asked to play shows sometimes. And we’re either not in town, or super busy, or super tired. I’m a bit self-conscious about ‘community’ because it can be such a loaded word. Like building it to make it, and sustaining it over time. It can feel super positive, and we do it because we love it and need a community to thrive in, but it can also be exhausting and messy, and they change over time. People come and go, and communities need to grow and evolve.
PAN M 360: You’ll be playing M For Montreal soon. What do you hope audiences feel when they listen to your performances?
Sonya: Pity.
KC: Orgasm.
Ethan: I hope the front row is just like, like, dudes who are like, ‘Oh, this music is so sick,’ and they just go ‘Whoa” for the whole set. That’s all. I don’t really care what they’re feeling. As long as they’re like ‘this music, rocks.’
Kamikaze Nurse play Café Cléopâtre on Nov. 18 w/ Ariane Roy & l’Escogriffe on Nov. 19 w/ Sunglaciers and a Surprise Guest
Balaklava Blues blends EDM and trance with ancient Ukrainian folk songs, backed by a significant multimedia show. With the carnage taking place in Ukraine right now, their show is also about revolution and giving a huge F-you to Putin, but also preserving Ukrainian folk songs that are thousands of years old and sharing them with the world. The trio is made up of husband and wife, Mark and Marichka Marczyk, and their bandmate/friend Oskar Lambarri.
Before their performance at M For Montreal, Balaklava Blues did a short and tumultuous guerrilla tour to Ukraine. The idea was to play music in Ukraine, but also take a trip through checkpoints and destroyed villages to visit Marichka’s brother, who was stationed by Izium. They traveled with a humanitarian aid colony through a war-torn Ukraine, but the most dangerous part of their trip was ironically in the centre of the nation’s capital, Kyiv, on the morning of October 10. Russian air strikes landed rockets a mere 2 blocks from the hotel the band was staying in.
Our conversation with Mark and Marichka Marczyk was a heavy one, but could also be called inspiring. People in Ukraine are not letting this war define them and though much of the day is for the war effort, Mark especially, was surprised to see people go on with their daily lives. “They’re pissed off this is happening, but they’re not letting it control their lives,” he says. It just shows how important music is in these times, including Balaklava Blues’ new album, LET ME OUT. We chatted with them about their origins and their musical importance before their performance at M For Montreal.
PAN M 360: I know you’re both in The Lemon Bucket Orkestra but how did Balaklava Blues form?
Marichka Marczyk: It’s a kind of continuation of this project [Lemon Bucket] because the Balaklava Blues is mostly dedicated to what happened after the revolution.
Mark Marczyk: If I take a more philosophic approach, music is like a reflection of the life that you’re living and the feelings that you’re going through. And I think at that time, what Marichka was talking about, after the revolution, and then into the war in Ukraine, our life started to look drastically different than it had to that point. And the music that we were playing wasn’t reflecting that life anymore. We needed a new outlet to be able to have to process deal with and explore creatively. For me as a Canadian, I was sort of first got thrown into like the middle of a revolution and then war and then working with the diaspora to support that in ways. And then, for Marichka as a refugee, and as a Ukrainian now living in Canada as an immigrant … there’s a whole bunch of different layers that we needed to unpack. And so we created Balaklava Blues to do that.
PAN M 360: And you two met during the Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine in 2014. What was that experience like? Did you know you were both musicians?
Marichka Marczyk: We didn’t even talk about music until much later and then we sang one song together and were like ‘Oh my God’ this is a perfect match.
MarkMarczyk: She knew that I was a musician because I was at the time recording musicians, like traditional folk musicians, to include in the score of a film. So there was that initial point of contact. But it sort of went outside of all that. When you’re in the middle of protests of that scale, that ended up being a revolution that actually successfully overthrows a corrupt president after a serious amount of violence and loss. And that ends up leading to a war that is now turning into the biggest war in Europe, since the Second World War, music is like a soundtrack to that.
I can be sensationalistic about the revolution and tell you about the burning barricades and the riot cops and the guys that were being shot by snipers. Or shoveling snow into barricades or we can be romantic about it and talk about the painting of the shields and the free tattoos, dancing to stay warm under the underpasses, and people sharing food and everything that they had, and clothes and everybody pitching in. You know, there’s so there are different ways that you can sort of paint it, but the bottom line is it left a huge, huge impression on us.
PAN M 360: And you recently went back to Ukraine and a day after you played there was a bombing not like maybe a couple of blocks from where you were standing. To me, being here in Canada, it’s crazy to me that live concerts are still happening during war. I’m happy to hear that they are because people need distractions and to feel united, but a bomb dropping a day after you play a concert is insane.
Marichka Marczyk: Yeah it is, but it’s as you say important. It’s very important, but it’s not about feeling you know, united when we’re playing music in the frontline. I think what we realized it’s about is feeling like you’re home. It’s reminding you of home. When you’re in that absolutely different world with different roles and different relationships, everything is just crazy different. You’re living a different life. And you’re kind of in it for eight months and you start to forget about like how to be normal, normal regular people live in normal life at home hearing some music.
Balaklava Blues playing FME, Rouyn-Noranda
PAN M 360: So did that feeling of wanting to bring home through music lead to the decision of going back to Ukraine? Marichka, I know your brother is on the frontline as well.
Marichka Marczyk: Yes to visit my brother who is fighting, and play for him and his friends.
MarkMarczyk: You know, before we went, we did a big fundraising concert so that we could buy a truck for Max and his battalion, and then we went on with the humanitarian aid convoy to the frontline to deliver that stuff. But for me, what was actually the most emotional and maybe illogical, but the most human part of it was the way Marchika described it to me originally when she told me we should go. She said, “I want to bring him a piece of cake.” Because the thing that he said he wanted, most of all, it wasn’t like, ‘Oh, bring me a bulletproof vest, or I need warm winter clothes. It’s like, ‘I want a piece of cake. Baked from home.’
PAN M 360: And you two brought that cake all the way through the checkpoints?
MarkMarczyk: Yeah. Imagine Marichka traveling for the 23 hours that it took to get across the country through 40 block posts, on like rickety roads going through all sorts of detours because bridges had been bombed. And she has this cake on her shaking on her lap. Then getting to this busted out, complete ghost town, to the gas station, with bombed-out vehicles that are all being torn apart for spare parts, and where they’re stationed. And being like, ‘Here you go, here’s a cake and a hug’ and just this like, moment of joy and everybody eating the cake and us playing traditional music, with the fire going, and some like food being barbecued.
PAN M 360: Going back to that feeling of home Marichka was talking about.
MarkMarczyk: Exactly. That feeling of we know this isn’t normal. We’re away from our home. Our family is in Poland. Everybody is uprooted in one way or another. And whether it’s on the frontline or in the centre of the city, or in a cave that’s also being bombed, people want a sense of home. Feeling ‘I’m not alone. My life still has a sense of normalcy. It’s not only darkness.’
Marichka Marczyk: It was really emotional for me to visit my brother because it was like three years since I had seen him. And then here I am with this cake.
PAN M 360: I’m sure in moments like that it’s really hard to process what’s actually going on and then when you go back and you’re no longer in the thick of it, you can.
MarkMarczyk: Oskar, our drummer, and third member, was actually smoking on the balcony in the hotel when the rocket hit Kyiv. So he saw it coming and hit the building. But it’s hard to react. It was like ‘OK I guess we should go to the bomb shelter. Some people are just continuing with their normal life. Then we went to Portugal to perform at WOMEX [a big international world music festival] and Oskar was smoking on the balcony again and he comes back and says ‘It just hit me.’ There’s still a similar European vibe to Ukraine and Portugal, and he forgot where he was for a second. And he just kept looking up expecting to see something explode.
PAN M 360: It’s also heartbreaking, but also powerful to hear that people in Ukraine are still going on with their daily lives and not just living in fear from a bomb attack.
MarkMarczyk: It’s more of a determination. Because when these bombings are happening, like you see, people are pissed. Like they’re upset and it’s a thing that is empowering as you said. It’s not letting that anger turn into fear or apathy or depression. They’re turning that anger into action, determination, and willpower. it’s a very like both individual but then also a collective decision that ‘We will win. That feeling is unbelievable. ‘I’m just gonna go do my own thing because these people aren’t going to fuck with me. Or somebody else will be like, ‘We’re going to win but right now, I need to get in the bomb shelter because I can’t do anything because I gotta survive so I can kick ass. Or I’m gonna join the military and fight right now, even though I’m a beekeeper in my normal life.
PAN M 360: Getting into music, and this new album, LET ME OUT, these songs are a reworking of traditional Ukrainian folk songs. Marichka I know to school for ethnomusicology so you must have a database of these traditional songs?
Marichka Marczyk: Yes. What we did when we collected them was canoeing in the summer, like the whole summer, to different groups of people to collect the songs in the river. So we would just stop to be making the camp and collect the song in the villages. And we did that year by year, in the summer only. And so this is a collection not only by me but from my different ethnomusicologists. These songs are about calling different gods and spirits or calling summer or spring, or like a lot of songs about love. But of course, there are also tragedies and it can in some cases be because of oppression, oppression from a political force.
PAN M 360:And where did the idea to add EDM and trance music to these traditional songs come from?
Marichka Marczyk: Well, I am living in this tradition of passing down songs for almost 30 years, in my life, like deeply. So I have this, this soul spirit. So this is my life. And like, in my artistic life, I always did something with these songs, but mostly just think it like in their original form. But then, when I met Mark, we decided, like, let’s combine these two different cultures.
MarkMarczyk: There’s a political and emotional reason for wanting to continue to go deep into these Ukrainian songs. But like hip-hop and trap, they come from really traumatized cultures. Right? And what’s amazing about it is that they come from these traumatized cultures that turn that pain into joy and power. EDM is on a completely different spectrum but also the same. It takes the boredom of the middle class, a suburbia kind of thing, and turns it into this sort of like roller coaster ride that is predictable yet very powerful with these aggressive sounds. Dubstep is tied to metal as well, and it felt like something worth exploring in the context of war. That’s why we named the band Balaklava Blues; because blues is the ultimate form that sort of did that. Started with people that were basically singing through the worst possible experience that any human can feel, and then turning it into a source of empowerment, expression, and humanity. That’s just what we wanted to achieve with our music and what we feel Ukrainian music has in it and what we wanted to share.
In Montreal, the second half of November has been the peak period for the excellent Bach Festival for the past fifteen years, and the concert on Thursday promises to be one of the most remarkable in its schedule: from Germany, the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart welds together a baroque orchestra and a choir, the Gächinger Kantorei, making for a perfectly matched early music ensemble.
Led by Hans-Christoph Rademann, the ensemble has earned an international reputation for its Stuttgart Bach style, which experts recognize as emotionally charged and virtuosically precise.
To get us up to speed on the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart’s Montreal stop at the Maison symphonique this Thursday, 7:30 p.m., PAN M 360 talks with tenor Benedikt Kristjánsson, who plays St. John the Evangelist in JS Bach’s St. John Passion, BWV 245, composed by the cantor of St. Thomas Church in Leipzig shortly after he took office and premiered on Good Friday, April 7, 1724. Here we are on November 17, 2022 and the masterpiece remains a masterpiece of the Baroque period in the field of sacred music.
PAN M 360: JS Bach is the central composer of this ensemble, but you are also involved in many types of Baroque?
BENEDIKT KRISTJANSSON: Yes, I would say that Bach is definitely central, and Baroque music is at the heart of the ensemble. But Mr. Rademann can also conduct Haydn, Mozart or Schumann.
PAN M 360: What is your personal connection to the St. John Passion?
BENEDIKT KRISTJANSSON: Well, there is probably no work that I have sung as much as this one. I’ve done it in several ensembles, and also with dancers, in a reduced formation with two instruments or even with children. So it’s evolved with me for at least the last 10 years of my career.
PAN M 360: How do you situate this work in relation to other large-scale works by Bach?
BENEDIKT KRISTJANSSON: It’s a very dramatic work, almost suitable for an opera. Whereas Bach’s Matthew Passion, for example, is more contemplative. More sacred in a way. More spiritual than theatrical, although the St. John Passion is also very spiritual.
PAN M 360: So the role of the Evangelist would be much more “theatrical” than other dramatic incarnations of Bach’s passions.
BENEDIKT KRISTJANSSON: Yes. In this St. John Passion, the singer has to have more weapons in his arsenal to portray St. John than is the case in the St. Matthew Passion. I think the arias in this work are also different in text and approach.
PAN M 360: If you compare this work to others by JS Bach, how would you rate its level of difficulty?
BENEDIKT KRISTJANSSON: I think that singing Bach is always very difficult. I’ve never sung a Bach Passion and thought it was very simple. I mean, actually, it’s always longer to master, it takes a lot more concentration and energy to bring the whole story to the table, whereas a cantata is much shorter, the message is shorter.
PAN M 360: And how do you see the performance of this piece by this ensemble evolving. Where were you before? Where are you now?
BENEDIKT KRISTJANSSON: After the departure of its founder Helmuth Rilling and the arrival of Mr. Rademann, the ensemble has changed significantly. Today, for example, the works are performed exclusively on period instruments. Rademann’s musical brain is completely different from Rilling’s. I must add that the former conductor was fantastic in his own way. But I didn’t feel that it was in the direction of today’s baroque revival, initiated by Johann Nikolaus Harnoncourt. And I think that this music is more accurately performed today, it is in my opinion more beautiful with period instruments. And today you have performers who focus on baroque music and who have necessarily developed an expertise in this sense. Of course, it’s a matter of taste, of course, but personally I think it’s much better in general. And I also like the theological dimension in his conducting.
PAN M 360: What do you mean?
BENEDIKT KRISTJANSSON: I mean that Rademann is really fascinated by the sacred text, by what is to be portrayed, by what Bach was thinking about when he composed the work in question. He is not only thinking about how the work should sound according to the instructions of his score, he is also thinking about the sacred text carried by the music. And so he pays particular attention to all the phrases, all the words pronounced by the soloists in order to translate the sacred text as faithfully as possible. This can be seen in the vocal inflections, for example, when Jesus appears before Pilate and the latter tries to persuade himself that he is higher than him and his god, that he is the person with the power. This kind of detail suggested by Rademann seems to me to be like gold dust that is deposited on the work thus interpreted.
PAN M 360: When conducting or playing the music of such a work based on a religious text, does believing in it really elevate the interpretation in your opinion?
BENEDIKT KRISTJANSSON: It is the same thing if you make of the opera ; you have to get to the heart of the script. You have also to get to the heart of the character or characters you have to play. You have to understand the context of the libretto and find a kind of truth for yourself as a performer, a truth sometimes related to your own life. So that’s what you have to do here with a text from the Bible. I’m personally very religious, Rademann is also religious as are other people in the orchestra. Others are not. In fact, you don’t have to be a believer or a religious person at all for this interpretation, you have to go deep into the theme of the work.
PAN M 360: Whether the members of your ensemble believe or not, most of them come from the German Lutheran tradition, that is, a great mystical connection between music and the sacred. So you are connected to this tradition yourself, aren’t you? BENEDIKT KRISTJANSSON: Yes, absolutely. My father was a bishop, so I was brought up in that environment and I still have the values of that. That said, belief is not a prerequisite for a great interpretation of a sacred text set to music. It is an individual choice and you choose what you want when you absorb that knowledge as an artist.
After spending a number of years living in southern Finland, Anna Näkkäläjärvi-Länsman decided to settle up north, in Nuorgam, where the Sámi people live. Anna has Sámi heritage from her father’s side, she wanted to reconnect with this culture. With a strong background in musical studies–clarinet, among other things– at the Tampere Conservatory and at Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Anna’s interests initially lay in folk music from the region of Karelia. Then it evolved to joik, the traditional singing of the Sámis, which encompasses both pragmatic and spiritual components. So this is how the Ánnámáret project was born.
Anna will be performing with other indigenous artists at La Sala Rossa, this Wednesday afternoon. And later that day, she’ll play at Église Saint-Enfant-Jésus du Mile-End, for a concert arranged by Centre des musiques du monde. Pan M 360 talked to Anna Näkkäläjärvi-Länsman last weekend, a few hours before her long flight to Montréal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MoZbRa9ydQ&t=75s
Pan M 360: Hello Anna, are you in Nuorgam? How is the weather there?
Anna Näkkäläjärvi-Länsman: Hi! We’ve had snow, but now we’re afraid it’ll melt. Hopefully, the cold will last, so the snow stays.
Pan M 360: Joik is one of the traditional forms of singing, in Sámi culture. I guess the only part of it that we, North Americans, can relate to is the throat-singing component, which we hear in Inuit music here. But joik is complex and comprised of many more elements. Can you give tell us a bit about it?
Anna N.-L.: It is music but also social communication. In the old days, joik was an extension of the language. Some things were easier to discuss by joiking. Nowadays, it is predominately used as music. Joiking describes animals or persons, who are then described in the melodies. It is a special way of functioning. So I could be joiking you. Joiks are closely connected to the land. For instance, they could describe the herding of reindeer in a particular area. The lyrics can also be improvised. It is complex because there is so much improvisation in it. You have to rely on the style too, within a specific aesthetic framework.
Pan M 360: Your musical partner is Ilkka Heinonen, a classically-trained musician who plays the jouhikko, a Finnish lyre. How did you start playing together?
Anna N.-L.: As a teenager, I started joiking, but then I decided to learn clarinet. I wanted to make a career playing in an orchestra. So I started studying music at the Tampere Conservatory, then I went to Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. Ilkka and I met in Tampere. I was interested in Finnish folk music, and so was he. So we started playing together and we went abroad. Then I felt interested in joiking again, so that was when Ilkka and I made our first experiments with the jouhikko; we I felt it would work well together. By the way, in Montréal we’re going to do some of the original joiks we did together twenty years ago! It’s funny because we were studying classical music very seriously, and we ended up doing something totally different.
Then we discussed how we would expand this, in order to make a full album, for arrangements and so on. So Ilkka talked to Turkka, who agreed to collaborate with us. It worked like a dream, really, because Turkka keeps his electronic elements intimate and simple, they don’t hinder the humanity and the organic aspect of the joiks and the jouhikko. Among other things, Turkka uses sounds that he recorded in the open air, in nature. He likes to experiment.
Pan M 360: The jouhikko has four strings and has to be played with a bow. I read somewhere it comes from Wales and is also used in Estonian music?
Anna N.-L.: Yes, it has three or four strings, it depends. We had the idea of using it when we were playing a folk song from Karelia, a region in Finland. While singing I thought I could also joik. It involved different vocal techniques. The melody was Karelian, but I was adding my thing to it. It somehow worked very well. The “Joik of the Bear” was among of the first ones we did together. I felt that my voice and the sound of the jouhikko made a good combination. Because the joik and the jouhikko are similar in that they don’t comprise big scales or chromatic elements. Only a few tones; we play with them and improvise.
Pan M 360: You’re singing in Sámi. Is it your mother tongue?
Anna N.-L.: I learned Sámi and Finnish both; my father is Sámi and my mother is Finnish. Multicultural families are quite common nowadays. So I’ve been speaking Sámi since I was a child. And while I was living in southern Finland, I tried to maintain and reinforce it as much as possible, given that I was far from any Sámi communities. Social media wasn’t very strong then. There was that Sámi magazine which I subscribed to.
Pan M 360: You will be taking part in Mundial Montréal Festival this Wednesday in the afternoon, but you’ll also do a concert programmed by Centre des musiques du monde later that day. Will the two performances be similar?
Anna N.-L.: No, the Mundial concert will be in a three-musician configuration, with Ilkka Heinonen on the jouhikko and Turkka Inkilä handling the electronics. And also my longtime friend Marja Viitahuh for the visuals. She’s using pictures that she’s taken up north, I hope it’ll make you travel! As for the Centre des musiques du monde concert, it’ll feature Ilkka and me as a duo, and there will also be solo parts. I’m planning on doing more traditional joiks, that evening.
Pan M 360: Nieguid duovdagat, which means “Dreamscapes,” is the name of the album you released last year. It certainly has an oniric or dreamy quality. It was very well-received, it earned you the Folk Album of the Year prize in Finland.
Anna N.-L.: Yes, and it was the first Sámi album to win that prize!
Pan M 360: Congratulations! Is there another one in the works?
Anna N.-L.: Oh yes, I’ve got many-many more joiks ready, we’re planning on recording the album next year. We’re going to perform one of those new joiks on Wednesday evening, as a matter of fact. Nieguid duovdagat was more about going back to our roots, looking to archives, searching for our ancestors, and wondering about the relationship between their lifestyle and ours. It’s a little bit like a crisis when you think about it. More like a dreamy world. But now my idea is to joik about things that are sacred in our lives, and have been for thousands of years. Like the land and the reindeer. About how things were before Christianity. What did people believe then, and how much of it do we still believe in today, in our ordinary lives? What makes the living Sámi culture?
Pan M 360: Well, thank you for this conversation, Anna, we’re really looking forward to hearing and seeing Ánnámáret on Wednesday!
Photo credit: Marja Viitahuh.
ÁNNÁMÁRET PLAYS LA SALA ROSSA THIS WEDNESDAY AT 3 P.M. FOR MUNDIAL MONTRÉAL (INFO AND TICKETS HERE), AND ÉGLISE SAINT-ENFANT-JÉSUS DU MILE-END FOR CENTRE DES MUSIQUES DU MONDE , ALSO ON WEDNESDAY AT 8 P.M (INFO AND TICKETS HERE).
Montreal’s ambient dream pop artist, Naomie de Lorimier, has performed within various projects in Quebec’s underground for many years, such as playing with Klô Pelgag, Joni Void, Laurence-Anne, and more recently, Jonathan Personne as well as Lumière. With her own project, N Nao—a collaboration between her writing partner, Charles Marsolais-Ricard, Lysandre Ménard (Lysandre, Helena Deland), Étienne Dupré (Duu, zouz, Klô Pelgag), and Samuel Gougoux (TDA, Corridor, Kee Avil, VICTIME)—de Lorimier creates haunting and meaningful dream pop that grips the heartstrings and soul.
Utilizing an array of samplers, acoustic guitar, and vocal delays, N Nao, feels like a performance from a siren, luring you in ever so slowly, to show you an imagined, but attainable world of tranquility and grace.
The latest single “La plus belle chose,” is the first offering of N Nao’s second album which is due March next year. Ahead of her performance at M For Montreal on Nov. 16 at Le Ministère w/ Bibi Club, Valence, and Witch Prophet, we spoke with Naomie one afternoon about this version of her new single, lucid dreaming, and now being a part of the Mothland family.
PAN M 360: Hi Naomie. Congrats on the new release. What led to this bigger band version of “La plus belle chose”?
Naomie de Lorimier: When I released the EP, the acoustic version was meant to be the demo for the album version. So I wasn’t supposed to release the older guitar and voice version. But I felt like I had to because I don’t know. Sometimes you feel like you have to do something. I really like those home recordings live with, like few instruments. This new one is actually two years old, but I just released it.
PAN M 360: The latest version is gorgeously mixed and very calming and very trancey. I love the sample of the strings.
Naomie de Lorimier: Oh thank you. That string sample started with a conversation with me and Charles Marsolais-Ricard who is like half of N Nao. Often we jam and he has ideas of samples to mix with my lyrics. It’s very interesting to have that relationship with him.
PAN M 360: So he’s the co-founder of N Nao with you?
Naomie de Lorimier: Exact. He’s been there from the beginning. But I mean, it’s my songs, like it’s my songwriting, but Charles is the first person who ever heard a song from me, you know? So he’s really like important in the history of the project.
PAN M 360: And for the creative process too?
Naomie de Lorimier: Yeah exactly. We always talk about music. We live together and we just like bounce and concepts and he’s like, art history master if I can say that, so from a conceptual aspect like he’s the core.
PAN M 360: You work a lot with found sounds in your music and use them as samples. Are these recordings you make yourself or do you pull from a sample library?
Naomie de Lorimier: I really play with the tapes. I have a Tascam 4-track and since the beginning of the project, I have recorded on tape. Just things from my daily life when I’m walking in the forest or when I’m at a park or when I’m skating. Tapes for me are super democratic. Like you can buy one for $1 at the Renaissance and I have like a few tape machines. So I use them as field recordings in our music. And like we have also a home studio so most of the album, maybe half of the recordings are homemade.
PAN M 360: So that is definitely part of your artistic process?
Naomie de Lorimier: Yes it’s very important for me. I like to collect things like flowers, rocks, and sounds. And you know, video, so it’s all part of the same archive. Like archival archeology? The field recordings are kind of more like a daily routine, maybe like a ritual of some sort. Because I’m mostly inspired by my dreams. And my research is really subconscious. So it’s a bit like, I’m doing it without knowing what will be the result. And then, like, when I re-listen to it, it kind of feels like it wasn’t me who made it. It’s a bit like with my video because I’m shooting with 8 mm. So, like, when I memorize it, two years later, I feel like it happened in a dream.
PAN M 360: You said you’re kind of inspired by your dreams. So do you like to write down your dreams after you wake up? Or do you kind of remember the feeling or the thoughts in them?
Naomie de Lorimier: It’s a really interesting question because you can become better at remembering your dreams. If you explain them to someone and if you talk about your dreams in your daily life, you will connect your conscious and your subconscious in a way. Like, right now we’re talking about dreams. So maybe in my dream, I will remember that conversation and it will be like a mirroring thing. So I like to tell them to my partner when I wake up. But also, when I used to be at Concordia, I tried to apply techniques. So like when you wake up, you don’t drink coffee, you go back to your dreams, and then you try to do a lucid dream.
PAN M 360: Yes lucid dreaming has always alluded me.
Naomie de Lorimier: I feel like that kind of training, it’s to become more porous, like the boundary between my conscious and subconscious realms. So when I’m unconscious, I feel like I can go back to that state. Like when I’m playing music and when I compose, I’m trying to go back to that state.
PAN M 360: So you lucid dream often?
Naomie de Lorimier: Well it’s hard to become a lucid dreamer ’cause it takes lots of training. But once I dreamt of like an installation, and I really felt like I got it, you know? And afterward, I remade it in real life, in my sculpture class. And that was the time that I was more close to it, but yeah, I’m not so good yet. Flying is super hard in the dream for example.
PAN M 360: Now that you’re part of the Mothland label, has that changed your artistic process in any way?
Naomie de Lorimier: My artistic practice hasn’t really changed, but maybe the only thing that has changed is that maybe I am more confident now. To have people that are really excited and trusting of what I’m doing. When I like, speak to them. I feel more surrounded. And having people around me makes me want to put more time into doing my art. So it’s been really nice.
PAN M 360: I’ve seen you live a few times and every time you wear the same dress and eventually spray water from my spray bottle onto yourself. It’s kind of like theatre in a way.
Naomie de Lorimier: Yes! I kind of like to apply my artistic background to my musical performance and like to blur the line between what is real and what is sort of dream-like. So the audience is kind of like ‘What did I just see?’ With the water, it’s like cleaning myself, feeling a bit like when you take a bath; it can be sensual in a way. And I am like a swimmer so when I do it on stage, I feel refreshed. And yeah, I just do it when I sing “Water and Dreams.” So I made that connection to that song.
With the August release of their third album, Chopper, Toronto indie-rock outfit Kiwi Jr. is about to be back out on the road.
The band, typically known for sunshiny pop-rock bangers with a surreal, sardonic lyrical twist, has created something of a reinvention with Chopper. Rather than focusing on cheerful guitar riffs and uplifting instrumentals, as seen on previous albums Football Money (2019) and Cooler Returns (2021), Chopper instead has a darker, more nocturnal tone—described by the band in one interview as ‘Kiwi after dark’—and is a fantastic iteration that fans won’t want to miss.
Kiwi Jr. are Jeremy Gaudet (guitar, vocals), Mike Walker (bass), Brohan Moore (drums), and Brian Murphy (keys, guitar). In this latest offering, the group has included synths in their compositions for the first time, having Murphy make the switch from lead guitar to, primarily, the synthesizer. They’re also joined by producer Dan Boeckner, known for his work with Wolf Parade, Handsome Furs, and Divine Fits.
This change in Kiwi Jr.’s successful formula has more than paid off on Chopper, bringing a new feel to their iconic sound and complementing the volatile yet voluminous peaks and valleys of their songs.
PAN M 360 got in touch with Kiwi Jr. frontman Jeremy Gaudet one week prior to their show at M for Montreal Marathon in Mile End.
PAN M 360: With Chopper out, a European tour under your belt, and a bunch more shows to come, how are you guys feeling right now?
Jeremy Gaudet: Pretty good! We’re still excited to be promoting the record, it’s only been a couple of months, so it still feels pretty fresh to us and we’re still having lots of fun with it on stage.
PAN M 360: Have you discovered anything new as you’ve been playing live over the last bit?
JG: It’s been way different because we have Brian [Murphy] playing the keyboard on stage, and he’d never done that before this record. We added so many keys on the record, and we had to have somebody step up and do it, so that’s been a cool thing to try to make work.
PAN M 360: You mentioned that your producer Dan’s head injury on day two of recording changed the course of the record to be more synth-focused. Could this jump have happened any other way?
JG: I mean that’s just a funny story that we tell people, but we were always gonna have synths on the record, that’s why Dan wanted to produce it. The head injury thing was just a very memorable moment, and what was interesting about it was that we scrapped pretty much everything we worked on in the first two days and went into synth mode, where normally you’d record all your bed tracks and everything, so that’s kind of what that injury did to Dan, like, ‘fuck this.’
PAN M 360: Were there any artists you guys looked to as a starting point for your first synth foray?
JG: Yeah, all kinds. Destroyer, a lot of pop stuff like The Weeknd. Some ‘80s stuff, you know, Rod Stewart. Also a lot of Dan [Boeckner]’s work, Handsome Furs and things like that. Deftones has a lot of cool sub-bass synth stuff that we ended up trying to do to beef up some choruses. We listen to a lot of different types of music just to see what tones we like.
PAN M 360: It feels like you’ve grown your audience a lot faster than your average Canadian indie band. Do you guys feel like this happened quickly as well, or is it the pace you expected to be making?
JG: I don’t really have a reference for that, but, you know, it’s always nice to have more people at your shows than you expected. When we were in Europe, we were concerned when we were playing in places like Brussels, and we didn’t know a single person there to add to the guest list. But then you get to the show and it’s full, and you’re thinking ‘how did this happen?’ It’s pretty cool. I have to go back.
PAN M 360: You’ve mentioned that you pretty much wrote all ten songs on Chopper one after another, versus a more organic approach. Was that way of working new to you?
JG: This was the first time I was ever afforded the luxury of doing that. Normally, yes, you pick out stuff at practice, put it back on the shelf, and after a year you have all these riffs and half-songs. And when you know you have to make an album you go back and gather all the spare parts. With this one, it was a different experience.
PAN M 360: On the note of your songwriting, you’re becoming known for some really striking, cryptic poetry in your lyrics. I was wondering if you could share a bit of the story behind the words of “Downtown Area Blues.”
JG: For the most part, I’ve been telling people that I wrote the song titles first on this record, and that’s definitely the case for a lot of the songs. But this was one where I had an idea—I thought the record needed another uptempo song, and I just had this dream sequence-y idea of literally being trapped in a storage container downtown.
We have a storage unit where we keep all our gear and merch when we’re not playing, and it’s a nightmare, and it’s scary, so you’ve got that idea. And then downtown Toronto is just a terrible place to be at night. If you go to a Raptors game, or a Bluejays game, or something right downtown, and you’re trying to get out of the city, it’s just a chaotic nightmare scenario.
That’s generally the idea of the song, and the main theme of it is having to wake things up. It could be anything, from insomnia—not being able to sleep and having to wait out what’s going on until the morning—to literally being trapped in a storage facility and having to wait for somebody to come and let you out.
PAN M 360: Would you call yourself a film buff? Are there any movies you found inspiring as you worked on Chopper?
JG: I like movies, but I’d never call myself a film buff. I know that whenever we were putting the artwork, we were talking about Michael Mann movies a lot. That kind of lonely cityscape vibe— the night feeling.
PAN M 360: You’ve got other film references in there as well, right? Like that one about the scorpion jacket from Drive?
JG: That line gets misinterpreted by people. I remember when that movie came out, and for years, cool guys at Halloween parties would wear that jacket as a Halloween costume. And after a while, it just became a signifier that this guy is an asshole or a tryhard. So that’s where I was coming from with that.
PAN M 360: What’s coming up for Kiwi Jr. in 2023?
JG: We’ve got a bunch of dates, they just haven’t been announced yet. We’re just putting things together, but we’re going to the West Coast for a week at the end of the month with Cloud Nothing. That’s our next stint. You’re always thinking about the next album, but we’re definitely still in Chopper mode.
Afrobeats, a composite style of which Yemi Alade is one of the greatest icons, is now a key word in the lexicon of globalized pop.
Dominating the dance floors, the Afrobeats trend refers to the updating of styles from the English-speaking fringe of West Africa, i.e. highlife, juju, hiplife or afrobeat, musical genres from Nigeria and Ghana to which reggaeton, dancehall, R&B, soul and hip-hop are included.
Beyond the Afrobeats movement, Nigerian Yemi Alade is undoubtedly one of the female superstars of black Africa, she is in the leading group formed by Tiwa Savage, Aya Nakamura, Asa, Sha Sha, Moonchild Sanelly, Simi and others.
Last July, Yemi Alade was invited to close the Nuits d’Afrique festival in style, but the pathetic slowness of Canadian customs to admit non-Western artists caused the unfortunate postponement of that concert. This time, visas were delivered on time, Yemi Alade and his band will fill the M TELUS, this Thursday, November 10.
Even better, PAN M 360 obtained an interview with the singer, who was reached in Paris before flying to Montreal.
PAN M 360: You are finally coming to Montreal. We were supposed to interview you last summer, and nothing happened because of what we know. Things are finally getting better!
YEMI ALADE: Yes, we can now laugh about it now !
PAN M 360: In the last five years, a lot has happened on your end. Your rise is huge. You are now one of the main stars of Africa, so how do you live it?
YEMI ALADE: I try to take everything with grace, you know, as it comes. I don’t try to overthink about, I focus on the moment. It avoids unnecessary pressure, the kind that is harmful.
PAN M 360: Where are you mainly based?
YEMI ALADE: I’m based where the money is ! (laughs)
PAN M 360: Joking aside, is there a particular place where everything starts from?
YEMI ALADE: Today I can’t really say that there is a particular place. But I have found a way to feel that the cities I work in become my home. Cities like Paris where I am able to settle down when I spend too much time in my luggage.
PAN M 360: In recent years, you became an African superstar, an ambassador of your culture and at the same time a citizen of the world because you adhere to many musical trends and cultures from outside and inside Africa.
YEMI ALADE: Yes, you can say that. Thank God I’m really happy to be alive in this era where the Afrobeats style is getting so much love.
PAN M 360: Most definitely, you are one of the leaders of Afrobeats. It also speaks to the back and forth between Africa and the Americas because Afrobeats has something to do with Colombian cumbia, Latin reggaeton or even Jamaican dancehall. And all this is African, isn’t it?
YEMI ALADE: Yes, Afrobeats has found itself on a path that leads to the right place and I’m just happy that it’s gotten there. We can’t say what the next step will be, but the journey is already remarkable. All of us who are the pioneers, singers, beatmakers, musicians, fans, are all enjoying this journey. We have to take it step by step and look at where it’s going. Anyway, we can say now that Afrobeat is global right now and we appreciate all the love it is getting.
PAN M 360: How do you see your own contribution to the Afrobeats movement?
YEMI ALADE: Yes. Well, I would say that from the beginning, the most important thing for me has always been to be original, to be myself. And I realized that many people love and respect me, especially because of my apologetic love for Africa. And I get all the love that comes with that wholeheartedly. So what I have to do is to stay original in my music, videos, shows, look, etc.. All you can see and hear from me is Africa.
PAN M 360: Indeed, your identity is totally African. You are an ambassador, not only of Nigeria, but of the whole continent. But at the same time, it is international, which is beautiful.
YEMI ALADE: Exactly.
PAN M 360: Nigeria is a difficult country, but at the same time, very exciting. There’s a lot going on there. But there are also a lot of difficult things going on. How do you see the country?
YEMI ALADE: It’s not a very good time for Nigeria. Those days, the economy has yet to rebound from COVID and the recent floods. And of course, the third world countries are the ones that are suffering the most. From that, even though the whole world in general is suffering.There’s a lot of desperation in Nigeria right now. How will this all end? I don’t know. But our hope is also that in the next elections in 2023, that is next year. I pray that our votes will really count to the point that we get the right leader to get us out of this mess.
PAN M 360: And since you are such an admired public figure in your country, what is your responsibility in this context?
YEMI ALADE: The most I can do at the moment is to lend my voice where it is needed for the people who need my help. Personally, I’m just waiting for a better country and government, beyond what I can do myself. I can only really control my music. But I can’t control how the recipients feel. As for the responsibility in the context lies on the shoulders of so many people.
PAN M 360: If we go back to the music itself, what are your main steps? What have you and your band achieved in the studio recently?
YEMI ALADE: I’m totally involved in this ever-evolving experience, because I’m learning along the way, just like they are. As far as sound goes, I don’t like being put in a box. For example, this year I’m really not holding back on showing my love for dancehall music. I let loose! And I passed that energy on to my band.
PAN M 360: So there is not only afrobeats in your music, there is dancehall as you say. There is also the Afrobeat of Fela Kuti, the juju of King Sunny Adé, many styles in fact.
YEMI ALADE: True, exactly.
PAN M 360: And how many musicians are you bringing to Montreal?
YEMI ALADE: Depending on the context, it can go up to 13, but I’m coming to Montreal with a group of 7 people this time: keyboards, percussion, machines, guitar, bass, etc. We’ve been working on it for a few weeks now because we’re very excited about it, and also because I created a special song for the Montreal show.
PAN M 360: That’s very nice of you! Do you do this everywhere you are invited?
YEMI ALADE: No, not all the time. I mostly do it at my solo shows. But this time. I just had to do something different. I felt, from this conversation, that I follow what I feel. That’s how I feel right now.
PAN M 360: You know, the city is very open to African music.
YEMI ALADE: Fantastic. I’m going to be in the right place at the right time !
PAN M 360: Is this concert in Montreal part of the North American tour?
YEMI ALADE: No, I’m going to do this show and then go back to Europe. Because I have commitments in other countries that I have already accepted. Normally when I come to Canada, we always go to different cities. You know, I also shot one of my videos in Toronto too. But this time it won’t be a tour, unfortunately. I will be back.
PAN M 360: Yes, you also featured in Black Is King, that movie directed and produced by Beyoncé. How was the experience of appearing in a very important film showcasing the new African and Afro-descendant culture in the world ?
YEMI ALADE: As you can guess, it was a dream come true. It’s still a vivid memory in my head. Being able to meet Beyoncé personally, and even be on the album itself, is something I didn’t take for granted. Growing up listening to her music, I remember learning certain things from her that helped me become the artist I am today. And for me to get an email and a phone call from her team to mine, that was really important to me. It shows that in this day and age, if you keep giving your best, your work will speak for you. And that’s exactly how I defined this moment.
PAN M 360: Beyoncé probably felt that, beyond your Afrobeats culture, you also had a very strong R&bB and hip hop culture, right?
YEMI ALADE: Yeah, I think the people that were chosen to be part of this work were carefully selected. And you know, if you look at her team very closely, you can see that they do a lot of research, so yeah, don’t be surprised if they had all the necessary information about me before I even arrived.
PAN M 360: Since she made this film, by the way, there are a lot of afrobeats and creators involved in her own productions!
YEMI ALADE: Yes, we are all part of this dream, so a lot of good things have happened. A blessing!
PAN M 360: So, you integrate the music of the Western world, or Afro-Western world, into your West African world.
YEMI ALADE: Correct. I like to say that in music, music represents a world apart. There are no boundaries in this world and I draw from this endless well for my inspiration. Even as a little girl, I used to rap while the songs were playing on the radio. This interest in international music goes back to my early childhood.
PAN M 360: On occasion, you are also involved with French rappers. So your openness is not limited to the Americas.
YEMI ALADE: Oh yes. At one point I decided to do French versions and I was having fun! Since then, there is a strong love connection between me and the French-speaking world.
PAN M 360: France has always been open to African music for at least 50 years. So as it continues with you, in particular.
YEMI ALADE: Yes, I know that in France there is a deep appreciation of the cultures of people of African origin.
PAN M 360: By the way, have you ever performed in Jamaica?
YEMI ALADE: Unfortunately, I never sang in Jamaica, but I went there on vacation. And I felt right at home there. As for the Caribbean, I had the opportunity to perform in Barbados about a month ago.
PAN M 360: In the short term, what are the next steps in your career?
YEMI ALADE: First of all, I just presented my solo show at the prestigious Olympia in Paris. After that, I’m flying to Montreal for a custom concert, after which I’ll be releasing my new EP, African Body. So look out for that!
PAN M 360: Is there a disparity with your impact in Africa and the one you have in the West?
YEMI ALADE: I can fill stadiums in Africa, yes. But you know, I’ve also been in front of huge audiences in North America and Europe. Wherever I am when I get on stage and I feel love, I see my tribe. When I’m on stage, I don’t see any difference between audiences. You know, my favorite mantra is this: I go where the love is.
PAN M 360: Being a pop superstar also means that you are a conqueror. You are said to have great authority with your team. Is that true?
YEMI ALADE: People often say that about me ! (laughs) So yes, I think I am a force of nature. I know that I have a huge influence on people through my music. And that’s a blessing for me and my audience. The main goal is still to spread some joy with my music. There is so much sadness in this world! And so I try to spice up my music with happiness and joy, I want to infect my fans with it!
PAN M 360: As a female leader, how do you see yourself?
YEMI ALADE: A woman representing the music industry is a relay race. We, as women artists, must pass the baton so that the next generation can achieve success as those who came before me did. So when a generation of women does better than the previous one, it’s a sign of success. We should be grateful.
PAN M 360: As an influential leader, do you produce and encourage emerging artists?
YEMI ALADE: I have been mentoring some female artists who are doing very well today Nigerian artists, female artists in general. We need to do this because I feel like most of the time we don’t have the same opportunities that our male counterparts have. So if I see that the door can open for my sister, I will definitely give her a hand. Right now? I am a big fan of Guchi, a singer from Nigeria. There is also Zuchu from Tanzania, whom I like very much. And I hope the world will give them the opportunity to really show what they have, because they are very special.
PAN M 360: So are you at the peak of a new generation that will emerge in the near future?
YEMI ALADE: Let’s wait and see how it goes. I am definitely a key actress, but I don’t know what roles I will play in the future. I don’t know. But I know that the force of nature that I am is there to give it my all. I just want to get better at what I do and be able to keep the conversation going on.
The universe is too vast for there not to be alternate universes and perhaps, one of the journeys through the human condition is finding the doors into these abstract universes or leaving little drips of what it might sound like. This is where the Canadian psychedelic indie synth rock group, Loon Town, takes their name and inspiration. Made up of members living in Montreal, Whitehorse, and Kitchener, Loon Town took the nostalgia and feelings from their collective hometown and created the album, Slow Space, which loosely takes place in this fictionalized alternate reality dubbed Loon Town.
Don’t let the intense-sounding concept dissuade you. The music on Slow Space is meant to be enjoyed while dancing on wine-soaked nights, under the night sky, or at a funk-themed after-party. We spoke with Loon Town a bit about their creative process, Loons, and a playful return home, before their show in Montreal on November 13.
PAN M 360: What’s it like to be in a band with members scattered throughout Canada?
Loon Town: It’s odd! It makes us be very intentional about our time. We have weekly meetings and different strategies to stay connected to the material and to each other. We toss sound materials at each other in folders and flesh out demos via songwriting from our home studios. Then we take a month or two and come together and finish them, arrange them, etc.
PAN M 360: Were you all in Future States? How does the creative process differ between the projects?
Loon Town: Three of the four of us were in Future States. Our process in this project shares the songwriting process in a much more collaborative way. We are all passionate about writing, and this has been a chance to co-write in a very significant way. It is really interesting to write a harmonic structure and then pass it on to someone and let them write lyrics or melody, or vice versa. It forces each of us to let go, to move with the material as it develops instead of getting too stuck on any one idea. It’s really a new way of working for us, and we definitely recommend it, so long as you have built trust with your collaborators because it can also be really vulnerable! PAN M 360: Can you tell me the reasoning behind the name Loon Town, it’s a fictionalized town for the band?
Loon Town: Dave and Dani were on a weeklong canoe trip a few years ago in Algonquin park, in a part of the park where there were more Loons than people. They both have a fascination with the sound of the loon, almost as if they are able to speak across from one world to the next. To this end, we have imagined the town as a literal place, perhaps in some alternate dimension, or the sum total of all our hometowns in this world. It’s like an imaginary ‘everyperson’s” hometown, which reaches across the space of imagination and speaks to our world. From there, we imagined each song is a place, a person, or a thing in the town, and can be placed on a map. The farther we go into this world, the more universalized but also strange it gets. It has become a landing pad for everything that happens in one’s life. The leaving, the coming, the death, the existential crises, etc.
PAN M 360: The theme is a return home on the debut LP, Slow Space. A return home from what? The pandemic? Grief?
Loon Town: Yeah, there is this meandering relationship you can have with your hometown. The town you left because your imagination pulled you onward to other things. Or because you couldn’t stand it. Or because opportunity knocked. Then it becomes the town you came back to, maybe to take care of a relative, or tie up loose ends, or because of a death, or you were in some state of limbo. Then it’s all the complicated feelings that spring from that return. It’s not a straightforward relationship, but it’s an important one. And yes, as the creation of this album happened during the pandemic, it certainly factors in, haha.
PAN M 360: Who are some bands you maybe draw inspiration for Loon Town’s lush instrumentation?
Loon Town: We love old music with rich string and brass sections, everything from Duke Ellington’s orchestra, to all the Motown harmonies, and the janky rich sounds of Neutral Milk hotel. We’ve also been obsessed with the textures that Colin Stetson and Sarah Neufeld create with their instruments.
PAN M 360: I really love the vibe of “Party at the Ice Cream Shoppe,” the lyricism is very tongue-in-cheek. What was the inspiration behind that one?
Loon Town: This one was a lyrical co-write between Nic and Dani. For some reason, during the making of this album, there were various half-songs with the theme of ice cream, ice cream shoppes, and the ice cream man. One of them was perhaps even cheekier, and may be released someday too. This one was born for Nic from the idea of going out on the town during a visit home, in a place where there is a rich yet varied history (and baggage). It was an imagination of a night where they could totally let go, connect with and rediscover old friends and loves while presenting as they are – without yielding to real or imagined social pressures.
Specifically for Nic, this turns around notions of gender expression and presentation. This also plays out through a sort of surreal painting of a scene through the symbol of “flavours” of ice-cream, which can be stand-ins or metaphors – for Nic this ties into expressions of identity, but for Dani it’s something else entirely! Either way, it’s meant to be playful, and we’re glad it comes across that way. Our friends have been debating the meaning of the track, with one of them saying that they see it as an analogy for going ‘downtown’.
PAN M 360: The brass really adds to the atmosphere on a song like “Doesn’t Matter,” “Party at the Ice Cream Shoppe,” “Silver Flowers,” etc. Did you have the idea for brass from the beginning?
Loon Town: We did. Dave plays some brass, and so we included some on our previous EP. We all love brass, and we knew our recording engineer Andy Magoffin played various brass instruments and was willing to work with us, so we seized the opportunity. We were super jazzed by how invested Andy became in the process, and ended up with even more densely layered arrangements than we’d initially anticipated. We feel very lucky!
PAN M 360: There’s a multimedia aspect to the LP with the interactive map for Slow Space. Where did that idea come from?
Loon Town: It’s linked to this idea of Loon Town as an actual town, and each song, in our imaginations, became a place on the map. During our writing residency for the record, we actually created a rough sketch of the town with markers and paper, and it influenced the final song selection on the album. As we continue to write songs, the town becomes richer, denser, and more full of life. We worked with Davide Di Saro to create the album art, and he imagined this town in space, as a person, whose hair flowed as rivers through the town. It is a beautiful imagining of our original ideas for the map, and one that we never would’ve come up with on our own! Then the website became 3d and interactive thanks to further collaboration with Davide, Andrea Cossu, and Liam Brown.
PAN M 360: What do you think about the streaming singles age? I ask because, Slow Space is definitely meant to be listened to in full for the theme to really ring true, but lots of I guess ordinary music listeners go single by single.
Loon Town: Our band members have varying degrees of modernity in their hearts, haha. Some of us are basically neo-luddites, and do most of our listening in public parks (to birds), or on wax cylinders. Joking. But some of us (not to single anyone out) actively play music on their CD, tape, and record players, while others stream more often. Of course, things are best when you slow down, savour, and get the whole experience, even if that experience is streaming online, but we realize this isn’t possible or desirable in all situations, and we embrace the plurality while keeping a soft spot for all things slow.
There are certainly advantages to both approaches. In some ways, the streaming singles era is actually more amenable to a record like Slow Space, or perhaps the other way around. It’s an album with some sonic coherence but it’s certainly not 12 songs where everything stays the same except the chords and lyrics. We dabble in a lot of different genres, which in the full-length age might be less acceptable. Also, with the interactive website, we hope to bridge the gap between single and album and offer the audience the opportunity to slow down, meander through the “town” in digital space, and experience the record in both a slow, daydreaming and immediate gratification kind of way, if that makes sense.
Loon Town Plays at Casa Del Popolo on November 13 w/ High Five and Slight
Mathieu Arsenault, aka SEULEMENT, released his first album Ex Po in November 2021. Composed of eight tracks, this project is a combination of electronic sounds and the appearance of the artist’s bewitching voice.
When he creates, SEULEMENT draws most of his inspiration from contemporary architecture. “My universe is made of multiple rhythmic balances that are often very strange and unstable. That’s what architecture inspires me,” he says.
For the past few years, Mathieu Arsenault has been a member of the English-speaking group Technical Kidman. Ex Po is his first project in French. “To be invited to Coup de cœur francophone after my first solo francophone project is very flattering,” he adds.
As part of Coup de coeur francophone, SEULEMENT will take the stage at Bar l’Escogriffe with Teenage Witch on November 3rd at 10 pm. This festival, which runs from November 3 to 13, aims to promote francophone music in all its forms. A multitude of shows will take place in Montreal over the next two weeks. Pan M 360 spoke with SEULEMENT about his musical universe, his inspirations, and his participation in Coup de cœur francophone this year.
PAN M 360: What is your main inspiration when you create?
SEULEMENT: It’s hard to say what my main inspiration is. I feel like what inspires is not clear. Certainly, contemporary architecture influences me a lot. It is from that that I imagine my musical forms and structures.
PAN M 360: Your universe is atypical and very immersive. Can you describe it?
SEULEMENT: My universe is made of multiple rhythmic balances that are often very strange. The pulsations are multiple, and my music can seem very unstable. As I mentioned earlier, contemporary architecture inspires me a lot and that’s where I’m going to get these instabilities from.
PAN M 360: What do you want to convey through your music?
SEULEMENT: My music is very emotional and full of energy. I created the songs on Ex Po during a very emotional time in my life and that’s what I want to convey. Also, what I create is very personal and open to interpretation. I don’t have a specific message and I want my listeners to appropriate it in their own way. My shows are sensorially very engaging, and it flashes a lot. I think that contributes to the message I’m sending.
PAN M 360: What does the Coup de coeur francophone festival mean to you?
SEULEMENT: This festival is something new for me. I was happy when I received the invitation. Francophone music is also new for me. I come from the electronic music and digital art scene. Also, I was part of an English rock band for almost 10 years. To be invited to such an event shortly after the release of my first solo project in French is extremely flattering and I am very grateful.
PAN M 360: How important is the French language in your creative process? SEULEMENT: I’ve wanted to try creating in French for a long time. I was inspired by a lot of artists from here and elsewhere who make different music in their mother tongue. I told myself that if these people were capable, I could do it. I think that creating in French makes my music more unique.
Photo Credit: Coup de coeur francophone.
SEULEMENT PLAYS L’ESCO, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3 AT 10 PM, WITH TEENAGE WITCH, FOR COUP DE COEUR FRANCOPHONE. INFO AND TICKETS HERE!
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