“So, this is where the magic happens,” says a clean-bearded man opening up some warehouse doors. He is David Palumbo, bassist/vocalist for Montreal’s experimental post-rock group, Atsuko Chiba. We walk down a short hallway with Karim Lakhdar (the lead vocalist/ and a guitar/synth player of Atsuko Chiba) and Mothland label co-founder, Philippe Larocque, towards another set of doors.
As they open, a vast studio space comes into our vision—filled with guitars, amps, mixers, microphones, a drum set, notebooks (probably full of song ideas), and a rack with two newer band t-shirt designs. This is Room 11, the second home of Atsuko Chiba members, where they rehearse, experiment, and create some of the most thought-provoking music to come out of Eastern Canada.
Their latest album, Water, It Feels Like It’s Growing has been making waves on North American radio, including landing a spot on the NACC Top 5 College Radio charts. It feels like this twisting experimental rock chimera of a band is finally getting the recognition they deserve. Though, they never got into this to grab recognition.
“I agree that Water is our most accessible album,” says guitarist Kevin McDonald, at a Mothland party weeks prior. “But we definitely know that we are a niche band.”
There are a few tour posters and a pile of road cases shaped like an “L” on the floor of Room 11 and I count close to 25 cases of gear. You see, in a few minutes we will be piling into the band tour van, on our way to Atsuko Chiba’s next gig in Quebec City, for the Le Phoque Off festival.
“It’s pretty insane that we are taking this much gear for a 25 minute set, but hey, that’s part of the Atusko lifestyle,” says drummer and projectionist, Anthony Piazza, who the band commonly refers to as “Pia.”
The drive is a quick one and I hear a few tour stories from their time hopping between the States, like the one about Atsuko members meeting two “really high guys” and being invited into their apartment to make dinner. As we listen to The Rolling Stones, I also learn about “The Room,” an inside joke when the band members metaphorically make characters they’ve met on tour meet. It’s surreal and satirical, but an excellent way to kill a few hours on the road.
Atsuko Chiba uses projections when they play live, like many psychedelic music groups, but the difference is they program and sequence them live as well. Pia, Palumbo, and guitar/synth player, Eric Schafhauser all trigger the visuals and lights. It’s really a wonder to see live. Each member has to be so in tune with one another as there’s about a million different sounds consuming the room during a song like “Link.”
At one point during the Le Phoque Off show, McDonald’s guitar cuts out during a transitory interlude. I think to myself, “This is it, they have to restart,” and interrupt the soundscape. But no. They all motion to one another to extend a certain noisy instrumental, making the transition seamless. Of course, this band has been around for a decade at least. And with this much gear to set up and play with, they’ve run into about every problem in the book and know how to keep the intensity going.
“Water, It Feels Like It’s Growing”
“Water, It Feels Like It’s Growing”
The show in the Le Pantoum first floor is wild and vivid. Atusko opens the show with their trip-hop meets prog rock track “Quick Infant Guilt,” immediately grabbing the attention of Le Phoque Off concert goers, Heavy synthesizers, and Rage Against the Machine-esque vocals, it feels like Run The Jewels fronting the heavier parts of The Weather Report with a bit of The Mars Volta. Just primo stuff.
They then play a few numbers off of Water and end with the very doom heavy outro of the title track. The whole gig is fantastic, but over too soon, and I’m not the only one who thinks so. Hearing chatter along the crowd, I hear that they are left craving more, and perhaps that’s the point. Atsuko Chiba don’t get to play “Shook (I’m Often) which seems to be the most popular on Water, so we will just have to wait for that.
But worry not. If you missed Le Phoque Off and have been devouring the new record on loop like myself, Atsuko Chiba’s album release show is March 10th. We wait in anticipation.
Toronto-based dream-pop folk artist poolblood (also known as Maryam Said) has only been releasing music since 2019, but has made a huge first impression with their debut album, mole.
The album is a stunning journey, both sonically and emotionally. Numbers range drastically from triumphant, driven anthems like “twinkie,” to soulful, melancholic ballads like “shabby” and “wfy,” to heavy, gritty sonic collections like “beam.” Despite the huge variety of sounds and vibes on offer here, all of it comes together in a distinctly human way.
Covering themes of sorrow, regret, and the harsh realities of friendships drawing to a close, mole is the ideal accompaniment for your next quiet night in, whether you’re running a melancholic bath or enjoying your own company.
We caught up with Maryam via Zoom to talk a bit more about their inspirations, their process, and what might be awaiting them around the corner, both artistically and personally.
PAN M 360: It’s been a really successful month for mole and poolblood. How does it feel to finally have your debut album out in the world?
Maryam Said: It’s been really exciting. It’s been nice to see the response to this record. I worked on it for a year and then when everything was wrapping up and stuff, I was kind of anticipating how I was going to feel about these songs a year after. And they still kind of hit the same, which is really cool. It’s also been awesome to meet new friends through it and play more shows with friends—it’s rewarding, for sure.
PAN M 360: Some of these tracks are such a far cry from your previous work, particularly when you pull in the horns and orchestral bits. Did you have any specific inspirations for this new blend of aesthetics?
MS: I kind of always knew I wanted to go into that realm. For the first EP, I was kind of just going off of things, doing justice to the songs to the songs that I had at that time and letting them live in this dream-pop world. But I grew up playing violin in school and I was in a classical choir in uni, so I was always drawn to orchestral stuff and around classical music. So I wanted the record to have elements of that to honour myself. I was also utilizing a lot of the great bands and artists that I knew around me, like “I love your work and would you wanna dip your toes into this? (Please do it.)”
I love that there are more wind instruments in pop now. Like, Lizzo has her flute. Aaron Hutchinson, who did the horn stuff on the record, is a phenomenal player and brought all these great parts. He made the record flourish in such a different way that I didn’t even expect—a lot of it was very spontaneous. I’ve always been a fan of music that leaves me feeling a big question mark. I wanted to explore that feeling and bring it to my own music as an experiment.
PAN M 360: Is it true that you wrote a lot of the words on mole around the major pandemic times in 2020?
MS: Yeah. I had written this really small poetry book that I was kind of just passing around to friends in mid-2019. Then I started writing words for mole (it didn’t have a name at the time) because I thought I was gonna record it in 2020. And when the pandemic hit I sat down and really started fleshing out the songs. Even during recording, I was tweaking things because certain inspirations had come through. I would watch something or talk to someone and be like “that’s giving me a feeling that I need to go back to.”
PAN M 360: Do any of these tracks have new meaning for you now that they’re in their final form?
MS: Sometimes, yeah. There are moments when I was writing certain songs and they felt very mundane or hyper-simple. Like I didn’t know what I was actually trying to say. As I was recording and finishing up production, I started to realize what I was trying to say, what I was trying to connect to, what feeling that certain line comes from—why I wrote it. When I’m writing I’m just trying to get something out, and then when it’s out I’ll start to process it. Some of the lyrics might sit in a different space in my life.
PAN M 360: When I first listened to this album, I thought it was like reading the best and worst days of someone’s life, straight out of their diary. Do you do any journaling?
MS: I’ve heard that a lot. People are like, ‘are you just straight-up writing from your diary?’ But this record is an homage to my younger self and paying my dues of being a writer in my 20s trying to figure it all out. I started journaling as a really young kid, like eight, but nowadays, I journal in my notes app. I’ll look back into my notes and sometimes use that to write lyrics. The diary thing is cool though, I’m still trying to grapple with it. I’ve always liked to write from my own perspective. I kind of want to challenge myself now to try and take myself out of the picture and explore different stories. I really, really love Andy Shauf and I think he’s a phenomenal songwriter who can do that in such a cool way, writing these characters who are sometimes unlikeable, sometimes likable, really human. He embraces the human condition in such a great way.
PAN M 360: You’ve mentioned before that mole is a story about letting go of relationships that don’t serve you anymore, and kind of a reflection on lessons learned.
MS: A lot of it is around relationships and friendships. I was learning how to reframe and reposition myself in my connection with the people around me. I felt like I was of service. I had really weird childhood stuff that was kind of leading me to certain people. This record was me going ‘that’s not cool, let’s reroute. Let’s recalibrate.’
PAN M 360: Would you say the making of the album itself shed more light on that situation for you?
MS: A lot of artists do this thing where they go, “I made this album because it was healing and now I’m healed and I’ve poured everything into it and it’s transformed me,” but it kind of didn’t really do that—it was kind of just me being a brat. I said all this stuff I was upset, depleted, defeated about, and I didn’t really know the solution. I guess the solution is just realizing that this is a reality and it’s gonna be an active lifelong journey to undo all this stuff. And I kind of chose the biggest, hardest topic. If I chose something smaller, like a heartbreak, I could just be like “Oh yeah, that was not cool. Next situation, I’m gonna learn to love the person a certain way or treat love a certain way.”
I feel like ending a friendship is harder than romantic stuff. There’s a different kind of intimacy. There’s not a weird, inherent power structure, we just love kicking it with each other and it sucks when you can’t do it anymore.
PAN M 360: I wanted to ask you about “beam.” Where did the inspiration for such a dark, brooding interlude come from?
MS: It’s so funny. I was listening to Korn a lot, and I was doing a lot of walks when I was recording this record. There’s this big forest conservatory place near my house, and I’d walk there a lot. It’s really beautiful, I’d see deer during my morning walks and stuff. This one day I was walking and listening to Korn, and I was thinking about how much I love how weird and dark their music is.
I was playing around with older stuff I had recorded on my computer and layering it and just making it as weirdly hellish as it could possibly be because I knew it could fit on the record. With the lyrics, I wanted to pretend to be dark, with Edgar Allen Poe-type stuff. So I guess the main inspiration is listening to Korn’s “Freak on a Leash.” That breakdown? Insane, like, what is he even doing? He makes you terrified.
PAN M 360: What was the thought of the track placement of “beam” between “null” and “sorry”?
MS: I was really excited to do the track listing. I knew how I wanted to sort the record, not only thematically, but also to have a sonic story from start to finish. Placing “beam” in the middle, I think is the moment when someone hits their breaking point, and is in a moment of defeat. I wanted to capture that feeling of defeat—like there’s no end to it. The song covers the stages of grief in a way too, with the feeling of sorrow, and then forgiveness comes in “sorry,” and then a bit of that person crawling out and hearing “my little room” and being like, there’s a light now that you can sort of get to. But can you? I don’t know. It’s kind of the hangover track as well.
PAN M 360: At times, mole is like the soundtrack of the saddest yet happiest coming-of-age film ever. Do movies and the cinematic aesthetic play a part in your process?
MS: I’m a movie guy for sure. When I was making this record I was watching stuff that revolved around complicated friendships or relationships, but that didn’t necessarily have that resolution or typical traditional narrative of ‘they go through the rough times but clean up their act and they’re good again.’ Movies like My Private Idaho, with these two intense characters living through similar situations and trying to help each other through the shit. But they end up not being friends in the end. They’re distant. Like people they knew, friends of the past, but still rooting for each other.
I was also watching Black Swan and David Lynch’s Lost Highway. The way he plays with time in that movie was a mind-equals-blown kind of moment. The soundtrack in Lost Highway was a big one too. The Bossa Nova moments by Angelo Badalamenti and Trent Reznor were big inspirations. The soundtracks of movies mean a lot to me. Music can make it or break it for a scene, and it can do the same for your life. We all have those feelings of knowing how we were feeling or what we were doing the first thing we heard a song. It’s such a beautiful and magical thing that music can do.
PAN M 360: What are you thinking next for poolblood?
MS: I’m going on tour in March which is really sick. It’s my first tour, so I’m trying to be all prepared. I’m going to Detroit and Iowa, but I’m playing SXSW which I’m really stoked for. I’ve always wanted to go to Austin, so it’s cool that it lines up that way. And SXSW is kind of GOATed too. So I get to do that, and hopefully, in the next couple of months we’re gonna be touring again, and I might start writing as well. It’s weird, once the record comes out ‘what’s the next thing’ is a natural question, but I just want to spend some time with this little child I just gave birth to!
PAN M 360: “my little room” is such a stunning resolution and really speaks to that sense of learning to be happy by yourself. Can you walk us through poolblood’s perfect night, home alone?
MS: I feel like I’m gonna sound so boring, but I’m a big fan of a nice, clean living room. Some sort of TV, and a blanket, and my three-drink rotation. At night it would probably be a decaf coffee, water, and some kind of seltzer, like sparkling water. And then putting on a bunch of different movies and maybe having a meal that I’ve made with a friend together. That’s a nice night in. Just a cozy night. Maybe I’m second-guessing. Should I just be like ‘I love partying, I love to do all this crazy shit. I’m gonna smash up over here. Straight to the club. Pounding back shots. Then it’s the next club. Getting on a plane. Getting married. The whole nine yards.’ It’s just being super cozy with someone you love. We get to just chat and vibe. That’s cool. And that could be in your room too, just to tie it up.
Honeydrip, talented Montrealer producer and DJ, has had a fascinating journey in the music world. From being a cheerleader in high school to studying electroacoustic music at Concordia, hosting a show on local radio stations CJLO and n10.as, releasing her debut EP in 2021 and being a resident DJ with Homegrown Harvest; she created a unique path leading to her participation to Igloofest 15th birthday edition (2023) this Friday.
PAN M 360 : What can you tell me about your relationship with music before you started producing and DJing ?
Honeydrip : When I was younger, my mom would listen a lot to reggae dancehall so I have a special affection for this genre. When I started my own musical discoveries, I went towards stuff like field alternative. When I was in high school, I also was a cheerleader, it’s a lot of dance, gymnastics, pyramids, all that stuff. Basically, it’s like a three-minute routine, but then you have like 10 songs within that routine. So if they don’t beat match they’ll do like cut, but cuts that like makes sense. If a song is about to drop, it’s the buildup, and then boom, it’s the next track. And I would actually make some cheer mixes at home. It was kind of an introduction to mixing that I had learned when I was in high school doing that. I would use this program that you could play the song on the internet and that would record the music that was being streamed on the Internet. It was kind of my way of illegally downloading, I guess. I also was a dancer for a bit of high school as well, so always around music.
I think I was more in the dancing part of it because I didn’t really feel like being a producer, I don’t think I knew what DJing was at that time. But being a producer just kind of seemed like something that only people that would produce music for Lady Gaga or something like that was the only way in which they existed or something. It wasn’t really something I had in mind.
PAN M 360 : Then, what led you towards DJing ?
Honeydrip : When University started there wasn’t a cheerleading team so I had to find a new extracurricular activity. I saw that there was the CJLO radio at Concordia. I signed up as a volunteer and that ended up going like pretty well because I won the best new show the first year I was doing it and then like I ended up climbing the ranks and becoming like the electronic music director there, which is a somewhat paid position. At that point that’s when I started to learn how to DJ when I was on the radio because I wanted to blend my songs together and not have radio silence on my shows.
PAN M 360 : Is the radio show you are talking about “Waves of Honey” that you also host on n10.as ?
Honeydrip : Yeah, so I actually don’t do the show on n10.as anymore but it was, yeah. It started off at CJLO and it was every week on Sunday nights for four years. At one point I was doing n10.as and CJLO simultaneously. But I would have to go physically into the radio, I would do it by bike and it would take me like an hour one way an hour back, like a lot. So I ended up stopping CJLO, and just doing n10.as, which was once a month. I did that for another three years, and then I just stopped because I realized I wasn’t using it as a tool to actually create engagement and I just didn’t have the energy and time to use it properly. It was just taking time that I wanted to start dedicating towards producing.
PAN M 360 : And beside all of that, you also studied electroacoustic music at Concordia. What motivated you to enter the program ?
Honeydrip : I’ve gotten much better with my self-discipline and I’m really happy about that, but before, it was something that I was struggling with. I wanted to learn how to produce, and I had the tools, I just wasn’t doing it. I felt if I were to sign myself up to a program in school that would force me to produce then that would be the best way for me to get into it and learn. And it was! So I applied and I had an application where like, one of my songs was I layered like 13 times like Danny Brown, acapella, like a weird way. And then the other one, which turns out to be a classic application – but I thought I was so creative at the time – was the Montreal Metro. Yeah, turns out every year someone uses the Montreal Metro sounds field recording vibes as an application. And it worked ! I did a minor only because I was majoring in marketing. But it was a really great program, I learned a lot like mostly from my peers, amazing people still doing amazing stuff.
PAN M 360 : What do you think are the elements you kepts from electroacoustic studies into the work you do now and the way you work today?
Honeydrip : I would say one thing in terms of my approach to producing is I work a lot with audio files and less with MIDI, and that is something that we would do a lot in electroacoustics. We use this program called Amadeus with which you can really get deep into your clips. I generally work a lot with audios, I cut them up and use them as like little kind of glitchy sounds. So that was something that I would do a lot in electroacoustics but also just like a creative approach to producing where you really focus on making the sound as unique, really going deep with effects and stuff. So that too. In electro acoustics we do a lot of like spatialization stuff, which I don’t really do much because I keep my music like stereo but like it’s definitely something that I would like to get back into exploring eventually.
PAN M 360 : What are the raw materials you most work with ?
Honeydrip : At first I had like that kind of typical mentality “Oh, I’m just using samples and it’s not my music”, but in the end I kind of stepped away from that view because I’m not going to start making like all of my own kicks and stuff. If people do that, that’s really cool, but like, I don’t think it’s necessary. In terms of drum, like percussive stuff, I use samples and then I try to take them away from their original sound through like E cueing, effects and stuff. But, um, otherwise, I have a Arturia micro freak, I like to use that for lead sounds. I record mic sounds,, field recording vibes and I’ll transform them. I’m working on an album right now and that one has a lot of sounds via feedback and pedals.
PAN M 360 :Can you tell me a bit more about the album you are working on?
Honeydrip : I’m working on kind of an extension of my first EP, which has explorations of dub reggae, dancehall, but in a dancefloor context, and keeping my kind of styles like bassy, left field electronic music, so it’s kind of chapter two of that. It’s going to be released on a label in the UK. Singles are going to start coming out over the summer and then the album maybe early fall, late summer. 2023 for sure, and I’m working on my first live sets.
PAN M 360 : You are a resident DJ for Homegrown Harvest, can tell me more about this project?
Honeydrip : Homegrown is doing a really good job at bringing over international artists and kind of liaison, meaning like the relationship between like local artists here and having the opportunity to create friendships and networking vibes with international artists coming through, so that’s really cool. The collective has Lea Plutonic, Pascale Project, Lis Dalton, Dileta, Zi! and me. At first, they kind of were keeping mostly their residents on the lineup, but now they’re opening up and bringing in different locals. It’s becoming a central hub for all of the DJs in Montreal in the electronic scene.
PAN M 360 :Montreal underground dance music in particular, we have an anglo side and a french side of it. How do you feel those two sides are connected (or not) ?
Honeydrip : It’s funny that you pointed out because then it kind of makes me realize that I’m very much on the Anglo side and I’m not that familiar with what the French side is up to. I know they’re more into techno. Homegrown Harvest [Anglo collective] and Noreiner [French collective] just did an event together. I think both parties realized it was maybe time to start combining forces. That’s maybe something that has not helped in Montreal, that people always are trying to kind of do their thing on our on their own and not like, put their strengths together so that we can just elevate the city as a whole. So I’m happy to see those kinds of connections being made !
PAN M 360 : In May 2022, you participated in the NON-STOP, a 36h dance music event organized by MTL 24/24 at SAT. It’s an important step for the underground dance music scene, don’t you think ?
Honeydrip : I think it’s really amazing what they’re doing. You know this whole having a late liquor license is something that has been tried in Montreal a few years ago, and the government might have even canceled it before the trial period happened or something. I think it’s great that not only have they done it once, but they’ve done it a few times now and it’s like it seems to be working. In comparison to Europe, the Canadian underground scene is really suffering because the government doesn’t view the value in us. And although, for instance, in Quebec, there’s so many festivals and there’s a lot of money, the artists that are a part of this don’t necessarily always represents the underground scene. So instead, the underground scene is just kind of viewed as villains, we’re getting ticketed and shut down. Especially since after COVID the landscape has really changed, like raving used to be much easier before COVID. So what MTL 24/24 is doing is amazing.
We don’t need to introduce Lydia Lunch anymore. Underground icon and high priestess of the no wave genre, this elusive artist has never ceased to shape a (voluminous) disturbing, destabilizing, provocative, audacious and hostile work, whether it be through her music, her literary creations, her poetry or as an actress. Even today, at 63, she remains as relevant as ever in her impertinence.
From Teenage Jesus and the Jerks to Big Sexy Noise, 8-Eyed Spy and her multiple solo albums and collaborations, the Queen of Siam revisits her impressive musical career with her band Retrovirus, as part of the Taverne Tour.
A few days before her Montreal appearance, we had the pleasure of speaking with this living legend of counter-culture. Affable, generous, joking and animated by a passion that we feel is still burning, she talked to us about no wave and Retrovirus of course, but also about her relationship with death, some of her projects and her singular desire to sell all her work.
PAN M 360: You are often associated with the New York underground, how has this city influenced your work? And does it still influence it?
Lydia Lunch: How did I influence what happened in New York you mean? Okay, let’s be clear. I was first influenced by literature. So if I was influenced by the literature of Hubert Selby Jr. and his Last Exit to Brooklyn when I was 12. if I was influenced by the writings of Henry Miller, I was well prepared for what New York could be, should be, or would be. I already had a preconceived idea of what I was supposed to do before I got here, in a sense. I’ve lived in New York less than I have in other places, which is weird. That’s because I came here in ’76 until ’79, or ’80. I moved to Los Angeles for two years, London for two years, back to New York for four years, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, New Orleans, Barcelona for eight years… But as someone once said, maybe I am what New York once was, I don’t know….
PAN M 360: This city has changed a lot in the last 30 years. Do you think those underground art and music scenes of the ’70s and ’80s could exist today?
Lydia Lunch: If we want to make history, which I really like, the scenes are cyclical. For example, we would start with the ’20s in Paris, the ’30s maybe in Berlin, or the ’50s in Chicago, the ’60s in San Francisco, the ’70s in New York, London, Los Angeles, and then the ’80s… I don’t know what happened to music in the 80s, it went sideways….. I think with the arrival of the Internet, there was less urgency to be in a specific place, and everything became more expensive too. And then instead of clubs, which are gone now, there were bigger festivals. Everything is always changing. Things can’t stay the same. I mean, I wish it was Paris in the ’20s, but it’s not. You go anywhere, it’s not what it was. But there are always radical elements somewhere. I’ll give you one tiny example that I’ve been really excited about lately: some kids in high school IV and V at the Brooklyn Library consider themselves Luddites, they’re anti-technology, they read books, they write, and they don’t go online, and I’m thinking, “Now that’s a form of rebellion!” Because we know how soul-sucking electronic mania the Internet can be, and when young people reject it, it means they want a real life experience.
PAN M 360: You were and still are closely associated with the no wave movement. Can you tell us a bit about this scene? Was it even a scene?
Lydia Lunch: Honey, its whole history has been written, but let me define what no wave is. I still consider myself a no wave artist. When you hear punk rock, opera, classical, piano music, pop… you have an idea of what defines that sound. But with no wave, no; this genre doesn’t even have a relationship with itself. It’s much more dada or surreal, it’s discordant, it’s not necessarily audience friendly, and it’s generally not melodic. And as opposed to punk, for example, which was happening at the same time and was more of a social revolt, with no wave, most people were living an internal revolt. They had personal revolts; because of the city, because of the madness of America… It was more of a personal madness, I think.
PAN M 360: In the last few years, we’ve seen a sort of renaissance of the no-wave genre. What do you think about that?
Lydia Lunch: Well, for me it never went away. But I consider myself no wave because it defies categorization. I mean I’m always happy when something is discordant, or something is shredded, or something is irritating. But I’ve also done swamp rock, I’ve done big band music… I don’t expect anyone to make music for me, I make it for my many selves! That’s why I usually try to have a different flavor.
PAN M 360: You’ve created a lot of things and looking back on your work, are there any missed opportunities or things you would have liked to do? And that you still want to do?
Lydia Lunch: Well, that’s a very good question. No, because what would I have missed (laughs). The thing is, I’m a conceptualist. So I mean, first of all, I have a concept, a musical concept. Then I try to find the person who I think will be the best to illustrate that sound. I never think “oh I want to work with this person.” I wouldn’t know who to work with. It’s not that I’ve worked with everyone either, but I don’t sit down and think “oh, I’d like to do something innovative.” No. I’d like to continue to collaborate with those who make the most sense for a specific project. What’s interesting about Retrovirus, because we cover so many decades, is that a lot of this music has never been played live, or only very, very briefly. So it’s interesting to have musicians who can perform these tunes, but take them beyond that, in a more… I wouldn’t say sophisticated way, but in an even more beautiful and punishing way. (laughs)
PAN M 360: Speaking of Retrovirus, we just saw Bob Bert on drums with John Spencer in Montreal two weeks ago. Will he still be behind the drums for the Retrovirus show at the Tavern Tour?
Lydia Lunch: No, we have Kevin Shea now. You know, this is the longest set up I’ve ever had. Because usually I have a concept, I find the collaborators, we do a tour or we do a record and then we move on to the next (concept) please! But with the amount of songs in my repertoire that we can draw from, it might be that Retrovirus becomes a new band from time to time (laughs). And so now we have a new drummer, mainly because Bob is involved with John Spencer for a long time, so we had to get Kevin Shea, and that made the band sound even more brutal. I say that with great pleasure! (laughs) We open the show with “War Pigs” by Black Sabbath! I stay true to the lyrics but coming from me, coming out of my mouth, they take on another meaning, they are completely distorted.
PAN M 360: I wonder what Ozzy would think of it…
Lydia Lunch: Is he still able to hear anything? (laughs)
PAN M 360: And I believe that Weasel Walter still plays the guitar and Tim Dahl the bass?
Lydia Lunch: Of course! Weasel and Jim, yeah!
PAN M 360: Considering that you have written more than 300 songs…
Lydia Lunch: 400! Who’s counting? Not even 10 a year, I’m slacking! (laughs)
PAN M 360: Ok, considering you’ve written over 400 songs, are there any you’ve never played live on this tour?
Lydia Lunch: We’re playing songs from my catalog that we’ve never played before, yes. But we don’t write new songs when there are so many choices. If I’m going to write new songs, I’m going to have new collaborators, like with Cypress Grove, or my Fistful of Desert Blues, and I also have an unreleased jazz noir album with Sylvia Black, who is an incredible singer/songwriter (in French in the interview). I have a record with Tim Dahl’s band, Grid, with saxophone, bass and something more like spoken word, which is not out yet. So there’s no reason to put new music on Retrovirus; it’s the “Retro” virus! But what’s interesting is that we can do songs that we’ve never done before. For example, we’re doing three or four songs that we’ve never played before for this tour.
PAN M 360: A few years ago, we heard that you wanted to sell the rights of all your works. How did that happen?
Lydia Lunch: I’m always there with my hand out, waiting for gold to fall in (laughs). You know, I sold my archive to New York University, but it was just physical debris. I don’t know how, but from a very young age, I managed to keep the rights to everything I did, unlike so many of my contemporaries. And I don’t know how I was so thoughtful at 17. I own everything, which is great, but nobody wants to buy it (laughs). It’s all there. You never know… But you know, why would they be interested in my work when they spend 150 million fucking dollars on the Red Hot Chili Peppers? Ew! In-croy-able… I mean, I never wrote “Under The Bridge” and they never wrote “Orphans.” I don’t know what to say… I just wish somebody would take it off my hands and do something with it. In the 400 songs, I think there’s a lot of scary ones that could easily be in some of these crime shows, which I’m obsessed with.
PAN M 360: So there were no offers?
Lydia Lunch: Well, there have been some offers but not what I wanted…. I have to try to hold out. It also has to be with the right people. You know, it’s not like a storage unit that we would auction off. And if it was, who would come? (laughs). Look, I have to take everything with a grain of salt like I always have. For example, last year I received a grant from Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, which has the oldest and largest music archive in America. They offered it to me, and I laughed, and said, “So what does that mean? And who else got it?” They said, “You know, it means a few thousand dollars, you come in, you jog, you get a plaque…” And the only other two people who got it were Lamont Dozier, who wrote a lot of songs for Motown, I love Motown, and Barry Gibb! I hate the Bee Gees! (laughs). So it was me, Barry Gibb and Lamont Dozier! It was great! Likewise, I’ve taught at universities before and having dropped out of school in high school, I just thought “I like this!” It’s so ridiculous when you think about it! That’s really what no wave is all about: absurdity! I love the absurdity of it. I mean, I’m more proud of my gun training than I am of a scholarship! (laughs). I’m an American, I have gun training you know! (laughs)
PAN M 360: How did the recent death of Tom Verlaine affect you? Were you friends?
Lydia Lunch: Affected? Ah! I’m surprised that everyone is still alive! I’m kidding, but the thing is, people have a bad attitude about death. We don’t cry for the dead, we cry for ourselves, like “oh, I’m not going to have that anymore…”. We have to appreciate what people have given us in life. That’s why we have to be very grateful, every day. Because everybody is going to die. You don’t have to mourn their departure, you just have to appreciate what they gave you, what they did for you, what they gave for the culture or whatever. I mean, Tom Verlaine was not a friend of mine, but I think his contribution to the first two Television albums was great. How much more does a man have to do before he can rest in peace in that black velvet room? (laughs) I’m not ready to go but… you never know!
PAN M 360: Please wait until after the Montreal show.
Lydia Lunch: At least I’ll wait until after this interview! (laughs) I’m not going anywhere anyway, except to go in circles like I always do. So I’ll be circling around your place in a few days, I’ve got a lot of guts!
The name Jonathan Toubin is one past Taverne Tour attendees should know well. He’s brought his eccentric collection of soul, rock, funk, and whatever he’s feeling, to Taverne Tour’s after parties since the festival has been running, and played almost every year. His enthusiastic energy as a DJ has earned him titles like “The most-liked man in the soul music scene” and “New York’s favourite and best DJ,” and his New York Night Train dance parties have become stuff of legend. He’s the only DJ who is constantly playing after parties or opening for big names like Jack White.
With all this praise, Toubin remains a guy who has yes partied with the greats, but is also very humble. He loves spanning a few decades with his parties, usually focusing on the soul records you’ve never heard of, deep cuts of guys like Carl Hommes and the Commanders, or the original pressing of The Presidents “Shoe Shine.” He also mainly plays original 45’s, honing in off that vintage sound. We spoke to Jonathan at 11 am (early for him!) ahead of his Taverne Tour appearance and talked about his new bar, links to Montreal, and love of old Soul music, as he walked around, made coffee, and his flipped through old record crates.
PAN M 360: Hey Jonathan, how are you today?
Jonathan Toubin: Yeah I’m good, just making coffee. I had a late night, and I’m sober this month, I’m doing late hours.
PAN M 360: Oh you’re doing that sober January thing?
Jonathan Toubin: No not really. I started it a few days ago. I opened a new nightclub a few weeks ago and both of the places I own close really late. And then you know, my job in New York is usually done around four in the morning we get paid after that. So it’s the kind of thing where I need a health kick every once in a while. I like the mornings, but it’s just not it’s not in the cards for me right now.
PAN M 360: What’s the new club? I know you already have the TV EYE bar/ venue?
Jonathan Toubin: Yeah the new one is just a bar really. It’s a two story bar. Basically a friend of mine [Howie Pyro] died. And he was really cool. He’s like a original ’77 punk rocker, when you know he was a teenager he played at CBGBs and put out records. He was just a really interesting guy. Like a queer proto-goth who played with D Generation and Danzig, and played older records like me, but he collected all this rock n’ roll crap. And he was buried Hollywood Forever [a cemetery in LA]. I was sitting there with his other good friend and we were working out like ‘What’s gonna happen to all this stuff?’ And you know, his sister didn’t know what to do with it and they didn’t give it to the university. So he always wanted to have a bar or like something like that so we just decided to make a place with all of his stuff.
PAN M 360: That’s cool. Kind of in memoriam of him.
Jonathan Toubin: Yeah and it’s cool stuff. Like the ashtray that Andy Warhol stole The Velvet Underground banana from I mean, note for note. Or the Ramones gave him their first gold record, you know, presented to him. That’s up there. The Dead Boys guitar case that he used for his bass.
PAN M 360: What’s this place called?
Jonathan Toubin: It’s called 96 Tears. It’s in East Village.
PAN M 360: 96 Tears… That’s a song by Question Mark and the Mysterians right?
Jonathan Toubin: Yeah he had it tattooed on his neck and he was a huge collector of rock n’ roll memorabilia so the name made sense.
PAN M 360: So on top of being one of the most sought after DJs in the world and owning two establishments, you travel a ton, and your next stop is Montreal’s Taverne Tour.
Jonathan Toubin: Yeah I’ve played everyone until I think they quit when they weren’t allowed to have dancing. I think last year because there was a surge. Yeah, I don’t think I’ve done it since … God, I hate to say it, it might be 2019 or 2020. Probably actually 2020, right before the pandemic. So I feel far away from it. Basically I can’t wait to come back.
PAN M 360: Do you have a pretty big link to Montreal in general?
Jonathan Toubin: Yeah sort of. I’ve definitely spent a lot of time there. I guess I started doing DJ parties there in the 2000s. And you know, Bloodshot Bill is my friend and I stay with him sometimes. Or he stays in my house. And I always, you know, put on his shows at my other club and at my dance parties in New York. So that’s, he’s a good link. I’m also longtime fan of the city. I got a ticket a day early before my show, just to go see some stuff. And also I always go record shopping there because I love Quebecois cover versions and like garage music and I hope to find some interesting records.
PAN M 360: Your collection must be massive?
Jonathan Toubin: Yeah and it’s really disorganized. But I have around 20,000 of these things and I want less, more quality less quantity.
PAN M 360: And you only play 45s when you perform right?
Jonathan Toubin: Not only that, but the original copies to make it more fun for myself. But that means I’m not really able to play most of the songs I want. It’s just like being an Iron Chef right? Like you only have pork belly and scallion and go! You have to be creative with what you have… I mean even Spotify doesn’t have most of what I want, either. But you know what I mean, if you’re able to have everything ever, you would you wouldn’t have any limitations right?
PAN M 360: So are you always on the hunt for something new to add to your repertoire?
Jonathan Toubin: I definitely used to be. But to be honest, during the pandemic, I ran out of money. So I started looking through my own records. You know, sometimes I forget and I was cataloging things and digitizing things during then. And I found all this great stuff that I completely forgot about. Like sometimes I’ll be in a town like Detroit, and I’ll come home with like, 100 records of something. Then I’ll get really busy when I get home and I won’t listen to all of them. Maybe I’ll take two or three out. So I did all my shopping for a couple of years in my own house. it was really fun.
PAN M 360: Are you ever surprised with what you already have?
Jonathan Toubin: Yeah, there are a few time when I’m like ‘Where the hell did this come from? Like certain records, I really have no idea. How long it’s been here. I mean, it gave me a chance to get to know though what I really had. And also, I think the problem was, and I think this is true with anyone, I think the reason people like Top 40 or whatever is it’s new all the time is that they just want something new to listen to. They got bored with their old favourite song. They don’t really want to hear it again. So someone makes them a new favorite song. And so I guess for me, I guess probably a lot of people do my job, you know, we play all this stuff, so we need to go find another thing that we’re not bored with yet. You know, there was times where I was doing over 300 nights of these shows a year and you call get into habits. You start either playing things way too much or doing the opposite. It’s nice to be like I don’t really know what this sounds like, but we’re gonna figure it out.
PAN M 360: And as a DJ you need those little moments right? You don’t really get to enjoy the music as much and your always queuing up the next song?
Jonathan Toubin: Yeah you’re queuing the next record, you’re talking to someone; it’s very rare that you get to really enjoy music on the level of someone that just hears the songs uninterrupted. And sometimes you think certain ones are maybe a little long. When you finally get time with them alone, you start cutting it off a little early. Or you realize ‘This record is so repetitive.’ You don’t want to play it anymore. But it’s great at the club, because it’s got that kind of beat and you’re sitting back, feeling people dancing, enjoying in the magic, but maybe I don’t really like the record. But I think you enjoy the feeling of it more.
I came up with a definition for DJ a few years ago; You’re a mediator between people in music, and I was thinking that covers even radio, or any one that we call a DJ, because it’s someone that connects people in music. And I’ll say that feeding off that energy from people dancing based on my record choices, that’s better than listening alone at home.
PAN M 360: And one of the reasons you’re such a name in the DJ and live music world is you don’t play the hits, but rarities many people don’t even know existed. That must be fun shocking people or turning them onto new music from a different era.
Jonathan Toubin: Yeah I don’t play any hits or sometimes I’ll play an obscure cover of a hit. It’s usually around 100 records for most of these nights and I really like people to be challenged. And I also I guess I like to think about what I would want if I walked in somewhere. I’d like to hear some song I hadn’t heard before even ,man, I’d love to hear a rhythm I hadn’t heard before. I think the why I ended up with playing Soul music the most for dancing was that you can just find a lot of quality stuff that has a lot of passion and that you haven’t heard before. They made so many of those records in the era and they’re very unique. And every region has a different sound or different producers and arrangers, different sizes, certainly musicians and singers with all kinds of different sounds. So it can be, it can be very textured. Now I’m moving more into the mid to late ’60s, maybe little to the early ’70s.
PAN M 360: And you kind of set these rules for yourself. Like ‘OK I’m only going to play from this time period of Soul music to this one?
Jonathan Toubin: So my thing is, I just kind of decided to make a parameter. I’d be like, ‘Well, the set will be roughly from the years that James Brown did his best stuff from the ’50s to the, like, mid 70s. That would be my guideline. But and within that period, there was so much innovation in Black American music, and, you know, there’s so many things going on, so you have a lot of territory you can cover, if you don’t get stuck. I think there’s a lot of continuity, in some ways of like, the sort of expressive quality of the voices or the types of beats chosen. I don’t know, a lot of people just do like a party over just like a two or three year kind of span. To me, thats like if you made a cookie with only flour and you forgot all of the nuts or chocolate chips.
PAN M 360: You’re background was more into the garage and punk scene in Austin and then after you moved to New York, did your style kind of shift into Soul?
Jonathan Toubin: Well, I never really shifted, I mean I always liked this stuff. I really started DJing like, at clubs and stuff when I was in New York, and I kind of quit playing in bands and all that. And in most of the people I played to were in these bands at like rock n’ roll bars. People are drinking and they want to sing along to The Damned so I’d throw that on and I didn’t really think much about it.
But when I when I had to do dance parties, I was just sort of surprised. I didn’t want to do electro or disco or any that kind of thing. I wanted something that felt really organic and passionate and raw, like the stuff that I liked the most. I did learn how to do rock and roll for dancing too, but the soul parties became the most popular. I organically moved into that sort of direction. I think what it was is I was this guy coming from a different kind of music world approaching soul in my way and I was speaking to lots of people through it. I wasn’t at deep cuts kind of guy yet and was just kind of finding my way. And it’s funny, that after all these years I’m still an outsider, playing rock n’ roll venues and venues, and I’m not really part of the soul world at all.
Soul Clap Party 2019
PAN M 360: Did you ever envision yourself getting this big? I mean, you’ve opened for Jack White, sold out multiple venues, and host the most popular soul dance party in the world. Was there a point where you were like ‘ Wow I can do this as a career?’
Jonathan Toubin: No and I still don’t think that. I’m more like ‘Oh no. Today my career is over,’ almost everyday (laughs). I didn’t expect anything from it. When I played music, I really started pursuing that in certain point fairly seriously and making a living doing that for a while. Bit I quit messing around with it. With DJing, I never really cared. I just started. I was in graduate school at the time and I was just trying to get a little extra money and have fun, and I didn’t expect nothing. And I think that might have also been what helped. But Jack White … one of my bands in Texas, we along with The White Stripes opened for The Dirtbombs on a tour in Detroit. And this turned out to be The White Stripes’ second show ever. So it’s all connections and fortunately, a lot of those people I know from my band days have been doing pretty well. And then people like Vice gave me a bunch of money to play music I already liked, so it all really happened by accident.
PAN M 360: Would you say your goal with New York Night Train is to get people who aren’t normally up for dancing to dance? Like the too cool rock n roll people who only head nod to music.
Jonathan Toubin: Oh for sure. I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently. I think there has always been the people who play the hits and then the people who play the really rare stuff that’s almost pretentious like ‘Oh if you don’t know what this is, get the fuck out,’ kind of thing. There was never much middle ground. I never understood why people never danced to rock n’ roll like they did in the ’50s. I mean there’s this fuzzy line between rock and soul with the same kind of beats that encourage dancing, but yeah with my stuff you’re getting an eccentric, middle-aged gentleman and an odd suit, very enthusiastically, playing all of the most exciting solo records you’ve ever heard.
In residence at Groupe le Vivier since last fall, Ukrainian artist Alla Zagaykevych has come full circle in Montreal. In this second concert-portrait of her, she presents four works from her repertoire, including a world premiere and a previously unpublished transcription.
Links have been forged between the composer and Quebec performers Pamela Reimer (piano), Lyne Allard (violin), Hubert Brizard (violin), Marie-Annick Béliveau (mezzo-soprano – Chants Libres), Corinne René (percussion – PSM) and the Quasar Saxophone Quartet.
Far from the real danger she will have to deal with again the day after her custom-made program promoted by Le Vivier, on Wednesday at the Espace Bleu in the Wilder Building, Alla Zagaykevych sums up her stay in Montreal as “a kind of cinematic flashback in search of a new artistic identity as a composer in wartime”.
The latest Montreal manifestations of her creative talent came on January 23 – an open rehearsal of the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne gave us a nourishing first reading of the work “Et seul le roseau brille au soleil”, composed in Montreal. Evocative of his own perception of the ongoing armed violence in his country, the title refers us to the mystery of “Friend Li Bo. Brother Du Fu..” by the late writer Oleh Lysheha, whose poetic plot is set within a military unit deployed in a northern forest.
Inspired by the same author and premiered this Wednesday, “Song of Maiden” recalls the condition of a young bride who finds refuge in love songs, seeking to pick up the pieces of an existence broken by war.
Obviously, Alla Zagaykevych is not a pasionaria of the Ukrainian resistance, we feel in her nuance, sobriety and restraint in her words on the situation, which does not in any way question her allegiance. We must observe that the artist visibly prefers to express herself on the absurd violence of the armed aggression as a phenomenon first felt. She applies herself to map the emotions through her recent work.
Before returning to Kyiv, where she directs an electroacoustic program at the Conservatory, she talks to PAN M 360 and takes stock of the last months spent in Montreal.
PAN M 360: As an artist and musicologist, how do you experience the two languages spoken in Ukraine?
ALLA ZAGAYKEVYCH: I come from a family of university professors. My first language was Russian, but in this period of war, I do not speak Russian in Ukraine. However, I can speak it elsewhere – I have, for example, exchanged in Russian here in Montreal. I must also say that I lived in the western regions of Ukraine, regions quite close to Poland, I spoke Russian in my family but I went to Ukrainian school to study at first. At the age of 18, I started to do a lot of folklore research in Ukraine and discovered even more. I had the feeling that I was living in a bilingual environment but in times of war everything becomes black and white.
PAN M 360: It must be difficult to go home in the context. How do you experience it?
ALLA ZAGAYKEVICH: You know, there is a civil society in Ukraine, unlike many authoritarian countries in the region or elsewhere. Yes there is corruption, contradictions, you can see some nonsense done to the LGBTQ+ community… it’s very difficult to change things. But we are optimistic because we can count on a civil society, which can control part of our reality.
PAN M 360: What is your relationship with Quebec?
ALLA ZAGAYKEVYCH: When I spent some time at IRCAM (Institute for Research and Coordination of Acoustics and Music) in Paris in 1995 and 1996, I met there (the Quebec composer) Serge Provost, who introduced me to the work of Claude Vivier. Afterwards, I founded an electroacoustic music studio at the Conservatoire where I invited Serge, who in turn invited Véronique Lacroix to play works by Anna Sokolovic and Jean Lesage.
PAN M 360: Away from the conflict zone, how did you find your way inside as an artist?
ALLA ZAGAYKEVYCH: I tried to choose themes and texts that were in tune with my spirit as an artist in residence whose country is in a time of war. With Jeffrey Stonehouse (Groupe Le Vivier’s artistic director), we put together programs that represent the work done here.
PAN M 360: Let’s go first with “Song of Maiden”, which premieres Wednesday.
ALLA ZAGAYKEVYCH: “Song of Maiden”, which highlights a text by Oleh Lysheha. This poet is the inspiration for another work of mine performed by the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne (“Et seul le roseau brille au soleil”), although the text is not quoted as such – I can, however, represent its tone. I wrote “Song of Maiden” for Marie-Annick (Béliveau, mezzo-soprano) and Corinne (René, percussionist) because they had performed in my first portrait on October 16. They were very open to other experiments, to contrasts, and for me it is fantastic that Marie-Annick can sing so well in Ukrainian.
PAN M 360: Let’s take the creation of the transcription “The Saxophone Quartet/While Flying Up”:
ALLA ZAGAYKEVYCH: This is a transcription of a string quartet (2009) that I reworked a lot afterwards. For the saxophones, the foundation becomes multiphonic and sonorous. And I know that Quasar is more than familiar with the multiphonic approach. I see this work as an electronic piece played by an instrumental ensemble. I’m saying the same thing but in a completely different language.
PAN M 360: Let’s go for “Keep Silence”.
ALLA ZAGAYKEVYCH: The pianist (Pamela Reimer) improvises while listening to recorded electronic parts and consulting graphic scores. Something then invites the pianist to exert his performative energy. It is a kind of concerto with orchestra, a powerful concerto, very active, very personal.
PAN M 360: There is also “Inner Voices of Violin” with dedication.
ALLA ZAGAYKEVYCH : This is a duet for violins (Lyne Allard and Hubert Brizard) with live and pre-recorded electronics. The work is dedicated to Ivry Getlis (1920-2018), a very important French-Israeli violinist whose Jewish parents were natives of the Ukraine. Having met him, I believe that he understood many things in Ukraine, including anti-Semitism. It was important for me to go there because the Jewish culture has always been part of the Ukrainian culture with the atrocities that we know – we know that tens of thousands of Jews were killed in Kyiv at the beginning of the 1940s. So it is my response to the great Ivry Getlis to seek out this inner voice of the violin.
PAN M 360: Your language is vast and your use of popular or classical traditions could not be more contemporary. Do you agree with that?
ALLA ZAGAYKEVYCH: When, for example, I use song or very little known folklore, I treat this material as a sound object as a notion of electroacoustics. My instrumental music is also situated in the spectral exploration. Now, in the context of my reality of war which becomes an artistic matter, it is a question of knowing when and how I can evoke it pertinently.
PAN M 360: Your background as a musicologist, instrumental composer or electroacousticist, including opera and symphonic music, makes you unique. How do you explain this wide range of interests?
ALLA ZAGAYKEVYCH: It comes from my experience with different communities, my relationship with different types of musicians. I’m also involved in the world of film, which requires real collaborative work. I dare to believe that I, as a Ukrainian, participate in the development of the world musical language. My position is in the middle of all this. One cannot say exactly what I do and that’s fine!
PROGRAM
Yuliya Zakharava: Oj Tap Song for voix, corps et percussions de la pianiste
Alla Zagaykevych: Inner Voices of Violin (dédicace à Irvy Getlis) for violons et électronique live et pré-enregistrée
Alla Zagaykevych: The Saxophone Quartet/While Flying Up , 2009 – 2022 for saxophone quartet – premiere
Alla Zagaykevych: Song, to text by Oleh Lysheha , 2023 for voix de soprano, percussions et électronique – premiere
Alla Zagaykevych: To keep silence for piano solo et électronique enregistré
The sounds from Montreal’s Laura Krieg could exist nicely in a dim-lit German club, where the drugs are strong, and the music is loud. She describes her sound as “brutalist pop,” a combination if post punk, gothic punk, and synth rock. Her songs are chilling, kind if like being in a hammer horror movie where everyone is dancing and they have no idea why. Live, Laura statres into the eyes of the audience, usually donning an outfit that makes her look like a too cool, modern vampire. You could call her Montreal’s Siouxsie Sioux. We spoke with the young songwriter ahead of her performance at Taverne Tour VI.
PAN M 360: The first time I heard about your music, someone called your style “vampire rock.” What do you think of this classification?
Laura Krieg: I don’t mind, it makes me laugh a little, but at the same time it’s flattering.
PAN M 360: I see that you classify your sound as “brutalist pop,” I can understand that, but where did that come from? What does that mean to you?
Laura Krieg: It was a way to define my vision, to talk about a meeting between pop and more industrial sounds, more “in-your-face,” and colder.
PAN M 360: Is Laura Krieg your real name and you or is it more of a persona for the music?
Laura Krieg: No, it’s not my real name. It’s a kind of “battle” name, a kind of alter ego that allows me to embody myself differently on stage, and in the music.
PAN M 360: What is your songwriting process? Messing around with a synth and then putting lyrics to it?
Laura Krieg: It’s not the same process for every piece. Sometimes it’s the lyrics that come first, or a single phrase, other times it’s a rhythm, and from there the other elements come gradually.
PAN M 360: Are you a fan of Bauhaus? I get that sound a lot from listening to your stuff. Who are some other artists that influence you?
Laura Krieg: Yes, of course, I like Bauhaus a lot. To name a few others: Malaria, Solid Space, Einsturzende Neubaten, The Birthday Party, Saada Bonaire, Molly Nilsson, Paralisis Permanente.
PAN M 360: Where do you find inspiration for your darkened, but poignant lyrics? It’s a messed up world we live in…
Laura Krieg: I take a lot of inspiration from literature, cinema, but also from the ambient depression.
PAN M 360: How do you find Montreal as a scene for this kind of music? I’m sure you would really flourish in a place like Berlin?
Laura Krieg: I feel lucky to live in Montreal, I doubt I would have started making music if I hadn’t come here. I find the underground music scene and the community that exists around it very inspiring. I feel a lot of encouragement and support. Maybe in Berlin it would be different, yeah, I don’t know.
PAN M 360: How important is it to work with Johnny Couteau for your songs? Will he be on the next album as well?
Laura Krieg: Johnny Couteau helps me a lot in the creative process, he always brings something that takes the pieces somewhere else, his input is very important. I used to play electric guitar in his band, and it inspired me a lot, so I started to make music in my solo project.
PAN M 360: Did this project start over the pandemic or is that when you just released your first album?
Laura Krieg: The project I started in 2016-2017, but I released my first album, a cassette, in 2018.
PAN M 360: Do you have plans for more material this year? Will it be on the Detriti Records?
Laura Krieg: Yes, I’m working on a new album right now.
PAN M 360: Is it contuning with the sounds on Vie Magique?
Laura Krieg: There is a continuity with Vie Magique, but it goes in other directions. No, I don’t have the name yet.
PAN M 360:Do you ever get to improvise while playing live or is it pretty close to the record?
Laura Krieg: On some pieces there is more room for improvisation, especially on the vocal level, but on others everything remains quite similar to the recording.
PAN M 360: For someone who has never heard of you and is walking into the Taverne Tour show, what can they expect?
Laura Krieg: A body, a voice, some notes out of tune, and 10g of “vampire rock”.
“An episodic opera without a narrative, Listening to the Lost explores and investigates our emotional connection to sound, how we hold sound events and music in memory, how we trigger these memories, and how we transform, distort, and essentially recreate these flash memories.”
“L’écoute du perdu is a non-narrative, episodic opera that explores and interrogates our emotional connection to sound and how we hold onto sound and music in our memories, how they are triggered, and how we transform, distort, and essentially re-create with these fragmented ‘flashbulb’ memories. We begin with Guglielmo Marconi, a pioneer of the radio, who is famously attributed the belief that sound never dies.”
These are the foundations of this work imagined by Keiko Devaux for three human voices, flutes, clarinets, cello, synthesizer and percussion. The Montreal composer clearly summarizes the issues at stake:
PAN M 360: How did it all start?
KEIKO DEVAUX: It started with a conversation with Jeffrey Stonehouse (artistic director of Paramirabo), he was open to different possibilities and gave me carte blanche. In the context of my PhD studies, I was working on memory, especially the memory of sound and its different implications.
PAN M 360: So your interest in the memory of sounds would have led you to creation, beyond a postgraduate degree?
KEIKO DEVAUX: I was fascinated by the Italian (physicist, inventor and businessman) Guglielmo Marconi, especially because he believed that sound waves had an eternal life and that one could eventually design a machine capable of capturing all the frequencies, all the historical sound moments. I found that a very beautiful concept! It fed me.
PAN M 360: Also your knowledge of the phenomena around your interest in memory has clearly been deepened!
KEIKO DEVAUX: I was obsessed with these stories about memory. Beyond this interest in Marconi, in the science of memory and sound, I became interested in flash memory or episodic memory. In fact, all the forms of memory that humans have. The stronger the emotion of a moment, the more it loops in our memory, the more distorted it becomes. And I found it super interesting that our most precious moments can also be the most distorted. I also learned that the sensory episodes put into memory are really clear – the texture, the smell, etc. We forget some aspects of these episodes, a phrase, a color, but the emotion remains intact.
PAN M 360: How did the project then take shape?
KEIKO DEVAUX: So I proposed this idea that was brewing in my head to Jeff and he thought it was a cool concept. I then considered the possibility of working with opera voices and “physically playing” with the text; I actually preferred a text setting to a libretto, I wanted the collaboration of different authors rather than working on a narrative framework with a single librettist. I suggested to Jeff that we compose a large piece where each movement would represent an individual flash memory, which justified the approach with different authors. So I joined Daniel Canty, Kaie Kellough and Michaël Trahan. I wanted the texts to be bilingual and conceived here. I suggested to Kaie that he write a text related to the memory of a book. To Michaël, I wanted a text about the memory of a person. To Daniel Canty, who was also fascinated by this theme of memory, I asked him to write the prologue and epilogue, a narrative voice of Marconi with these questions: do sounds never die? Where are they in space?
PAN M 360: How did this materialize in the final form of this “episodic opera without a narrative framework”?
KEIKO DEVAUX: The prologue announces the idea (text by Daniel Canty). A first movement illustrates the episodic memory of a person (English text by Kaie Kellough). A second movement presents the contrasting memory of another person (French text by Michaël Trahan). A third is a kind of synthesis that represents the machine where we go through several memories – a “mise en texte” of myself with fragments intermingled from the writings of our authors, with their permission. And we end with the epilogue (Daniel Canty). These authors are really great in their respective styles, in the rhythm of their sentences, the choice of their words!
PAN M 360: Obviously, you had to dress up this concept so that it would shine on stage. How did you go about it?
KEIKO DEVAUX: With the support of Le Vivier Group (of which Jeff Stonehouse is also the artistic director), we had more means. I started to visualize the play and I considered that we needed to emphasize the visual dimension with lighting, projections and also a staging to underline the theatrical dimension. I then discussed with the director Marie Brassard, to get feedback and finally she loved the idea of staging this opera with her formidable expertise. She brought her whole team, set designer, lighting designer, Karl Lemieux projections.
PAN M 360: So, in your own way, you imagined what this fantastical machine of Marconi, to whom we owe the invention of the radio, would be.
KEIKO DEVAUX: Just as you change channels on the radio, you change channels in this work by presenting several different memories, and then you find yourself in the machine.
The Igloofest Festival celebrates its 15th anniversary with great fanfare! Its mission: to highlight electronic music, energize the Old Port district and promote Montreal internationally with this unique initiative. Usually, large-scale events rely on programming that can combine quality and the satisfaction of the general public. Which is often a big challenge!
That of January 28 offered a range of music – on the Videotron stage – very punchy and totally feminine: urtrax, Isabel Soto and No Police. PAN M 360 spoke with Isabel Soto on this occasion.
DJ and producer, originally from Venezuela, she is in the process of becoming the next star from here and elsewhere. In less than two years, she has multiplied the projects galore: resident for the Arder collective in Montreal or DifferentSound in Georgia, affiliated with several labels such as Diffuse Reality, Second State, Occultech Recordings, Sine Space 7…Not to mention that she is also a photographer and graphic designer.
It would seem that hard work and simplicity are the keys to its success.
PAN M 360: Isabel, I would like to know more about your career as a producer and DJ. Tell me, in detail, what brought you into music.
Isabel Soto: I started producing and mixing in 2019. Just before the pandemic started, I bought myself a controller to start learning. However, you should know that I have been involved in the music industry since 2012 as a graphic designer and photographer for Montreal parties. In 2016, I started to discover the techno scene during a concert at the mythical Stereo Club. Since then, I have been completely involved. Moreover, I discovered the European scene which opened my eyes to the extent of the possibilities of techno music. All of this really motivated me to totally get into production and DJing. My advantage was being very familiar with visual design software and when I started learning to use Ableton, I was relatively comfortable with the interface. But, I took a lot of classes to better understand all the keys to creation, production and post-production. The pandemic was a key moment because I spent a lot of time at home learning and working with a producer from Bueno Aires online: Michel Lauriola. In September 2020, I was contacted by a producer who listened to one of my productions on the networks and there, everything started.
PAN M 360: Individuals capable of being both a DJ and a producer are relatively rare. You are one of those people with this ability. In my opinion, it’s a great potential that you exploit wonderfully. Your selections and your productions are almost similar. How do you feel about this yourself?
Isabel Soto : Yes, that’s true. There is a similarity. In truth, I saw DJing as an introduction to production because for me, it’s creation that attracts me the most, like in graphic design. I love giving shape to my ideas. I quickly felt limited in DJing and was captivated by the fact of wanting to create sound.
PAN M 360: Going through your SoundCloud, I see that you are a very prolific artist both in your productions and your DJ performances. How do you plan your work to be so productive?
Isabel Soto : (laughs!) I spend my time working! During the week, I am a graphic designer. On weekends, I’m a DJ and/or producer. I’m lucky to be working remotely often, so I can juggle from one project to another very quickly. The counterpart is a reduced social life. Unfortunately, I have much less time to socialize, to see my friends or to go out to events. But, it is the price to pay to concretize all my projects. I developed the ability to multitask all the time.
PAN M 360: What machines or instruments do you use for your productions? Do you work alone or with others?
Isabel Soto : I mainly produce with Ableton and a synthesizer, the Korg minilogue. I learn every day to make better use of all the potential of these. Sometimes I call on producers to help me find solutions when I feel the need, for example, to learn how to mix my sound better. I also watch tutorials on YouTube.
PAN M 360: Where do you draw your influences for both your productions and your musical selections?
Isabel Soto : Blazej Malinowski was my first source of inspiration for learning production. Then, I can quote: Aleja Sanchez (Colombia), Pulso (Argentina), Marcelo Antonio (Argentina), FLAWS, Oscar Mulero. I am very influenced by what is happening in Argentina, in general.
PAN M 360: Your musical style is very marked by deep, hypnotic and mental techno. It’s a very European influence and we also find this genre in Latin countries. Personally, I find it very refreshing because in Montreal, the techno scene is rather dominated by a tendency to ultra fast and brutal BPM. How do you perceive the Montreal scene?
Isabel Soto : When I started in 2020, I felt demotivated because I felt like I wasn’t sticking to the general mood. It plunged me into a certain loneliness in Montreal until I met artists and/or collectives who were looking to develop this style of techno. For example, Mike Larry’s Arder collective, where I’m a resident DJ, tries to bring that style here. And so many others besides. Now I feel like the tide is turning. People like me can finally flourish and find their place on the Montreal scene.
PAN M 360: You shared the stage at the Igloofest Festival with the prodigious urtrax. How did you perceive that?
Isabel Soto : I still remain on the element of surprise. I received confirmation from Igloofest on my birthday. For me, this is and remains a great first. I try to take it as naturally as possible. No Police was on the same lineup as me and it comforted me to be with a friend. It was a great honor to play before urtrax. She is so young and so talented. She is just amazing! It makes me really happy.
Hailing from Chicago, Hiroko Yamamura has been immersed in electronic dance music since her teenage years. First as a raver, then as a DJ. After a long hiatus, she returned to the scene in a major way a few years ago, encouraged by her long-time friend Seth Troxler. An international ambassador for Chicago techno and house, she will share her musical legacy with Igloofest crowds at an “Après-ski” party at the PHI Center for the opening weekend of the festival.
PAN M 360 : I tried to find some information about you on the internet, and you are kind of mysterious. Can you tell me more about your background ?
Hiroko Yamamura : Sure. So I’ve been DJing and producing for a long time since high school. I don’t want to say exactly how old I am (laughs) but yes, I’ve been very much a raver. I used to go to parties in the late 1990’s early 2000s, grew up in Chicago. I was influenced by the scene there, I was really into comic books, video games, the futuristic aspects of techno like using hardware and computers to make music really drew me. Then I took a break for a while. It really came back in 2015, when I decided to start DJing. One of my friends Seth Troxler was really instrumental in encouraging me to start DJing again. I was having fun with that. After all locked down, I really started to figure out that I really missed it and I wanted to take it seriously and pursue it professionally.
PAN M 360 : You are from Chicago. The city is very well known for being the birthplace of several music genres. I can think of blues, jazz, gospel, of course, house music. Among those genres, is there one that you grew up listening to, and how did it influence you as a person but also as a DJ?
Hiroko Yamamura : Actually, the industrial music scene in Chicago has probably influenced me the most. There was a record label there called Wax Trax. Bands like Ministry, Front 242, a bunch of European industrial music bands that started coming out were based out of this small record label in Chicago. Wax Trax also had a store there, so it’s a record store as well as a record label. It was kind of a hangout spot, too. You’d go there, buy concert tickets, you knew about the rave parties that were going on. The industrial music scene was very much influenced by kind of Gothic music, rock music, dance music, it was this big mix of all that with a very Chicago attached to it. Besides that, of course, house was a big influence. On the radio in Chicago, I think some of the best DJs were featured, it’s very much part of the culture.
PAN M 360 : Scenes have evolved since, how would you describe the electronic dance music scene and the music community in Chicago nowadays?
Hiroko Yamamura: I would say, there’s some pluses and minuses to Chicago. It’s a big city and it’s a working class city. It is a city that has segregation issues, so people from different areas like different things. There’s social economical differences, as well as when you’re in the music industry, and you and your friends are doing something, maybe don’t include everybody, right? It’s just you and your friends. One of the positive and negative things about Chicago is people work in pockets like that, so there’s a separation. But because of that, each neighborhood, each area develop their own sound. There is a west side scene, and there is a North Side scene… There is just different pockets in house music, some will call it “all house”, or some people all call it house. You would not think they are the same genre, because they developed under their own circumstances. They have their own sound, because everyone kind of has this attitude that, well, if people aren’t interested in what you’re doing, then you just go off and do it yourself. That’s kind of the Chicago attitude and I think that’s what’s given us the ability to have really interesting sounds, very DIY, but at the same time, it keeps the group from working together towards a singular goal. It makes the music great, it might not make the business aspects of it great.
PAN M 360 : How are those scenes organized ? Is it more club scenes or warehouse parties and raves?
Hiroko Yamamura : Especially after lockdown, the night fight life scene really suffered. We’ve seen a lot of closures, a lot of clubs still haven’t caught up to pay rent, for being close for years. So, you know, sometimes the music that is being played at clubs today is there to get people there, because they have to pay rent, they have to pay the bartenders and maybe the risks that they were taking before locked down aren’t there anymore. Additionally, back a long time ago, Chicago was one of the first cities to actually start what’s called the rave ordinates, it specifically outlawed raves. If you’re a DJ participating in a rave you can go to jail and face big consequences. That’s why it is very hard to have underground parties. There’s always going to be small little parties with a 100 people or maybe 20 people at someone’s house in a basement having a good time. Chicago doesn’t have this big kind of club, warehouse, underground culture like other cities. I think it also comes down to money. We’re not a rich city, or rich people. The amount of disposable income influences what people are able to do, like in New York or Los Angeles, people have a different amount of money to spend on stuff like that. The promoters have different amount of money, they can risk on events. They can have an undergraduate party and have an international DJ come in and if it gets shut down, they’re not going to be financially ruined for the rest of their lives. In Chicago, that would be a life changing recipe, so it changes what we’re able to do. Bigger companies have moved in, so to go and see a popular international DJ, you’re probably going to an expensive club in Chicago unfortunately.
PAN M 360 : In your artist biography, you talk about music as an heritage. Can you tell me more about your approach of it ?
Hiroko Yamamura : One of the key factors of being a DJ is you have to love music, and you have to be obsessed with it. It’s got to be almost problematic, like you’ve spent your lunch money on this record you really want. Throughout your life, from when you started listening to music, your story is all this music you’ve listened to, that moves you. It may be pop music, maybe some of it is underground, but probably nobody has listened to all the same music that you have. That combination, that’s your story. I think part of that is passing that on through your vision. To me there’s all these artists, wonderful musicians and visual art that also influenced me, for example, because the movie is so great, I love the song and it’s hard to separate those things. Whether it’s talking about it, or going up and playing it, it’s about sharing your likes. You are kind of saying : this is what I like, this is what moves me, what helps me feel better. So to me, that’s the ultimate heritage.
PAN M 360 : Is it your first time playing in Montreal? How do you feel about playing at Igloofest ?
Hiroko Yamamura : I played at Stereo club last year with my friend Seth Troxler, it was my first time in Montreal. I am super excited, super intimidated to play Igloofest. When I first heard about Igloofest and saw the videos of people dancing outside in the snow in the cold weather, I thought this is crazy. That’s such an exciting thing that people like embrace this idea! To me, as a foreigner and as a tourist it feels very Canadian, like an authentic Canadian experience.
Do we really need to introduce Josh Wink anymore? Producer, renowned DJ and co-founder of Ovum Recordings, Wink is one of those who helped establish the North American rave scene of the early 1990s. His label will celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2024. The secret to his career longevity? A never-ending love for musical discoveries and an ever-renewed pleasure in playing to enthusiastic crowds. To celebrate his fourth visit to Igloofest, PAN M 360 met him for an exclusive interview, starting from his teenage years all the way to the future of electronic music scene.
PANM 360 : You were born in Philadelphia in 1970, when disco was big and popular. “Philadelphia soul”, the “Philly sound” had a big impact on music internationally. Was the Philadelphia Soul sound a part of your music education and did it play a role in building or developing your taste for electronic music later on?
Josh Wink : Before 10 years old, even so, I was not so much into the disco sound. I was kind of influenced by things that my family brought to me. My father was heavily into classical music, Bach, Beethoven, things like that. My mother was into kind of world music and my brother was more into like rock’n’roll, Arlo Guthrie, David Bowie, Grateful Dead. He turned me on to Kraftwerk which changed my life. I didn’t really get involved in more musical knowledge up until I was in my early teenage years when I wanted to be a radio DJ. When I started with being a mobile DJ, doing weddings and bar mitzvahs and things like this, I started becoming more inquisitive and curious about different kinds of music, especially a music that came out of Philadelphia.The music appreciation for disco and soul from Philadelphia came when I became a little bit more of a seasoned teenager that was open to all different kinds of music.
I kind of got involved in, you know, the Philly International sound of Billy Paul, Archie Bell & the Drells, Dexter Wansel, Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes, Leon Huff, Lou Rawls, Patti LaBelle, MFSB, Teddy Pendergrass… all the the Philly people. We were always in the shadow of New York and Detroit, musically. New York was more famous for disco music than where it came from, like Philadelphia, where the strings were recorded by a guy named Larry Gold. Even people like David Bowie came here to do strings because of the disco sound. You know, the Vince Montana, the Larry Gold string sound that came out of Philadelphia and that the world took on from there. But we would get lost in the shadow of New York because it was so big and it was where Studio 54 and all these other clubs were. And we are also in the shadow of Motown of Detroit. Philly International was so important for the world, but also important for Philadelphia.
PAN M 360 : We often associate cities with signature sounds. In the 1990’s you started travelling to DJ, what can you tell me about the influences of East Coast cities’ music on your evolution ?
Josh Wink : I grew up in Philadelphia and started deejaying as a young teenager, 13, 14, 15 years old and I would go to block parties and hear Jazzy Jeff and Cash Money do the whole transformation of making hip-hop and turntablism into a worldwide phenomenon, based in Philadelphia. Once again, we were in the shadow of New York, even when it came to hip hop, even though we had a big scene in Philadelphia. First, it affected Philadelphia and New York, and then even DC had the go-go sound. So that was the first aspect of being influenced for me, and I would say hip hop music is in really regard as electronic music, even though originally it started with electronics, taking two records and the break of the records and mixing them together and extending the break, and then emcees on it, or using drum machines and samplers to make hip hop music. But this was a very important thing for the the East Coast. Now with electronic music dance music, New York was known for disco and house, Detroit isn’t known as it’s not an East Coast city, so that wouldn’t be part of it, even though it was very important with the birthplace of techno music. During the rave days there was not necessarily a signature sound. I mean there was a sound coming out of Baltimore which I’m just blanking on it right now. There was a New Jersey house sound that started at Zanzibar with Tony Humphries and that was a big and important. Philadelphia had disco, but it wasn’t really known for house, een though house music came from disco and R&B.
PAN M 360 : What about Montreal, do you remember the first time you came here ?
Josh Wink : I’m not 100% sure, but I think I came to Toronto before Montreal, in 1991 or 92. There was a party called Sweet Harmony or something like that, it was in the early rave days. I used to come up to play in Montreal in Toronto quite a bit during the early 90s and mid 90s and I always loved it. I mean, Montreal is one of my favorite cities in North America. It’s like a little Europe that’s not so far away. I was very fortunate to have been part of the early rave days and early club scene in Montreal and Toronto. I remember playing with a friend of mine who was a just a rave DJ by the name of Tiga, which who you probably know of, and I became friends with him. He would use to come out and hear me play and then I ended up playing a couple of small gigs with him just for the fun of it, just to hang out with him, I think at a club called Angel.
PAN M 360 : How would you describe your relationship with Montreal ?
Josh Wink : As I said there was this like European feeling in a North American city and I love the openness that separated itself from any other city in Canada, let alone in North America as well. I used to like to come and play parties, and then go to the after party on and I used to go straight from the the rave or the nightclub to the Tam-tams on Mont-Royal, to be surrounded by people and like-minded music enthusiasts, just drumming early morning on Sunday morning. That was always something that was just so special to me. I always said that if Montreal wasn’t located in Montreal, I’d move there, meaning if it wasn’t so cold all the time, I would love to say I live in Montreal. But as I get older, I get more sensitive to the cold weather and I want to move even out of Philadelphia and get someplace warm.
PAN M 360 : Friday night you play at Igloofest, marking your 4th participation to this festival. Is there anything special about this event that makes you happy to come back every time ?
Josh Wink : It’s always been a highlight for me to come and play this festival. It’s very unique just because of its place, its setting. You know, it’s one of the only ones in the world that does something like this that’s outside, in the winter time, where you guys are just enjoying and living life in the cold, in the snow, in the rain, and under the elements with a world variety of musicians to entertain you. I’ve always had such a great time when I’ve come and played for the festival. I checked the weather yesterday and I saw that it’s supposed to be snowing tomorrow too. It’s even more special when it snows during Igloofest !
PAN M 360 : You are a DJ, a producer and you also cofounded your own label back in 1994, Ovum Recordings, and it’s still pretty active. Music industry changed a lot in the last 30 years, what are the biggest challenges you face today as a label manager?
Josh Wink : The biggest part of the problem I find with music lately is just the fact that there’s so much content out there now. It’s a great thing because I love music and I love artists and I love being introduced to new sounds and new things. But it’s just so difficult to be able to find things and then how do you support them? We’ve been releasing music for a long time and we still try to keep our sound to be relevant without compromising our integrity and putting out music that we don’t want to just because everybody else is doing it. We have lots of different artists that we’re still putting out, we put out one to two records, we still press up vinyl on certain releases. A big part of what we do is that we take pride in just releasing the music that we want. That’s a part of our lives without compromising our integrity. We’re not saying we’re not opened to change but just because the trend is making fast techno doesn’t mean that we’re going to do the same thing. Sometimes it’s a good thing, sometimes it’s not. Now, every year comes around and we don’t make money and you know; we just keep on pushing on and pushing on and it’s very frustrating. But we keep doing it and it’s been almost 30 years, so it’s been amazing to see everything change and progress regardless of the record label, but to the music industry itself.
PAN M 360 : You say the biggest challenge is the amount of content available, and streaming platforms, those enormous dematerialized music libraries, are a good example. What are your favorites channels to discover music ?
Josh Wink : I do a lot of discovering. I listen to the BBC. They have an application called BBC Sounds and it has all the BBC in England’s radio stations available for you for live streaming and or going back and checking out the shows that are curated and kept for a month in the cloud storage. In the mornings when I get my sons breakfast I get up at around 5:45 in the morning and I listen to a DJ named Mary Anne Hobbs. I love getting turned on to the music that these shows present. I love this feeling. I’m happy it hasn’t left my conscious after being involved in music for so many years. I also listen to NTS, Radio Nova or Open Lab FM.
PAN M 360 : Your answer really highlights the importance of curation and the importance of curators in the process of discovering new music. It can be the radio, music critics (journalism), or even algorithm nowadays.
Josh Wink : I think it’s such an important thing to have someone like a building curator, which is a filter. It’s like having a personal shopper or the guy who the girl who works behind the desk at the at the record shop where you go buy yours. They know what you like and when you come in, they’ll give you a handful of records and say “here you go, you may want yo check these out, because I know what your tastes are”. There’s an AI alternative, those algorithms that are made-up so that when you use Spotify or Apple music, it will link your music to the similar things and I think this is a neat thing, but it’s nice to have a human quality to it as well, rather than just a computer program.
PAN M 360 : When you talk about the struggles of putting out music today, I feel the dominant business model in the music industry is not sustainable for independent artists. Do you think community-based initiatives like crowdfunding, subscription-based crowdfunding, or project like Aslice launched by DVS1 can be a way to find solutions for the future of electronic music scene?
Josh Wink : I don’t know. I mean, it’s a good way to think about it. I think there’s a lot of people that want to help out and support and they do that by going out and buying tickets to events where artists that they appreciate are playing. What Zack (DVS1) is doing is a great thing, he is trying to help the small person get a slice of royalties that is collected on something that they don’t get collection on. It’s nice to say that we have a community that’s support of our community. It’s a shame that it’s relying on the community to fund certain things, but if we have such a community that looks out for itself it’s because it’s a very unique one. I mean, it’s a bigger community than it ever used to be. Before it used to be a very small underground community where you would only know about it by going to the record shops or the small nightclubs. Now it’s available on any kind of Internet platform or radio or TV or festival. There’s a lot of people that go to festivals that don’t know anything about electronic music that just go because it’s a fun thing to do but hopefully they’ll learn about this kind of music and support it a little bit more. I know there’s a couple other record labels that go on subscription basis, we haven’t gone that route yet, but you know, maybe it’s something to look forward to, and it’s nice to hear that you’re bringing it up as well in this interview.
Crédit photo : François Quillacq
Gabriel Legeleux, alias Superpoze, nous a invité dans son studio pour parler de son dernier album, Nova Cardinale, sorti en mars dernier. De ce lieu à l’abris des regards au centre de Paris, sont sortis de terre des mondes multiples. De l’ordre du choix subtil des instruments (certains morceaux comportant plus d’une centaine de pistes), de la présentation scénique, à une approche des émotions en oblique, la proposition de Gabriel est riche et précise. Entre musique électronique et baroque, la gestation de cet album aura pris neuf mois, et son écriture plusieurs années. Gabriel raconte son travail de musicien en constante évolution, avec la projection de l’écriture d’un nouvel album en 2023.
PAN M 360 : Est-ce que tu peux me parler des machines qui t’accompagnent sur scène ?
Gabriel : Comme je passe de plus en plus de temps en studio, le format des racks dans lesquels on met toutes les machines, c’est une façon d’amener le studio sur scène. Je suis de dos, et je montre les machines et le geste musical.
PAN M 360 : Tu t’en sers depuis longtemps ? Comment ça fonctionne ?
Gabriel : Non. Ce sont comme des synthé modulaires, mais sans le clavier. Il s’agit de la partie qui fait la synthèse, comme sur le principe d’une boîte à musique, mais géré par ordinateur, les partitions sont envoyées directement dans les machines. Moi je sculpte le son. C’est ça le principe du concert.
PAN M 360 : Ça diffère à chaque concert ?
Gabriel : Oui. Ce qui change c’est l’amplitude, la dynamique, ce qui permet l’improvisation. Je peux avec la table de mixage introduire ou non des instruments, fermer les filtres pour que ce soit doux, ajouter de la réverbération pour un effet vaporeux, ou au contraire très sec, pour les distordre.
PAN M 360 : Durant le concert, on est parcouru de frissons. Comment tu retranscris ça ?
Gabriel : Pour moi, faire un album ce n’est pas coucher une idée qui va ensuite être rejouée. C’est une finalité artistique qui ne peut pas être reproduite, c’est la vraie et seule existence d’un morceau. C’est ma façon de faire la musique. C’est plutôt retrouver une énergie de l’ordre de la partition, comme le travail d’un compositeur, c’est aussi une manière de reconnecter à mes origines musicales sur scène. Cet album est moins électronique que mes précédents et moi je viens vraiment de la musique électronique.
Crédit Photo : Matisse Mazeau-Roy
PAN M 360 : Dans l’autre sens, quand as-tu su que tu t’arrêtais dans la phase de production de l’album ? Il y a un bon équilibre, il y a énormément de choses et à la fois il n’y a rien en trop ou en moins.
Gabriel : Tant mieux, ça me fait plaisir, c’est ce que j’ai cherché. Avant de commencer, j’avais en tête des principes d’arrangements, de types de sons, de sensations. Je voulais qu’on soit embarqué, avec l’idée d’espace. Je ne suis pas un explorateur qui défriche jusqu’à ce qu’il trouve. On m’a dit « là derrière cet océan » – J’ai regardé le docu sur Magellan l’autre jour, j’ai pété un câble – là derrière il y a quelque chose, et on va y aller.
PAN M 360 : Tu sais déjà ce qu’il y a au bout.
Gabriel : Oui, alors forcément la forme finale diffère de ce que t’as en tête et heureusement. Après, il y a une sensation, enfin ça s’appelle juste l’harmonie, quand tu as l’impression que les chose sont bien à leur place. Cette sensation de se dire, là, le château de cartes se tient. L’analogie avec l’exploration est basique mais j’aime bien. J’y vais en connaissance de ce que je pourrais trouver en espérant le trouver.
PAN M 360 : Cette musique renvoie aux mondes qu’on a en soi. Quand tu commences à écrire, tu es dans quel état ?
Gabriel : J’ai parlé de ça l’autre jour avec une autrice, Blandine Rinkel, qui me disait que certains auteurs ont besoin que leurs mots claquent, besoin de les dire à voix haute, et d’autres qui ont une écriture intérieure qui ne les reflète pas au quotidien. Leur écriture révèle ce monde. Je me suis reconnu là. Dans mon quotidien, je suis bavard, plutôt souriant, et je fais une musique très solennelle. Je crois qu’elle appartient, cette musique-là, à un monde intérieur.
PAN M 360 : Tu ne transfères pas d’émotions directement dans ce que tu composes ?
Gabriel : Ce qui me permet de faire une musique qui a un imaginaire fort, je l’espère en tout cas, c’est que je suis dans quelque chose de très pragmatique de construction de sons. Si je suis comme ça c’est parce que je sais que ça me permet de révéler un imaginaire au fond de moi dont je n’ai moi-même pas forcément les clés. Je mets en place des stratégies pour aller creuser au fond d’un imaginaire qui me surprend toujours. Je pense que c’est un imaginaire d’enfant. Mon approche est très adulte dans le son, mais si tu prends les émotions, il y a quelque chose de sensible.
PAN M 360 : Cet album sonne en profondeur.
Gabriel : Oui, et puis c’est un disque qui fait communiquer les époques, c’est un univers qui je l’espère est assez large. Il y a des vieux sages, des jeunes fous, des instruments du 16ème et des mélodies très 20ème et pop. Il y a des boîtes à rythme, une production faite en studio moderne.
Ce qui est intéressant avec les instruments anciens, c’est qu’ils n’étaient pas fabriqués de façon industrielle. Moi j’ai ce synthé (Prophet 6), c’est vendu par milliers. On croit être plus en marge en utilisant notre ordinateur pourtant c’est une pratique issue de l’industrie. Utiliser de la viole de gambe et des flûtes anciennes a quelque chose de rebelle.
PAN M 360 : Est-ce que ta propre écoute a changé depuis la sortie de Nova Cardinale ?
Gabriel : Pour moi oui, mais j’ai hâte que le temps passe. Le temps dépose sur la musique un vernis, la patine. Mon premier album je l’ai fait à 20 ans. Aujourd’hui, je trouve que c’est un album qui se tient comme un bloc de marbre, alors qu’à l’époque j’avais l’impression que c’était des petites brindilles.
PAN M 360 : Et concernant les retours des autres ? Dans Parabel j’entends un sentiment d’urgence puis une reprise de souffle.
Gabriel : Finalement c’est à moi de te poser la question. Dans la musique instrumentale, j’essaie de faire en sorte que les gens soient dedans. Que tu y aies vu de l’urgence, c’est que tu en as fait ton monde.
PAN M 360 : Toi tu ne l’as pas perçu comme ça.
Gabriel : Non, c’est terrible, mais pour moi c’est un morceau composé. Justement, le travail du musicien, c’est de fabriquer quelque chose qui va permettre à des gens de déposer un peu d’eux dessus, ou de faire miroir, de les envelopper. Moi je ne peux pas te dire « Parabel, le sous-texte c’est ça », ce serait artificiel de faire croire que c’est une façon de m’exprimer. Là je m’exprime avec toi, mais ça, c’est un monde fabriqué, dans lequel on peut déposer ses joies et ses peines.
PAN M 360 : Ton album m’a fait réécouter la BO de l’Assassinat de Jessie James.
Gabriel : Elle est très belle cette BO.
PAN M 360 : Tu es plutôt touché par ce type de musique ?
Gabriel : Le point commun de tout ce que j’aime c’est une certaine profondeur. J’aime bien sentir que c’est vaste. Je sens ça dans la musique de Nick Cave. Avant j’écoutais beaucoup Boards of Canada. Le son n’a rien à voir, mais ça partage une horizontalité. Ça, ça me fait vibrer en musique.
PAN M 360 : Tu aimes cette notion d’espace.
Gabriel : Voilà. En musique baroque j’entends ça, chez Jon Hopkins aussi.
PAN M 360 : J’entends aussi Floating Points dans ta musique.
Gabriel : Oui, j’adore. Il a ça aussi, qu’il fasse des choses archi-dansantes ou des albums très calmes, il a cette profondeur-là.
PAN M 360 : La répétition te sert à ça ?
Gabriel : Complètement. La répétition permet de dire je suis quelque part, et pas toujours « je vais quelque part ».
PAN M 360 : Tu tournes encore ?
Gabriel : Il y aura quelques concerts mais je fais des musiques de film et je travaille pour d’autres artistes. Je vais assez vite faire un quatrième, cette année. Je me suis créé un espace, je suis bien ici, c’est calme. Voilà. Je vais faire de la musique.
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