Interviews – Page 60

Mack MacKenzie was known to have Mi’kmaq roots when he was an emerging artist… four decades earlier. However, his Aboriginal identity was not then a crucial vehicle for his expression, the singer, musician and lyricist was then the frontman of the Anglo-Montreal band Three O’Clock Train, then in the country-folk-rock-americana stream of that time, from Kris Kristofferson to John Mellencamp. As the decades passed, Three O’Clock Train fell off the Montreal radar, while Mack MacKenzie continued on his way. In this period of cultural renaissance for Canada’s indigenous peoples, our intervirue is making a comeback in the public space, starting with the Présence autochtone Montreal Festival where he will perform three times, including this Monday at Quai des Brumes and Thursday at Place Émilie-Gamelin.

PAN M 360 : Hello Mack! I think the last time I talked with you was like 3 decades ago. So you’re still around!

MACK MACKENZIE : Yeah! So how have you been ?

PAN M 360 : Good ! About yourself ? So what did you do ? So since the the end of the 90s, for example, you pursued or do you have some other jobs? How did you make your living ?

MACK MACKENZIE : I’m good too ! Well, after releasing a solo record in the 90’s, I started working for the Cirque du Soleil for 10 years.

PAN M 360 : As a musician ?

MACK MACKENZIE : I started as a musician and then I switched to administration, as a tour coordinator. And then, when I finished around 2000, I pulled my licenses from for all the releases of Three O’Clock Train and my solo recordings, and remastered them all. Then I started my own label when the Internet destroyed the music industry. So it was more of a do it yourself world, of course, which I was already used to. So I did a new album, “Ride for Glory” And then I started touring again, which I’m still doing now. Also Three O’Clock Train released an album called “Moon” in 2013.

PAN M 360 : Are you touring through the First Nations circuit?

MACK MACKENZIE : Not really. I’m in the indie rock/ punk rock circuit which embraced me since the beginning of my career. So I was sill touring through that circuit when I came back after the Cirque, until the pandemic started. In 2020, I ended up canceling more than 80 show, it’s been tough until recently. But I’ve done some recording and writing. So I’m recording a new album with Howard Bilerman.

PAN M 360 : Howard Bilerman of hotel2tango ?!!That’s very cool. This producer is very gifted!

MACK MACKENZIE : Yeah, he’s a lot. He’s a great friend and we have a great time working together. After those shows at Presence Autochtone, I’m going back to finish the whole album.

PAN M 360 : How exactly Howard Bilerman is involved in the production aspect?

MACK MACKENZIE : It’s pretty much coproduction, I’m also doing production and mixing. We record with guitars, bass and drums. We work with experienced musicians, some played with great bands as Smashing Pumpkins.

PAN M 360 : That’s so cool. So you are on a good path!

MACK MACKENZIE : Yeah, we have a few more projects, we have another one on the horizon for early next year as well. Howard had a crazy idea : a Museum in Calgary bought the Rolling Stones mobile studio a few years back, and instead of upgrading it, they restored it with the 1968 gear. So we want to use it!

PAN M 360 : Great idea ! So are you going to release your next album on your own label ?

MACK MACKENZIE : We’re talking to some other labels for licence deals. But I can always release it on my own.

PAN M 360 : Fine. So you’re going to release that this year or at the beginning of next year?

MACK MACKENZIE : That’s a good question. You know, it’s always a matter of timing… And I don’t want to release it when we’re going to hit the road. I’m thinking it’s going to be toward the end of this year. So I got to keep things on schedule!

PAN M 360 : Are you still based in Montreal ?

MACK MACKENZIE : I never left since I came in the 70’s. Before that time, I’ve never seen buses, subways and high rises. I didn’t know hockey either! I used to live in Milton park then I got married and we bought a house in Ahuntsic. Montreal is my adopted hometown. Yeah I love it here. I love the people, I love Quebec. I toured almost everywhere and Montreal is still my favorite city.

PAN M 360 : You have a Mi’kmaq background if I remember

MACK MACKENZIE : Correct. I grew up on a chicken farm in the area of Lewiston, Maine.

PAN M 360 : Was your family close to the Mi’kmaq community at that time?

MACK MACKENZIE : Not at all. My parents weren’t, I was the only Mi’kmaq on the farm haha!

PAN M 360 : So you are the first in your the family to relate to the First Nations.

MACK MACKENZIE : Pretty much.

PAN M 360 : You you must be very happy about all this renaissance of aboriginal culture through music.

MACK MACKENZIE : Yeah, it’s very encouraging for a lot of younger musicians, for sure. And it’s nice for me coming into it. It’s nice to have a voice.

Mack Mackenzie performs on Monday night at Quai des Brumes and on Thursday night at Place Émilie-Gamelin.

From the poetic orality of the Aboriginal culture to the written music of our Western era, two worlds attempt an intercultural practice, a sharing of practices and knowledge in the world of creations of the spirit.

Aboriginal poetry and contemporary music are thus brought together. This program is presented Sunday, 7pm, at the Auditorium of the Grande Bibliothèque.

This program is presented by Land InSights, Forestare and the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne (NEM), in the context of the First Peoples’ Festival, in partnership with the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec, and with the collaboration of the OSM’s Virée classique.

The main course for this program is composed by Montrealer Tim Brady, and world premiered : “Uiesh” (2019), for voice and 14 instruments, based on poems in Innu-aimun by the poet Joséphine Bacon, taken from the collection Uiesh – somewhere (Mémoire d’encrier, 2018). With soprano Deantha Edmunds, musicians of the NEM.

PAN M 360 : Josephine Bacon’s Innu poems were the starting point. What did this reading inspire you to do?

TIM BRADY : I loved the directness of the language, but the sophistication and resonance of the images. The poems also use references to music a lot – “I sing,” “a melodic air” – so it just seemed so natural to set the poems to music.

PAN M 360 :”From orality to written music; from gesture to sonority; from movement to musical line; it’s all about discovering the other, opening up to each other’s sensibilities and sharing their riches.” What do you think of this official presentation?

TIM BRADY : Yeah – as Zappa or Monk is reputed to have said: “Talking about music is like dancing about architecture”! It is difficult to articulate precisely what music is and how it works (aside from the technical jargon we musicians use…but that only goes so far). Initially, this project was just about me working with Josephine’s poem. Artist to artist. But it obviously touches on larger social issues, I think this is what they were trying to get at in the official presentation.

PAN M 360 : What else is there to say? What is the preliminary idea here of a dialogue between Aboriginal poetic expression and your music?

TIM BRADY : I love writing for voice, and Josephine’s poems are really well suited to music, at least to me. Working in a non-European language was also an intriguing challenge, it really forced me to listen to the sound of the language, as I have no access to the direct meaning. As well, I, like many Canadians, am increasing aware of the need to build bridges to the Indigenous peoples of the country and if this collaboration can be part of that process, great.

PAN M 360 : What were the conscious or unconscious stages of the creative process?

TIM BRADY : At its very core, writing music is very instinctive. I just sit in my music studio and “listen” for music to appear in my head. I’ve been doing this for 42 years, so I have lots of experience and many strategies to push things forward, to help the unconscious process along. But essentially – you just have to hear the music somehow, somewhere. At its best, it almost feels more like transcribing music that already exists.

PAN M 360 : What was the general shape you wanted to give to this work in the beginning?

TIM BRADY : I knew I wanted to do several poems, but that the piece would be played continuously. I wanted the piece to be head as one unified gesture not 7 short songs. There is a certain intensity in performance and listening that comes with continuous forms that I like. But hey – that being said – I’ve written lots of song cycles as well. I try to let the material tell me what to do and Josephine’s poems just felt better suited to this more continuous approach.

PAN M 360 : How did it develop?

TIM BRADY : The composing of the piece went pretty much according to plan. Sometimes this happens, you can never tell.

PAN M 360 : How does the Aboriginal musical imagination play out in the piece? What is the role of Aboriginal soloist Deantha Edmunds in this?

TIM BRADY : I make no reference to Indigenous music at all in this work. I write from my personal experience and I hear what I hear. This is how I hear Josephine’s words, set to music. It’s that simple. Deantha’s role is to sing the notes, and to bring the words to life. The fact that she in Inuit artist herself adds another element to the collaboration, and also contributes to a healthy cultural dialogue.

PAN M 360 : How did the choice of the NEM and Lorraine Vaillancourt of the musicians of Forestare and Deantha Edmunds come about?

TIM BRADY : This whole project just kind of naturally fell together, and (for once!), I had almost nothing to doing with programming or production. I’ve worked with NEM before, and know Forestare (the world of multiple-guitar orchestras is very small! – ie: Instruments of Happiness), so it feels like a natural fit. My piece only uses NEM, so the collaboration with Forestare is about the larger programme. Lorraine is conducting my piece with NEM and Deantha.

PAN M 360 : Is this composition recorded ?

It would be great to get a recording of the piece out to the public, but let’s do the premiere first before we plan the world tour….!!!

2019 OSM Competition winner Bryan Cheng and OSM Concertmaster Andrew Wan team up for an unusual program: a dialogue between the violin and the cello, complete with the pièce de résistance, Ravel’s Sonata, written in 1921 in homage to Claude Debussy and exuding an abundance of lyricism and virtuosity. Leading up to it, audiences will be regaled with their discovery of music by Rebecca Clarke and by works for solo cello by Mark O’Connor and Mark Summer, the latter exploiting the instrument’s potential in an entirely original way!

PAN M 360: For this violin-cello dialogue, how was Bryan Cheng chosen?

ANDREW WAN: I was mentioned, you know, a few different proposals of musicians that I could work with. And when he mentioned the possibility of working with Bryan Cheng, I jumped at the chance, because I really like the way Bryan plays. Ravel’s Sonata is a piece I’ve played quite often. And I know he’s played it too. And he’s a great cellist. So for me it was an obvious choice. And then the rest of the program fell into place quite easily. I had never played Rebecca Clarke’s piece and Philip Glass’ piece, so I was happy to learn them. But the most important thing is to find people that I like to play with and you know, I first heard of Bryan when he did a solo with the MSO. And that was outstanding. And I just realized that I wanted to play with someone like him, so generous and genuine, a great Canadian cellist. And, on top of that, he seems to be a very good person. So I am very excited about that !

PAN M 360: Let’s talk about the main piece, which is Maurice Ravel’s Sonata for Violin and Cello in A minor, M. 73.

ANDREW WAN: Before the period of Debussy and Ravel, French composers were trying to sound very Germanic. And then they started to develop distinct identities by drawing on music from everywhere, from Asia, North Africa and of course America. So they didn’t necessarily want to sound, quote, French. So this duet piece is actually, the more I think about it, similar to Ravel’s piano trio in terms of scope. And what amazes me is that the composer was able to create so much tension and virtuosity, but with only two instruments. So every time I play this piece, I am amazed at my own sense of being with a much larger ensemble. I know, by the way, that it is extremely difficult for the cello, even more so than for the violin, but the result is still very delicate to achieve.

PAN M 360: So we have three duet pieces and two solo pieces for cello on the program.

ANDREW WAN: Yes, the program works that way. Besides the fact that Bryan is the guest and we have to hear him in two solo pieces, I also had to prepare a huge amount of scores for the Classical Spree, not to mention the other festivals I’ll be attending after the Spree. It’s crazy! These are the Olympics! So I keep practicing with my iPad, I can’t even tell how much time I spent. You think you’ve tackled the stack of scores correctly and there’s more and more. And I also want to enjoy Bryan’s playing without the stress of playing the whole concert with him. And, you know, I haven’t played a single note with him before. So I don’t want to rush into anything. Like Ravel, the more you dig, the more it pays off. Just a kind of exciting, not very thoughtful interpretation doesn’t seem to me to be for the kind of player that Bryan is. That’s why I want to dig deep into this piece with him. So I’m thankful that we’re not going crazy and trying to chose too many pieces.

AT THEATRE MAISONNEUVE, SATURDAY, AUGUST 13, 2022 – 1:30 P.M.

ARTISTS AND PROGRAMME

Bryan Cheng, cello

Andrew Wan, violin

Glass, Duets for Violin and Cello, from the Double Concerto (5 min)

Rebecca Clarke, Two Pieces for Violin and Cello (6 min)

Mark O’Connor, Appalachia Waltz, for solo cello (4 min)

Mark Summer, Julie-O, for solo cello (5 min)

Ravel, Sonata for Violin and Cello in A minor, M. 73 (20 min)

Beatrice Deer is a self-proclaimed, award-winning “Inuindie” artist hailing from a small town in Northern Quebec called Quaqtaq. She has been based in Montreal for the past 16 years and sings in English, French, and Inuktitut, to share themes of hope, personal growth, and mystical folklore from her childhood. Her latest album SHIFTING dropped last December and features members of Land of Talk, Stars, Bell Orchestre, the Besnard Lakes, and Suuns.

PAN M 360 quickly spoke to Beatrice Deer as she was performing at the 32nd Presence Autochtone (The Montreal First Peoples’ Festival).

PAN M 360: I know the 2018 album, My All To You, was the first time you actually wrote all of the music (as well the lyrics of course). Have you been continuing this way of working with SHIFTING and the newest single “MOTHER“?

Beatrice Deer: Yes, I wrote SHIFTING the same way as I did My All to You. I asked my friend Kathia Rock to write the French version of MOTHER as I wrote it originally in Inuktitut. The songs were arranged by Christopher McCarron and Mark Wheaton.

PAN M 360: You’ve been in Montreal for quite some time, but you’re from Quaqtaq originally. Does Montreal always feel like your true home nowadays?

Beatrice Deer: It now feels like home finally after 16 years, since my boyfriend and I bought a house for our family.

PAN M 360: You sing in Inuktitut which is classified as an endangered language, but I’ve seen in the last 10 years kind of a rebirth of the language in music from The Jerry Cans, PIQSIQ, Tanya Tagaq, you, and other artists. Could you speak about that act of preserving the language through music?

Beatrice Deer: I write and sing in Inuktitut because it’s my mother tongue and I’m most comfortable expressing myself. It’s a way of preserving the language and storytelling.

PAN M 360: Going off of that, how do you decide which lyrics will be in English, French, or Inuktitut? Are they written in one language first or is it always a hybrid from the beginning?

Beatrice Deer: I write the music first and then feel it out and the language that comes forth is the language I use for the song.

PAN M 360: Are these Inuit folk tales that you use as inspiration ones you remember from growing up or do you still actively seek them out now as an adult?

Beatrice Deer: The folk tales are from my childhood that I further research as an adult.

PAN M 360: Your music is very trance-like, spiritual, and I’d say “healing.” Do you believe it’s kind of an artist’s responsibility to have a message within their music and platform?

Beatrice Deer: Yes. An artist chooses what message they want to relay with their art form. I chose to speak healing and hope.

PAN M 360: Is “MOTHER” about your mother or rather, the strong resilience of Indigenous women?

Beatrice Deer: The Inuktitut version is very personal to my mother but the French version is for our Indigenous matriarchs in general.

Leave it to Toronto to be home to one of the best ’60s psych revival bands right now. They’re called The John Denver Airport Conspiracy, no doubt influenced by the little green men or portals that lead to nowhere. There’s a whole Reddit page dedicated to the batshit conspiracy theories that surround the Kubrickian nature of the Denver International Airport and the members of JDAC decided to add a “John” before it, with a nice portmanteau, sort of like The Brian Jonestown Massacre, who they list as a major influence.

The name alone should get you to the show, but the tight musicianship is why you’ll stay. We spoke with bassist and vocalist, Richie Gibson, before JDAC’s show at L’escogriffe this Saturday.

PAN M 360: Can you introduce the band, its members, and how you formed? Where did the name come from?

Richie Gibson: Band members are: Cameron (guitar and vocals) Jordan (drums and backing vocals) Savanna (violin, percussion, backing vocals) Andrew (organ/keys, slide guitar, harmonica) Charles (guitar/flute), and me, Richie (bass, vocals). The John Denver Airport Conspiracy came from Cameron and Jordan when first forming the band … a bit of a joke on the Brian Jonestown Massacre (we love you) at first I think, but it stuck and we’re taking it to the top, and ain’t no one can stop us! (other than the estate of John Denver perhaps)….

PAN M 360: Was their any central theme on your debut album Something’s Gotta Give ! ?

Richie Gibson: The central theme to Something’s Gotta Give was good ol’ fashioned 60s throwback rock and roll. That might sound a bit cliche but we wanted to have fun with it and keep it loose. We recorded 16 songs in 2 days, pretty much live.

Pan M 360: What is the conspiracy you’re named after?

Richie Gibson: You can look up the Denver Airport Conspiracy online. Weird symbolism of UFOs and secret passageways and artwork in the underground of the Denver airport…look it up!

PAN M 360: Seems like this is a huge jam band live? Kind of Grateful Dead-esque?

Richie Gibson: Yes we do a bit of improvised jamming in our sets but not too much…depends on how it’s going I suppose! But yeah, we’re down with the Dead.

PAN M 360: Am I hearing a sitar for the drone? Who is playing it and is it easy to incorporate into the music?

Richie Gibson: There is a bit of sitar occasionally but the drone often comes from Andrew’s organ or Savanna’s Violin.

PAN M 360: Who are some influences on the band?

Richie Gibson: Our influences are pretty wide as we all collect records and listen to all kinds of music. As for our sound specifically, I would say The Byrds, The Velvet Underground, Stereolab, The Kinks…all those 60’s psychedelic bands…13th Floor elevators, Love, Incredible String Band, The Pretty Things etc.

PAN M 360: Hallucinogens are always synonymous with psych rock and garage, does JDAC use them for inspiration?

Richie Gibson: Yeah we do sometimes. Make mushrooms legal!

PAN M 360: There seems to have been a huge psych revival in the last 15-20 years with bands like Black Angels, Allah Las, etc. Why do you think that is?

Richie Gibson: As for the “psych revival” I would say that everything just eventually comes around again. I also think that that term is a huge umbrella, lots of bands under that title are like more electronic or just “indie” or “alternative” …I guess it’s just like “non pop music with a trippy light show” haha

PAN M 360: Got new music on the way? And future plans for JDAC?

Richie Gibson: And yes we have a lot of demos recorded now and hope to be getting into the studio to make another album very soon. We have a couple of Toronto shows coming up and a trip to Wolfe Island for Oscillation fest I believe. Thanks for reaching out to us! Can’t wait to play in Montreal. Peace R. The JDAC.

Founded in 2014 in Tokyo around the figure of Kyotaro Miula, the name Minami Deutsch evokes the image of a fantastical Germany that potentially existed in the past but that we would especially like to see grow in the future. While Germany was divided between East and West during the krautrock era of the 1970s, the term Minami Deutsch, which means “South Germany,” perhaps represents the timeless Kosmische utopia of those off-the-ground musicians who sought to shatter the walls.

From one legacy to another, Minami Deutsch succeeds in resurrecting, fifty years later, the original essence and liberating spirit of this music. The well-kept secret of the German flying sauerkraut seems to be alive and well, and even more relevant and needed than ever. During the Roadburn festival in 2018, Minami Deutsch notably performed a recorded live set with the legendary Damo Suzuki, known for his inimitable freeing improvisation, which overflows like a delirious and incomprehensible stream of consciousness. Kosmische musik is thus not only a musical genre, but above all an avant-garde, surrealist and universal state of mind.

In addition to his interest in the famous motorik rhythm, Kyotaro Miula also likes to draw on the repetitive electronic rhythms of minimal wave and minimal techno for his remixes and his solo project Fagus Fluvialis, creating a kind of minimal motorik that is well worth a listen. Just before the notable opening act of French duo Le goût acide des conservateurs, who seeks to rouse a gas-sleeping France from its deep sleep, PAN M 360 caught up with guitarists Kyotaro Miula and Taku Idemoto when they played at the Supersonic in Paris for their European tour. Even if the language barrier may have been felt during the interview, the cosmic language, both quiet and spontaneous, transcends artificial walls and cerebral borders.

PAN M 360: The band Minami Deutsch started in 2014. Where did you guys meet each other ?

Kyotaro Miula: We met in Tokyo at a party organized by Kikagaku Moyo. They hold those parties once a month. So, Taku and I went there once and the collective started like this. We practice every week now together.

PAN M 360: You call yourself “repetition freaks”. What do you mean by that ?

Kyotaro Miula: I like minimal techno a lot, from the Chilean-german DJ Ricardo Villalobos for example. I actually like going to clubs and dancing. When there are a lot of different rhythms and cadences in a song, I find it hard to concentrate on dancing. I have a lot of trouble with sentimental songs, like love songs or ballads. In minimal techno, it can be about one simple bass line. I like repetition and constancy.

PAN M 360: Your first two albums are specifically centered around the motorik rhythm. What made you like this beat and krautrock in general?

Kyotaro Miula: Because of the kosmische ! You can focus on yourself with this kind of music. Psychedelic rock from the UK and USA feels more pop to me. This special German psychedelic rock can be darker or more experimental.

Taku Idemoto: It helps to go inside (he points to his heart with both hands).

PAN M 360: “Everyone has their own imagination about outer space”. What do you mean by that?

Taku Idemoto: Music can help you have inner vision. You can focus on the light here when you play music or during meditation (he points the middle of his forehead). Or when you take psychedelic drugs (laugh).

Kyotaro Miula: The inner vision is actually like outer space. Inner and outer are the same.

PAN M 360: Have you ever seen a UFO ?

Kyotaro Miula : Yes !

Taku Idemoto : It was full of colors, like a rainbow.

PAN M 360 : Kyotaro, you went to live in Berlin before recording the new album Fortune Goodies. Why did you decide to live there ? What was the purpose ?

Kyotaro Miula : I wanted to have an experience of this city because of my interest in German rock. I made contacts with some artists and musicians there. I don’t really like living in Japan as psychedelic rock is not very popular. There are too many businessmen, it’s so busy there. I don’t know what they are doing (laugh). There is no time to take it slow. Berlin feels more relaxed. I was in Neukölln district, which is more like a lower-class district. I wanted to avoid the posh areas and the suits men. I wanted to experience German life and the culture. I also like German movies, from the directors Michael Haneke and Rainer Werner Faussbinder. I saw the old movie Das Cabinet des Dr Caligari and I would like to watch Metropolis from Fritz Lang.

PAN M 360 : The artwork of this album was created by Noguchi Shimura. He’s going to have his solo exhibition “ありがto” (“thank you to”) presented at the Yorocobito Galery in Tokyo next month. What can you tell us about this artist ?

Kyotaro Miula : He’s very interesting. I simply found him on Instagram. As I was in Tokyo at the time, I contacted him and I managed to meet him. He’s older than me but at the same time, I feel we are the same age. He started his professional career when he was 30 years old. Before that, he never showed his artwork to anyone. He’s very talented but he’s also quite a strange guy, he spent nearly ten years on a particular drawing. In his art, I really like the symetrie, the motifs and the drawing structure. He usually put squares, circles and triangles. I like his collages.

Taku Idemoto : His work looks like religious paintings to me.

PAN M 360 : “I have never called the beat the Motorik myself. That sounds more like a machine and it was very much a human beat. It’s a feeling, like a picture, like driving down a long road or lane. It is essentially about life, how you have to keep moving, get on and stay in motion. To be driven by the drive, breaking on through”. This is a quote from the drummer Klaus Dinger, from the krautrock band NEU!. What’s your take on it ?

Kyotaro Miula : (he speaks japanese with the rest of the band for some time) We like what Klaus Dinger says. If you want the right rhythm, you can use the computer and do laptop music or something. A human drummer thinks about keeping the same rhythm but it’s clearly impossible. When you have slight variations, it’s a good feeling, we like it. It’s like being between a robot and a human. I like the motorik repetition but the slight changes make it more human.

If there was a chart of Canada’s biggest indie rock bands in the last decade, Hamilton’s Arkells would be closer to the top. Since their debut in 2007 with the Deadlines EP, and the 2008 Jackson Square album, Arkells have been consistently riding the indie music radio charts. During the pandemic, they released an acoustic album of old songs and a brand new album in 2021 called Blink Once.

This September they are dropping part two, entitled Blink Twice. Lead singer Max Kerman assures us that both Blink albums are meant to be listened to as one piece of work, a double LP if you will. We spoke with Max ahead of Arkells’ performance at Osheaga about the upcoming album, keeping the Arkells’ sound fresh, and collaborating more in alternative rock music.

PAN M 360: Your Hamilton show in June looked like one of your biggest and it was postponed a few times right?

Max Kerman: Yeah it’s been a lot of stopping and starting. We did some shows last summer in Toronto, on the Budweiser stage to kind of kick off live music again. And then, you know, things got ground to a halt again in the winter. And then we did some American tours in the spring and some Ontario dates. And our big Hamilton show happened at the end of June, and we did some Canada Day stuff out in British Columbia, but Yeah, feels like we’re, we’re back on solid ground. You know, we’re obviously coming to Montreal at the end of the month for Osheaga and have some European Touring after that. So it feels good to be working again.

PAN M 360: And what’s it like to tour again with that level of uncertainty as the pandemic rises and plateaus?

Max Kerman: Yeah, it’s hard to think too hard about it. You might drive yourself crazy. On a certain level, you sort of have to trust the experts and listen to their good advice. And sort of hope for the best that you can, you know, do your job which is going out and entertaining people.

PAN M 360: You guys have the Blink Once album out and Blink Twice coming out in September. Where did this idea of co-albums come from?

Max Kerman: Hmmm good question. I mean, I think we intended to kind of roll out Blink Once back in 2020. And then the pandemic happened, we looked around, and we noticed, that so many of our favorite artists and friend’s bands were putting up the music and without touring, it felt like all their efforts into it. It sort of like evaporated right, because touring is such an important part of expressing music. So we put Blink Once on hold and we made an acoustic record. And we continued to write new songs. So when we put up Blink Once in 2021, we always knew in the back of our minds that there’d be more music coming. And it would also help kind of like, seed the album cycle, and make the music feel like it’s fresh and new and exciting. And we actually did sort of like a Taylor Swift-style tease where the last song on Blink Once is an outerlude and it’s actually a bit of the first song from Blink Twice.

PAN M 360: So is the idea to kind of play them front to back as a double album?

Max Kerman: That’s the goal. I think it’ll feel like one body of work. There’s a lot of music being put out these days. And I think we’re of the mind that if you’re excited about the songs you don’t have to wait two and a half years between record cycles and if you got something you’re pumped on you can put it out.

PAN M 360: And you have many guest artists on the upcoming Blink Twice album; The Cold War Kids, Tegan and Sara, Lights, Aly & AJ, and Cœur de pirate. Was it the pandemic that kind of gave you the time to work with so many?

Max Kerman: I think the pandemic allowed a lot of time to sort of reflecting and think about what we wanted to do moving forward and how we wanted to evolve and try new things. And I think when we look around at other genres, whether it’s hip hop or electronic music or pop music, there’s so much more collaboration. It feels like rock music doesn’t get to do that as much, right? So why can’t we do it? So we started reaching out to friends. And we had certain songs in mind that we thought could fit certain voices. And yeah, it was really fun. And I think for us, it’s like being able to like to make music, which is not just my voice singing on it. At least for us, it’s amazing to listen back to the music that we’ve made and, and hear another voice on it. Like I was tired of my voice. I was just singing everything.

PAN M 360: We obviously love Cœur de pirate here, what was it like working with her on “Dance With You”? And also, singing in French?

Max Kerman: Yeah, well, I’d say that my French accent is not great and I worked really hard on trying to make it passable. People in Quebec and France can tell me if I did it or not. And yeah that one was quite different from most of our other material. And I think it’s, to me, that’s why it’s really exciting. And we wanted some female vocals that sound good together for the course. And then having some sisters sing on it, Aly & AJ, did the trick. I listened to a lot of French music during the pandemic. It was kind of fun in the morning to listen to like old French folk music while I was reading the paper. And I was like, ‘Well, why don’t we try to do something where it’s, you know, one verse in French one verse in English. And we reached out to Béatrice [Cœur de pirate] with the idea. And she came up with some amazing lyrics in short order, and we got her to sing with us. And again, it’s all about a sort of personal discovery, evolving and not doing the same thing you did before.

PAN M 360: And you guys went like full Motown funk for that song. The first time I listened to it I wasn’t even sure it was Arkells.

Max Kerman: That was the goal! We wanted people to listen to it and go ‘Oh this is Arkells? This is crazy.’ That was truly what we were going for. And yeah, we wanted some kind of disco vibes, you know, something that kind of felt electronic and dancey as well. You know, we were referencing, Daft Punk or Justice, you know, in some of the production moves. But also, yeah, that sort of ’60s, ’70s Like, dance vibe as well.

PAN M 360: There’s one lyric I picked out where you sing about meeting someone in an airport I think? It’s “you were working in Japan.” Was that just random or an actual encounter you had?

Max Kerman: I would say that was a random thing. The idea was like meeting people out and about, especially, you know, from different places. I’ve never been to Paris. But I was like, you know, what, if you’re in Paris and met someone who’s traveling in Japan, there’s sort of a bit of a fantasy world.

PAN M 360: I guess that is something people are reaching toward during this pandemic.

Max Kerman: Exactly. I think there’s a bit of fantasy happening in our lives as we dream about not being stuck.

King Hannah is a relatively new duo project from Liverpool, UK that formed a bit before the pandemic reared its ugly head. A bit ’90s shoegaze ala Mazzy Star and Lush, mixed with some Bruce Springsteen and The War on Drugs, King Hannah have a spectral way of pulling you into the heart of their songs.

Led by Hannah Merrick’s alluring and vulnerable lyrics about everyday situations and stories and Craig Whittle’s layered guitar soundscapes, King Hannah’s latest album I’m Not Sorry, I Was Just Being Me could be considered a sleeper hit of 2022. With humble beginnings, the duo is gaining more and more recognition across the pond, since being discovered and endorsed by the likes of Sharon Van Etten way back in 2019.

Before their performance at Osheaga, we spoke with Merrick and Whittle about their beginnings and putting honest sentimentality into everything they do.

PAN M 360: How did King Hannah form and where did the name come from?

Craig Whittle: We met when I started working in a bar that Hannah was already working in, and I recognized her from seeing her perform at a university band night a few years earlier when she blew me away with her voice. From there we just became really good friends and started making music together.

Hannah Merrick: I had the name in my head long before I met Craig. And he loved it and thought it fitted so well, so we kept it. I love the idea of being this strong female presence but with a male status, I just think it’s quite memorable, possibly controversial and a good conversation starter, like now.

PAN M 360: The lyrics in many of the songs on I’m Not Sorry, I Was Just Being Me are so vivid and personal. Like “Go-Kart Kid (Hell No)” and “A Well-Made Woman,” I feel like I’m watching fragmented clips of a person’s life. Actually, Go-Kart Kid (Hell No) really reminded me of the South London band, Dry Cleaning. Have you got that comparison before?

Hannah Merrick: Oooh no we haven’t, that’s a first for us!

PAN M 360: Hannah are you ever afraid of being too personal in your songwriting?

Hannah Merrick: No, not at all. I’ve been doing it too long to care what others think, plus writing real stories is where the love and drive comes from. I wouldn’t do it otherwise.

PAN M 360: It’s really a fantastic album, a perfect blend of 90s shoegaze and moody Americana. Did you guys talk about what mix of genre or feelings you wanted?

Hannah Merrick: Thank you so much. No, not really. We made the album song-by-song, so while we were recording and mixing one song, I’d be writing the next at home in my bedroom. So we never discussed feelings or genre or what the songs should be about. Thankfully, we knew exactly how we wanted the album to sound, simply from listening to our favourite bands, so we drew ideas from them. Life’s a million times easier making an album when you want the same outcome.

Craig Whittle: I think we are naturally very sentimental and emotional people so I think that warmth really came through in the album, which I love. As Hannah said, we both know we are striving for the same sound and emotion in music, so that makes it a lot simpler when making big decisions.

PAN M 360: I’m a huge listener of instrumental shoegaze or post-rock, so the fuzz guitar freakouts really do it for me. Do you believe they have just as much power to convey a feeling as say, lyrics?

Hannah Merrick: Absolutely!

Craig Whittle: Yeah definitely. I hate the idea of doing a ‘guitar solo’ because that seems so self-indulgent and I’m not like kind of person at all. But I love long instrumentals and try to think of the guitar parts as little moments that help to bring out certain emotions and tensions in the music, almost providing a location or a setting for Hannah’s lyrics to exist in.

PAN M 360: “The Moods That I Get In,” has so many layers to it, do you ever experiment with them live for some improv or with any song?

Hannah Merrick & Craig Whittle: We don’t improvise as such, we generally stick to the same thing, but we definitely lengthen ends when we want to. We’ve completely mixed up the “Big Big Baby” arrangement, it’s completely different live to what it is on the album.

Hannah Merrick: I love playing around with a vocal melody too, mainly in “Moods” and “Go-Kart Kid” as there’s so much space to do so in those songs.

Craig Whittle: Sometimes we will drag songs on longer if we’re really feeling them, and I definitely try to mix the lead guitar parts up live to keep a feeling of wildness or spontaneity in the set, because that’s what I like to see when I watch live music

PAN M 360: There is no direct theme on the album, but there are quite a few references to nostalgia for an older time. Do you guys still get nostalgic for older times?

Hannah Merrick & Craig Whittle: Of course, definitely. We can’t wait to see you all and play at Osheaga.

Men I Trust is a local indie group made up of friends Jessy Caron, Dragos Chiriac, and Emma Proulx. Since their self-titled debut in 2014, the group has released three studio albums, the most recent being Untourable Album almost a year ago, and has found great independent success for their indie rock meets airy jazz-pop sound. They are also famously without a PR team and label, taking care of all of the touring, media, and releasing duties themselves. Perhaps this independence has helped shape their success.

Men I Trust just released the “Hard To Let Go” single before their performance at Osheaga so we spoke with Emma a bit before their show on Sat. July 30.

PAN M 360: How did Men I Trust form and is there a story behind the name?

Emma Proulx: Jessy and Dragos started the band in 2014 and I joined it in 2015. In high school, they used to produce hip-hop and dance songs for fun and decided to turn their hobby into a full-time project while studying at the university. They were looking for a positive-sounding name and came up with “Men I Trust”, “Men” referring to mankind, after seeing that the “Trust” name was already taken.

PAN M 360: Could you tell us the story behind “Hard To Let Go?” It sounds very ’80s funk-jazz inspired?

Emma Proulx: Jessy always had strong jazz influences in his songwriting, having studied Jazz-Guitar in college. His guitar tones for this one are definitely funk-jazz inspired. We reached out to Gabriel Desjardins, an incredibly talented jazz pianist, for the recording of the piano solo. He improvised about 5 minutes of music in one take, and we etched the final solo together afterward. His style of playing is incredibly “airy” and we’re super happy with the end result. The song is about a friend who took a break after burning the candle from both ends.

PAN M 360: How do the songs translate to a live setting? Some of them on Untourable Album are very soundscapey.

Emma Proulx: Most of the songs sound extremely close to the originals in a live setting. We’re able to re-create most soundscapes with effects pedals. When we change the songs a bit from the originals, it’s usually for fun. After playing songs for a while, sometimes we come up with new ideas and re-interpret them differently live. For example, we added a few live solos that aren’t recorded on the released versions of the songs. Inferring from the crowd’s response, these new moments are usually high points in the live set.

PAN M 360: You’re known for not having a PR team or label and making all the decisions as a band. For example, you can write a song, record it, and release it the same day if you wanted to. What’s it like having that freedom and do you think it contributed to your DIY success?

Emma Proulx: It’s amazing to be able to be in sync with the audience for each release. When we release a song, it’s still new to our ears and thus we feel in sync with the audience, for whom the song is new as well. Time goes fast. When having to wait a few months to release something, an artist has time to move on and the material may feel old to them on the date of the release. I don’t know if that contributed to our success directly, but being able to own 100% of our royalties allowed us to quit our day jobs to focus solely on the band around 2018. Owning a fraction of that percentage might have delayed that move by a few years.

PAN M 360: What is the songwriting process like in the band? Do the guys write the music and you put lyrics to it? Or do you write it all together?

Emma Proulx: At the beginning of the band, we wrote the lyrics first more often than not. Nowadays, the music comes first most of the time. For us, the end result feels more musical that way. A few songs on the Untourable Album had some prior versions of the lyrics written first, but they were adapted to fit the music at some point. It’s a (fun) challenge to adapt lyrical ideas and stories to the song format without losing meaning or sacrificing content.

PAN M 360: Any new music on the way? More singles to follow up “Hard To Let Go?“

Emma Proulx: Yes and yes! We will probably release two new singles by the end of this year.

PAN M 360: I love the song “Tree Among Shrubs” on The Untourable Album. What was the inspiration behind the lyrics for that one?

Emma Proulx: It’s a concentrated version of the stories of two men I know. They both moved to West lands to become key, strong figures in their small community. People look up to them, but few know about their hardships.

Holy Fuck, an experimental synth-punk four-piece from Toronto, has always gone against the grain. It can be said that no one sounds like them. They use found objects, broken drum machines, toy instruments, and an array of other garbage to unleash electronica built for mayhem.

The Holy Fuck members have worked with other big-name bands like METZ, Alvvays, Lights, and some more obscure names like Obits, but always retreat back to Holy Fuck for a creative and cathartic release of smoking and scorched sounds. PAN M quickly spoke to Holy Fuck before their performance at Entrepôt 77 for Distorsion Psych Fest.

PAN M 360: Holy Fuck has always seemed to do the opposite of what is trendy in genres. Is this purposeful and thought about?

Holy Fuck: We aim to displease. Maybe why we went from ‘buzz band’ to ‘underground anomaly.’ I think there was a deliberate effort, in the beginning, to sound outside of any time period, especially the current one. It was more important for us to be ‘timeless’ than it even was to even be liked. Some people were into it, some weren’t. But the goal was to still sound fresh thirty years later. Who knows if it worked… I’ll ask you in another fifteen.

PAN M 360: Could you talk about the newer track “Ninety Five?” The drums sound like they were recorded in a shoe box or something.

Holy Fuck: There’s a really cool audio emulator with the recording software we use, called Shoebox. You can pick the model and size of shoebox you want your drums to sound like they’re in… we chose Nike ‘Clown-size’

PAN M 360: What was it like making music remotely? I assume Holy Fuck thrives more when you make music in person, together?

Holy Fuck: Yeah, we didn’t flourish under pandemic conditions. Making music on laptops in home studios isn’t the fun part of being in a band like ours. For us, it’s about an exchange of ideas and energy in real-time, in the same space. We did what we could and then said fuck it. Now we’re back together again… hooray!

PAN M 360: Are there plans for a follow-up EP or even album to Deleter in the near future?

Holy Fuck: It is the plan. But no, nothing recorded yet. Our first time getting back together as a band only happened earlier this year. We did a lot of writing and demo-ing as well as practicing for the tours that were postponed. That’s how we tend to work- sequester ourselves away to write and record when we aren’t touring. And it’s all just starting to happen now. So next break this year we’ll get back to it.

PAN M 360: How many speakers have you personally blown with all that heavy drone and bass?

Holy Fuck: There’s a familiar smell to a monitor melting on stage that we’ve all come to know very well. It’s nostalgic…. mmmmm…

PAN M 360: Can you talk about recreating these songs live, how do you keep that punk rock intensity?

Holy Fuck: I think because we write and record these songs live together, getting on stage to recreate them actually just further hones them in, makes them better, and brings a better energy every night. It’s part of the fun of a band like this. It never stops being new and exciting.

PAN M 360: What are some things that have made you think, ‘Holy Fuck’ this year?

Holy Fuck: Touring again, being in a sweaty basement filled with weirdos.

MManou Gallo is a woman, an African, and a bass player. As she herself says, it took a lot of hard work and overcoming the astonished looks (at best) of the essentially male and just a little bit black environment of the instrument (but that is changing quickly!). The former member of Zap Mama has been a solo rider for over 15 years now and is living out her childhood dream of holding a bass and playing it.

Gallo will be performing at the new Esplanade Tranquille in the Quartier des Spectacles on July 20th at 7pm, her first time as a soloist in Montreal. This will be an opportunity to get to know this musician, acclaimed by her peers, who will be presenting her most recent album, Aliso vol.1, as well as an overview of her four previous albums. Pan M 360 spoke with her.

Pan M 360: What can we expect on July 20th in terms of musical choices?

Manou Gallo: There will be a bit of everything. It will be a journey into the present and the past. I love revisiting past experiences, especially the good ones! There will be some Aliso, of course, but also pieces from Afro Groove Queen, and some pieces from previous albums. I will pay tribute to Manu (Dibango), Fela (Kuti), among others. I think it will be a great meeting.

Pan M 360: It will also be an opportunity for the Montreal and Canadian public, in general, to know you better. You’re a fairly prominent figure in Europe, you’re based in Brussels and you tour regularly on the continent. But here, except for the years you played with Zap Mama, it is much less frequent.

Manou Gallo: Yes, that’s true. But I’m even happier that it’s happening now because I’ve evolved a lot in my musical game. In my early solo days, I did a bit of everything: percussion, vocals, bass. But now I’m more focused. The bass is the center of my action, my creativity and my language. It’s much clearer in my head, and it shows in my music. And I’m very happy that this is what people will see in me!

Pan M 360: If we want to summarize your musical evolution, is there a common thread? Would it be the focus more and more concentrated on the bass as the engine of your music and your creativity?Manou Gallo: Yes, quite. I am a musician who has struggled for a long time to be able to clearly assume what she wants to do. You may know that I stopped playing for about 8 years (between Lowlin in 2010 and Afro Groove Queen in 2018), during which time I essentially stayed in my basement working on my instrument, perfecting it and mastering it better! I questioned myself, I worked on harmony to be better at it (I was originally a percussionist and I still play bass with a percussive color) and I finally found my essence. I acquired the tools to be able to express myself adequately. But it took time and hard work. I feel like my early career was going in all directions, left, right, all over the place, then the path cleared, the sun came out and now I’m coming in with renewed confidence. I can’t wait to share this with Canadian audiences.

Pan M 360: What is the idea behind Aliso vol.1 (released in 2021)?

Manou Gallo: Freedom. It is priceless. Being a woman and an African in the world of bass, it was a journey of hardship. I had to prove myself, and even twice as hard! Now, I make the music I want to make, according to my desires. I felt like going to visit jazz a little more, so I threw a pitch to Christian McBride, who was kind enough to enthusiastically accept.

Pan M 360: What did you learn from him?

Manou Gallo: Humility. Here is a very great musician, very learned and very humble with me. He respects me totally, and I respect him in return. The difference is obvious with some of the pop stars we see more, who spout off, who are sometimes full of themselves. It’s completely different with the kind of musicians that Christian is a part of. We are in dialogue with each other’s spirit. It’s beautiful and inspiring.

Pan M 360: As a woman and a bass player, do you have any advice for young girls who’d want to start a career like you?

Manou Gallo: I don’t think young women today need advice. When I was young, you had to go out of your way to discover music and get to know bass players. All I had was a cassette player and I had never seen Marcus Miller or Victor Wooten. Today, it’s all there, just a phone touch away on the web! Young people can see Meshell (Ndegeocello) live at any time of the day. Inspiration is available. You just have to want it.

Pan M 360: Still, do you feel that you have a role to play as a female model?

Manou Gallo: Wow! That’s a lot of responsibility! I know many women who are much brighter than me. I’m just a musician. But if anyone ever asks me for advice, I’ll be happy to answer, of course. And I’m always happy to meet a girl who wants to talk to me after a concert, that’s for sure.

Pan M 360: I heard that your grandmother was a cousin of Myriam Makeba? You have rubbed shoulders with her?

Manou Gallo: That’s an urban legend! I don’t know where this story comes from and why it is on the web. It’s even listed on Wikipedia. It’s not true. My grandmother was from West Africa, and Myriam was from South Africa. There was no connection. But anyway, I accept the reference, and it’s not unpleasant at all to be associated with this very great artist, but it’s just not true.

Pan M 360: There, the truth is set straight thanks to Pan M 360! Do you have any musical idols?

Manou Gallo: Difficult question, of course, but I would say three. Marcus Miller for the sound, the melodies. Victor Wooten for the fabulous technique, and Richard Bona for the ease of playing. If I can bring these three personalities together one day in my music-making, that will be wonderful!

Manou Gallo will perform on Loto-Québec stage, Wednesday, July 20th at 7 p.m. It’s a FREE CONCERT!

Yourcenar, une île de passions is the next Quebec opera to be created. On July 28 and 30 in Quebec City, and on August 4 and 6 in Montréal, local audiences will have the chance to experience an intimate view of the life of the great writer Marguerite Yourcenar (1903-1987), author of, among other things, the masterpiece Mémoires d’Hadrien, one of the great novels of the 20th century. With a libretto by Hélène Dorion and the late Marie-Claire Blais, composer Éric Champagne has set out to breathe musical life and psycho-emotional transcendence into the respectful, yet very intimate look at the unique life of this extraordinary woman. Pan M 360 spoke with Éric Champagne to better anticipate what the audience will see and hear.

Pan M 360: With just a few days to go before the opera’s premiere, how do you feel about it?

Éric Champagne: I was calmer at the beginning of the week, but as the days go by, a little anxiety comes up, I must say. But nothing threatening. I am surrounded by an extraordinary team. I am particularly excited about the work of director Angela Konrad. She fascinates me! She was very discreet at the beginning of the process, but now she is the absolute master of the project and I feel that she will bring it to a successful conclusion. And what pleases me most is that she knows how to read music. She is able to say to the singers ‘here, at bar no. such and such, on the D major chord, you should do this…’. Wow! How many directors can do that in opera? What it also means is that she understands my intentions, and the singers feel confident because she speaks their language. Honestly, it’s great.

Pan M 360: How well did you know Marguerite Yourcenar before you started writing?

Éric Champagne: I knew Mémoires d’Hadrien quite well, which I had read several times. It’s one of my favorite books. But when it came to her personal biography, with the exception of the main points such as her entry into the Académie française as the first woman accepted, I knew almost nothing. Obviously, the project forced me to delve into her intimate world and her personal dramas.

Pan M 360: Were you touched by any specific points?

Éric Champagne: Yes, I found great resonance with some of my own concerns, that is, the difficulty of reconciling creative and sentimental life. For her, it was a daily struggle, rarely won. She either immersed herself in her creation and neglected her love life, or on the contrary, she tried to nourish her love life but her work suffered. I also find this reconciliation difficult.

Pan M 360: What do you think was wrong? Why couldn’t she do it?

Éric Champagne: As we sometimes say, she wanted it all. When she had a creative impulse, she plunged into it completely, without half measures, at the risk of major collateral damage. She lived life to the full, always in extremes, unable to sit somewhere in the middle and balance things out.

Pan M 360: How is the opera cut up? On which focal point is it concentrated?

Éric Champagne: The opera is divided into two parts that deal with the fundamental intimate relationships she had in her life: the one with Grace Frick, the main one, the one that occupied most of her life, and the one at the end of her life with Jerry Wilson. There are therefore two acts, the first beginning at the time of Grace’s death and during which numerous flashbacks will be used to illustrate the evolution of this relationship, echoes of Marguerite’s youth, her European wanderings, etc. Then the second act, in linear temporality, deals with Yourcenar’s last years, spent at the side of her young assistant, also her companion. A tumultuous relationship, that one.

Pan M 360: What guided you in finding the musical voice of the work? What thematic, ideological or other pivot did you base the score on?

Éric Champagne: What got me started was an anecdote from her biography. Yourcenar’s real name is Crayencour. From her birth name, she created an almost perfect anagram with Yourcenar (the C is missing). It amused me to think that she had played with her name to create a personality of her own, an ‘other’ identity. From there, I had the idea of playing with the notes as with the anagram. A bit like the composers of the Second Viennese School who inserted hidden dedications thanks to a system of notes associated with letters, I created a scale-alphabet that allowed me to develop motifs associated with Yourcenar, or Crayencour, and then others linked to the other characters of the opera. I felt a link with Marguerite because she liked to play with letters and words, a bit like I did with notes.

Pan M 360: Is the final score more tonal or atonal?

Éric Champagne: It’s particular because it’s ultimately a consonant opera but with few tonal episodes. There is consonance and dissonance, but not in a fixed tonal structure. I also find that it works well because the universe of the work is, in my opinion, very Proustian. We dive into very fine psychology, which allows for a lot of introspection and musical subtleties. In the end, it’s quite hushed and melancholic.

Pan M 360: The ensemble Les Violons du Roy will be in the orchestra pit. What orchestration challenges did this present to you?

Éric Champagne: The main advantage is that I could use the entire orchestra, in tuttis, without fear of overwhelming the singers! With a chamber orchestra like Les Violons, I was able to use the entire palette without fear. The disadvantage is that I have a symphonic mindset in general. There were times when I thought ”here, I’d like to have four horns! ”. So I had to limit myself but without too much difficulty. I felt a bit like Benjamin Britten when writing his fabulous chamber operas. The template is more or less the same, and so is the duration (about 2 hours). Besides, the subject matter was perfectly suited to this reduced format, as I said earlier. Maybe with another subject, it would have been problematic, but not here.

Pan M 360: Were there any particular difficulties in creating the connection with the booklet?Éric Champagne: No, not really. There was a bit of evolution of course, and some adjustments, but otherwise, everything went very well. I discovered that Marie-Claire had a great opera culture! I wasn’t expecting it, I must admit. With her leather look, I imagined that she listened to Marjo or Gerry Boulet (maybe she did too), but I discovered a woman who could tell me about such and such a production of La Traviata in 1979 in Paris, with such and such a director! We connected well. For Hélène, it was not a surprise because I already know her and I know that she likes opera. I would say that at one point when I suggested doing a trio, I saw the reflex of the women of the theatre coming out. They started by saying “three characters speaking at the same time? But how will we understand?’’ To which the composer obviously replied, “In opera, it’s not a problem. The music does the job!’’ But, in general, it was easy and pleasant.

Pan M 360: What are your impressions of the cast?

Éric Champagne: Oh, the singers are fantastic! Everyone is hyper-involved. Stéphanie Pothier, who plays Marguerite, is immersed in the character. She read and reread biographies, and immersed herself in everything she could to understand her psychology perfectly. She knows the role by heart, and works tirelessly because it is an athletic role that she is about to create on stage. She is called upon for almost the entire two hours of the programme. Kimy McLaren as Grace is equally admirable. She dug up a biography of this lady (I didn’t even know it existed!) and drank from it too. It’s heartwarming to see this kind of involvement and to work with artists of this caliber.

Pan M 360: We can feel your enthusiasm. Are you thinking of writing other operas now? What subjects would interest you?

Éric Champagne: It’s funny because I recently made a list of opera subjects that I would like to do one day. Of course, the first thing I realized was that I won’t have enough time in my life to do everything! But the thing that also came out was the fact that I would like to bring to the opera stage subjects that are rarely treated in this medium. For example, fantasy, or detective stories. I sometimes wonder why there is no opera that does science fiction or horror? Why is there no opera based on an Agatha Christie story? It is said that cinema replaced opera in the early 20th century. But films have dealt with all these subjects, and opera has not. Maybe it’s time to take that step, to dare to tackle these kinds of subjects. I’m a Hitchcock fan and I can think of two or three titles that would make excellent operas. I would also like to see our Quebec literary and theatrical works explored more deeply so that they can also be made into operas. There’s a ton of good material.

Pan M 360: May the opera gods hear you and be with you!

Cast and crew :

MARGUERITE: Stéphanie Pothier

GRACE: Kimy McLaren

JERRY: Hugo Laporte

DANIEL: Jean-Michel Richer

A CAPTAIN: Pierre Rancourt

A SINGER: Suzanne Taffot

CONDUCTOR: Dina Gilbert

DIRECTOR: Angela Konrad

COMPOSER: Éric Champagne

LIBRETTISTS: Hélène Dorion & Marie-Claire Blais

SETTINGS: Anick La Bissonnière

COSTUMES: Pierre-Guy Lapointe

LIGHTING: Sonoyo Nischikawa

VIDEO: Alexandre Desjardins

COPRODUCTION: Opéra de Montréal / Festival d’opéra de Québec / Les Violons du Roy

In French with French and English surtitles

Running time:

Part 1: 1 hour

Intermission: 20 minutes

Part 2: 55 minutes