Karkwa’s rise was meteoric and set against the backdrop of an increasingly bilingual Millennial population playing and attending gigs in Montreal. The group toured extensively and recorded two more full-length albums before going on hiatus in 2011, focusing on other endeavours.

Quip sat down with keyboardist François Lafontaine and drummer Stéphane Bergeron to discuss their thoughts on a 20-year evolution before their set at FME. The pair oscillate between English and French, often finish each other’s sentences, and laugh in a way that conveys a vast shared experience, culminating in their most recent studio release, Dans la seconde. It marks the first time in over a decade that the band has written, recorded, and toured.

Ben Lemieux: Les tremblements is going to be 20 next year. That was a big time for music in Montreal and in Quebec. A lot of big artists came up during that time. It was also a moment when the lines between Franco and Anglo music in Montreal were blurred a bit more. How is it to reflect on that time and your place in it?

François Lafontaine: It was a movement. We were young at that time: 23, 24. People our age were tired of what was going on musically. We did things differently, the way we would record indie stuff, the way of promoting music was different.

Stéphane Bergeron: We met the Patrick Watson band at some point, we shared a rehearsal space, and we became friends with them. We felt very good about that and about making music with them.

FL: St. Laurent was the main street where the anglophone and the francophone [communities] would cross over. We started doing [shows] with Marie-Pier Arthur. We met the Barr Brothers, we met the Dears, Arcade Fire.

SB: In some events like M Pour Montreal and SXSW, anglo and franco [musicians] doing showcases together made stuff happen after that.

FL: In the end, it’s just about music. We stayed close with Patrick. One of my best friends is Joe Grass, who also played with Patrick – we have a band together. We made a record maybe 4-5 years ago.

BL: Fans from that era are still coming to shows, they obviously have a nostalgic relationship with your early work and Montreal in that era. Do you see new, younger demographics at your shows now as well?

SB: We see that at some of the shows and we’re very touched by it. Even before playing shows, we see some of the comments on social media coming from [younger fans]. It’s also wild to see the younger generation come to shows and sing the lyrics [to our older material].

FL: The greatest thing about that is when you start a band, you cannot imagine how it’s going to be 10 or 20 years later. So to see that happen, it’s very touching, like Steph said. It’s [bigger than] us, at that point. The music speaks for itself. It’s almost like the music has made a path to somewhere we didn’t expect when we started.

BL: A big change since you started making records is the gradual disappearance of record stores. Most of the market is digital streaming now. How do you find that has changed the way that you distribute or release albums, or the response you receive?

FL: It’s pretty difficult to have an opinion on that. The only thing I know is that there are more ways today to discover music. Back then, you had to go to the music store, and sometimes the album wasn’t there. But now, there are a lot of ways to discover music, and people are overwhelmed. There’s [so] much stuff.

SB: I would say [steaming] comes with a lot of competition, but that’s not the right word. We’re kind of privileged, I would say. Because we didn’t have to think a lot about marketing strategy. We booked M Telus [arena] for one night and ended up selling out five. We didn’t have to struggle, but I can imagine [it’s challenging] for people who aren’t as established. It’s been easier for us.

FL: The only way to put out your music is to go on the road. Even if you put out a lot of studio clips on Instagram –

SB: It’s a drop in the ocean. [Laughs] You need many drops.

FL: You can see a lot of musicians playing in many projects. I think that’s the way to make a living. Back in the day, we used to only concentrate on Karkwa. Like 90% of our time was dedicated to Karkwa. Now people are all over the place in so many different projects.

BL: 13 years between records is a long time. Your new record sounds like a Karkwa album. It feels familiar. But obviously, there are things about your playing or your approach to composition that have changed in that time. What are the things about playing as a band that you find the most familiar and the most different?

FL: We approached each record differently.

SB: For Dans la seconde we decided to come into the studio with absolutely nothing. Nothing every day. Let’s start with a tempo. Some days, something happens. Some days, you think something is happening, and at some point, you say, “Oh. That’s… shit.” [Laughs] We did so many days of improvisation and came up with an album like that. That’s the first time we did this. What’s familiar is [the sense] that we’ve been lucky to meet each other. It’s just easy when we play.

FL: For the album we opened maybe 26 or 27 different sessions or different songs.

BL: Over what period of time?

FL: A year [intermittently]. A week here, a week there. At some point, we sat down and said, “We have to focus on the things that everyone wants to do,” and went from 20-something sessions to nine songs.

SB: There was some good stuff too that we didn’t choose. Sometimes we say: “The vibe is cool, but can we end up with a song out of that?” The fun part is when we ended up with those nine or ten songs, we moved into Wild Studios.

FL: It’s the kind of vibe that Morin Heights had. You’re on a lake, secluded in the woods. After the 7 or 8 months we spent [on composition], we went there for a week and wrapped up the whole album there.

SB: There was also a process of layering parts.

BL: Do you ever think some of these lost tracks may show up on a future album?

SB: Mostly from Chemins de verre (2010). We were touring a lot in France and that means sometimes you have 4-5 day breaks. We had a friend who worked at a studio called “La Frette,” a big house with a studio in it. We thought instead of spending five days in a bar in Paris we could live there. We saw the studio and thought –

FL: Let’s write some music.

SB: We just started recording. We said, “Let’s do a song a day.” So [unused material] mostly comes from Chemins de verre and a bit of what we did lately.

BL: Have you always written as a group?

FL: No. Most of the time, I was bringing in music and we were developing arrangements around that. But like Stephane said, for the last album, you weren’t allowed to come into the studio with anything prepared. Changing our ways of working really helped. There were even times where the root of a song was a drum beat. We started with a tempo, like 125 bpm, and said “Let’s go.” In some cases, we recorded three versions of the same song.

It was a luxury to be able to do this. The studio belongs to Louis-Jean, I’m a partner. To spend this much time in a recording studio, composing, arranging, recording, it doesn’t happen often.

To reconnect, musically, I think it was best for us to get back in the studio. Work differently, put that kind of energy and moments on stage afterwards. It kind of glued the band in a way.

SB: This live set is the best version of the band.

The post Looking back at Karkwa’s evolving career with François Lafontaine and Stéphane Bergeron appeared first on Quip Magazine.

Karkwa

The band was one of the bigger headliners for the festival, wrapping up a year-long reunion tour following the release of their 2023 album Dans la seconde. Playing at the large outdoor Fizz stage, the storied Quebec rock quintet delivered an energetic, crowd-pleasing performance spanning their 20-year archive. The enthusiastically attended set oscillated between newer hits and their early noughties anthems, all presented with a markedly psychedelic slant. It was a delight to watch the local indie darlings approach the set with such aplomb, drawing out their songs with instrumental interludes and solos.

A great headliner to kick off the Festival: the perfect blend of energy and nostalgia.

Mossaï Mossaï

One of the better bills at Le Paramount this year, French prog-rockers Mossaï Mossaï made a big impression with their first overseas gig at FME. Playing selections from their debut, Faces, the quartet wasted no time in getting the walls shaking. The group’s thundering rhythm section and psychedelic guitar work were propulsive in a way that every band opening a rock concert should be, while also never gratuitous or at the expense of musicianship. This band plays its ass off, but also makes time for poetic keyboard & voice interludes, keeps the audience guessing throughout the set. A group to watch.

Galaxie

Headlining Le Paramount, Montreal rock supergroup Galaxie delivered an hour of sheer fun. The members are all veterans of the Quebec indie scene with numerous concurrent projects on the go. From watching Galaxie play: this is the garage rock band they all go to as an outlet. Try new motifs, rock out, play for the joy of it. After 20+ years and six albums, watching the playfulness and zesty youthful energy of the Fred Fortin-led ensemble is infectious and still brings the house down. The set was replete with fuzzed-out guitar solos, cosmic synths, wrapped up in a tight blues-rock parcel. A rare treat for Quebec audiences, who were also pleasantly surprised by the band’s release of À demain peut-être earlier this year.

Peter Dreams and Moonriivr

Best known as one of the driving forces behind Toronto’s July Talk, Peter Dreimanis’ recent collaboration with Moonriivr sees him shifting into a more brooding gear. His husky baritone and black garb invite Cash, Cohen, and Cave comparisons, although these feel facile and reductive. These songs live in smoky, damp, dimly lit clubs. Propulsive rhythm backbone, dynamite guitar work: this band is dialed. Where there’s a roof to blow off, they will. Dreimanis forgoes instruments during the set, his vocals focused, passionate, fearless in their intensity. Nominally, this is an alt-country set, but the group’s stage tightness and range of influences lend a gravitas to the proceedings that eschews genre.

Bearing mention: their 2024 collaborative release is among the top Canadian records of the year. Nocturnal, poised, dramatic, Peter Dreams and Moonriivr lives at the crossroads of country, blues, folk, with the occasional cabaret flourish. Musically and lyrically adventurous, self-produced, a sonically warm album that properly sounds like it’s recorded on tape: there’s so much to love about this record. Go find a copy today.

Haviah Mighty

Although Quebec is home to a hardworking hip-hop scene, FME skews prog heavy in its lineup. Mighty, one of Canada’s foremost hip-hop talents provided a welcome change of pace at the main outdoor stage. Leaning into a spare stage set (just herself and a DJ), Haviah Mighty played an hour of uptempo greatest hits to the opening night crowd. As ever, her set was animated and moved with gusto, leaning towards poppier, festival-friendly fare. In an environment less produced and more theatrical, the mastery of her flow and wordsmithing was front and center.

Delightful to see such an important Canadian voice headlining a smaller regional festival like FME. A worthy reminder of why Haviah Mighty is a national treasure and a joy to watch.

Li’l Andy: The Complete Recordings of Hezekiah Procter

A fixture Montreal’s country scene, Li’l Andy’s latest set was easily the boldest at the Festival. A pitch-perfect pastiche of 20s/30s folk, jazz, and bluegrass, The Complete Recordings of Hezekiah Procter was an enchanting, immersive period exploration that generated a lot of buzz among festival-goers. With glimmering harmonies, period garb, and humour by the shovelful, Proctor is a love letter to dustbowl Americana that straddles music and performance art. Andy’s quartet had their small club audience rapt for a set equal parts playful, surprising, dexterous, meticulously researched, and fun. A highlight for many.

The Brooks

The Festival closer at Le Paramount did not disappoint. Before a room of music industry professionals, The Brooks delivered a technical clinic in jazz-funk. This masterclass had every audience member eating out of their hands and wanting seconds. A tour de force.

Look out for their latest album, Soon As I Can, released on 4 of October (the official launch November 8th at Café Cleopatre in Montreal).

The post Highlights performances from FME are a spectacular showcase of talent appeared first on Quip Magazine.

The young Brooklynite broke out in 2017 with his debut LP, Green Twins, an esoteric R&B opus that opened to blanket acclaim and betrayed a musician of far greater experience and acumen. From its opening notes, Green Twins is both a lyrical and sonic delight – playful, delicate, textural, brooding, enigmatic, and often all in the same moment. It pays homage to the great R&B singers of yesteryear, while also evolving the genre in an exciting and stylistically personal direction. Hakim (25 at the time of its recording), was already emerging as an auteur.

In the years since, he has become one of the flagbearers for his generation of R&B artists. Firmly rooted in jazz, blues, and soul tradition, Hakim’s follow-up records, Will This Make Me Good and the lockdown collaboration Small Things have remained exploratory and fun. Sticking to his signature downtempo vibes, Hakim has been venturing down back alleys behind 60s jazz clubs, smoking 3 AM cigarettes on the fire escape of his walk-up apartment, peering into the endless constellations with wonder.

Cometa, Hakim’s latest release, feels like the product of those soul-searching pandemic years. Laced with nostalgia and romance, the album listens and reads like a tribute to love itself. Lyrically, it is a largely abstract effort, relating the intoxication of a lover to a trip through the cosmos. It works as a fun wink to Hakim’s signature psychedelic style, but also an apt parable for the immense, ineffable feelings that artwork has forever yearned to encapsulate.

The songs are on full display here, Hakim choosing leaner arrangements than on past releases. In its strongest moments, Cometa really kills. The opener, “Ani,” is a mesmerising medley of overlapping vocal tracks with full-bodied drums, a slinky bass line, jagged guitars, and some gorgeous, subtle horn work. Its only fault is an all-too-early fade out. 

“Feeling Myself” plays an interesting contrast between its major key, synth-driven shuffle and Hakim’s distorted, frenzied vocal delivery. Its overall playfulness harkens to his early work, including some of the album’s stronger lines (“I love being your heart-shaped guitar” strikes a perfect balance between earnest and meta). Sadly, Hakim’s full-throated commitment to the lyrics hardly shows up elsewhere on the record. 

Outside these infrequent glimpses of Hakim at his jagged and idiosyncratic best, the album is pleasant without being poignant. Though Cometa creates wonderful textures throughout, it lacks the edgy inventiveness of its forebears, too often feeling combed-over and docile. That said, it also never veers completely into the abstract or leaves the listener behind.

There is always a danger that meandering psychedelia may come off as alienating rather than entrancing. Perhaps one of the most wonderful things about Hakim’s oeuvre is its intimacy. With each record, song, and verse, there is a palpable (though never overbearing) desire to reel the listener in, as if to sing to them directly. It speaks to an intangible quality – perhaps what music lovers refer to as “soul” – those generational talents like Jeff Beck, Joni Mitchell, D’Angelo, or Coleman Hawkins, generate effortlessly. 

Though Cometa may not be Hakim’s strongest effort, it serves as a slick and eminently re-listenable reminder of how rare and special a talent he truly is. 

The post Nick Hakim’s star still shines brightly: R&B wunderkind delivers a breezy, if imperfect, third effort “Cometa” appeared first on Quip Magazine.

Toronto’s Hot Garbage’s headlining show saw a young band carrying the torch into the 21st century, their psych, shoegaze, and new-wave influences were on full display throughout the night.

Fresh off the release of their latest LP, Ride, there was lots of new material for fans to sink their teeth into. Though the band favours tight 3-4 minute studio cuts, their live let emphasizes protracted jam-outs, anchored by Juliana Carlevaris’ rolling basslines and her brother Alessandro’s blistering, overdriven guitar solos. In keeping with the record, their set remained moody and jagged, driven by a pulsing rhythm section and reverberant vocals. Hot Garbage’s take on psychedelic is gloomy and noirish, yet their live set remains fan-friendly, energetic, and a ton of fun. The band understands the theatrically implied expectations of the genre, striking a perfect balance between the gossamer vocal quality of early shoegaze and the cranked-up, guitar pyrotechnics emblematic of the 60s and 70s rockers.

With this new record and live set, Toronto is rediscovering a band fully in command of their sound and aware of how to communicate it from genesis, to record, to stage. An exciting quartet to watch out for.

Opening the show was Montreal’s Yoo Doo Right, another young band exploring a darker side of psychedelica. Their 2021 debut album, Don’t Think You Can Escape Your Purpose, is occult from cover to cover, dark, throbbing, and resolute from its opening notes.

The band maintained a scorching pace for the 30-minute, mostly instrumental set. After a melodic opener, the trio immediately kicked into high gear with a high-octane rendition of “1N914“. This group’s ability to build on a theme with texture and crescendo is established early on – they make it clear to the audience they’re not interested in a facsimile of the record.

Yoo Doo Right keep audience banter to a soft-spoken minimum, diving into extended cuts from the album. “The Moral Compass of a Self-Driving Car” remains a high point of the set, awash in overdriven guitar strumming and uptempo bass grooves. Much like the record, Yoo Doo Right’s live sound is energetic, metal, and edgy, yet there is a delicateness in their approach to melody that sets them apart from many contemporaries.

Yoo Doo Right honour their namesake – drawn from CAN’s first album and the early days of Kraut-rock. A 20-minute track whittled down from a 6-hour studio jam session is the perfect banner for this group. The trio’s ability to transpose such a lush, full sound to the stage is remarkable. Coupled with their panache for full throttle, space rock exploration, Yoo Doo Right will also quickly cement itself as a stage presence to be reckoned with.

The post Mothland’s psych rockers Hot Garbage & Yoo Doo Right delight Toronto audience with a blazing set appeared first on Quip Magazine.

Harding’s bread and butter has always been a nostalgic, well-executed vintage R&B sound. His skill and dedication to the genre came at the perfect point in our zeitgeist and he has built a solid career from six years of recording and touring. This latest release, If Words Were Flowers, sees him thirsting for new horizons.

With his third studio release, Harding is not so much veering away as building from the “slop ‘n’ soul” quintet sound of his first two albums. If Words Were Flowers is more contemplative, textured, and carefully arranged than its predecessors, but also takes longer to root itself.

The titular opener and follow-up “Hopeful” lean markedly into Harding’s gospel background, replete with emotional, swaying strings, brass accompaniment, and staccato gospel backing singers. As Harding blends these with a rhythmic vocal line worthy of 90s D’Angelo and an effects-laden, Funkadelic-esque guitar solo, the whole thing collapses under its own weight. The volume of competing sounds and influences at work is jarring. This vibe carries into “Can’t Hide It,” an earnest love song with a Motown feel that ends up competing with a swaggering, 90s rock vocal bridge and a Telecaster solo that belongs in 1966 Southern California.

Around the mid-point of the album something interesting happens. It grows into itself. The psychedelic flair that’s always lurked in Harding’s music bounds forward. The orchestration is pared back, used sparingly, such that a trumpet solo, backing vocal, or swooping string melody is a pleasant surprise rather than clutter. Given room to breathe, the horns, phase-shifted synths, Harding’s own voice, and the songs themselves rope the listener in with their delicateness and sincerity. 

Harding stated that desire for connection, for exploring beauty and fragility in the world was a primary driving force for If Words Were Flowers. It was born of a specific place and time in our history yet speaks to it abstractly. Lyrically, the theme of hopefulness in dark times is not framed through the lens of COVID-19, BLM, or #MeToo – the album approaches it as universal, transposable, and timeless.

Harding’s albums have never been the most sonically cohesive, but at this stage in his development, the only thing If Words Were Flowers leaves wanting is a tighter directional sense from the artist and his producer. Clearly, Harding is interested in pushing himself and his music further with this third effort. Nowhere does it work more fluidly than in the closing three tracks, which see a harmony between theme, instrumentation, and arrangement. 

Worth multiple listens.

The post Curtis Harding’s latest studio release is a bumpy start with smooth landing appeared first on Quip Magazine.

Yesterday Park – released Friday 25 June 2021 – almost feels like two different albums, and groups. ISLAND are recognizable in their creative pop guitar stylings, lyrics, and ability to craft a radio rock hit effortlessly. The album’s opening triad of songs dazzles and delights. “Octopus,” also the first single, is built on shimmering, ambient guitars, a driving drum pulse, and Rollo Doherty’s catchy, rhythmic vocals. Its style and wistful themes lay the scene perfectly. The album segues neatly into “Everyone’s the Same,” a stoner rock anthem anchored by fuzzed-out guitars and Doherty’s gruff tenor.

“Do You Remember the Times” may be remembered as the group’s pinnacle effort. It is a yearning, nostalgic sundowner with cool minor key hooks and a chorus to bring festival audiences to life. It demands to be played while driving up the coast, top-down, stereo blaring – an elegy to the hopefulness and whimsy of youth.

Regrettably, as the album plays on it sheds its character. The latter half of the record skews ballad-heavy, dreamy and atmospheric, never again displaying the poise of its opening salvo. Songs suffer a sense of sameness, seldom generating momentum, and feel generally overproduced. One wonders if self-producing, as ISLAND did with their debut album, may have given these tracks the teeth they needed, the extra minute of runtime “Everyone’s the Same” deserved, or elicited a more emotional, driven performance from their vocalist.

ISLAND has a lot riding in their favour. With reverberant guitars, a dynamic frontman, confident live performances, and genuine hit-writing abilities, they remind of Young the Giant or alt-J at their best.

Yesterday Park is a good album, delivered by a far greater band. It’s clean and listenable in places where it could be provocative and cascading. We can only keep seeking out their performances, spinning the hits, and waiting for this quadra to release the record we all know they’re capable of.

The post Album review: ISLAND’s “Yesterday Park” in a nutshell appeared first on Quip Magazine.

If nothing else, their latest release, Inwards & Onwards (set to release on June 18th), stands as the Montreal trio’s most sonically and stylistically cohesive effort. The songwriting is on full display here – HMR’s complex arrangements and textures stripped down to acoustic guitars and delicate vocal harmonies. 

They’ve always had great songs; they’ve just never been this ascetic. 

From the opening notes of Inwards & Onwards, you feel like you’re listening to a Crosby, Still, Nash album written for a modern audience. The EP opens with “How Come My Body” which builds on mesmerizing acoustic chord work and glimmering vocals, working towards a crescendo that peaks with “It’s True” three tracks later. By then, the band is full steam ahead with effects-laden synths and resonating tom rolls, never once losing sight of its minor key motifs and malaise. It winds down, appropriately, with a tableau of a shuttered, vacant downtown street and a call to fortitude, even if difficult.

Considering the overarching solemnity to these six tracks, Inwards & Onwards remains a listenable, engaging, even likable record. All the HMR trademarks are here for fans of the band, while it also serves as a potent introduction for newcomers. All things considered, it is their most intimate work.

Upon first listen, the record was reminiscent of The Velvet Underground’s self-titled third album. To cut a story short: a fuzzed-out psychedelic band had their amps and gear stolen at a gig, so they went into the studio and recorded an album of acoustic ballads. Also their best. 

The pandemic compelled touring bands into the studio, likely with limited gear, personnel, timetables, and material. HMR’s adaptation to necessity and sufficiency yielded one of their tightest works, in both runtime and content. If 2020 has taught us anything it’s that we ought to embrace every silver lining we can.

Photo Credit: Alexis Sevenier

The post Half Moon Run return with “Inwards & Onwards” – their most intimate record yet appeared first on Quip Magazine.