FME-AT Quebec's Hidden Musical Gem

Festival de Musique Émergente Celebrates Quebec’s Divergent Sounds While Saying
Goodbye to Summer

by Christine Leonard

An otherworldly affair that will have you speaking in tongues, Festival de musique émergente (FME) in Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Quebec entered its 17th year with a flurry of feathers, flying objects and intermittent rain showers. 

Running August 29 to September 3, the annual celebration of up-and-coming Canadian musicians literally chases summer as it heads deep into the woods of northern Quebec each Labour Day. 

Set against the smokestacks and evergreens of the unassuming village of Rouyn-Noranda, the festival takes full advantage of the many small and medium-scale venues that play host to the throngs of curious and dedicated sound-seekers who cross their thresholds over the long weekend.

Thursday, August 29

KID KOALA | Photo by Christian Leduc

Storm clouds and crowds gathered on FME’s opening night, packing the main thoroughfare that leads to the towering scène extérieure Desjardins in anticipation of the evening’s entrée – a trip through veteran disc hustler Kid Koala’s “Vinyl Vaudeville” experience. Hyping the huddled masses with an aerobic 80s-inspired work-out, opening act Adira Amram and the Experience electrified the crowd with a jazz-handful of neon dance numbers before swapping out their Hammer-Time look for burlesque costumes complete with ostrich plume fans. Titillating the audience with saucy breakbeats and scratchy loops, Kid Koala pulled out all the family-friendly material he could muster. 

The rain and wind proved no deterrent as hands reached for the hundreds of paper airplanes hurled from the stage and circle pits stampeded under the legs of a giant spider marionette that stalked through the crowd. Drying off at Cabaret de la Dernière Chance afterwards, the Pink Floyd-esque sounds of “Nunu metal” duo Ellemetue painted a strange and sweat-stained picture of wailing synths and fallen guitar gods. 

Up next, Red Mass took over the podium clad in red and black. Stomping out demons and strumming with a biblical fervor the punk provocateur cast out any doubt that this sepulcher alone was the final refuge of the damned. 

The Young Gods would challenge that statement. Stirring the old deities of Switzerland like a techno-fluent Dr. Frankenstein, the scientific trio illuminated the Petit Théâtre du Vieux-Noranda with laser precision before burying the congregation in an avalanche of angular gestures and dancefloor dominanting synths.  

Friday, August 30 

David Marin | Photo by Christine Leonard

Copper. That’s pretty much the big employer hereabouts, so if you’re interested in what makes this town tick you should take advantage of any opportunity to tour the massive Fonderie Horne to see where the magic happens. Speaking of magicians, blues chanteur David Marin made the transition from afternoon pool party to evening showcase disappear into thin air with his smooth keyboarding and Jimmy Buffett of the Canadian Riviera swing. 

Outside the walls of the Salle-des-Chevaliers-de-Colomb, the streets overflowed with rainbow lights and hip-hop vibes as locals and visitors alike swarmed towards the open-air spectacle featuring rappers Sarahmée, KT Gorique and an encore appearance by Drake-like crowd-pleaser Loud. 

Back at the Cabaret, 20-year-old booking agency Preste treated attendees to a BBQ complete with musical accompaniment by singer-songwriter Elliot Maginot, while around the corner at Diable Rond the vintage vibes of The Televisionaries and The 5,6,7,8s packed the room with ‘50s licks and surfy hooks. Bumped-up hairdos and fantastic fashion ruled as the two retro-fixated bands put on a hot and shaky show that was easier heard than seen. Vertical challenges aside, there’s no greater equalizer amongst festival-goers than the hunt for some soul-satisfying late night eats. And in Rouyn-Noranda that can only mean one thing: a trip to the legendary 24-hour poutinerie Chez Morasse. Maybe you’ll feel remorse the next day. But for now — nous allons manger! 

Saturday, August 31

The Flamingos Pink | Photo by McGraw

You’ve made it this far, so why not unwind with a detour into the deep dark woods to meet some of the (other) resident wildlife? Wolves and lynxes and bears, mon dieu! The Refuge Pageau rehabilitates over 150 creatures a year and gives visitors the opportunity to stroll through their sprawling forest facility while catching glimpses of some of the current patients. Pink flamingos are not to be found here, but The Flamingos Pink of Montreal were certainly on the menu back at Bar Le Groove later that day. 

Hot to trot drummer/vocalist Julien Corrado and singer/guitarist Sacha Gubany striped down to their denim in order to make better contact with the people. Pushing up the thermostat with thick rock ‘n’ roll riffs and door-booting percussion, the twosome squeezed every drop of juice from the afternoon’s atomic orange afterglow. 

LA Julia Smith | Photo by Christian Leduc

Banishing the inclement weather with a flick of their supple wrists, hard rock outfit LA Julia Smith demonstrated why three guys from Chile are allowed to call their band whatever the hell they want. Burning a hole through the ceiling of Bar Le Groove’s spartan cement basement, the position-swapping trio belted out a tightly wound set of heartburning tempo tantrums. 

What better way to cool your heels than with a dip in the bottomless sea of …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead? Swamping the Petit Théâtre in swirling string crescendos and romantically tortured vocals, they carved a trench through dark and emotive sonic waves as a thirsty audience surged and heaved at their feet.

Sunday, September 1 

Matt Vezio | Photo by Christine Leonard

And just like that, you wake up and it’s September. Disillusion aside it was a beautiful day to explore the lush Parc Botanique À Fleur d’eau. Strolling along pathways and boardwalks the sounds of pop-folk siren Salome Leclerc followed at every turn as she entertained residents and wristbanders who gathered around the central gazebo stage.

Next door at the public library Matt Vezio set up shop in an outdoor plaza as people spread out picnic blankets to soak up some sunny rays and funny lines from the guitar-strumming folk pop troubadour. Famous for their velvety stouts the diminutive watering hole Le Trèfle Noir Brasserie Artisanale is the perfect place to chill out, recharge and survey the influx of black T-shirts into Rouyn-Noranda as FME’s notorious metal night festivities approach. A sold-out attraction that could easily be extended in size and scope, the heaviest show on the docket brought Quebecois headbangers and intrigued onlookers from out of the woodwork. Local stand-outs Archons impressed with an evocative thrash stance that left plenty of room to jump on their momentum machine.

Necrotic Mutation | Photo by Christian Leduc

Oxygen levels dropped suddenly as Necrotic Mutation seized the stage. Lead singer Daniel Jalbert had his work cut out for him as he struggled against the confines of a straitjacket while snarling his visceral vocals into the microphone. Closing out the evening and the entire festival with a crack of lightning and roll of thunder, Despised Icon divided, conquered and then reunited the crowd at will. Dual deathcore vocalists Steve Marois and Alex Erian vacillated between furious howls and caustic commands as easily as they switched between speaking French, English and what I can only assume is some regional dialect of Tolkien’s Black Speech. Oh, man. A third language to brush up on before returning for FME 2020!

  16th, September 2019 

in • Live Reviews, FEATURED, MUSIC

Festival de Musique Emergente 2019 Preview

Festival de Musique Emergente 2019 Transforms Sleepy Quebec Town into a Partygoers Paradise

By Christine Leonard

Your last chance to soak up the sights, sounds and “je ne sais quoi” of summer, Festival de Musique Emergente (FME) is a music and arts festival that is as famous for its idyllic lakeside location as it is for the wide range of breakout and established artists it has been platforming over its 17-year history.

Mushrooming in scope and impact, the envelope-pushing event has grown from presenting a dozen artists in its first year to welcoming over 70 artists to the 2019 installment. While FME has evolved with the times, co-founder and programmer Pierre Thibault firmly believes that the vision and values behind the multilingual music showcase have remained unaltered.

“The original mission of the FME was to make room for marginal projects shunned by commercial radio in Quebec,” says Thibault. “We wanted to focus on this counterculture. We also wanted to invite alternative projects from all over the world to reach an audience that now knows that the independent music here is of the same calibre as the one found abroad.”

The 8-hour Cannonball Run North from Montreal to the festival’s verdant Abitibi Témiscamingue region will see some 20,000 festivalgoers head deep into the province’s heavily forested backyard. There they will take in four days of open-air and indoor performances by the likes of DJ Kid Koala, …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead, Daniel Romano, Material Girls, Atsuko Chiba, The Sadies, Half Moon Run, The Young Gods (Switzerland), and The 5, 6, 7, 8s (Japan) to name a few.

“It’s good to go out on the road with friends in Quebec, and to discuss culture, politics, love, and many other relevant things while going on a weekend of crazy concerts,” says Thibault. “It is unifying to make the way from Montreal to Rouyn. We meet in convenience stores, gas stations, grocery stores, SAQ on the road and we take off, ready for another dimension — the FME!”

And if you find yourself torn between what shows to attend — that’s all part of the plan.

“We really like the small and medium format rooms that leave you with multiple decisions to make during your weekend,” says Thibault of the schedule. “I think that missing a good concert to see another one that was chosen at the same time is the true definition of a good music festival.” To make matters even trickier, Thibault shares that there’s some geographic sleight of hand at play: “We changed all the street names of Rouyn for the event so that the festivalgoers trust their ears to find the concert halls!”

Discovery is indeed the name of the game when it comes to navigating the unique musical experience that is FME.

FME takes place August 29 to September 1, 2019 in Ville de Rouyn-Noranda (Québec).

29th, August 2019in FEATURED, MUSIC

GrimSkunk - 30th Anniversary Interview

Politipunks GrimSkunk Celebrate 

30 Years of Making a Grand Stink 

By Christine Leonard 

Photo by Carl Thériault

CALGARY – French, English, Russian, Spanish — There’s no language barrier that can’t be bridged by the fragrant vibes of Quebec’s legendary ska-rock orchestra GrimSkunk. The veteran politipunks are celebrating 30 years of making music and mayhem under the flag of hemp and justice for all.

“When we started our career punk and metal had already gone around the block a couple of times,” says lead singer/organist Joe Evil. “It was sort of getting repetitive. We wanted to mix in a new style. How we became creative was to do punk and metal but mix it completely with any sort of style or language.”

GrimSkunk has always maintained an amazing sense of humour and grace when it comes to exploring inroads to spiritual harmony and mutual enrichment.

“We sort of did it when it was okay to do it and now it’s like, the news is pretty harsh, and can I understand cultural appropriation. We’ve taken elements from everywhere. We’ve had Greek songs, we’ve had Spanish words over flamenco-style music, and we’ve had North African songs with Persian words. We’ve done them just for the fun of doing it and the influences that they’ve had on us. Because as a ‘global band’ right at the verge of the Internet, or before the Internet, there was world music and that was a big influence on us. We were turned on by those styles and wanted to integrate it into our punk rock and psychedelic rock.”

A multilingual montage of genres that keeps the punk rock party thumping, GrimSkunk’s latest release, Unreason in the Age of Madness, was dropped on the band’s own Indica Records label in 2018. Also ringing in their 20th anniversary as a company this year, Indica has long been home to an exotic blend of artists who might not have been heard were it not for GrimSkunk’s musical green thumb.

“Obviously, as times goes by, different styles become popular,” Evil acknowledges. “We are getting influenced by ourselves earlier in our career finally. Now, I can finally start to relate to bands that have been around for decades! I can finally relate to Rush!” 

GrimSkunk perform March 27 at Wild Bill’s (Banff), March 28 at The Drake Public House (Canmore), March 29 at Broken City (Calgary), March 31 at Doc Willoughby’s (Kelowna) and April 4 at Venue (Vancouver)

22nd, March 2019 

in • Alberta, • Shrapnel, CITY, MUSIC

GRIM SKUNK - an interview with Peter Edwards by Christine Leonard-Cripps

Catcha fire under the bridge

Grim Skunk puts the ‘party’ in politics

There is a surprisingly serious edge to GrimSkunk, one that belies their reputation as Quebec’s premier high-flying, bong-water-steeped rock ’n’ roll act. For a party-oriented band, GrimSkunk is no stranger to controversy. Their original bassist, Marc-Boris Saint Maurice, founder of the Marijuana Party of Canada, left the band in 2000 to open Montreal’s Compassion Clinic and to continue his crusade to legalize marijuana from the inside by joining the Liberal party. More recently, the band’s breakaway single “America Sucks” and its accompanying video have fired up intense international debate on YouTube. Looking back over a career that spans 15 years and eight LPs, GrimSkunk’s lead guitarist Peter Edwards continues to thrive on the changes and challenges that signal this legendary ensemble’s readiness to face the future head-on.     

“We’ve shot three videos for our new album, Fires Under the Road,” says Edwards. “It was filmed last year in advance of the album’s release on October 31. The title track is a nod to a long-standing annual tradition where our friends gather in secret caves under a road to light Samhain bonfires. The other videos are for our songs ‘America Sucks,’ and ‘Vive le Quebec Libre,’ which is kind of the French version of ‘America Sucks.’ That song in particular has stirred up a massive controversy. It built up slowly and now we have Russians posting arguments with Americans about the superiority of the AK-47 over the M-16. We have always been very open to debating global issues. We have our stand. Some people in the States may take it at face value, but it’s a wake-up call to all of North America. We have to shock people into realizing the government is materialistic, consumer-oriented and wasteful.”     

Sometimes the status quo isn’t good enough and standards need to be raised across the board. Never ones to Bogart a good thing, GrimSkunk have shared their success by applying the “puff, puff, pass” philosophy to their working lives as well as their recreational activities. Stepping in where the well-liked Cargo Records label left off, Edwards, along with vocalist and rhythm guitarist Franz Schuller, vocalist and keyboardist Joe Evil, drummer Alain VDbC and Boris’s replacement bassist Vince Peake, conceived Indica Records. Shortly thereafter, they released the infamous Inhale compilations to showcase the impressive variety of bands they had attracted to their label.    

 “We’ve entered a co-partnership with a group of labels and have seriously gotten into the business of releasing music,” Edwards reports. “We’ve put out everything from alt rock to punk to pop to techno and hip hop. One of our greatest successes has been a world groove album. There’s a new generation emerging, one that is more open-minded and less likely to be prejudiced against foreign cultures. Indica records carries licences for artists from England, the U.S., France and Australia, though to date all of our Canadian artists are from Quebec. Basically, we don’t want to limit ourselves in any way.”  

 Stepping down from their soapbox and leaping from their amps in full glorious Van Halen-style, GrimSkunk really know how to let their hair down when it comes to performing live. Thrilling audiences with their classic-rock guitar assaults, theatrical organ runs and heavy metal percussion, GrimSkunk possess the uncanny ability to combine multiple genres and tongues into one mighty explosion of synergistic energy.     

“After our last show in Norway, some kids came up to us and expressed their admiration for us, because we don’t care about being hip,” Edwards laughs. “We’re all about good times. It’s still 90 per cent party. Politics does not rule the majority of what we do. Our ability to accept multiple musical styles lets us create a multi-musicscape that reflects Canadian culture. People get it when they see us live. We try to keep the universe in balance by starting fires.”

Originally published in FFWD Magazine by Christine Leonard

Despised Icon : Tightening the Cords that Bind

What comes naturally

Despised Icon undergoes Healing Process
by Christine Leonard

Revered for their blistering guitar work and pummeling percussion, Despised Icon confirm Quebec’s status as a bubbling cauldron of molten metal. At the same time that the six-piece grindcore specialists from Montréal have been building a name in the competitive Eastern market, they have taken a decidedly hands-on approach to managing their musical careers.

Pulling triple duty as the band’s manager, booking agent and vocalist, Alexander Erian is looking forward to finally hitting the road and enjoying the experience of performing for new audiences in strange places. Or, strange audiences in new places, as the case may be.

"The last year has been really hectic," says Erian "We’ve gone through some pretty significant lineup changes and have now rebanded, if that’s a word." 

Replacing singer Marie-Helene Landry at the mic, Erian came out from behind the drum kit and the band enlisted the help of another Alex, drummer Alex Pelletier. Having built a reputation as a technical but fun-loving band, the roster change came after recording their nine-track monstrosity The Healing Process.

"We released a two-song EP last April and shopped it around to a number of labels. But we got tired of waiting on someone else to make things happen," says Erian. "We decided to do our own thing and went on to record a rough mix of our new album over that summer."

The album caught the ear of Century Media, which subsequently generated interest for Despised Icon with Relapse Records. Since the band had admired the label for some time, when it offered to release a split album for Despised Icon and Bodies in the Gears of the Apparatus, Erian and company jumped at the chance.

"It was a now-or-never kind of proposal, so we went for it and it’s selling better than we could ever have imagined. So, what more could you ask for?"

Despised Icon started playing in 2001, but all the members have been part of the Quebec metal scene for some time. Erian used to play with Neuraxis and, in fact, is still neighbours with two of their members. "There are a few other metal musicians on the block as well," he says. "We’re takin’ over!"

Taking over the hood is one thing, but making the switch from percussion to vocals is another. Undaunted, Erian has stretched his talents and his vocal cords and come to revel in the intensified level of audience interaction that comes with being the frontman.

"I loved playing the drums, but you get a different view of the shows when you’re behind the kit," says Erian "As a singer, I’m much more exposed, there’s more showmanship involved. I get to move around and have a lot of fun. I’m really enjoying the sense of change, and I don’t have to worry about mounting and dismounting my drum kit in a 15-minute period with some tour manager breathing down my neck."

Despised Icon perform at The Alexandra Centre April 14, 2005