Tag: Local Band

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The singer-songwriter perspective

Agustin Mukdisi from the Montreal-based band Blank Sonna discusses new EP and future projects

After a year and a half of hard work performing at venues and local bars, such as Metropolis and Le Petit Campus, Montreal-based indie band Blank Sonna released their first self-titled EP on Dec 15. It is difficult to characterize this band’s genre, as their music combines a wide variety of beautifully executed sounds. From soft, acoustic rock to classic 80s background melodies, their sound is reminiscent of bands like Radiohead and Arcade Fire.

Blank Sonna’s lineup consists of singer-songwriter Agustin Nicolas Mukdisi, his sister Camila Mukdisi on vocals and keyboards, bassist Remi Baracat, guitarist Simon Tardif and drummer Jordan Markov. There is a strong sense of multiculturalism within the band, as they each come from different parts of the world. “We blend various influences such as Argentinian, Arabic, Bulgarian and Québécois music,” said Camila.

Agustin said travelling has always influenced the band’s music. As the songwriter of the quintet, he has written most of the song lyrics while on the road. “The landscapes I see when I travel, I hear them in the music,” Agustin said. “Travelling has played an important role in our music as it gave us experiences that are different from everyday life.”

Blank Sonna is a quintet indie band with members from around the world. Photo by Alex Dimitrovici

For instance, Agustin wrote the song “Rescuer” during a trip to Brazil to see Argentina play in the World Cup two years ago. “I went to Brazil with a friend to see the game but we didn’t have any money. All we had was an acoustic guitar and a Peruvian cajón,” a box-shaped percussion instrument, said Agustin. He and his friend decided to play on the streets of Brazil for money. “On the first few days, we started feeling low. We weren’t motivated because we weren’t making enough money and I got sick,” Agustin said. “Out of nowhere, a girl who was walking by stopped to hear us play and we became friends. She took us to a hostel and paid for everything and took us out to dinner.” She motivated them again, said Agustin. They continued to play on the streets and ended up making enough money to go to the game. “Based on this experience, I wrote the song ’Rescuer’ because I felt that she rescued us that day,” said Agustin.

Currently, Agustin is in the mountain village Villa General Belgrano in Córdoba, Argentina. It is the hometown of Sofia Bursi, the artist who drew Blank Sonna’s EP cover album. “We spoke together about the album cover, I told her about the idea we had of having a mirror, because one of our songs is called “Reflection” and we wanted a reflection of a soul on the cover,” said Agustin. The reflection is staring at a mirror that leads the way to a colourful forest in contrast to the black and white background. Agustin said what he loves most about the drawing is that it represents all four songs of the album.

When it comes to songwriting, for Blank Sonna, the instrumentation comes first. “The music is always more important to me,” he said. “The words must fit the music, not the other way around. The song lyrics and titles come last.” Agustin said he will not force himself to write a song. He will start off by playing around with an instrument and naturally sing along.“There is no formula for songwriting,” he said. “Do whatever works best for you, but never try to imitate anyone.” To remain original, he said it’s important to forget everyone’s music and to do whatever your voice wants to do. “Get carried away and just go with it.”

Agustin Mukdisi performing live. Photo by Pedro Luiz Freire Cardadeiro

Blank Sonna performed at Metropolis last spring as part of the Emergenza Battles of the Bands Festival. From now on, however, the band has decided to avoid competitive shows and only perform for fun. “It was great to play at Metropolis but we didn’t enjoy the competitive aspect of the Emergenza Festival, where we had pressure to sell many tickets to get to the next round. I felt it got in the way of the performance,” said Agustin. Blank Sonna then performed at Le Petit Campus, along with another band from the Emergenza Festival, North of the Border. “The show was completely free of any pressure. We realized how much more fun we had by ourselves and that’s how we will do our next show,” said Agustin. Agustin said he believes Blank Sonna’s chemistry has improved thanks to all the live performances. “The shows helped us grow as a band,” he said. “There is a definite stronger feeling of togetherness. We’re more on the same page and have a defined sense as to where we are all headed musically.”

Agustin will be heading to Buenos Aires at the end of January to start recording his first solo album. “I have songs that I didn’t think would work with the sound of Blank Sonna,” Agustin said. “I do not want it to sound like the band. I want it to be different. It’s going to be much more electronic and it won’t have an acoustic drum set.” He will be working alongside music producer Shaw, who also worked on mastering Blank Sonna’s EP. Agustin said he will return to Montreal by the end of February. “We want to do a show to promote the EP upon my return, and our goal as a band would be to add new songs to our album to eventually release an LP when we are ready,” said Agustin.

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Concordia’s Diamond Tree

Concordia student from local band releases second EP album 

Concordia is home to numerous talented musicians, and David Tone, the front man of Diamond Tree, is a force to be reckoned with. Currently majoring in journalism, he is the writer, singer and guitarist of the alternative rock group.The band’s second EP, The Will to Evolve was released on Sept. 3. Alongside Tone, band members include Guillaume Lavigne on drums, Marc-Antoine Guay-Rochon on keyboard and Samuel Robinson on bass guitar.

Every musician has a story to tell, a journey that has brought them and their music to where they are right now. For Tone, it began halfway across the world.

In 2009, Tone signed up for an exchange volunteer program with Canada World Youth, an international volunteer organization. He travelled to Mozambique, Africa where he stayed with a host family for three months. He volunteered in the flood prevention department to minimize the flooding situation in Mozambique. It was on that trip that Tone started to sing and write songs. “The trip gave me so much to sing about and write about, I also had more time to sit down and compose lyrics,” said Tone. When he returned back home, Tone recorded the songs that he had composed in Africa and created his first solo record called The Demos.

Tone met Lavigne at Ottawa’s Bluesfest in 2012. “I just remember seeing him in a tie-dye shirt and I was like, ‘this guy’s cool.’” They hit it off right away. In fact, Lavigne and Tone began jamming together on a regular basis, with Lavigne playing drums to Tone’s songs.They soon became known as Electric Elephant, and even played a few shows in Ottawa during the summer of 2013.

Yet Tone couldn’t shake the feeling that there were greater musical opportunities outside of Ottawa. When a friend from the Mozambique trip invited him to come live in Montreal, he couldn’t refuse. “The music scene is so much better in Montreal [and] there are more opportunities here,” he said. Lavigne moved to the city a couple months later, and the two of them continued to create music together. “If there’s anything that I want to be known, it’s that I’m really fortunate to be working with this guy. He’s my partner in crime and he brings good ideas to the band” said Tone about Lavigne.

The duo had to change their band name since Electric Elephant was already an established band in Iceland. They became known as Diamond Tree. “We wanted something that sounded natural,” said Tone about the name change. “Trees are soothing and calming, kind of like the ocean. We also wanted a name that represents nature and technology because they are both the most vital things that we have.”

Concordia student, Dave Tone is the singer, songwriter and guitarist of Diamond Tree. Photo by Martine Ouellet.

Diamond Tree released their first EP on May 8, 2015, which was produced by Tone and Lavigne. Lavigne played the drums and the percussions while Tone sang and played bass guitar. The album was a success, it received quite a few downloads and donations. However, Tone was not satisfied with the overall production of the audio.

Over the course of eight months, Tone took singing lessons. He had also started busking in the metro for two to three hours, three to four times a week, as of October 2013. Eventually, Rochon, their keyboard player came into the picture. They met Rochon through a mutual friend and started to jam together. “Marc-Antoine has a jazz background which adds a lot of interesting elements to our sound. He plays a lot of cool chords, he’s a very jazzy guy,” said Tone.

When their second EP, The Will to Evolve was released on Sept. 3, Tone heard a huge improvement in terms of sound and vocals. The album was mixed by Philippe Da Silva, their mixing engineer, which Tone said payed off for them. “The results show, because [the second EP] sounds so much better,” he said. He is also proud to say that a part of Montreal is included in their song “Sailor Swim.” They recorded church bells from the Anglican Church of St-James the Apostle, which can be heard at the very end of the track.

The trio were then desperately seeking a bassist, “I had put up signs all over Montreal, spoke to every person I saw walking around with a bass case and would ask them if they had a band,” said Tone. Fortunately, the band met Robinson after the release of their second EP. They met up to play music at Crowbar where they have jam nights and played music together. “Samuel is the coolest guy on earth; he’s a very talented bassist. I am so lucky to be working with these guys, they all want this band to succeed” said Tone.

Diamond Tree’s music is about the human condition: “love, success, failure, pain and pleasure” is what Tone mostly writes about in his songs. “We’re all about rock and roll and high energy. When we get on stage, we just rock out as much as we can. Playing music is a way to open up and have fun,” said Tone.

The band is already getting ready to release a couple of projects in the near future. “I’ll be launching the longest project I’ve ever worked on—for three years—  in December. It has to do with busking and an empty Texas Mickey’s [bottle] of rum.” Tone’s ultimate goal as a musician is to tell a story through his music. Every lyric that he writes is profoundly meaningful. To Tone, the most important thing is that people really listen.

Stay tuned for their next show coming up Saturday night on Oct. 8 at L’Escogriffe bar.

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From Montreal to Groenland

Local band launches new album, A Wider Space

Groenland, French for Greenland, is a cold, far-away arctic island that remains mysterious to most of us. It’s also a fairly new indie-pop band based in Montreal. Their 2013 debut album, The Chase, was nominated for best album of the year at ‘L’Autre Gala de l’ADISQ’. Which is the award show of the music industry association of Quebec. The band’s newest release, A Wider Space, is coming out on Sept. 16.

The band initially started with Sabrina Halde and Jean Viver Lévesque. Halde is the lead vocalist—she also plays the ukulele, keyboard and percussions. Lévesque is in charge of programming, keyboards, electronic sounds and percussions. Today, there are six band members: Jonathan Charette on drums, cellist Marianne Bertrand, Ariane Grut-Pelchat on the violin and Simon Gosselin, who plays bass and of course, Halde and Lévesque.

Coincidentally, all members of the band attended Cégep Saint-Laurent, which is where Halde and Lévesque first met. “If we didn’t meet our bandmates while we were studying there, we met them afterwards,” said Lévesque.”Afterwards” turned out to be at a party a few years after graduation—that’s when Groenland made its debut. “Sabrina and I were [at the party] and we decided to start jamming on a staircase together, singing and having fun,” said Lévesque. “Only 6 years later, we bumped into each other again and said, ‘Hey! Didn’t we jam at that party together?”

Shortly thereafter, Halde and Lévesque began working at a coffee shop together and realized they shared similar tastes in music, admiring artists such as Feist and Thom Yorke. “We started to jam and practice more often and it really clicked,” said Lévesque. Halde said that was when they both realized they were ready to start a band together. Halde and Lévesque initially wanted to be a duo at first, but it eventually changed. “We were like, ‘It’s boring only being two, should we get another person to join?’ Then, when our third person joined, we were like: ‘It’s boring being three, let’s be four,” said Lévesque.“Now at six people, we are complete,” said Halde. “We don’t want to change this.”

Groenland is instrumentally diverse, which differentiates them from other indie-pop bands. “We play the violin, the cello, along with the ukulele, the bass, a lot of piano, keyboards, percussions, drum machines and steel drums for that smooth Caribbean sound. We also combine that with brass instruments,” said Halde. They recently returned from a concert in Lavaltrie, Quebec and the FME Music festival in Rouyn-Noranda. “We were playing our new songs—the audience was open and attentive. So far, it’s been going smooth,” said Halde.

Groenland will be performing for POP Montreal at Club Soda on Sept. 22. Photo by Jerry Pigeon

Since the release of their first album The Chase, both Halde and Lévesque have devoted all of their time to Groenland. Their first album sold over 32 000 copies in Canada. In 2013, they performed at Osheaga, and during spring and summer of 2015, they toured Europe, performing in Germany, the Netherlands, France and England. “In Germany, the public was quiet and attentive during the whole show but as soon as we would finish playing our last note, bang, they would start to clap and scream,” said Halde.

They also performed with Mac Demarco and Half Moon Run in Trois-Riviere during the “FestiVoix” music festival in summer of 2014. “The concert was like a dream. We were hanging out with Mac Demarco and the guys from Half Moon Run by the river,” said Halde. Lévesque said it was the best festival they have ever played at. “That weekend we did three incredible shows. We went to Quebec, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu and then at Metropolis here in Montreal to perform with St. Vincent,” said Lévesque.

Groenland is now on their way to play a few shows in Vancouver. “We are less stressed to perform there because not many people know about our music in the west coast. They will be discovering something new by listening to us. We feel more relaxed about this,” said Lévesque.

When it comes to their writing sessions, the bands works together, trying out different riffs. They compose as if they’re putting together a puzzle—combining different sounds together. The instrumentals are usually developed before the lyrics. “I am crazy about creating melodies and instrumentals,” said Halde. Lévesque said keeping a positive group energy is the most important thing during practices and writing sessions. “If you are not exactly sure of what you want to create, the others will feel the doubt. Discouraging practices can really affect your creation process negatively,” said Lévesque.

Halde’s dream would be to collaborate with Thom Yorke. “I know it’s cliché, but that would be crazy. He’s my long-term inspiration. We would love to collaborate with Beck and James Blake.” Final word of advice from Halde for all aspiring musicians: “Just be open-minded and listen to yourself and others. You have to battle your fears. To create something is to jump into the unknown. It’s risky. You have to accept the fact that it might not work out.”

Groenland will be performing tunes from A Wider Space at Club Soda on Sept 22. for POP Montreal.  The show starts at 8:00pm and tickets are $32.25 at the door.

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