O Patro Vys – The Concordian

Hichem Khalfa Quartet will launch their new album, Réminiscences at O Patro Vys

Hichem Khalfa Quartet just released their new album, Réminiscences, a modern jazz creation that was composed by the group’s trumpet player, Hichem Khalfa. The record was released on March 10, and the quartet’s launch performance will take place at O Patro Vys on March 15. Joining leader and trumpet player Khalfa on stage are Jérôme Beaulieu on keyboards, Jonathan Arseneau on bass and Dave Croteau on drums.

Réminiscences differs a lot in sound from the band’s previous album, Histoires Sans Mots. Their music has a modern jazz feel in comparison to their previous songs, “I think I’ve found the right way to change the music so it doesn’t sound like the first album, but it still has my own signature,” Khalfa said. Khalfa has not only changed the instrumentation since the last record, but the line-up of his band as well. Khalfa and Beaulieu are the only two remaining members from the previous album.

Khalfa wanted to change things up to bring a different feel to the music.”The electric bass [and] keyboards really changed the sound of the band,” he said. Playing alongside these three musicians is exciting for Khalfa. “The most important thing is that the feeling, the connection between us is great,” he said, “We have good times every time we go on tour, so that’s all I really want,” he said. Following their album release, the band will be touring across Canada and Europe, starting this summer. “We’re going to France in July, then to do a couple shows in New Brunswick, and then Ville Saint-Laurent, and in October we go back to Europe—Belgium, England and maybe France,” said Khalfa. Khalfa is thrilled to tour the world with his friends, doing what they love—playing music.

Music is a vehicle for Khalfa to express his innermost thoughts and emotions. “What I want is to play my feelings through the trumpet,” he said. “The main goal for me is to be able to communicate these feelings to other people when I’m playing.” Khalfa picked up his first trumpet when he was seven, and has never wanted to put it down since. “I always wanted to be a musician. I didn’t have any other options,” Khalfa said.

The musician grew up in Val d’Oise, France, but arrived in Montreal six years ago to pursue jazz studies at McGill University. Khalfa is grateful for the move to Montreal, as he sees it as a city with lots of potential for musicians. “Montreal is really, really good. I moved here six years ago, and I’m starting to feel at home now,” he said. “That’s what I like Montreal too — everyone is trying to help each other and I feel [I’m a part of] a community.” The Montreal Jazz Festival, for example, is an event the musician is proud to have been a part of. “I’ve played every year at the Jazz Festival,” he said. “It’s a really, really nice time of the year. Everyone is nice, music is everywhere, it’s very beautiful … and we have a lot of tourists coming to Montreal just for that, so it’s a pretty big deal.”

The aspect of performing that Khalfa most loves is witnessing people coming together through his music. “Something magical happens,” he said. “To see all these different people, who wouldn’t talk to each other in everyday life on the street, getting together in this moment and sharing feelings… It’s something intense, I think, to be on stage and being able to see that.”

Hichem Khalfa Quartet’s latest album, Réminiscences, can be heard live at O Patro Vys from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Wednesday, March 15. Entrance is free, and their album can be purchased on-site after the show.

The New Brunswick band ends their Canadian tour at POP Montreal

Motherhood: a soft, nurturing and beautiful word. It is also the name of a gritty, dark, industrial rock band. From New Brunswick, Motherhood has been touring across Canada since the end of August to promote their most recent album Baby Teeth, which was released this past summer. They performed in Montreal on Sept. 23 for POP Montreal’s music festival.

Brydon Crain, is the lead singer, guitarist and vox player; Adam Sipkema sings backup vocals, plays the percussions and vox; Penelope Stevens sings, plays the bass, organ, synthesizer and vox. The bandmates go way back. Crain and Sipkema went to high school together, then moved to Fredericton where they met Stevens. The band formed in 2010.“Fredericton influenced us in a major way lyrically. We write as if no one pays attention to it. There are no expectations of what a band should sound like from Fredericton,” said Crain. The lack of expectations has led them to bend the rules and become a more experimental band.“We’re more about the concept behind the music and not the genre. We mess around with ideas. If they sound cool, we use it,” said Crain. Motherhood is a mixture of punk, blues and country sounds. They are also influenced by bands from various genres. “We all like Dear Rouge, Captain Beefheart and Death Grips,” said Crain.

Their recent album, Baby Teeth, expresses their anger and emotions towards various issues. Their song “Greed” is about the negative impacts of consumerism. Even though a lot of the lyrical content isn’t very happy, Crain’s goal is for people to think their music is interesting.“The lyrics are stories from the different universe that I write in. For this album, we practiced twice a week and came up with ideas. We basically banged our heads against the wall until we found something we all liked,” said Crain.Overall, Baby Teeth is about being from New Brunswick. “It’s a mix about being happy about New Brunswick but also being frustrated because there’s a lot of shitty stuff going on there which is affecting being there right now,” said Crain.

Live from O Patro Vys, Motherhood was rocking it on stage. Photo by Ana Hernandez

Everyone contributes the same amount of work to the band’s creative process. This is something that Crain said he loves most about Motherhood. “Both my bandmates have musical brains,” he said. “They are always ready to hear my floppy ideas. Adam plays drums unlike any other. Penny is good with harmonies and has more of a technical background, which is very helpful to the songwriting process.”

Motherhood has performed in Montreal a few times before with local band Smokes. They also brought a music festival from Fredericton to Montreal called the Shifty Bits Cult. They called the Montreal version of the festival the Shifty Bits Circus.“We chose Montreal because of the city’s hard-working people in the music scene. It was a good mix of New Brunswick and Montreal bands,” said Crain.

The band’s performance at POP Montreal took place at O Patro Vys bar. Catriona Sturton, an indie-rock and blues singer-songwriter from Ottawa, opened for Motherhood. Her deep bluesy voice, along with her harmonica playing, gave the performance a folk-rockish feel. She also mixed in her sense of humour, throwing in jokes between her songs that got the whole audience chuckling. Her charisma on stage was undeniable. When Motherhood took center stage, Sturton joined in for their two first songs and rocked it.

Penelope Stevens of Motherhood on bass guitar live at POP Montreal’s music festival. Photo by Ana Hernandez

Motherhood’s music sounds all the better live. Their rough guitar riffs, industrial sounds and screeching voices are greatly intensified when they hit the stage. Their song “Twosies” is meant to be heard at maximum volume. The trio gave it their all on POP Montreal’s stage.“I love to perform live. It’s a chance to act crazy, scream, do things that I’m not aloud to do in normal life. When the show is good, I’ll come off stage not remembering what happened. I’d just be like, wow, that was so much fun,” said Crain. The band has been touring with Little You, Little Me, who also played later that night. “Little You, Little Me are more rock and roll, and heavier than us. Their influences come from a lot of different places in rock,” said Crain.

Motherhood had a piece of advice for any musicians planning on touring across Canada: “Bring a good book—Canada is huge.”