Thousands attend POP, a music industry showcase that is uniquely Montreal
For close to two decades, POP Montreal has been turning the end of summer into a celebration of the creative spirit of Montreal’s Mile-End neighbourhood. For five days each year, hundreds of local and visiting performers and artists gather at venues throughout the Mile-End and down St. Laurent Boulevard to celebrate all aspects of the independent music industry.
The concerts remain the highlight of the festival, but these performances are now complemented by a crowded program of industry events, expert discussion panels and Q&As, visual art exhibits, movie screenings and fashion shows.
This year was the sixteenth edition of the non-profit music festival, founded in 2002 against the backdrop of a Mile-End music scene that was beginning to simmer with talent and would go on to produce a number of internationally recognized bands.
Stemming from a chance meeting on a train, the founders took inspiration from the Halifax Pop Explosion (Co-founder of POP Montreal, Peter Rowan, also a co-founded that festival), and wanted to create an industry showcase like South by Southwest that was more artist friendly and community oriented.
The community spirit remains potent at POP Montreal, even as the festival enters its late teenage years. Read on for Graphite’s highlights from the festival, and read our coverage of Wolf Parade’s four show run at La Sala Rosa here [add link].
Wednesday
Starting at 1 a.m. and showcasing two or three bands each night, the late night shows kept festival attendees going until last call with bass-heavy, funky acts.
Wednesday night featured Kilo Kish, stage name of Lakisha Kimberly Robinson, an MC, singer and visual artist from Orlando, Florida. Quietly building a name for herself since her 2013 mixtape K+ (which featured collaborations with Childish Gambino, SBTRKT, A$AP Ferg and Earl Sweatshirt), Robinson’s newest EP, mothe, is much more focused than her 2016 album Reflections in Real Time.
Excelling at moody, experimental R&B, Robinson strutted around the stage with microphone in hand, skillfully MCing her songs while remaining playful with the audience. Her co-conspirator hunched over a keyboard and laptop making sure all sounds fired at the right time. The new focus in her music translated on stage as she worked through the Trip-Hop influenced material from mothe. It felt like the performance of someone very confident in what they are presenting.
Thursday
Thursday afternoon saw one of the most eagerly anticipated Q&A sessions of the festival. SOPHIE, an experimental electronic pop producer currently experiencing widespread critical acclaim, spoke with Montreal-based sound artist Julie Matson. SOPHIE spoke on topics ranging from the difference between working on a song for a pop star like Madonna (for whom SOPHIE has produced) versus working on more experimental tracks, to what advice she has, as a successful Trans musician, for other queer identifying people trying to break into the music industry (her advice was to “just be yourself”). During the audience Q&A, a visually impaired person asked SOPHIE what the best way to listen to music was, to which she replied “in a hot tub.”
Thursday evening, fans of extreme electronica had to choose between SOPHIE, performing downtown at Société des Arts Technologiques, and Venetian Snares x Daniel Lanois in the Mile-End. The second option brought an impressive amount of Canadian pedigree to the stage: one a Winnipeg-based innovator of the breakcore genre (alongside Aphex Twin and Squarepusher), and the other, Lanois, a legendary Canadian studio whizz, colleague of Brian Eno and producer of U2’s best albums.
So, it was thrilling to see them on stage together, but their collaborative music is all in-your-face pulverising breakbeats and dissonant electronics. It ultimately felt too bloodless to watch them on stage controlling the machines that created their sounds. In the darkened, 1920s theatre space at the Rialto main hall, the unsettling nature of the music was uninviting, turning the scene into something like a dystopian Music hall show.
Friday
On Friday afternoon there were many instructive discussion panels, delving into specific elements of working in the music industry. A discussion on the intersection of technology and music included Maggie Vail, former vice president at the label Kill Rock Stars and Rory Seydel, executive creative director of LANDR, a Montreal-based online music mastering service.
They discussed how technology has disrupted music consumption (streaming services dominate and a few major corporations largely decide what gets heard by casual audiences), the recording process (home studios are becoming easier to set-up and more common), and networking and building an audience with social media. All those on the panel agreed, however, that a musician should focus on building face-to-face relations with their immediate community before worrying about social media numbers.
Later, there was an interesting panel on the relationship between new information technology and the role of labels and music distribution companies. Clearly, the internet has democratized the distribution channels available for a musical artist’s recorded output. The panel featured Brooke Morgan, label director at Paper Bag Records and Taylor Brode, label director at Sacred Bones Records, two excellent independent labels.
Both Morgan and Brode agreed that more than ever musicians don’t need labels for distribution, but there are still many ways a label can provide assistance to developing artists, whether it be with tour management or navigating the promotion of a new release.
One of the last panels of the day was on a vitally important topic: the relationship between music communities and the press that cover them. One of the panelists, Lizzy Goodman, published Meet Me in the Bathroom in 2017, a 600 page oral history of New York City’s post 9/11 music scene. Some of the revelations made in that book lead to a public feud between the Strokes and Ryan Adams, so she was able to speak from experience about the impact a music journalist can have on their subjects.
Saturday
In the afternoon, at the Record Fair at Parc du Marché des Possibles, local record shops such as Le Pick Up, as well as record labels like Idée Fixe and Flemish Eye, set up booths to sell their wares. There was a small stage in the vicinity, and on that afternoon it featured a showcase of Welsh bands set up by the Arts Council of Wales. The three bands, beginning with HMS Morris, slowly drew a small crowd of admirers with a blend of pop, alternative and electronica. And, yes, some of the songs were sung in Welsh.
Saturday evening offered a wealth of shows showcasing contemporary Canadian indie rock. At Brasserie Beaubien, Montreal band Vogue brought the ear-piercing, clanging guitars in spadefuls, fusing dance-punk and garage with a chaotic and arty sound.
Following them was Bonnie Trash, from Guelph Ontario, the performance name of sibling duo Sarafina Troy and Emmalia Vash Bortolon-Vettor. Playing as a three-piece, they combined snapping electronic percussion, with fiery blues riffs and punk tempos. The two draw on a broad range of influences on their latest EP, fusing it with motifs from folktales of their ancestral homeland in Italy and using a rich sonic pallet of psychedelic garage rock not unsimilar to bands you might find on the Burger Records roster. Yet, Bonnie Trash prefers to keep gothic themes and brooding moods first and foremost in their music and that atmosphere follows them to their live performances.
With Bonnie Trash wrapping up around 10:45 p.m., there was just enough time to make it to La Vitrola in time to see the skewed and pop-ish indie-rock of Halifax expats Mauno (now based in Montreal), who were playing music from their new album Turning for the first time. That album reached #2 on the Earshot! national campus and community radio charts upon release and lead to a tour of Canada and Europe with Chad Van Gaalen.
Taking an approach to songwriting that favours quick tempo changes and unusual time signatures, highlights of Mauno’s set included the stuttering and twinkling “Hand,” and the bittersweet crooning of bassist Eliza Niemi on “Other Bad.” The intimate vocal delivery of guitarist Nick Everett stood out on “Helah,” a song which also showcases the band’s choppy, yet melodic approach to guitar playing and skill at crafting swelling crescendos.
Other Canadian acts on offer Saturday night included Mac DeMarco alum HOMESHAKE playing the main hall at Rialto, Fleece, the Montreal band that went viral with a video parodying the how Alt-J makes music at Casa del Popolo and Bad Waitress, Common Holly and Little Junior at L’escogriffe.
The late night show on Saturday was Chicago-based M.C. CupcakKe, who has built notoriety with a series of joyous and brazenly erotic singles that deal directly with political issues facing the LGBTQ+ community. CupcakKe’s show was sold-out and highly anticipated.
By 1 a.m. the basement of Rialto was packed, but CupcakKe was not yet in the building. Word around the festival was that she’d been forced to take a later flight from Chicago after missing her original departure time. She was going to be driven directly from the airport to the venue.
By 2 a.m. the room was full of nervous energy and the waiting crowd was growing restless. Yet, when the stage door opened and CupcakKe’s large, curly hair was silhouetted against the greenroom light, confirming beyond and doubt she was here, the crowd exploded with joy and all was forgiven. Clearly impressed by the reception, CupcakKe ran through a short 25-minute set (she doesn’t have that much material yet) and remarked that she’d definitely be back to Montreal in the future.
