Meet the rising stars of the Québec music scene hitting the UK this month
Eight of Québec's most exciting music prospects – ALIAS, La Sécurité, DVTR, Bon Enfant, Soran, Choses Sauvages, Corridor and Emilie Kahn – hit the UK this May for shows at some of the nation's best showcases.
These guitar-driven bands have earned a reputation for their thrilling, high-energy performances and as part of the Québec Spring programme will perform at events such as Wide Days, FOCUS Wales and The Great Escape.
Catch the bands between tonight and 19 May at the following dates:
2 May: Emilie Kahn, Soran, ALIAS and DVTR at the Wide Days Music Festival, M for Montreal showcase, Bongo Club (Edinburgh)
8 May: La Sécurité at Shacklewell Arms (London)
9 May: La Sécurité, Bon Enfant, DVTR and ALIAS at FOCUS Wales, M for Montreal showcase, Penny Black Room 2 (Wrexham)
10 May: DVTR at FOCUS Wales, The Rockin’ Chair 2 (Wrexham), Bon Enfant at FOCUS Wales, The Rockin’ Chair 1 (Wrexham), and La Sécurité at Kazimier Stockroom (Liverpool)
11 May: Bon Enfant at In Colour Festival, Brudenell Social Club (Leeds), La Sécurité at Sneaky Pete's (Edinburgh), and ALIAS at FOCUS Wales, The Rockin’ Chair 2 (Wrexham)
12 May: La Sécurité at Just Dropped In Records (Coventry) and Bon Enfant at Band on the Wall (Manchester)
13 May: La Sécurité at Big Hands (Manchester)
14 May: Soran at Canadian Showcase, Studio1 - Strongroom (London), La Sécurité at The Lanes (Bristol), and Bon Enfant at Hare & Hounds (Birmingham)
15 May: Bon Enfant at The Lanes (Bristol)
16 May: La Sécurité, Haviah Mighty, Choses Sauvages and Mock Media at The Great Escape Festival, M for Montreal showcase at Patterns Upstairs (Brighton), and Bon Enfant at Acid Box Super Fuzz Weekender (Brighton)
17 May: La Sécurité at The Great Escape Festival, Patterns Upstairs (Brighton), Corridor at The Great Escape Festival, Canada House, Green Door Store (Brighton), and Bon Enfant at The Great Escape Festival, Canada House, Green Door Store (Brighton)
18 May: Bon Enfant at The Great Escape Festival, Dust (Brighton), Soran at The Great Escape Festival, Canada House, Green Door Store (Brighton), Soran at The Great Escape Festival, The Prince Albert (Brighton), and Bon Enfant at The Shacklewell Arms (London)
Bon Enfant
Singing in their native French language, Bon Enfant make music loaded with 70s influences – phantasmagoric and best enjoyed with a flower in your hair and a sword in hand. An integral cog in the ever-fertile alternative scene of Montreal, the band’s eclectic self-styled “Québécois rock” or simply, “rock québ '' serves up a menagerie of fluid, fluorescent delights.
Since forming in Montreal five years back, their two albums to date - 2019’s Bon Enfant and 2021’s Diorama - have garnered wide-reaching praise across the French-speaking indie press, including multiple nominations at ‘Quebec’s Grammys’ (ADISQ Gala), such as Best Band, Best Live Show, and Best Rock Record (which they won).
La Sécurité
Art-punk collective La Sécurité make music that's equal parts jumpy beats, off-kilter arrangements, and minimalistic melodic hooks and the resulting sound meanders the fringes of punk, new wave and krautrock.
The band's members are drawn from many different projects – the likes of Choses Sauvages, Laurence-Anne, Silver Dapple – and since coming together has been invited to perform at Reeperbahn, SXSW, Sled Island and Montréal Jazz Fest, also sharing the stage with the likes of Automatic, Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp and Annie-Claude Deschênes (Duchess Says).The five-piece put out their first full-length Stay Safe! last June, a record that shouldstrike a chord with fans of Le Tigre, Devo, E.S.G. and The B-52’s.
DVTR
As DVTR, Laurence Giroux-Do and JC Tellier from the band Le Couleur take a side-step for their punk project inspired by the sound as much as the politics of punk. They already have last year's BONJOUR EP and a couple of singles under their belt – all out on Lisbon Lux records.
While politics creeps into their music (Vasectomy's for all, ACAB, Big Milk etc), they aren't party-driven. "We're not that directly invested emotionally in the political scene," they admit. "We've seen it in the past years, but all these political parties and politicians trying to polarise the people so everybody gets into these bubbles, and everybody gets more and more stupid and convinced of their weird ideas from both sides as well."
ALIAS
The sound of multi-instrumentalist Emmanuel Alias draws inspiration from psych, dance-punk and hip-hop, with twisted and hallucinated themes at the forefront. Under his artist name ALIAS, he debuted with the EP It's Not Funny So Stop Smilin' in 2021, and returned the following year with the concept album Jozef and tours across Quebec and France, making stops in New York and Toronto.
Throughout all this, he also composes music for HBO series such as Big Little Lies and Sharp Objects, as well as for numerous productions by Cirque du Soleil and serving as a director and musical director for Musique Nomade. EMBRACE CHAOS, his second album, dropped last month via Simone Records and sees Alias almost entirely swap guitars for synths.
Soran
Montreal-based half-Japanese and half-French artist Soran Dussaigne architects a new vision for pop and R&B uplifted by interdimensional soundscapes and irresistibly infectious hooks. During a high school field trip to New York City, he bought a guitar from a homeless man, practiced constantly, posted videos to Facebook, and busked for a year-and-a-half at subway stations and on the streets.
Since the start of his musical career, Soran has garnered more than than 95M streams as well as collaborating with popular Belgium DJ HENRI PFR’s, picking up a gold certification in Belgium.
Corridor
Sub-pop signed Montreal quartet Corridor (pictured above) release their fourth album Mimi last month, recalling the very best indie rock has to offer and a fresh break for a band that’s already established themselves as forward-thinkers.
With a sound and style that’s more widescreen and expansive than anything that’s preceded it, the follow-up to 2019’s Junior is a huge step forward for the band, as the members themselves have undergone the type of personal changes that accompany the passage of time; even as these eight songs reflect a newfound and contemplative maturity, however, Corridor are branching out more than ever with richly detailed music, resulting in a record that feels like a fresh break for a band that’s already established themselves as forward-thinkers.
Choses Sauvages
Choses Sauvages released their first dance-punk flavoured album back in September 2018, winning a nomination for Album of the Year – Alternative at the 2019 ADISQ Gala and topping Québécois independent radio charts. Always driven by the concern for a rigorous and meticulous approach, the Montreal quintet has matured without abandoning its rebellious side.
Their last record Choses Sauvages II drew closer to certain more electronic and nu-disco influences in the style of L'Impératrice or the producer Lindstrøm, while continuing their fascinating journey in the paths of funk, inspired by the likes of Bowie and the Bee Gees.
Emilie Kahn
After two albums from Emilie Kahn – the first under the moniker Emilie & Ogden, followed by Outro under her own name, in 2019 – the Montreal artist hit a classic quarter-life crisis, sold all her furniture and packed her remaining valuables into a boxy Mazda 5, driving cross-country to Los Angeles.
After three months, she was unhappier than she had been in the first place and fled back east to her parents’ house in rural Ontario. Three years later she emerged with new record Maybe and returned to Montreal with newfound sense of peace. The album is at once laid-back and feverish, with a pop energy that recalls Arlo Parks, Olivia Rodrigo, Lana Del Rey and Clairo, and Kahn’s viral affection for Taylor Swift.
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