Montreal electro duo Wake Island bring their sensitive electro to Madonna's "Like A Virgin"

17 May 2016, 10:30 | Written by Paul Bridgewater

(News)

(Wake Island)

“I’ve lately been fascinated by pop song lyrics,” says Wake Island's Philippe Manasseh. “We don't always listen carefully to them, we take them for granted. And more often than not, they are deep and thoughtful and really on point.”

He's talking about the Montreal outfit's take on Madonna's "Like A Virgin", which Manasseh and musical partner Nadim Maghzal played for Best Fit's cameras a few days back during their trip to Brighton for The Great Escape.

"The cover came to us out of nowhere," says Manasseh. "We were rehearsing the set and I wanted to goof around a bit. For some reason that's the first track that came up in my head so we started jamming it out and had a lot of fun with it.

"On the surface, 'Like a Virgin' can seem like just a song about sex and finding love. If you listen carefully, you can hear the story of a person who's gone through a difficult time in their lives, been confronted with oppression, being used by others, being down and depressed... and finally figured out who they are and what they stand for. In many ways it's really about that moment in your life when you are ready to share yourself with someone else, open up your soul and your thoughts, and realize that opening up can be the best thing you can do to heal.

"That speaks to me these days, as I am going through a similar experience with someone I love."

The duo recently released longplayer OUT via their collective label Oh Hi, a record mostly self-recorded in isolated cabins across the Quebec Eastern Townships. You can catch them on the final dates of the Pop Off Europe tour, which stops at The Queen of Hoxton in London (25 May), Liverpool Sound City (29 May), The Soup Kitchen in Manchester (31 May) and the Torstraßen Festival Kickoff Party in Barlin (3 June).