by JOHNSON CUMMINS

If you read any of the hoopla on the Montreal music scene over the past year, you would think that every band in Montreal worships at the altar of Morrissey, has a mandatory string section and more than a passing fancy for quirky pop. Not to discredit those bands that earned the most ink in 2005, but it hardly paints the picture of everything that is going on here.

Now that the hype has died down and the media moved on to other musical hot spots, it seems safe for Priestess to come out and play. Their debut record Hello Master is a barnstormer of unabashed rock fury. At the same time, the band possesses enough foresight to see that overplaying the attitude card would be as boring as the last Darkness record. The tunes may be testosterone-fuelled, but are peppered with well thought out arrangements and, when stripped down to their core, reveal clever pop songs. The Mirror talked to singer/guitarist Mikey Heppner as he unpacked from a recent tour.

Mirror: Was producer Gus Van Go [the Stills, Me Mom & Morgantaler] a big contributing factor to the band’s sound on record?

Mikey Heppner: Yeah, he was amazing. He just had this really focused idea of the end result of the record, and was able to bring out the best parts of the songs. He had every drum sound and guitar sound already figured out before he even pressed “record.” It was really easy just to trust him and really easy to work with him. He had all of these great ideas, but would never dictate.

M: By getting out of Montreal and touring in the U.S. and Canada, are you noticing that people are getting a bit more excited about hard rock?

MH: All the people who come and see us will be people who have been coming to see rock shows for a long time. It’s been the same people who go see the Illuminati and C’mon and bands like that. I think hard rock bands have always been around and have always done well, but the press just won’t acknowledge it. At the same time, it still blows my mind that amazing Canadian bands like Shikasta and the Illuminati aren’t bigger than they are, while bands like Most Serene Republic are getting huge. We have been touring a lot and the crowds in cities that we have played previously are getting bigger and bigger, so obviously people like this kind of music. What it comes down to is that people are always going to want to see good rock bands.

A lift from Lemmy

M: You’ve been touring a lot over the past year. Has that changed your perspective on the band?

MH: We’ve been getting out of Montreal a lot, and it seems that the bigger cities, like New York, is where people think we’re really different from what they’re used to. It’s like we’re something brand new, but for us, we’re just a hard rock band. It’s weird. Places like Detroit and places in the Midwest seem to be more educated towards that kind of music, and more like being at home.

M: Has the Montreal hype thing helped the band at all outside of Montreal?

MH: Not really. When people ask where we’re from, they’re shocked when we tell them Montreal. When people think of Montreal bands, they think all of the bands are like a college radio kind of band. I think bands like Tricky Woo are really changing the misconception that every band from here is a pop band. In most cities, people will come out and see us for the first time, or will come down because they read about us, and everybody will be asking us about Tricky Woo and not the other Montreal bands everybody in print is talking about. There are so many good bands here, regardless of style, and I think it’s already shifting away from a categorization thing. Montreal is just being known for a place that has good bands.

M: Before you had much touring under your belt, you did a two-week tour supporting Motörhead. What was that like?

MH: At first, we were really excited, but as it started to approach the first show of the tour in Thunder Bay, we started getting really nervous. I mean, a Motörhead audience can be really hard on opening bands, and we just thought we were going to flop. We’re really not a metal band and the crowds were pretty metal, but we actually went over really well every night. That tour really boosted our confidence. After that, we were ready for anything. n

With Jerk Appeal and Mad Parish at Petit Campus on Friday, Dec. 16, 9:30 p.m., $12.50

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