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AND YOU WILL KNOW US BY THE TRAIL OF QUÉBÉCOIS: Malajube

by Lorraine Carpenter

As recently as last March, Malajube were playing to a roomful of indifferent teenagers in a neon-lit CEGEP cafeteria in Baie Comeau. Even then, it was an odd gig for a band that had released two highly praised albums and earned a strong following in Montreal. But the impact of their sophomore record, Trompe l’oeil, hadn’t been fully felt yet.

In November of 2004, Julien Mineau (vocals, guitar), Francis Mineau (drums), Mathieu Cournoyer (bass) and Thomas Augustin (keys, vocals) released Le Compte Complet, produced by the Dears’ Martin Pelland, through Dare to Care Records. It had the brash rock energy, the pop drive and the joker spirit (not to mention the sweet packaging) that we’d get to know better on Trompe l’oeil. With the band’s second album, recorded at Breakglass and Beat Box Studios with Ryan Battistuzzi, came a refinement of both sound and songwriting, their bolstered walls of guitars and keys sporadically receding to let some lilting melodies, lush vocals and effervescent riffs shine through. The record, and the band (now with additional member Renaud Bastien on guitar and keys), went on to win three Félix awards, a pair of GAMIQs and MIMIs, and nominations for the Polaris Music Prize and SOCAN’s Echo prize.

With the stateside release of Trompe l’oeil last Halloween came praise from hipster mags and Web sites and men’s magazines, as well as a handful of gigs in the U.S.— the band reports that a couple of their American shows, parties for Fader magazine in New York and Chicago, were poorly promoted duds, but their gig at New York’s Mercury Lounge in November, part of the CMJ Music Marathon, generated some substantial buzz.

Like recent Mirror cover stars les Breastfeeders, Malajube is backed by local management organization Bonsound, which has been pushing the francophone bands on anglo markets with impressive results. Malajube are currently psyching themselves up for an epic tour, beginning with next week’s gig at Café Campus, part of the venue’s 40th anniversary celebration, winding through the States (including Arizona, Kansas and Utah), into Europe, where they’ve just inked a deal with City Slang Records, then back across Canada with the Exclaim tour (they’ll play one of the Spectrum’s last shows in April), with European summer festivals to be confirmed. Language barrier be damned–their two shows in New York City are sold out, and they’ve got rabid fans from Toronto to Tucson to Helsinki.

The Mirror met Cournoyer and Mineau last Thursday afternoon at Casa del Popolo, one of the Main’s primo anglo indie enclaves. Not surprisingly, Malajube have played there several times, and on bilingual bills at other anglo haunts on St-Laurent, such as Barfly and the Green Room, making themselves known outside the francophone scene from the beginning. Lacking as they are in the political lyrics (despite a cameo by sovereignist rappers Loco Locass on Trompe l’oeil) and the strains of traditional Québécois music that characterize so many of the province’s bands, they feel more akin to Montreal’s anglo music scene, but not so much so that they’d ever sing in their second language, and not enough to feel comfortable being called the French Wolf Parade or the French Arcade Fire.

So, with some post-rockish ear candy as a soundtrack, Alexis O’Hara dutifully transcribing the month’s show calendar on the big board in the background, amid a handful of Plateau types savouring chili, coffee and beer, the Mirror spoke to Malajube about being dissed by La Presse, being praised by porn mags and crossing linguistic lines.

Mirror: I understand that you got some flack in La Presse over your acceptance speech at the ADISQ [Félix] gala last year. What happened?

Mathieu Cournoyer: I don’t know, really. Everyone else was just saying, “Thanks to my manager,” all the usual boring stuff, and we just said nothing special. We didn’t really want to be there in the first place, so we had nothing prepared. We thought, if we win, we’ll just go up and say thanks and leave.

M: So what did you say, exactly?

MC: I just said “Thanks.” He (gesturing to Francis) said, “Thanks to my grandmother for that’s just not our style.

M: So, for anglos who are into you guys and want to expand their francophone repertoire, what Québécois bands do you guys recommend?

MC: Uh…(both start laughing).

FM: There aren’t many, are there?

MC: (wheels turning) Uh…uh… (more laughter).

FM: I like Pawa Up First, but that doesn’t really count.

MC: There are no vocals. The Stills are francophones, most of them. (After more prodding, and Eric Lapointe jokes) Actually, there’s Karkwa, who are alright, Fred Fortin, Galaxie 500.

BAGGING BUNNIES

M: I was at your show at the Mercury Lounge during CMJ, and I heard a surprising amount of Quebec French in the audience.

FM: There are always Québécois, wherever we play. We did a show in London and there were a bunch of them in the crowd.

MC: Yeah, all the Québécois were in the front, 15 or 20 of them. FM: It’s true. Funny.

M: From what I’ve read, and heard firsthand at your local shows, you seem to have more than a few token anglos fans. What’s your take on the language barrier in the local music scene?

MC: Well, it doesn’t seem to be stopping anyone from coming to our shows. But anglos are definitely not as interested.

FM: I get the impression that anglos here are less interested in French because it’s all around them, but when we travel, people find it exotic. Here, obviously, anglos aren’t like, “Wow, French!” Maybe the bilingual native anglos are more willing to listen to French music, but there’s definitely still some sort of separation there.

MC: But maybe it’s changing with time. For us, doing an interview in English with the Mirror or talking to papers like the National Post isn’t something that would have happened a couple of years ago. Maybe that’s opening the door a bit.

M: As for American press, I see that you were reviewed in Penthouse and Playboy.

FM: You saw the one in Penthouse?

M: No, I didn’t actually see it.

MC: Me neither.

FM: Nobody saw it. We don’t even know what month it was. November? December?

M: I’m shocked that you guys didn’t run out and buy it. It’s the best excuse to buy a porno mag ever. “Look, my band!”

MC: Ha! That’s funny, ’cause Gourmet from Bonsound said, “I’m just gonna buy every month from the last year, it’s my excuse.”

M: What about Playboy?

MC: I saw that one on their Web site. We got three bunnies out of four. That’s pretty good.