The gift of sound and vision

>> Montreal’s People for Audio span rural and urban, music and movies

SEE HEAR: People for Audio

by LORRAINE CARPENTER

“We were really attracted to the idea of starting something that wasn’t just a band,” says Keiko Devaux. “We all took film composition and started paying more attention to films and their soundtracks, and that became a lot more interesting for me as a compositional tool than just writing songs.”

There’s a long history of musicians distracting their audiences with lights, projected images and other spectacular frills, either to enhance or complement their show, or both. People for Audio isn’t reinventing the wheel with their multidisciplinary presentation, but their musical and filmic formulae, and their dedication to the fusion, is bound to take them places.

The band has already done its share of travelling, with Devaux, Scott Lewis and Curtis Stone relocating from B.C., and Bill Hesselink, Adam Fiore and Alex Formosa coming from Ontario. After a spell in Guelph, at which time People for Audio recorded their debut album And This Will Be Our Homecoming, the cheap rents and supportive arts scene of la belle province beckoned, and here they are.

Their latest record, The New Ancients, and its accompanying imagery culled from family home movies, old Canadian documentaries and original 16mm material, balances the urban with the rural, the precision of classical, jazz and electronic music with the pastoral feel of post-rock, alt-country and folk.

The Mirror spoke to Devaux and Lewis, keyboardist and cameraman/projectionist, respectively, about the ingredients that make this melting pot work.

Mirror: Does the eclectic nature of your sound come from you all having renaissance tastes, or do you each specialize in distinct styles?

Keiko Devaux: Our tastes are all pretty eclectic, but we certainly focus on different things. Alex is really influenced by jazz, but jazz is within all of us too. I grew up with a really strong classical background, Adam’s really into a lot of folk, Curtis used to be in a hardcore band, so some of us are more versed in particular styles. We’re all very open to everything though, so it does make for a pretty special sound when we try to compose together.

M: How integrated is the creation of the music and the imagery?

Scott Lewis: At first, I thought that we would be able to create the visuals and the music simultaneously but that proved to be quite difficult, so what we ended up doing is they record onto a minidisk and send me an mp3 that I use to create the stuff. When they’re working on a new song and sending me bits and pieces of it, they tell me what direction they think it’s going in, and I take that into account.

KD: What’s interesting is that I find sometimes he’ll bring a colour or a visual that I would never have expected, but it fits perfectly, and then the mood or the way we play a song changes. So the music really does get influenced by the imagery. It goes both ways.

M: And you’ve been pilfering documentaries?

SL: Yeah, there’s a lot of great footage at the library that I’ve been stealing, and manipulating enough so that I’m not really violating any copyright laws. But I’m working with more original stuff for now ’cause I’ve got a $100 late fee.

With Torngat and Colin Stetson
at Main Hall on Friday, April 20, 9 p.m., $10