Feral factory

>> Montreal’s We Are Wolves pack everyday
wonder and electro-punk panache into
their new album Total Magique

THE HOWLS ARE NOT WHAT THEY SEEM:
We Are Wolves (L to R) Antonin Marquis, Vincent Levesque,
Alexander Ortiz, repeat, Marquis

by LORRAINE CARPENTER

“It’s loud, it’s fast, it’s heavy,” says Vincent Levesque, one third of We Are Wolves. He’s describing the noise that the trio produces in their practice space, a regular haunt since the band began stocking their electro-punk arsenal in 2000.

Levesque and his bandmates Alexander Ortiz and Antonin Marquis perfected their sonic assault and created an endearingly slapdash visual aesthetic, finally playing shows in 2003 and releasing their debut album, Non-Stop Je Te Plie en Deux in 2005.

Grafting weighty keyboard lines and beats with raw guitar riffs and drums, not to mention Ortiz’s feral howl, We Are Wolves have marked their territory amid the international electro fray, and the local wolf scene. Being bilingual helped, and being Québécois facilitated a government exchange tour of Europe with Duchess Says—in return, France sent some of its own electro-rock action this way.

But being on the road, and being covered by Pitchfork, doesn’t exactly equate success. The trio work retail, service and DJ jobs when they’re in town (stalkers please report to the Yer Mad pub on Sundays and Tokyo on Wednesdays). And Ortiz recently launched a We Are Wolves side project with Levesque and his DJ partner Jordan Dare, a purely electro act called Claass (you may have seen them filling in for Peter, Björn and John at Osheaga).

But the Dare to Care release of Total Magique will change the band’s lot, at least for the near future. Two weeks ago, they launched a video for “Magique” (the album’s only French-language tune) at the Musée d’art contemporain, and tonight they officially launch the LP. Sometime between these two gigs, the Mirror sat down with the trio, cross-legged on the floor of Casa del Popolo’s terrasse, in the style of Carlos Santana and Mahavishnu John McLaughlin, pictured in the sleeve of Total Magique at the feet of spiritual teacher Sri Chinmoy. (No mantras were chanted in the making of this article.)

Mirror: What influenced you to form the band?

Alexander Ortiz: There’s two bands that were our main influences at the beginning, Deja Voodoo and the Cramps. That was the kind of music we wanted to do, that essence of juvenile energy and really sexed-up vibe.

Vincent Levesque: Then, somehow, we discovered electronics. We tried keeping the same primitive energy and I think we succeeded, but the main influence is still there.

Antonin Marquis: We all grew up listening to punk and rock. We were hanging out at Café Chaos and that was the 101 school of rock. At that point, not too many bands were using Moogs and synthesizers in rock music. I wanted to form a band, but the challenge was to find people who would be ready, who would have the guts to get a synth involved, even a drum machine.

VL: Just about every month, we thought, “Oh man, our sound is just gonna be everywhere, we’re not gonna be original anymore,” but somehow we just stuck to it and nothing really sounds exactly like it. It’s weird.

AM: When Peaches put out her record and le Tigre and Chicks on Speed, at that point, we were like, “Aw shit!”

AO: “Bypassed!”

VL: But then we realized that we’re much heavier than those guys.

Come hell or hospitality

M: I heard your first tour was pretty damaging, financially and otherwise. Has that been the hardest trek to date?

VL: The first tour was the biggest and the longest. It was the States and Canada with ...Trail of Dead and International Noise Conspiracy. We had a minivan.

AM: We were following Trail of Dead’s tour bus, it was kinda weird.

VL: We were packed up to there (indicates back of head) like, 15 hours a day. They would just drive during the night, sleeping, and wake up at the venue, (stretching arms and yawning) “Ah, yeah.” We would come out right before soundcheck with back pain and everything. It was funny.

M: Your European tour must have been more comfortable. I hear bands are generally really well treated there.

AO: It’s completely different. The people over there are waiting for you with their arms open and they do everything for you.

AM: We played in Marseilles and they took care of our day off.

VL and AO in unison: They took us to the beach.

AM: In the United States, especially big cities like L.A., they make you feel like you’re lucky to be there. As soon as you’re done, four huge guys will take your stuff and—

AO: “Get the fuck out!”

AM: —put it on the street. It feels so bad, and then you go to France and they give you fish for dinner.

Chalet steez

M: I imagine that at least one of you guys has a background in visual art? [Vincent and Alex raise their right hands. They studied painting/drawing and video, respectively, at Concordia.] Have you ever exhibited your work, outside of school and the band?

AO: At one point, Vincent and I organized a show at Galerie du Belgo called Le Chalet Magique, which kind of influenced the sound and aesthetic for this album. It’s all related, all the videos [and artwork] that we do, they’re always directed by the narrative, the energy, the rhythm that the songs have.

M: I know you guys favour the DIY approach to your artwork, and other elements of the band, but has that been difficult to maintain as the band progresses?

VL: It’s pretty easy. We don’t get any money from anybody, so you just do it yourself.

M: So it’s out of necessity?

AO: It’s also simply the way we are. We’re not the kind of people who’re gonna be calling people up and asking for money or for help, we’re gonna do it on our own. And everybody who works with us works in a DIY way because they don’t have any money either. They do it because they like our music, they like our energy.

AM: The band is known to be artsy now. It seems like, as the years go by, people kind of expect us to come up with artsy things. Usually Alex or Vincent will have an idea for a show costume, and a lot of people can relate to the band because it looks so crafty, it looks homemade. It’s like the way we play our instruments, it’s instinctive, it feels like everybody can do it. That’s what I like about bands too.

Total prestige

M: Do you believe in magic?

AO: Yes, it’s everywhere.

VL: Most stuff that you don’t understand comes from nature. That’s basically magic for me, or for us, stuff that’s been out there, some natural phenomenon or some optical illusion, and nobody has ever understood it.

AO: Go to the woods for one night, be there alone, look at the sky, look around you—that’s intense! Smoke and drink, and you’re gonna see the magic.

VL: It really sounds like urban talk, the way we talk about it, but I’m from the country and I still think it’s magic.

M: Are you religious?

VL: I consider myself spiritual.

AO: Agnostic, maybe. I was born and raised in a Colombian family, my mother’s really religious, so I was aware of all that, I read the Bible, but it’s not related to magic, even the supernatural elements and all that stuff that I consider important, and for me they kind of exist, but it’s not part of the main idea of the title.

Even Aleister Crowley, it’s really fascinating, but it’s not about that. The idea of magic is far more simple, the beautiful and negative aspects of it, the power that is hidden around us that we don’t really see but we know it’s there.

M: Is that where Sri Chinmoy comes in?

AO: Kind of. The magic of Carlos Santana.

CD launch with Pas Chic Chic
at le National tonight,
Thursday, Sept. 20, 9 p.m.,
$15, all ages