Constructive destruction

With a label of their own, a new record in the works and a prime Jazz Fest gig, Montreal’s kings of “cut disco,” aRTIST oF tHE yEAR, can get as nasty as they wanna be. And they wanna be very, very nasty.

IT IS DIRTY, AND IT IS FUN:
Camille Jacques, David Richard and
Nat Duhaime of aRTIST oF tHE yEAR

by SCOTT C

I hadn’t really banked on being hit with a wave of nostalgia when I arrived at artist of the year’s Cheezy Soundz Studios, a creative den of iniquity that doubles as a living space for the Montreal band. Not only do they live right next door to my very first apartment, but the place is almost identical to my old one, give or take a room. We sit in a bright kitchen, sipping beer around a small table with a tub of gummy worms, sour candy apricots and other penny-candy at the centre, talking about what’s been going on with aRTIST oF tHE yEAR.

Some don’t mind going into specific details about record-label woes, but AOTY’s recent split with their former label, C4, will stay with them. Let’s just say they didn’t share the same vision. Ranking some of their past music-industry dealings alongside “rough anal sex with someone you don’t know very well—with no lube,” AOTY’s members—David Richard, Camille Jacques and Nat Duhaime, who routinely switch up instruments—prefer to talk about the future of their own label, Cheezy Soundz Records, and the process of squelchy decimation employed in their patented “cut disco” sound—so ably demonstrated on their album Wreck la Discotheque, with jams like “It Is Time for le Party” and “If It Ain’t Dirty It Ain’t Fun”—in the run-up to their performance at this year’s Jazz Festival.

Mirror: It must feel nice to have a fresh start, but how is the next step for aRTIST oF tHE yEAR going to take shape?

Nat Duhaime: Well, first we’re going to launch Cheezy Sounds Records in Canada, but right now we’re still producing music for an album that is coming out in October.

David Richard: I’m just happy we’ll have the same distribution network for the record, even though it’s us putting it out. Universal is huge and we’re like tiny ants in their big market, but I’m glad they think we’re worth it. I think they could be a little more aggressive with our stuff outside of Quebec—we need to work the rest of the country as well.

Camille Jacques: We cut out the middleman and get to deal with them ourselves, and I think, in the music industry now, that it’s very important to do things this way. At least you keep some kind of control.

DR: Plus, we’re control freaks, we’ll admit it.

ND: But we’ve been building a nice little team with people that we know that will make all of this easier, hopefully. We’ve got a tight crew helping with grants, someone to work bookings in Europe, and we met with the lawyer today, so we’re building with people we know and trust while we keep going.

M: I remember when you guys were looking hard for a manager. What’s the deal, are you still looking?

All: Yes!

CJ: We don’t need a manager, we need a good manager.

DR: I would definitely make more music if we had one.

M: Have you made less music because you don’ t have a manager?

DR: Me? Yes, for sure.

ND: Dave put on the business hat because I hate to do that, and Cam...

CJ: I want to make music. That’s what we’re good at. That’s it.

Too original

M: What’s the strategy for breaking outside of Quebec, or is there one?

ND: It’s called 649. It’s $20-million, no? That’s the best idea right now. Maybe the casino...

M: So it all comes down to money once again?

DR: Kind of. Canada is a big country, with lots of road between cities, unlike Europe where huge cities are two hours away from each other. Here, we might be more popular if we toured, but it would be damn expensive. In Europe, we would be less popular, but technically it would be less expensive.

M: Do your cracked-out grooves have a place in the boom of electro-inspired dancefloor music taking over the world? How do you see yourselves in regards to these very popular sounds that seem to have popped up overnight, after doing this for so long?

CJ: Let me say that we do this because we love it. We want to make a living out of what we love to do. We’re in the electro community, when you listen to our album, but when you see us live—oh my God. We don’t feel very in touch with the electronic community, we just make the music we make, and that’s one of our assets. On the other hand, it cuts off our legs sometimes because people don’t know where to put us. Even if we get compared to Justice on record, we would never get booked to open for them.

ND: We always hear that. “We like what you’re doing, but we don’t know what to do with it.”

DR: It’s almost like we’re too original (laughs). There’s a lot of re-hashing of the same product over and over again, and you end up hearing the same music. I saw an interview in a magazine with the guy from Portishead saying American music is shit, and that Madlib is a genius, and in a way he’s right.

CJ: Image is 50 per cent of the business...

ND: Yeah, but I’m tired of the branding and all that bullshit. Do your own thing! For me, it’s about the music, not about the look.

Punk rock funk queens

M: Are you guys still pushing the limits of your self-proclaimed cut disco genre?

ND: It will always be cut disco, even though it started out as a joke.

DR: People have referred to us as funk-trash, and that’s a pretty good description too.

ND: Yeah, especially the live show. It’s more of a punk rock attitude, even though we’re dressed like funk queens.

M: Even though you see yourselves as separate from the electronic community, you’ve played with like-minded artists like the National Parcs. What do you have in common?

DR: We’re the perfect mix. We like what they do, and they like what we do. We usually open though, because we like to destroy the place and they know that.

CJ: We used to have some moshers that would follow us around and jump in the front and get crazy. Like, bodysurfing and flashing titties.

M: Flashing titties.

ND: Yeah, man. Okay, I got one flash, and it was a girl I used to sleep with, but she did it and I was like, “Shit! Now all the boys got a little look...”

DR: I was screaming “tétons!” into the microphone.

CJ: We kind of encourage a carnival atmosphere. Y’know, come as yourself, come in disguise, and get crazy for an hour and a half. It’s a constructive destruction.

M: Well, the potential to share fans is very high when you guys are playing together, no?

CJ: Sure. There are so many merging styles of music, artists and sub-genres that you have to really listen and find out what you like, but people seem to be open to a lot more, and I think that’s good for us.

M: What’s the plan this summer besides Jazz Fest?

CJ: We have to finish the album for October for sure, but we have a few shows to do. We’re also shopping for new costumes.

DR: Most important is working on going overseas, but it’s all about money again. We’re lucky to work with people like Third Side Music who’ve helped us keep money coming in from licensing.

ND: Thank you, Blackberry!

At Club Soda on Wednesday,
July 2, midnight, $22.50