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French bastards >> Basta take on Quebec's music establishment with a beat box and a melting pot by CHRIS YURKIW
"Strange weather," Boucher repeats the words back--as much to himself as me. I can tell that he likes the phrase, likes the sound of it, likes the way it carries its meaning. And I imagine that Boucher's ears must be constantly picking up such sounds, whether it's a phrase in English or a noise he can sample. Of course, that's also because I've heard Boucher and partner Jean-François Lemieux's debut album, Radieux-sceptique, probably a rock record at the end of the day but one which is resolutely contemporary with its slow breakbeats, rap-informed singing and electro-centrism. It's exactly the kind of music folks should be making these days, but given that the album is on the Audiogram label--a big player in the Quebec music industry and traditionally known for its franco pop stars like Daniel Bélanger and Laurence Jalbert--much of the talk around Basta has been how weird the duo is and how commercial radio won't touch them with a 10-foot listener's poll. "What we do gets called fucked up, but we don't see it like that," says Boucher. "I think it's the standards that radio has that are weird, and we end up being seen as monsters, like we came out of a Burroughs novel or something. But we're in a weird position. We're signed by Audiogram but we're playing music that doesn't fit with what you usually hear on that label. Then again, Lhasa de Sela and Bran Van [also with Audiogram] aren't exactly Michel Rivard either. It's something else--something is happening. I guess they want to open up something else." Indeed, Audiogram has been doing quite well over the past year in pushing the limits of francophone pop and embracing the reality of a multicultural Quebec. Lhasa de Sela is a Mexican-American Montrealer who sings Euro-cabaret style in Spanish. The core of Bran Van 3000 is an anglo-franco tag team. And Basta are two nice de souche boys who want to make music that jibes and jives with the world they see. When vocalist Boucher drops a line in English--or slips into franglais--it comes off less like a Roch Voisine, who does it for crossover or exoticism, and more like the sound of Montreal. "That's exactly what we were thinking," says Boucher. "We hear stuff in English, we hear stuff in Italian. It's the sound--it's the sound of the city." Sure enough, Basta means "enough!" in Italian and the pair even kick it in the language on the neo-Morricone surf number "Qualcuno Dovrà Pagare." But all this multi-culti lingualism has meant that Radieux-sceptique does not qualify as a francophone album under the criteria of Quebec's music industry association, ADISQ. "We don't care," says Boucher, more with a sense of amusement than annoyance. "We felt like doing an Italian song, we felt like having English stuff on there because... well... "Horse in My Head" doesn't sound very good in French! Cheval dans ma tête?!" And if all the talk of weirdness and non-francophoneness comes as a result of the band being set in the context of Audiogram, Boucher and Lemieux have the label's president, Michel Bélanger, to thank. The story of how Bélanger signed Basta without even having heard a demo is now a minor myth in the francophone media. "He left us alone in the studio for three months and said, 'Do what you want,'" confirms Boucher. But in actuality, Bélanger had signed Jean-François Lemieux to a personal deal and was expecting a record similar to Lemieux's jazz band Les Gamins du Rythme. Enter J-F's old CEGEP buddy Boucher, and the project veered toward beats and studio heaviness. No problemo, said Bélanger, who let one James Di Salvio loose in a similar way. "Like he says," says Boucher of Bélanger, "he's not signing projects, he's signing people." Basta play a free show at Les FrancoFolies next Thursday, June 18, at Bleury and de maisonneuve at 8pm
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"Strange weather," I say to Basta's epileptic frontman Stéfan Boucher, as he finishes up a soundcheck at one of the RockFest's outdoor stages, as I grope for small talk leading up to our interview, as a sunny afternoon turns suddenly cold and threatening. It makes me think of the title of Basta's single, "Après-moi l'Apocalypse."