by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

The assemblage of 15 musicians culled from the ranks of such heavy-duty Quebec bands as Grim Skunk, Overbass, Redcore, BARF and Capitalist Alienation would suggest such a concentration of heaviness that mishandled, it might punch a hole right through the Earth - from Chibougamau to Shanghai.

No fear, though. As their already numerous shows (and fab debut CD Hasta la Fiesta… Siempre) prove, heaviness ain’t where Colectivo is at. Mixing up various Latino styles (cumbia, salsa, tango etc.) with reggae, ska and a pinch of rockiness, they aim to get the party started, pure and simple. The brainchild of Overbass members Shantal Arroyo and Joël Tremblay, Colectivo have in two short years made a name for themselves, here, in Mexico and across the Atlantic too. The Mirror rounded up about a third of the band for a somewhat chaotic collective chat.

Mirror: So tell me how Colectivo began.

Shantal Arroyo: It was an idea I had, and in 2000, I began looking for musicians. Joel Tremblay was the first I approached. It started slowly enough, but we asked more and more people. A couple said no, but we quickly had 15 or 16. We didn’t say we wanted 16 people, but we did want a big band. We wanted to seek out all the leaders in the underground scene to do reggae and Latin music, only with our roots. None of us knew how to play these styles of music - we were used to doing rock ’n’ roll, hardcore, metal and so on. So Colectivo has a vibe, a colour that’s different from other Latin groups.

M: But the focus isn’t on loud, distorted electric guitars.

Joël Tremblay: We’ve played acoustic sets on the beach.

SA: We can play on the beach, the metro, in a field, by a pool, wherever. It’s a group that can adapt to anything.

M: You guys sing in three languages, and mix in reggae and rock, so it’s hard to call you a Latino party band.

Serge Morin: You can say party band, anyway. That’s okay.

SA: I think world-punk is one of the best terms to use. World because it encompasses all our backgrounds, influences and styles, and punk because of the mentality, the values.

South of south of the border

M: You guys took a trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, last year, which really glued the band together. How did Mexicans react to Colectivo?

SA: We’ve got three blacks in the band, Mexican, Spanish and Italian members - it’s a very colourful band. For them, that’s not québécois, not a mixed bag of races like that. So when we told them we come from Quebec, they were like, “What?” We were presented as coming from 15 different countries. Right, we practice by Internet! Personally though, before we left, I was scared. I’d been down there with Overbass before and I’d seen how touchy Mexicans can be, in the sense that you can’t play the star. You can’t have an attitude. It doesn’t wash, and if they don’t like you, they’re throwing bottles at you right away.

M: How many of you speak Spanish?

JT: There are four of us who speak it properly, a few more who don’t speak well but understand it, and are learning at the same time.

SA: The fact that we were forcing ourselves to sing in Spanish, for them, was already a humble gesture. They said, at least they’re not doing our Latin music in English. That would have been a big insult. From there, they really accepted us. It was a crazy party everywhere we played.

JT: We were number two on the radio down there for two weeks, and that was only a demo recording!

M: Did you guys check out the music scene there?

JT: We did the rounds a bit and caught some other, local acts, and they were missing the kind of tunes we do. It was missing because many Mexicans have a tendency to do like Americans.

SA: Yeah, bad ’80s top-40 stuff. That pissed me off the first time I went to Puerto Vallarta. I’d go to bars and hear Mexican bands doing American covers. I asked if there weren’t any Latino bars, and my friends said yes, there’s one. We went there and it was a DJ playing Latino dance-pop. It was unbelievable.

JT: It’s a bit like what once happened in Quebec - we took our music as kitsch, we thought it wasn’t good enough.

SA: You know, even Ritchie Valens, back in the day, when he did “La Bamba,” everyone said, “No, no, no, you can’t do that kind of music!” And then, boom! It was a hit. Also, the Mexicans don’t want to be treated like third worlders, so they imitate Americans. Look at Fuchs, the president of Mexico right now - he was the head of Coca-Cola in Latin America before. It’s ridiculous. When he was elected, he organized concerts all over Mexico, and they were all sponsored by Coke. And again, it was American music. It’s really ingrained.

Home field advantage

M: Now back to Quebec. It seems the reactions have been good so far. Apparently you’ve been getting more people each time you’ve played le Swimming.

SA: Yeah, we were playing the second Tuesday of each month there. We didn’t do much publicity other than announcing it on our Web site. We didn’t put out posters or flyers. We wanted to see what our draw was on its own. Each time, there were new faces there. And suddenly, we realized there were a lot of anglos there - something we didn’t expect. Oh, and a lot of girls! We all do punk and metal, so we’re not used to so many girls at our shows either. We’ve been building a following over the last year - when we did our CD launch at Parc Jarry, there were 2,000 people there!

JT: It’s moved really fast. We’ve progressed in two years as much as most bands do in five.

SA: We have the advantage of coming from established bands like Grim Skunk, Redcore and Overbass. Our fan bases from those bands come check us out because they’re curious. They often expect it to be super heavy. They show up and they’re so surprised. It’s not what they expected.

M: I think Colectivo fills a space in the local scene that’s been empty since the days of Me Mom & Morgentaler, or at least the big ska explosion of a few years ago. There isn’t anything alse on the big, brassy, funtime party band tip

SA: No, there isn’t. I mean, there’s la Chango Family, but they’re more hippie. Tomas Jensen, same thing. When I did an interview on Bande à Part, I said that Montreal has never really been represented for its multiculturalism. That’s not right, I forgot about Me Mom. They were the first smack in the face I got in that respect. I remember seeing them at Parc Berri and thinking, “Wow!” But since they broke up, there hasn’t been another local group with the same high profile which pushed that idea. It’s important that, in music and in life, you have some positivity. We need to dance, go crazy, forget your problems and party. That’s what we’re trying to do with Colectivo.

JT: Without bottoming out into kitsch.

Sandy clause

M: What’s next for Colectivo?

SA: We’re currently trying to book a 15-date tour through Quebec in January and February. That means 15 people have to work out days off work. That’s where it starts getting difficult, giving us headaches. It’s a sacrifice, but we tell them that we’ll stress out over this and then return to Mexico - that’s a good motivator. We’re planning a big show in the spring, Club Soda maybe, and possibly a tour with King Chango.

JT: It’s hard to say what the future holds, but we’ve been getting a lot of offers, and from all over. Compared to before, when we just doing alternative bands - those were harder get booked. With Colectivo, we get offers for corporate gigs, film-fest openings, all sorts of things. It’s so open.

SA: It’s up to us to decide, but you know, I’d really like to do a summertime tour of all the beaches in Quebec. We played two acoustic beach shows last summer just for fun, and I swear, everyone was dancing around us. I decided then and there that my goal was to do a beach tour. A tour of South America would be nice, though - we could tour in a big colectivo. You know what “colectivo” really means, by the way?

M: A collective, I thought.

SA: No, it’s like a big taxi van which will take people all over the place. It’ll be full of people, with more up on the roof, and still it’ll pull up by the side of the road and pick up more. :

At Foufounes Électriques’ Psycho Beach Party
New Year’s Eve event, with DJs Carbone, Mutante,
Dirt, Tiki Munster and more, on Tuesday,
Dec. 31, 9pm, $30. Open bar till 11pm, one
free drink for people in beach wear

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