by CHRIS BARRY

Marc Gagnon is the head dude behind Pipo Fiasco, "Montreal's only country-swing-jazz-cabaret-gospel-rock combo." He's also a pretty talented guy, as is clearly evidenced by Pipo Fiasco's fresh-off-the-press debut DIY CD 33 1/3. The Mirror spoke to Gagnon earlier this week in anticipation of his band's CD launch, set to go down at Casa del Popolo this Friday.

Mirror: So, where does your music come from?

Marc Gagnon: Well, we get compared to Tom Waits all the time. I listen to a lot of Folkways stuff so there's definitely some American roots music going on, with things taken from gospel, swing and all that. We're trying to keep it authentic first of all, have it sound like it's coming from somewhere else. But there is a lot of dissonance too and it's really, well, it's all over the place. When you write things you don't always know where they come from, they just sort of appear. I'm always doodling on my guitar, maybe three or four hours a day, and things are always just coming up. But I think what I'm doing with Pipo Fiasco is a pretty natural evolution for me.

M: What's your song Oceania about? The failed Metaforia complex on Ste-Catherine Street?

MG: Yeah, right. In the lyrics there is a lot of cut and paste that goes on, free association, and from that you kind of get open ended meanings.

M: Sure, the William S. Burroughs deal that Bowie appropriated in the mid-'70s.

MG: Yeah, that's it. Like David Byrne's Stop Making Sense. What I don't like about a lot of pop music is this direct, linear narrative. It takes away from stuff. People have been saying to me that I should have included a lyric sheet with this record because they feel I tend to muffle my words - but that's just a style of mine. That's just how I sing. I am interested in the emotional quality of the sound of voice. And when you do that, you distort things, necessarily. In the early '90s, when everyone was listening to grunge, I sort of found myself going back and listening to a lot of world music and old field recordings of African music or whatever. Of course, you have no idea of what they are saying, you know, they could be singing about the virtues of Diet Coke, but since you don't understand the language, it takes on this otherworldly quality and there is a real beauty about it.

M: Any thoughts on the local scene?

MG: I think there's a great scene here in Montreal. Unfortunately it's kept local, but there are fantastic musicians and bands here. There's this thing about Montreal where we had so many bad years, which were actually good years insomuch that you could live cheaply and really concentrate on the art. But when your rent doubles overnight, or you get kicked out of your apartment, it changes many things. Montreal used to be a super place for artists because we had space and time, but unfortunately, this is slowly being eroded.

CD launch with guests at Casa del Popolo
on Friday, April 11, 9pm, $7

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