What have been your musical epiphany moments?
I had a lot of musical epiphany in my life, but the most significant one was the first time I listened to Master of Reality by Black Sabbath. Riffs after riffs is the kind of vibe I'm looking for when it comes to music. This is where I come from as a musician.
When I was a kid, I also remember playing guitar over Angus Young on the AC/DC Live at Donington concert DVD. It's where I developed my chops and my interest for Gibson SG! Epiphanical moment I would say!
I also love Metallica's first three albums because my father introduced me to those when I was just 11 years old. Puppets would be my favorite. Thanks to my old man!
Another epiphany moment would be the first time I listened to Close to the Edge by Yes. However, my favorite Yes song would be Starship Trooper on The Yes Album. Hemisphere and 2112 by Rush would be worth mentioning here. I really like concept albums and variations in songs. It makes it more intriguing and fascinating.
Finally, I absolutely love to go to concerts in Montreal in small venues such as L'Escogriffe. I discovered so many wonderful bands that I will mention later in this interview. Those were epiphany moments.
Talk to us about the song-writing process for you. What comes first, the idea? A riff? The lyrics? How does it all fall into place?
As I told you earlier, riffs are the main focus of the song writing process in Sons of Arrakis. I always play on an old acoustic guitar to explore ideas wherever I am. I like to start with an empty canvas and let my hands play freely over the fret board. Sometimes, I come up with riff ideas in my head and I sing it in my phone to record it. Then, I try to translate it over on the guitar.
When the main riffs are in place and the transitions are structured on my acoustic guitar, I record the songs on my laptop with my electric guitar and a drum machine. It allows me to show it to my bandmates. They learn the basic ideas and we jam it until things evolve into something more idiosyncratic. I like to bring the ideas on the table, but I like their inputs, they are really precious for me.
Afterward, I sit and write the lyrics, but it's the hardest part for me. I tend to be a perfectionist. I like to tell fictional and sci-fi-''ish'' stories, but I also put a lot of personal stuff and feelings in those words. Furthermore, I want people to relate on a personal and deeper level and not just superficially.
It all falls into place when we play the songs in a live context! When we see people headbanging and feeling the song, we know we got something!
Who has influenced you the most?
There's a lot of bands that influenced us. But for me, it's the proto-metal late 60's and early 70's music that gives me this bank of ideas. As I told earlier, Sabbath was really influential for me as a teenager, but I'm also into Zeppelin, Mountain, Cream, Hendrix, etc.
However, I'm really into more recent bands like The Sword, Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, Sleep, High on Fire, Kyuss, Priestess, etc. Priestess has been a real inspiration for us, especially because they come from Montreal and Mickey Heppner is one of my favorite vocalist and rhythm guitarist of all times. I love Hello Master, but Prior to the Fire was the album that blew my mind the most. They took this progressive tangent that really pleased me at the time.
Where do you look for continuing inspiration? New ideas, new motivation?
I always try to discover new music in many different niches. I listened to variety of genres such as Indie, Funk, R&B, Punk rock, Grunge, Thrash and Death metal, Stoner, Sludge, Doom, etc. It gives me different perspectives on music, but it's always about searching the riffs!
I'm also into literature. I'm in the process of reading all of the Frank and Brian Herbert's Dune series of books. I read Russian literature such as Dostoyevsky and Tchekov and French literature such as Camus, Gary and Sartre. I love the terrifying H.P. Lovecraft's novels. Finally, one of the last books I read was The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. It just gives me all the juice to write interesting stories influenced by all those writers.
Montreal has an important musical and artistic feel. Artists across Canada come to Montreal because the conditions are perfect for it. The Government of Quebec and Canada give important subsidies to artists to achieve their arts and the rent tends to be cheap for jam spaces and studios.
That being said, there's a cultural vivacity in the French and English music scene. There's a lot of small venues that are centers for great artists in ''devenir''. One of my favorite venues is L'Escogriffe as I told you earlier, but there's also La Casa del Popolo, La Sala Rosa, Le Café Campus, O Patro Vys, Le Quai des Brumes, Le Ritz PDB, etc.
Also, Winters are long and it's the perfect time to lay back a little, compose and write stuff before the Spring. During the Summer, there's plenty of festivals across the province that allow musicians to perform their music. For example, there are Les Francofolies, le Festival de Jazz de Montreal, The Jackalope Fest, Le Festival d'été de Québec, Le Festif de Baie-Saint-Paul, Heavy Montreal, Osheaga, M pour Montral, Le Festival de Music Emergente (FME), etc.
It's a really inspiring city with so many opportunities that you should definitely consider visiting! I'm becoming a tourism promoter here...
Where'd the band name come from?
The band name comes form a very obvious place. It comes from the Frank Herbert's Dune novel. I read the first tome of Dune five years ago. I devoured it in few days and it was a life changer. More precisely, Arrakis is the desert planet in Herbert's known universe on which the spice melange abounds. It's the most precious substance in this fictional universe that gives humans the ability to become supercomputers and facilitate space travel in this post-AI era. It's also the host planet of the Fremen, a powerful and fully adapted people of Bedouins who live in the deep desert of the planet. This is where we came with the name Sons of Arrakis.
You have one chance, what movie are you going to write the soundtrack for?
In one word: Dune! As I said previously, Dune novels are the main inspiration for SOA. The Dune's adaptation by Denis Villeneuve is coming in movie theaters on October 22th this year. I can't wait! I read earlier today (August 23th) that Villeneuve plans to shoot a trilogy for Dune. It would be awesome to work with him. Plus, he lives in Montreal and is a French Canadian such as all the members of SOA. Even before his first Hollywood movie, he was one of my favorite directors. I like the movies Incendies and Polytechnique (only French original version) that literally floored me. But I also like all his movies such as Blade Runner 2049 and The Arrival to name a few.
You now write for a music publication (The Ripple Effect?). You're going to write a 1,000 word essay on one song. Which would it be and why?
SOA has only two songs out and available for now on - The Black Mirror (demo version) and Omniscient Messiah (single version). I could definitely write an essay on both of them, but I would choose Omniscient Messiah. I once told this on Stoner Witch Radio :
"Omniscient Messiah is about the God Emperor, Leto II, in the universe of Frank Herbert. It's also a song about the fear of showing our true self and our very deep feelings. I wanted to tell a story, not only about the God Emperor, but about people's vulnerability. Behind every SOA's song, there's a deeper message that the listener has to interpret his own way."
Briefly, it reveals the meaning of this song in a few words, but I would love to write about it more and decline the ideas that are hidden in the lyrics.
Come on, share with us a couple of your great, Spinal Tap, rock and roll moments?
There's so much Spinal Tap moments! Sound checks are often Spinal Tap moments for us. We're kind of perfectionists, especially Francis Duchesne, our lead guitarist and shredder knight. He's also a soundman and studio engineer. He's always searching for the frequencies in the monitors that bug him and telling the soundmen how to do their job (haha!). We also had this moment where Eliot, our ex-drummer, hit so hard on his kick that the pedal broke to pieces, which generated this ''technical difficulty'' moment on stage. I also forgot the keys in the van once and nobody had a duplicate. It made us swear a lot: ''Tabarnak! Estiiii! Calice!'' These are not epic Spinal Tap moments, but just enough to make it in this interview.
Playing live is always the cherry on top! We really choose carefully every one of our shows, that's why we didn't play often in the last few years (and the Covid-19 restrictions didn't help, of course). But every time we play, we just give every once of energy we have. It doesn't matter how well we play, it's just the energy that vibrates that really matters. Our bassist's(Vick Trigger) philosophy is that even if we drink a 12 pack of beers, we'd still be as tight as in the jam space. So, we practice songs over and over to make sure we're this tight machine! Whenever we play, people are always in front of the stage headbanging and screaming when they hear the different riffs we throw at them. This is where we get our energy on stage! We think there's a synergy between the band and the audience and this will never stop feeding us.
What makes a great song?
There are a couple of ingredients that makes a good song for me: riffs, melodies, turnarounds, variations in the structure and between the different parts, great vocals and lyrics, etc. A great song is always a surprise and a discovery. Also, I think a great song has to be innovative in a world where everything has been composed, written or even ''prefabed''. As long as it's a little bit outside of the box, you'll win my heart.
I also like what Tom Petty once said, and I’m paraphrasing- "a song has to stand by itself by playing a piano or a guitar and singing along". That's why I always write songs on my acoustic guitar. That being said, for Petty, it has to be fairly simple songs. For my part, I like complex songs, but simple melodies and rhythms can be something I really enjoy, as long as there's feel, energy, rawness and emotions to it.
What one single album do you wish that you'd written or performed on, and why?
Frankly, I can't pick an album that I wish I had written or performed on. There's so much great albums. But as I wrote earlier, Master of Reality, Master of Puppets, Prior to the Fire (Priestess), Close to the Edge are albums that were epiphany moments for me.
What piece of your music are you particularly proud of?
There's one song I'm very proud of on our upcoming debut album. It's called Lonesome Preacher. I think it has all the elements of a great song. It has the fast intro riff with a bass leading feel (thanks to Vick), a variation to the main riff of the song, turnarounds between the different sections, a smooth melody with vocal harmonies in the verses and powerful choruses. It also has a total jam section moment at the end with a never ending guitar solo. Plus, I think these are the best lyrics I have written so far.
Who today, writes great songs? Who just kicks your ass? Why?
The last album that really hooked me was Fuzz' third album. I think Ty Segal is an awesome musician, song writer, drummer, lyricist and vocalist. I like the eclectic King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard who always surprises me: ''It's like a box of chocolate, you never know what you're gonna get''. I love Idles, this punk rock or post-punk band, especially the album Brutalism. Everything Mastodon is up to, I'm always stoked. I like the band Elder, they're so original and remind me of Yes. One of the coolest bands I know from Montreal is Population II who always impresses me by their evolution. They also have the best bassist I know so far! Honestly, there's so much names I could write out there!
Vinyl, CD, or digital? What's your format of choice?
I always like to discover bands over Spotify and Apple Music, but when something really strikes me, I choose vinyl. There's something special about the sound and the physical interaction between the needle and the disc that you’d never get with a CD or digital format. Also, you can hear more of the dynamics of the album because of the way the album is mastered. You can feel that there's more air and it breathes a little bit more than the compression of the digital format. Finally, simply because it's the ultimate way the artist wants you to listen to it. You can't press backward or forward, you have to concentrate on the music and let the atmosphere infuses you.
Whiskey or beer? And defend your choice
For Sons of Arrakis, it's always been beer. We can't go on stage without our brew. For Vick and me, it's an unwritten rule. It's a way to share the evening with the audience and being on a party mode. Shots are great every once and then, but the choice is clear, our ''go to'' alcohol is beer. It's hard to defend this choice, because it's just a matter of habits for us. To be more realistic, there's always beer available and offered in the back stage, it may be our main reason (haha!).
First of all, we all come from Montreal in the band. As I told you before, there's so much music artists and bands around this area. To name a few, I really like Blue Cheese, Prieur & Landry, Birmanie, Population II, UUBBUURRUU, Crabe, Lüger, Destruction Derby, etc. These are rock bands that cut their teeth in the area. There's also indie bands like Chose Sauvage, Corridor, Elephant Stone, Chocolat, Peter Peter, Double Date with Death, etc. I also really like this funk band called The Brooks that are virtuoso musicians. Montreal is an incubator of new music and a cultural centre in Québec and Canada.
If you want to get lost in a record store in Montreal, I would recommend Soundcentral on Coloniale avenue and Mont-Royal. Just across the corner, there's La boutique À Paul where they sell old and new stuff. You could also walk on Mont-Royal on the direction of Saint-Denis where you'll cross venues like Le Quai des Brumes, L'Escogriffe, La Rockette. This is ''Le triangle des Bermude'' (The Bermuda Triangle), that's what they call it in the scene! Then, if you walk further East, you'll find the Shefford pub and Aux 33 tours where they sell records. There's so much second hand bookstores and record shops that you can visit on this short walk.
What's next for the band?
For the next year, we want to concentrate on the release of our debut album. We want to weave partnerships with different actors of the music industry to make sure this album will be well received by the audience across the world. We also want to play shows and to plan tours that will be pertinent for us. We're really cautious in our choices when it comes to play in front of an audience. In this optic, our main focus will be to develop our audience in the Province of Quebec, in cities like Montreal, Trois-Rivières, Québec, Gatineau, Sherbrooke and to play in festivals across the province. Furthermore, we plan to play in Toronto and Ottawa in the coming year to develop another fanbase in Ontario. Another plan would be to travel in the United-States, especially to cities in North-East area like Boston, Philadelphia, Albany, New York City, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Washington, etc. We are searching for opportunities that will allow us to share our music. Last but not least, there's another album in the process of making. We already have 6 songs written out of 10 for the second album.
Any final comments or thoughts you'd like to share with our readers, the waveriders?
Of course, when it comes to music, I think it's important to remind ourselves that we can never take things for granted. We have to continue encouraging new music to emerge and musicians to write new stuff. Digital music format and streaming apps are fantastic to discover new stuff, but it also has an obvious downside. To really encourage bands and music artists, go to their shows! Never be lazy, sit on your lap and watch Neflix every night. Go out and discover. I'm sure you'll be surprised. Buy vinyls and T-shirts at their merch table! Explore different labels and buy stuff (haha!). As consumers, we have the power to make coherent choices. Think about your habits and ask yourself what you can do to contribute to the vitality of the cultural life.
In Québec, we have this sensibility- there are so much French (and English) music emerging in the underground scene. Our identity is rooted in Quebec's music, art, literature, cinema, humour, etc. because there's a sense of urgency to keep our language and culture alive. In Canada and Québec, the states and the governments (provincial and federal) has a role in the development of the culture by giving subsidies to bands, musicians, independent labels, venues, etc. It's a good thing because it counteracts the influence of major corporations, major labels and commercial radios to impose us choices when it comes to music.
I know the situation is different outside of Quebec and Canada, but I would suggest that WE, the audience, make the conscious choice of encouraging emerging music in our localities, regions, states, nations and across the world. We have to feed our curiosity and never stop being aware, curious and open about what's new out there.
My final words are for young musicians, never stop impressing us and being courageous. If you fall, stand up and do it again. Your music is worth listening to, don't forget that. Thanks to you for everything that you create.
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