The Rise of Red Mass: As above, so below.

A decade ago, the city of Montreal rose to the top of the international music world. Built upon the foundations laid by artists like Godspeed You! Black Emperor at the end of the 1990s, and sent into the stratosphere with the launch of the debut album by Arcade Fire, the local music scene became headline news in newspapers and magazines all around the globe. While the rest of the world steadied its gaze upon bands like Arcade Fire, Wolf Parade, and The Dears, there was another storm building below the surface, a much darker one. As the city became synonymous with orchestral pop and indie bands, what was lurking beneath continued to pick up speed. Like a tropical storm hundreds of miles offshore, growing ever more powerful until it was ready to hit land, this counterforce swelled in size, with each addition bringing something new and usefully for the greater whole. Then again maybe it was more like a dying star, out of the darkness came its strength, pulling in anything that crossed into its orbit. However you describe it, this underground force would prove that although it might have been the lightness on the surface that was drawing the attention to the city, the darkness would eventually prove to be its unlikely match. As above, so below.

The story of Red Mass begins and ends with Roy 'Choyce' Vucino, with about a hundred other people in between. From a distance it may seem like total chaos, but when you look closer it reveals itself to be a well-organized plan, or at the very least organized chaos, from the mind of a truly visionary artist. This was also no accident either, the philosophy that Vucino used in creating Red Mass was as much a protection against what had happened too often in his past as it was a creative outlet for moving forward. By the time Red Mass was conceived in 2008, Vucino was a veteran of the Montreal garage/punk scene of late '90s/early '00s, founding some of the most significant bands to come out of the city at that time, with Les Sexareenos and CPC Gangbangs being the most significant of his seemingly endless list of bands. While all these bands were important and released some fine albums—The Daylight Lovers, The Del-Gators, and The Milky Ways to name just a few more—it was the experiences with CPC Gangbangs that left Vucino searching for another way to fulfill his musical vision.

"Roy is one of the godfathers of the garage rock Montreal scene." David Kunstatter

After five years of building a reputation as one of the best live rock and roll bands on the planet, CPC Gangbangs would release their debut full length album, Mutilation Nation, on Swami Records and seemed poised to break through to the next level. Already legends in the garage-punk underground scene from Montreal to Los Angeles for their live shows, which were known to include pyrotechnics (of the most rudimentary kind) and unparalleled mayhem, it seemed only a matter of time before the rest of the music world would wake up to what they had to offer. They were what rock and roll should be: wild, free, and dangerous. Yet as he had seen so many times before, eventually the band would come to a natural end. Not that all the hard work or the time spent forging CPC Gangbangs was for nothing, but Vucino still found himself back at square one, having to start all over again. It was the decision to never find himself in this position again that lead to the philosophy that would ultimately be the foundation on which Red Mass was built. If you had no set line-up then the band could never break up, and he would be able to set his sights on the long term and not worry about other people's plans or trends of the day. Red Mass would set him free to do whatever he wanted and take his audience anywhere they were willing to follow. As the only constant member since its inception, Vucino has allowed Red Mass to go where ever it needed to go, giving a horde of collaborators creative license to put their stamp on it as much as he would.

Montreal college radio DJ Ian Macpherson (CJLO 1690 AM) has been a fan since the very beginning and still seems a little upset for not getting down to Club Lambi quick enough back on January 9, 2009 when Red Mass played their first gig and launched their first recording, a four-song 12" self-titled EP. "The only thing I knew about them was it was a supergroup of sorts, containing very influential members of the Montreal music community," said Macpherson. "When I got there it was sold out, which sparked my interest in this band tenfold, because I was the guy outside missing this event."

Macpherson would have to wait a few months to finally see what all the hype was about when he witnessed their three-night stand at The Silver Dollar Room in Toronto during the 2009 NXNE Music Conference. "I didn't know what to expect and walking in I felt that I was about to see something that had been over hyped, but the minute they took to the stage, every bit that I had heard was justified," said Macpherson. "It is to this day probably one of the top shows I have ever seen in my life. So much so that I went back the next two nights to catch the entire three-night stand and every show was completely different."

It was this unpredictability that was both the blessing and the curse for Vucino. The first unofficial line-up of Red Mass was indeed a supergroup, drawing from a number of Montreal bands, including The Demon's Claws, Chocolat, Hot Springs, and Black Feelings. While this gave the group an incredible pool of talent, not to mention a wealth of instant street cred with the fans of the various groups, it also made making any long term plans near impossible. 

"This is one of the only bands that keeps it interesting every time, guaranteed." Ian Macpherson

When most of your group members have another band that is their main focus, starting to record a full-length album that might take months to finish or booking a long drawn out tour were not really feasible. However, what it did provide was a fresh canvas every time that Red Mass played a show. "It seems that any time you saw them it was a completely new projection of what the music was," said Macpherson. "From the Red Mass Disco 3000 show [at Club Lambi], with the incorporating more sound elements and loops and was a little bit more glittery, to seeing them at underground loft spaces, where it is the purity of punk energy that is on display."

For Macpherson this always made it fresh and exciting to see a Red Mass show. Who was going to be playing? How were the songs going to be interpreted and presented? There were shows where the band was accompanied by a string section giving a completely different flavour to the music. Some nights it would be a nine-piece band with three guitars and a horn section, and then the next time it would be a power trio of bass, guitar, and drums with a sampler spitting out beats, audio clips and weird, ambient sounds. "The one thing that you could count on going to a Red Mass show is that you probably wouldn't see whatever you saw at the previous show."

Fluctuating members would also inform the recorded material Red Mass would release over the next five years. Singles and EPs that numbered into the dozens were put out on numerous labels across North America and Europe. While this remained true to the philosophy that the band was based upon, it also made the question of "What is Red Mass?" even harder to answer. The music had such a wide range of all these influences, with each release its own self-contained unit that did not necessarily match up with the others. All of this experimenting with genres and sounds made it very interesting for those who followed Red Mass, but virtually impossible to introduce them to a wider audience. To remedy this, Vucino began looking for a way to present the music that would be less fragmented, yet still allow the freedom that Red Mass needed.

"We always had a rotating lineup in the beginning. It was not a collective, that is a bit of a misconception. It was more of a collaborative band," explained Vucino. "Each release has pretty much different musicians, and now we're more focused on writing new material with a steady lineup, that will also be our touring lineup. Give it a bit more of a classic band feel for the upcoming releases." 

The building of the core of the group really began to take shape when Vucino's girlfriend, Hannah Lewis, joined the group about four years ago and provided the perfect yin to his yang. A sort of beauty and the beast balance that gave the music more layers to work with. "What she has brought to the music, I don't know if mass appeal is the appropriate term, but it has definitely made the band more palatable to a greater audience in that the songs that she sings have a more sexy quality or are maybe a little more conducive to changing the ebb and flows of the music," said Macpherson, who is not alone in his belief that Red Mass is finally becoming what Vucino had envisioned nearly a decade ago. 

"I grew up with Roy and seen all of the great bands he has played in," said Arish Khan, the leader of the psychedelic-soul revue King Khan & The Shrines. "Red Mass was one of those things where Roy was trying everything at one point and now finally I think he is purifying the sound and making it his own."

As 2013 came to an end the rest of the touring band had fallen into place when drummer Jonathan Bigras and bass player Philippe Caouette were added. "Live we give it a spin with this new lineup," said Vucino "[It] showcases the work we've done in the past and what's built up until now."

All of this is happening at the same time that Red Mass is preparing to finally release their first full-length album, A Hopeless Noise: The Story of the Diamond Girl. An album that has been four years in the making, it is definitely true to the collaborative ethos of the original concept. With numerous guests that make up a list of a sort of underground who's-who—Mike Watt of the Minutemen, Evan Dando of Lemonheads, Mac DeMarco, and Rick Froberg of Hot Snakes to name a few—it is the perfect album to give listeners an idea of the many sides of Red Mass all at the same time. 

During a rehearsal break at their jam space, Vucino explains how the album represents where the band was coming from and gives them sort of a launching place for future recordings, albeit for now with a set lineup. "A lot of the genres that we are more comfortable with, from folk, punk, experimental, soul, rock and roll, noise and no wave, there's a common thread in all that for me, if you do the tree of the history of music," he explained. "The songs all have bits and pieces of all that in one melting pot."

In other words, Red Mass has taken all the influences that have marked all those earlier releases and turned them into a completely new sound. That is not to say that the songs on A Hopeless Noise: The Story of the Diamond Girl are all of one sound. It is quite the contrary, but there is that common thread between all of them that can only been understood as the Red Mass sound. "It has a wide variety of sounds," said engineer Sebastien Perry, who also explained that they were very conscious of this fact while recording the album. "It is not really a product that has a cohesive sound, and it doesn't really fit into what other people are doing right now."

Whether or not this will affect the commercial appeal of the record remains to be seen, but that also does not seem to have been a driving force behind this band at any point and definitely not with this album. "[Red Mass] could definitely reach a bigger audience than they currently have, although I don't think it will ever be a commercial product," said Perry. "Whatever projects Roy is doing will retain a sort of underground appeal. However there are a lot of underground artists that are widely known, more cult success stories."

David Kunstatter (Drug Train, AUKS), who has worked with Vucino as both producer/engineer and as a saxophone session player on many recordings and live shows, agrees with this sentiment. "I don't think [Roy] really worries about commercial success, as much as he worries about putting out something that he is really proud of," said Kunstatter. And echoing Perry's assessment he added, "I feel that Roy is always going to be an underground hero for the people who have followed him throughout his other projects." 

None of this would come as a surprise to either Vucino or Lewis, who both acknowledge that they have made the album that they wanted to make and did not try to fit into any current trends or formulas that they both feel would have been the antithesis of what Red Mass is. "I'm really excited to see how people (a) interpret the album and (b) if they accept it," said Lewis. "We've had a lot of our friends not really dig it at first, then listen to it three more times and love it. We did go into it expecting it to be a challenge for people. We're not nervous about where we went with it, but we are apprehensive to see how people take it."

The final piece of the puzzle that will decide how far Red Mass can go begins on May 30, when they start their 21-date tour across North America opening for King Khan & The Shrines. Of course this is not the first time Red Mass has played outside Montreal, but it is the first extended tour as opposed to one off shows here and there, or M for Montreal showcase shows at music conferences like NXNE in Toronto and the CMJ Music Marathon in New York City. Based on the success they have had shows in the past, combined with the drawing power of The Shrines, Red Mass is set up to win over a whole new legion of fans. They will also benefit from playing bigger venues with better sound systems than they have been accustomed to play.

Judging by the reaction of the capacity crowd at Quai des Brumes on March 28 (where Red Mass played one of the few warm-up gigs with the new lineup before hitting the road) there is no doubt that the band is ready. Now it is just up to how a non-hometown audience will take to their brand of rock and roll.

Kunstatter, who played saxophone with Red Mass at three shows at last years NXNE festival, believes that this is the perfecting setting for them to do their first proper tour. "I think the tour with King Khan is going to be good for them, I think people are going to like what they hear and it will match up quite nicely," said Kunstatter. "It's always hard when you're an unknown band touring with a band that everyone is going to see, [but] with them being friends, I think the crowds in the States will notice the camaraderie [between the two bands] and it should do quite well for Red Mass."

"Fuck scenes. When Roy and I are lighting big fat joints with our burning Juno awards then I will tell you about our place in the Montreal music history." King Khan

Khan, who also appears on one of the tracks on A Hopeless Noise, is even stronger in his feelings about what kind of reaction Red Mass will get. "I think Shrines fans will love Red Mass," said Khan. "Our fan base is full of open-minded kids who like to have a good time."

What does all this mean? Will this be the year that Red Mass take their rightful place in the pantheon of bands that have put this city on the international music map? That remains to be seen, but if it is based on talent and creativity there should be no reason that this band should not achieve such lofty goals. It could be argued that it should have happened after that three-night stand at The Silver Dollar Room five years ago, but for someone who is always looking to the future with this project, maybe Vucino was simply biding his time.

"Like everything Roy does, I don't want to say it is calculated, but I have to say that when he is ready to push it forward, everyone will hear it," said Macpherson. "All the pieces haven't been put into place until now."

Then again, maybe worrying about legacy and scenes is something that only music journalists do. "I always felt that we were the outcasts of the Montreal scene," said Khan. "We connected with others all over the world and made our own family, our own international gang. Fuck scenes. When Roy and I are lighting big fat joints with our burning Juno awards then I will tell you about our place in the Montreal music history."

--Video production by Joel Ashak. Music video for "Sharp" courtesy of Hannah Lewis. Prince Palu hosts The Go-Go Radio Magic Show every Friday at 6 PM on CJLO. Tune in, turn on, freak out!