Features

Graphic: Valery Lemay

For most up-and-coming artists, there’s a balancing act between channeling their influences and developing their own unique identity.  When looking back on his third and breakthrough album, Loveshit, 10 years on from its original release, Montreal singer/songwriter Jason Bajada credits the album’s success with striking this balance for the first time on record.

Do you miss those days when you walked into gym class and the teacher told you dodge ball was what you’d be playing? Have you ever watched The Hunger Games and all of a sudden wished you could shoot a bow and arrow like Katniss Everdeen? Ever thought of combining these two sports?

This incredibly long year is coming to an end. If you read any music publications, you've probably noticed it's list season. A season full of controversy, hot takes, safe choices. Just in time for last minute Christmas gifts, here is what the wonderful people at CJLO liked the most this year.

Photo: Colin Medley

“I hope that show becomes my most important memory of 2018,” says Montreal’s Helena Deland with a laugh.  Deland is referring to her headline performance at this year’s edition of M for Montreal, the four-day festival spotlighting rising local talent for industry folk and music fans alike.  The show is the culmination of a whirlwind year of gigs for the singer-songwriter, including a U.S tour in the spring (including a performance at Austin, Texas’ venerable SXSW festival) and European one last month.

Even though ÎleSoniq has “only” three stages, as opposed to six for Osheaga, it was still hard to choose which show to run to, as each stage was far enough from the other to have non-stop music. On Friday, the first show I saw was Klingande. This DJ is known, among other things, for his very successful “Jubel (original mix)” track, which was basically the soundtrack to the summer of 2014. It’s a very dreamy and relaxing track. Klingande kept this soothing style in his set, which did not prepare anyone for what was coming next : Herobust.

I have been waiting for the second edition of ’77 Montreal Festival ever since its successful debut last year, and it did not disappoint. This year, organizers wanted to step up their game with more bands and more stages. There was the Jardin stage, reserved for smaller acts, with very little separation between the fans and the performers, and there was the Ouest stage, which would attract larger crowds and would televise the acts and massive screens on either end. I wanted to see everything, so I found myself running across the festival grounds, often having to leave midway through one set to catch the end of another.

For some reason, they say don’t meet your heroes. Last night, one of my comedic heroes was in Montreal and I wanted to meet him. Tony Hinchcliffe will be the first one to tell you he’s one of the top young rising comedians in the world, and we have to believe him. Being the go-to roast writer, this unapologetic comedian has written on six of the last Comedy Central Roasts as well as writing and performing on All Def Snoop Dogg Smoke Out (Snoop Dogg’s roast). His comedy is like rapid-fire. It’s quick and painful… If you’re on the receiving end of it that is.