Montreal’s Pouzza Fest takes place from May 17-19 featuring some of the greatest punk music that’s out there! We’re happy that we’ve had the chance to count down to this festival with you. We started our countdown with Montreal’s own The Planet Smashers, then Answers. Now we’re chatting with Toronto’s HVAL who play on May 17 at Théâtre Sainte-Catherine. See the full schedule here.
First off, care to introduce yourself to the Canadian Beats readers?
I’m Jen Unbe (former frontwoman for Unbelievers): songwriter and frontwoman for synth-pop band HVAL ( pronounced HAIL).
Pouzza Fest is an early festival, taking place in May, how do you prepare for festival season?
I’ll take what I can get. Any show is an opportunity to make new friends and fans.
Have you taken part in Pouzza Fest before? If so, what is your favourite memory?
My former punk band, Unbelievers was booked for the first Pouzzafest and Hugo Mudie put us on Musique Plus with my buddy Rej Laplanche and said the nicest things about us and he has supported all my music projects since then.
The line-up at Pouzza Fest this year is stellar, who are you most excited to check out?
Against Me, Andrew WK, Strung Out, Bad Cop Bad Cop, War On Women, Rules, United Snakes and my girls Anti Queens
Pouzza Fest’s name comes from the mashup of poutine and pizza, so I feel the need to know, which do you prefer?
All of the above haha
Are you performing at any other festivals this summer that you’d like to tell us about?
Pouzza is going to be HVAL’s debut show. I picked Pouzza for our first show because of how supportive they have always been of me and how feminist and inclusive this particular music fest is.
What five words would you use to describe your live show?
80’s, synth, pop, dance, catchy
If you were asked to give advice to an up and coming artist, what would that advice be?
Don’t ever give up, know your worth, dream the impossible and then make it happen.
What’s up next for you?
Pouzza is our first show so we’ll see what happens next!