Montreal, QC-based shoegaze/ Britpop band, ORCHIDS have teamed up with us, at Canadian Beats, to unveil a live acoustic video for their two songs, “You” & “In The Dark”.
Check out the video below, and find out more about the band via our Five Questions With segment.
Care to introduce yourself to our readers?
Vincent: Hi i’mVincent, I play guitar in Orchids
Alex: Salut ! I’m Alex, I play guitar and I sing, i live in Montreal since 5 years but I come from south of France (Marseille).
Zale: Hello, I’m Zale, I play a guitar in Orchids.
John Sébastien: I go by John Sébastien Maher,I play bass in orchids , i live in Montréal , I’m a French Canadian who happened to be gentle and kind and easy to speak to. Always looking forward a new friendship along the way.
Mathieu: Hello, I’m Mathieu, I play drums.
Stephen: My name is Stephen, born/ raised in Ontario, based out of Montreal. I play the korg minilogue and monologue analog synthesizer through the house P.A or my 1981 Musicman RD50
Tell us a bit about your music and writing style.
V: It depends on the project but usually I start with the riff and when I have the structure I will define a vocal melody and stick to it. I will do write the lyrics when I have it usually it is at the very end.
A: Most of the time someone comes up with an idea, it often comes after a guitar riff and then we compose based on that. Personally, my voice line also guides the chord sequence that I am going to use. If I’m not singing I also like to play a melody line on the guitar in addition to the chords. We really all work together on the songs.
Z: I usually start working a chord structure on an acoustic guitar, then adding vocals. I like to record on a 4 track.
JS: We’re a 6 pieces band composed of 3 guitars, a key’s player, a bass, and a drummer. We have a good symbiosis musically and creatively speaking everybody is contributing on the process of the song there 2 lead singers in the band.
But Zale and myself have sung too.
How have you been keeping creative during the Pandemic?
V: Really. I think you have to find a routine you like and then you can basically have fun and enjoy this crazy times.
A: We stopped only a few weeks at the start of the pandemic to practice. But now our practice habits are as before. The fact of not doing shows also helps us to focus on the compositions. In the end it’s a good thing for us because we are preparing our album. Even if we love to play live it leaves us less time to compose …
Z: Going back through old projects and unfinished demos I did not have time to complete over the years. Cleaning the slate to hopefully start anew when the lockdowns come to an end.
JS: By staying in contact throughout group discussion on Facebook.
M: We keep practicing as a band, that’s already pretty good. We’re lucky we can still do that. Other than that, I noodle around with instruments at home, helps with the boredom
S: Learning ableton has been a fun and good use of my quaran-time.
If you were asked to suggest only one of your songs for someone to hear, which would it be?
V: If I have to suggest one song of us it would be probably one of our new songs we will soon record.
A: We only have one single out for the moment, so we don’t leave a lot of choice to listeners. But the 2 songs that have played acoustic are among my favorites and will be on the album.
Z: The B-side to our single on EXAG’ Records. It is called “Another Day”
JS: Dead keys
M: Probably ‘Dead Keys’. It’s one of the oldest songs we have but I like it a lot and there’s a neat little music video that comes with it.
S: We only have 2 out at the moment and both will run under 6 min of your time. I think you should hear both.
Canadian Beats is all about Canadian music, so who are your current favourite Canadian bands/ artists?
V: I think my main inspiration has always been Bryan Adams. (I do love the Robin wood soundtrack)
A: Difficult to name everything so there are good bands in Canada. My recent discoveries are Cindy Lee and Orville Peck. But I also like Metz, Dirty Beaches, No Negative and Priors just to name a few …
Z: Lungbutter from Montreal and Kestrels from Halifax
JS: Neil Young, Leonard Cohen
M: Ptit Beliveau, Bon Enfant and Kaytranada
S: Paul Jacobs/ Gloin/ Luge/ Barry Paquin Roberge/ Baby Labour/ No Bro …. I’m sorry, I know I missed a lot more