A Conversation With: Misteur Valaire

Misteur Valaire is a five piece electronic/hip-hop/rock outfit from Quebec that is nominated for the New Group of the Year award at this year’s Junos. The basis of their success roots from their free download/pwyc business module for their music.

I recently had the opportunity to speak with Luis Clavis, percussionist and vocalist for the group while they were in Toronto for Juno Week. We talked about their growing success, their shows at CMW and SXSW and their upcoming tour of Europe.

For anyone who doesn’t know what you guys are all about, can you please describe your sound?

Luis: We’re an electronic group, we’re five people that started playing jazz together, kept the jazz influence but started including trance, hip-hop and rock. It’s pretty hard to describe but it works.

It definitely does work for you guys. You mentioned jazz influence; do you feel that there’s any other genre or maybe even a specific band or sound that greatly influences your writing style?

Luis: Well, since we learned jazz at school, it definitely influences us a lot, but the only thing we really kept from that was the instruments: the brass, the saxophone and percussion, etcetera. But at the moment, we have a lot of influences that’s why the sound is so large. I think the fact that we listen to a lot of hip-hop and rap parallels the jazz but because our sound is so large it’s hard to pin-point just one band. Do you want name-dropping or something? (laughs)

(laughs) Not necessarily but, if you feel that there is any names you need to drop, feel free to do so.

Luis: If it comes up, I’ll just tell you.

You mentioned that you all did jazz in school, is that how you all came together?

Luis: Yes.

I noticed that you collaborate with a bunch of different artists as well?

Luis: Yes, basically we’re an instrumental band. We grew up together doing music. Eventually we moved to Montreal, and met some people, like the Bran Van guys, Sunny Bloom, Beni BBQ. We invited them to our shows just to collaborate, and then finally, we invited them into the studio too. You can hear what we did on the album Golden Bombay.

You were saying you grew up together? How long have you all known each other?

Luis: It’s kind of two different groups: I’ve known (Jonathan) Drouin since I was six, and the other three guys knew each other since they were six, and we all met at about the age of 12.

Wow. That’s friendship right there, if you’ve been together for this long.

Luis: Yes, it is.

So you’ve probably gotten to know each others quirks, what works, what doesn’t, then?

Luis: Definitely! (laughs)

Congratulations on the Juno Nomination.

Luis: Hey, thanks!

How does it feel to be nominated?

Luis: It was very surprising. We didn’t really work on the English speaking part of our country! We only did a lot of touring in Quebec and in Europe so it was a great surprise. We just finished the Olympics, which was awesome to play on the field, and last Canadian Music Week was great, we’re glad to be back. So it really feels like the beginning of our career in the English Speaking parts of Canada.

I saw that your first show during CMW was at the Phoenix at a sold out show. How was that?

Luis: It was great. We played before USS. Those guys are great. The venue was totally awesome. We had lots of fun.

Was that your first time playing the Phoenix?

Luis: Yes. We’ve played Toronto before, but it was at like Sneaky Dee’s and a couple other tiny bars. It was great to have a real venue.

The next day you guys did the M is for Montreal showcase as well, right?

Luis: Yes. It was a showcase during the day so it was sort of special. It was great.

Sounds like you were really busy that week.

Luis: Actually yes. We played a couple of shows with Qualité Motel as well which is another project that we’re working with. Actually, immediately after our set at The Phoenix we left without seeing the other bands to play a show with Qualité Motel. It’s quite little, more of a DJ project; more synthesizers and beat box. It was a great occasion to present it in Toronto.

That’s awesome. I see that you guys did SXSW the following week as well, how did that go?

Luis: We just got back. We actually went by car which is why my voice is so broken. It was great, a great trip. We had two showcases; one for Broken Vegan and one for M for Montreal. Both were totally full with excited people, great people, interesting people. We were very happy with these two shows.

That’s fantastic. Are you excited for the shows in France next month?

Luis: Yes. It’s pretty much our fifth tour in France. We’ll launch the album in stores there for the first time too. Before we had the opportunity to tour Europe without launching the album because it was on the Internet for free, but this time we’ll launch it officially. We’ll also be in Belgian and Germany. We’ll be over there for about a month and a half with about six shows per week. It’s going to be pretty exhausting but very cool.

Your entire business module for your album and song releases have been based on free or pay what you can downloads, or fan-funded productions etcetera. What motivated you to do this in the first place?

Luis: Well, the first time we did it in 2007 for Friterday Night we had the opportunity to record the album ourselves, we had all the elements to produce this album. We wanted to build popularity and get people to come to shows so we decided we would observe how the album would do if we made it available for free exclusively on the Internet without asking for anything from anyone who downloaded it. After about 2 years it was downloaded more than 45,000 times. So after a few months, we decided to ask downloaders for their emails so it gave us the chance to have a big fan base and also to know where people were. We were able to observe where people that loved our music were located and based our tour on that. That’s how it started in France. Because of the success with that, in 2010 we launched Golden Bombay and decided to let people name the price of the album, like Radiohead did before. Then we launched it in stores and still sell it on the internet. It’s still working; people are giving about three dollars for the album. But it works; it gets people to shows, and at shows people buy our albums anyways.

Definitely. I ask everyone this question; If you could only listen to one album for the rest of your life what would it be and why?

Luis: It doesn’t really sound like what we do, but I would have to say Sea Change by Beck. I think this album is very deep, very interesting. I’m always discovering new things when I listen to it. Some people say it’s depressing or something, but I don’t agree. I think it’s so interesting, it’s so nice and beautiful.

One last question; do you guys have a speech ready in case you win the Juno?

Luis: Uhhhh, yes? (laughs) That’s my job, you just reminded me that I have to do it actually! I should work on it right away. So officially no, not at the moment, but I’m sure we’ll find something to say.

Congratulations again on the nomination, and good luck tomorrow! I hope you enjoy the rest of your time in Toronto.

Luis: Thanks, have a good one!