Preview blog on the Suoni Festival

Today I attended the Suoni Per il Popolo music fest (June 1-30 2008) press conference with James Finnerty, and ended up spending some good time with old improv friend Sean Michaels, who is one of the three writers behind Said The Gramaphone and was there to do some coverage for his other gigs with the Guardian Uk, and the National Post. After some fun webby, eventy swapping of notes with Sean, we had a nice long conversation with Claude Bernier, the new press relations person for Suoni. We talked about some of the really exciting shows coming up during the month long music festival, and the interesting acts of curation going on to always link the world of free jazz to the young indie kid scene.

Claude mentioned that though the Luyas, Elfin Saddle, Ideal Lovers, etc make obvious and great Indyish features, some of the other performers in the fest, some free jazz greats, have been decidedly “indie” for longer then we’ve been alive, and have stayed that way despite offers to the contrary, stayed so out of intense ethical and personal motivations that might be really valuable to get some insight on. He suggested we feature some of these cats in interviews on Indyish, and we were excited by the idea, so watch for that to come.

Claude also talked about the early days of Hotel2Tango, when Godspeed You! Black Emperor was only getting 30 people at shows, and then the build up to over 400 people pouring in, until it got too crazy to have shows out there, and they opened Casa, and Sala, and Divan Orange came soon after, and L’Escogriffe, and Zoobizarre - it was a relatively sudden flourishing of places devoted to the music vibe and community, places that existed for purposes beyond Pay to Play. He unfolded the whole recent history of the current live music scene in Montreal before our eyes and it was exciting to remember that all of this came out of late late night acts of love and super-hero type efforts by people sitting in that very room with us, not very long ago at all. Claude suggested some really interesting interviews, which we hope to surprise you with in coming weeks, and it was great to get his insight, but also to see that the organizers were open to talking with us about exactly the kinds of things we’re interested in learning and broadcasting - about origins and organization, ethos and iconography…

The press conference itself was funny, and brief, and involved some great musical chairs, and delicious Salla tapas, and noon time wine… all fine ways to kick off a day, which I must say, I am very fricken thankful for.