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The Pagan Gurus
L-R: Alex Taylor, Alan Lord, Billy Saint & Richard Lacoste
Photo courtesy of Marc De Mouy |
Montreal’s Alan Lord, 80s punk/alt rocker, published poet
and writer, guitar man and co-composer for Vent
Du Mont Schärr, trailblazer and prolific
scenester has released a new 11 track album “Pagan Gurus” with partner Billy
Saint titled “Malades Mantras”, available now for digital and physical purchase
on the Pagan Gurus Bandcamp site.
Having opened for the likes of the Ramones and the B-52s,
Alan Lord is a veteran of the Montreal music scene and appears in the
documentary films Montréal Punk and Montreal New Wave. He is also the author of the big hit "Bonyeu",
which he gave to the Colocs, and was also a key member of the legendary
Montreal band Vent Du Mont Schärr. Billy
Saint was a founding member of Loco Locass, Richard Lacoste was in les Parfaits
Salauds, and Alex Taylor is already a Brexited Brit, now a model Canadian
citizen.
Official CD release date for the Lancement/Party d’Écoute
is May 8th, 2019 from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. at Quai des Brumes, Montréal,
Québec. The physical CD of “Malades
Mantras” is available at Montreal’s Beatnick and Sunrise Place Versailles Mall
record stores.
* To read the interview in French, hit Translate/Select Language/French
Interview
VOL: Congrats to you
and your team on your album release! So
Alan, tell us a little bit about this project, your inspiration for the names Pagan Gurus and Malades Mantras and your decision to release a Quebecois
rock album where you sing entirely in French Canadian Joual.
ALAN: I'd been collecting songs I wrote in both French and
English - even one in Spanish - and at a certain point I wanted to put out an
album. Originally my plan was to mix English and French songs together, but
then I dropped that idea because it only tends to confuse people - and you
certainly don't want to end up being shunned by both English and French people simultaneously!
Then as time went on, I was coming up with more and more French songs, so I
decided to why not have a first release in French, then others in English. As
for the band name, it's hard to come up with an original name that hasn't
already been taken. I find "Pagan Gurus" pretty neat. Someone said
that ideally a band name should be something that could pass off as a biker
gang - and that's certainly the case with "Pagan Gurus"! As for the
title of the album, I was looking at the collection of songs, and trying to
figure out what they all had in common - and I noticed the titles were often
repeated throughout the songs - like mantras - so I lightbulbed "hey!... they're
mantras... sick mantras!" I sing
in "Joual" cause that's how we speak in real life - we don't speak in
hoity-toity French, so why should we sing like that - like Jean Leloup - Ha!
Also, this ties in with my Working Class roots and values, and the insistance
of John Lydon to sing in his native cockney in the Sex Pistols. Authenticity,
mate!
Also, Malades Mantras took three years and one cancer to
make. It was put on hold during
chemotherapy, then picked up again when I was cured. Well they call it “remission”. But then the album stayed on the shelves a
whole additional year. It was finished
at this time last year, but the top local indie labels rejected it, and I
didn’t have the money to put it out until now.
So it’s a totally self-produced affair.
No music grants, no nada.
VOL: I see a few
familiar names from our old bands on your musician roster, i.e. Richard Lacoste
(drummer for The Essentials and founding member of Les Parfaits Salauds)) and Jack Five (bassman for Vent Du Mont
Schärr). How did you choose your session
musicians for your studio band and where was the album recorded?
ALAN: I've been doing music with Billy for the past ten
years now - we started out as friends, then discovered we were actually distant
cousins! I did a totally English album with him called Reality Burger, under
the name "Alan Lord & The Falling Men" back in 2009, for which he
was mainly working the sound board. But for this one he had more input -
sometimes even turning a song on its head - which I love. And there's also one
song ("M'a être riche") - he handed me the music already recorded,
and I came up with the lyrics and sang on top - that was a fun thing to do for
me, off the beaten path. Billy is my musical partner and we both get a kick out
of working together. Jack Five - and also drummer Louis-David "Brat"
Dugal of The Falling Men - are on the song "Chu Bin Tanné" because I
cheated and swiped a song from Reality Burger and put French lyrics on it. There
are four different drummers on the album: Brit friend Alex Taylor drums on four
tracks. But then he moved to Toronto, so that's when I recruited old pal
Richard Lacoste to finish the album. He drums on three tracks. As I already
mentioned, Brat drums on one song, and Billy - who of course can do ANYTHING -
drums on three tracks, and also adds supplemental drumming and percussion here
and there. Lastly, my pal Régis blows that mean blues harp on
"J'essaye". The album was done by me recording the basic tracks at
home, then transferring them to Billy to mix and shape and transform with his
savvy studio wizardry. Me, I'm a tech dunce. I recorded Alex and Richard on the
drums at my place, then handed over the drum tracks to Billy. Billy never saw
Richard, and actually never even met Alex! As you know yourself, all this can
be accomplished through the wonderful world of technology.
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| Photo courtesy of Marc De Mouy |
VOL: Considering you
are fluently bilingual, did you write the English lyrics first and translate
into Joual or vice versa? It must have
been quite the job translating without losing the intent and poetic momentum of
the words.
ALAN: The songs pop into my head either in French or in
English. I have absolutely no control over this! So I never
"translate" my songs. The lyrics for that one song "Chu Bin Tanné" ("Fed up") I borrowed from Reality Burger have nothing to
do with the original song - "Dead Men". At a certain point I had the
idea to put out the album in two formats simultaneously - one entirely in
French and another one with the same music, but sung entirely in English. I
translated a couple songs and sang them in English, but it wasn't working out -
it didn't sound convincing. So I dropped that idea. Thus you now have an album
entirely in French. Songwriting is somewhat of an inexplainable, mysterious
activity, as you well know. A big surprise for me is that Anglo-Canadians,
Americans and Brits who understand not one word of French like the album - like
the Brit rock mag Vive Le Rock. Go figure. They actually asked me to mail them
the CD. So I'll certainly be exploring THAT angle!
VOL: Who’s the
musical wizard Billy Saint wearing all the other musical hats on the LP and the
superb harmonica player Régis “Blues Monk” Cassar on “J’Essaie”?
ALAN: Billy Saint is the nom d'artiste of Bilbo André - he played with Loco Locass and co-composed his wife's Naïla's album "Compteuse d'Étoiles" which was put out by Indica Records a few years ago. He has also done soundtracks for film and the theatre. Régis Cassar is just a buddy - he's French, was in the French Navy as a scubadiver, the instructor - retired at age 35!!! He's an actual real Buddhist monk and he plays a mean blues harmonica!
VOL: Did I have some wicked flashbacks while listening to Malades Mantras! I like the break in the third verse of "Chu Pu Capab" where you switch into a monologue. The sax and touches of 60s/70s Outer Limits-style synth are fantastic on "Chu Bin Tanné". There's lots of cool reverb and great guitar on "C'est Pas Moé". What a brilliant idea to reprise "C'est Pas Moé" as a closing track to the album! Billy playing on the lap steel guitar is a pleasant surprise and adds an awesome touch to the track. Last but not least, the lyrics to "Oui J'le Sais" bring to mind a few people who I know would fit that bill!
ALAN: Ah, with "Chu Bin Tanné" we see Billy's full
musical prowess at work here. I recorded the verse and chorus parts straight,
and handed this over to Billy. The song was too short, so I told him to stretch
it out some, and he came up with all of this awesome dub magic. You see, he
completely changed the mood of the song - transforming it from a straight-ahead
blues rocker into a hazy, smoky after-hours Film Noir soundtrack. This song is
the one which really highlights Billy's musical genius. As any guitarist, it's
always tempting to do surf guitar, so I had a field day with “C’est Pas Moé”.
Originally, the closing "reprise" track was the original outro for
the song - but Richard and his buddy gave it the "thumbs down", so I
scrapped it and replaced it with the guitar solo you now hear. But I LIKED the
corny outro and wanted to use it somehow, so I got the idea of using it as a
whole new joke song. And as you can see, Billy and I had quite a bit of a laugh
doing the last song. I actually wanted to close the album with a cheesy naïve-sounding
earworm ditty that would annoy people - sort of, leave on a sour note - that's my
inner dadaist thumbing its nose at you.
VOL: I see you’ve been busy getting ready for your launch at
Le Quai, upholstering the Plateau with
Pagan Gurus posters, getting your CD in stores, preparing your merch, sending
out press kits, getting an endorsement from Pop Rock, etc. Looks like you’ve
got it under control!
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| Photo courtesy of Pascal Pilote |
ALAN: Control? What control? I've been turned down by three
local so-called "indie" labels, and CISM student radio. Plus I have
ZERO mainstream or radio station interest shown so far. It's a hard slog just
to keep your head above water, as you well know. However,
after being snubbed by Montreal’s major indie labels, Mack Mackenzie of Three O’Clock
Train fame has graciously allowed me to put out Malades Mantras on his Three O’Clock
Train label. But I'm happy with the great
reaction I've gotten from friends and peers. But it seems you have to be forty
or older to "get" Malades Mantras.
VOL: What’s
happening after the CD launch?
ALAN: I have an official distributor - FAB - they're supposedly distributing to indie record stores - in advance of orders from the majors. I'll be following this up after the record launch for which I'm pretty busy as you can imagine. Plus, I'll be militating to get the radio stations here to fulfill their obligation to provide Canadian Content - i.e., MINE!
pagangurus@gmail.com
Beatnick
3770 Rue Saint-Denis
Montréal, QC H2W 2M1
Plateau Mont-Royal
(514) 842-0664
Sunrise Records
Place Versailles Mall
7275 Sherbrooke est
Montréal, QC H1N 1E9
(514) 354-7442
Quai des Brumes
4481 St-Denis
Montréal, QC H2J 2L2
Plateau-Mont-Royal
(514) 499-0467
