Ten Seasons of Pique – Ottawa's Finest Multidisciplinary Festival (Debaser)

Pique at Arts Court in downtown Ottawa

Last Saturday night, Pique returned to Ottawa’s Arts Court for a triumphant fall edition.

Produced by the renowned arts organization Debaser, Pique has built something of a cult following across the National Capital Region. Each chapter of the underground music and arts festival has seemingly hypnotized audiences, showcasing dynamic rosters of programming across seven stages while maintaining a humble, community-oriented atmosphere. With this most recent iteration of Pique, which marked its milestone tenth edition, this appears to have still rung true.

Dorothea Paas performing on the Terrace stage

The first standout set of the evening was Dorothea Paas, who performed an intimate outdoor set on the Terrace stage. Her chilling vocals and ruminative lyrics, reminiscent of artists like Weyes Blood and Phil Elverum, brought the crowd to a standstill. It was a pleasure to see her return to the Terrace as part of the Marker Starling ensemble, fronted by acclaimed musician Chris A. Cummings. Known for his signature funk and ample Wurlitzer backings, Cummings delivered a soft rock summer sendoff to a delighted audience.

Syana performing in the Alma Duncan Salon

The Alma Duncan Salon hosted luscious techno treats, emerging as the other top stage of the evening. DJ Don’t Trust Ryan drew in an incredible crowd with his magnetic blends of Y2K pop and frenzied electronica. Multidisciplinary artist Syana kept up the momentum, commanding the room with tracks from her album 19 Years of Rage alongside surprise guest Mossy Mugler. Illuminated by Dayglo patterns of all shapes and sizes, the dance floor remained packed with festival-goers for most of the night.

The Ottawa arts scene—the Canadian arts scene!—awaits this festival with bated breath, and for good reason. As Pique continues to outdo its promising reputation, it is difficult not to dream of the next one before fully savouring the last. Its inclusive atmosphere and curatorial boundlessness will be beloved for seasons to come.

Pique event poster by Ajeeb Sir

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Music Creating Its Own Universe: Dileta Cultivates Eclectic Energy in the Electronic Music World

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Dileta by Moussa Fellahi

From screamo band member to popular Montreal techno DJ, Pascal Rivard, better known as Dileta, is nothing short of a unique and remarkable artist. Prior to meeting them in person for the first time in July, I had seen Rivard perform several times at parties and at raves; their eccentric energy enlivening the room still fresh in my memory. Last month, I had the opportunity to interview Rivard over Zoom, and we discussed music, COVID, and the Montreal electronic music scene.

Born and raised in Ahunstic, Rivard has always been close to Montreal and its dynamic artistic community. They began their musical career in heavy metal and screamo bands during high school, playing bass, guitar, and – you guessed it – as a screamer. During this time, the most popular form of electronic music in Montreal was psytrance, which Rivard would not come to enjoy until much later: “At the time I was too stuck up in my idea of what music was,” they explain. Their musical beginnings still linger as remnants in their electronic music many years later: “Looking back on it I was looking for the same characteristics in the music I was listening as what I enjoy in dance music now. I was always more into the textures and moods, and rhythm play and angularness of the music, more than technical prowess, which is a lot of metal.”

What first initiated their transition into electronic music was their encounter with the coldwave scene in Montreal, a genre they describe as “dark, 80s-inspired, minimal synth music.” Going to coldwave shows was their first “real experience with dance music,” and soon became a full-time passion. While they were living in Sherbrooke studying electrical engineering, they became friends with a Montrealer who showed them “everything about UK bass music, jungle, hardcore, garage, all of that;” genres still very much present in their newer music. “And that’s when it kind of exploded in my brain,” they explain.

The first parties they organized were small ones in the basement of their Hochelaga apartment, after finishing their degree and moving back to Montreal. “Me and a few friends of mine were all taking turns trying to learn.” Their first event, “Bad Timing,” was at La Sotterenea in the Plateau, and presented in collaboration with Lésions. “It was pretty full, and people were dancing… We didn’t know where we were going with all these styles of music, but it was really fun.”

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Dileta by Moussa Fellahi

Rivard has since become a staple in the underground Montreal DIY techno scene. Before the pandemic put a halt to all cultural and musical public phenomena, Rivard was achieving what they describe as their “dream life, which was a bit crazy.” As a musical performer, they had never been so busy. They had their music and event platform, Coolground, busy with projects, and were also doing shows as a resident for Homegrown Harvest, a prominent rave-organizing collective in Montreal. “It was so fulfilling and so fun and I got to meet all these amazing new people in the scene all the time,” they said. “Until that all stopped… It was a bit demoralizing.” They now focus on guest and radio mixes, such as with Montreal-based radio n10.as. “I rent a studio and I can still go play loud music, that’s what’s been saving me I think.”

 Another online music-sharing platform they have been playing for is Music Is My Sanctuary, or MIMS. Rivard and one of the platform’s founders had been in touch, and “the two of us hit is off because we’re two ridiculous music dorks, like we enjoy finding music and digging in rabbit holes.” Shortly after the pandemic began, one of the founders asked Rivard to record a mix for MIMS. Now, Rivard makes a seasonal mix every three months for MIMS and is part of the new-release picks team, which chooses new records every week to promote. Alongside these projects and their full-time job as a software developer, they explain they are “still practicing multiple times a week, and trying to perfect vinyl mixing, which is really hard.”

At the time of the interview, their then-latest mix was their favorite they had ever recorded (since then they have released their newest mix dimlit). The mix, titled Skyway Uplink, is a rollercoaster - not only in terms of BPM changes, but in also  track genres, equalization, layering, fading, blending, and grooves. It has enough variation to satisfy any musical taste, literally. According to the Soundcloud description, there’s “IDM, tech house, broken beat, wonky techno, speed garage, club, nu-disco, hardgroove techno, grime/RnG, ghetto house, hardcore, some hard to classify stuff.”

Presented by coolground founder dileta, SKYWAY UPLINK wires you out of routine and into a new simulation every season. You'll find yourself whirling through winding lanes lit by all kinds of coloured gleams and glares. This first installment is deeply inspired by the works of composer Hideki Naganuma and the Japanese bass scene, with a focus on pitched vocal chops, processed funk elements, video game nods, and ultra-electronic speed - let's call it CYBERFUNK. Actual genres included: IDM, tech house, broken beat, wonky techno, speed garage, club, nu-disco, hardgroove techno, grime/RnG, ghetto house, hardcore, some hard to classify stuff.

It includes a lot of influence from cyberfunk, a genre “I’m kind of obsessed with right now,” says Dileta. “It’s really high speed, really synthetic, with really bright synth, really processed, and with video game music influences.” The mix perfectly captures what Rivard searches for in their music: spontaneity and unpredictability. Rivard did about twenty different takes for the first five minutes of the set, and the rest of the two hours in just one. “I felt like I had run a marathon,” they said, chuckling. “I was so concentrated while I was doing it… I was drenched in sweat by the end.”

There is no clear categorization Dileta identifies with in terms of a musical genre or style: “I go everywhere…. If you listen to my mixes it’s going to be all over the place.” BPM is one of the many techniques they like to play around with, but their intent is to stay unpredictable with it. “The instinctual way is to start at 120 and to go up to 170 or 180 or something, but I’ve been trying to do other stuff recently because it gets too predictable and my little teenage angst rebel spirit wants to be unpredictable,” they explain.

They have done sets before which stayed at a steady 115 BPM before suddenly going up to 175 at the end. “You need to feel it, but it can be a powerful too.” For those less familiar with this kind of terminology, imagine listening to Kelly Clarkson’s “What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger” all the way through until the last 30 seconds, and suddenly switching to Iron Maiden’s “Run to the Hills.” Rivard is also keen on practicing cuts with the faders, “less common with the Berlin techno way of doing things, or the house way or the UK bass way, it’s really from Detroit, like from the old school electro-DJs from Detroit, they always have two tracks, [flipping] them with the faders.”

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Dileta by Moussa Fellahi

One way to better understand Rivard’s music is through their description of the meaning behind the title of the mix Skyward Uplink: it means nothing. “I like to put words together that make you think of things, but don’t really mean the things they mean,” they explain. “If you read them together they don’t mean anything, but they make you feel things. It’s a bit how I approach DJing, too.”

The variation and diversity within Dileta’s sets are due in large part to the sheer amount of time and effort they regularly spend digging and searching for music. On average, for a 60-minute set, they will have 1,000 songs on their playlist to choose from and will have planned one or two tracks as the anchor of the rest of the set. On their Recordbox alone, they have around 30,000 tracks: “It’s getting out of proportion, but it’s well tagged so I can find what I want.” In terms of technique, Rivard focuses on different blending methods and layering: “It’s a lot of chemistry experiments, like layering things on top of each other and in front of each other in a temporal way.” They describe staying up until 5 am just to discover new music: “My hunger for musical discoveries is a bottomless pit.”

Rivard identifies with what they call the “Mile-End core, queer scene” of the larger Montreal electronic music community. “Montreal is divided into so many scenes, it’s a lot of microcosms of genres of dance music,” they explain. “There’s an industrial techno scene, there’s a minimal house scene, the psytrance scene.” The DIY scene they are a part of organizes underground (sometimes literally, for those who know) dance parties, but also tries to stay politically engaged and community oriented. “I think I love my scene honestly… There’s a lot of concern of safety, always touching upon subjects, [and] trying to do better,” they explain.

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Dileta by Moussa Fellahi

Organizing these parties is easier said than done – and for rave collectives in Montreal, the process of finding and being able to pay for venues is not a simple task. “We don’t have many clubs in Montreal which are open to, let’s say, left-field dance music,” says Dileta “A lot of it is done in DIY venues… Sadly most owners don’t really align with our values, it’s always about having to make a compromise to get in some spaces that are [in] more of a capitalist mindset.” The best solution, they argue, would be for the organizers to own venues themselves. “We’re in our little queer political bubble where we think we’ve got our values, and it’s all set and all understood by the scene but you get out… It gets more tense.”

One of their favorite aspects of the scene is the interconnectedness and support found between the organizers, DJs, and participants during raves. “You always feel close to the performers,” they reminisce. “Rave is a feeling when you can lose your body and forget your bodily restraints… I love playing when people are ready to go wild like that.” The conversation with Dileta reminded me of just how much artists and people in DIY communities have always found alternatives to produce and share art in the face of barriers, and with this pandemic it has become clear.

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Dileta by Moussa Fellahi

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Soline Van de Moortele is a Philosophy student at Concordia/insatiable feminist, raver, and writer. 

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Introducing Messkina: The Montreal DJ Setting Herself Apart With Unapologetic Self-Acceptance

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Messkina by Victoria Gravel

Picture yourself on a hot and unfamiliar beach, dancing to your escape from a busy routine towards an enchanting adventure. This scene describes DJ Messkina’s perfect setting to have her music pumping. 

After only a year of taking up DJing, the 21-year-old Montreal-based performer of Cameroon and Congolese descent has played in Montreal’s most popular clubs, such as Apt.200, SuWu, Datcha, Le Salon Daomé and Ti-Agrikol, to name a few. She’s even produced mixes for Moonshine and the major Brooklyn-based art collective Papi Juice, which celebrates the lives of the LGBTQ+ community.

Messkina’s unapologetic self-acceptance is what led to her DJ alias Messkina. It is the playful combination between her first name, “messy,” and the Arabic word miskeena for “unfortunate”  — a moniker she says echoes her character. 

Set apart by her contagious confidence and bold charm, Messkina’s presence behind the DJ booth encourages you to be yourself and dance to her carefully-selected house tracks influenced by the sounds of afro-fusion. 

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Messkina by Victoria Gravel

Dressed in a cropped pink velour jacket coupled with matching sparkly velour flared pants, Messkina met up with me in her Saint-Henri apartment to discuss her unusual journey as an emerging talent, and her newest mix “Philantropute.”

“I started producing mixes at a really dark period in my life,” says Messkina. “It was right when I dropped out of college and got temporarily fired from the strip club where I was dancing,” she says before she pauses briefly. 

“Who knew you could get fired from a strip club?” she laughs.

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Messkina by Victoria Gravel

The artist shares dealing with social anxiety starting at an early age, which kept her from staying motivated and performing academically. 

“Going to school was very demanding for me, and I smoked a lot of weed to get by,” she explains.

It was at this moment that she decided to pursue something new. 

It was shortly after that she responded to a call-out on social media looking for DJs. This led to her very first gig which was at the Mme Lee nightclub in Montreal’s Latin Quarter.

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Messkina by Victoria Gravel

“It was packed. I was shaking because I was so nervous, but I did it.” she says.

Leaving school and her job as a sex worker ended up being a blessing in disguise as it pushed her to get back in touch with her creative side, and discover making music as a new-found passion.

Messkina quickly found her distinctive and diverse sound; which pulls together melancholic melodies, hip-hop, African drums and house music. 

“I make music that makes you want to dance. Not to bang your head to, but just vibe to the rhythm,” says the DJ. “Although, I still consider myself new to the scene, and I still have a long road ahead of me in terms of experimentation,” she says. 

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Messkina by Victoria Gravel

Social distancing and other public health restrictions amid the COVID-19 pandemic have inherently changed the way DJs perform. At the beginning of the lockdown, Messkina tried live-streaming her sets and felt disappointed by the lack of connection with her audience.  

“I don’t like Zoom parties. It’s boring to me,” she says. “It’s not the same without an audience, as you don’t really know how it sounds and you miss out on instant feedback.”

“It was really nice to be able to perform again in person when bars were reopened. People were tired of being inside and wanted to go to the club. Although dancing was prohibited, they seemed to just enjoy their time out and socializing.”

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Messkina by Victoria Gravel

Messkina shares that despite the mental toll the lockdown has had on her, she’s used her free time to think about the style and aesthetics she wishes to pursue in her musical career.

“I have broadened my horizons musically and discovered several musical genres that I wouldn't necessarily have appreciated a few months ago,” she explains. 

Her newest mix, “Philantropute,” is quite different from her previous mixes, featuring a higher-energy and dazzling tempo.

“It is more upbeat, hectic, and chaotic. It represents where I am mentally at the moment,” says Messkina.

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Messkina by Victoria Gravel

Listen to Messkina’s latest mix “Philantropute” out now

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Written by Stéphanie Ricci

Stéphanie Ricci is a Montreal-based freelance multimedia journalist. Currently completing a journalism major coupled with a sociology minor at Concordia University, she is passionate about storytelling in all forms, but is particularly invested investigative work, writing about arts and culture, and creating original content.

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Musical Genes: Sisters DJ_Dave and Maddy Davis Premiere "Can't Do This Alone" Remix

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While some siblings get caught up in rivalries over mutual passions, Sarah and Maddy Davis’ combined love of music continues to bring them closer together. Though they couldn’t be any more different musically, with Sarah DJing algorave under the pseudonym DJ_Dave in NYC, and Maddy pursuing her bedroom-pop career in Los Angeles, the sisters are bound by a mutual desire to bring women to the forefront in all aspects of the music industry. Today, they showcase the power of all-female collaboration with the release of “Can’t Do This Alone - DJ_Dave Remix,” a remixed version of Maddy’s original song by her sister, DJ_Dave. Also Cool is psyched to be apart of their premiere, and below we chat with Sarah and Maddy about finding their artistic footing beyond suburbia, navigating gatekeeping in male-dominated spaces, and what it was like working as siblings first, and musicians second, to create this remix.

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Also Cool: Hi Maddy and Sarah! Thank you so much for being a part of Also Cool Mag and congratulations on the new release! To begin, can you tell us about your individual music styles and how you got your start in your respective fields? 

S/M: Thank you so much for letting us be a part of Also Cool! We’re super excited about this release and glad you are too! 

Maddy: I am a suburban-bedroom pop artist, which I’d describe more specifically as both a niche indie artist community, and a genre that bridges the gap between the artist, songwriter, and producer. I like to describe my specific style as suburban-bedroom pop because, having grown up in the most cliché suburb, I’ve found myself inspired by my own relatable experiences, which I tend to gravitate towards when writing. 

Sarah: I am an indie-techno pop artist making music within the algorave community. Algorave is a super niche movement of musicians that produce and perform music using code, who are slowly working their way into club scenes around the world. I picked up this skill about a year ago, and have been making music this way ever since. The deconstructed music production environment somehow made a lot more sense to me than a lot of the DAWs (digital audio workstations) I had tried, and it unexpectedly combined my interests in visual arts, coding and music.

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Sarah Davis a.k.a. DJ_Dave (top) and Maddy Davis (bottom), shot by Farah Idrees

AC: Both of you made the move to New York City, and now Los Angeles for Maddy, from your hometown in New Jersey: How did you both find a sense of community upon relocating, and has that had an impact on your creative process? 

M: I’ve found a sense of community in both New York and Los Angeles, which has greatly impacted my creative journey. I moved into New York right after high school, and quickly found my place in the music scene; playing shows, going to shows, collaborating with other artists, and just generally meeting and spending time with other young creatives. It was the first time in my life that I was around so many like-minded people who supported each other's art and worked so closely together.

I’ve only been in Los Angeles for a couple of months at this point, but I’m already finding that things are similar here. From these experiences, I’ve realized that learning from your peers is sometimes more valuable than learning from those who are already deeply established career-wise. I can’t express how much I’ve learned from simple conversations with people in these social circles, which has led me to further appreciate the creative environments of both cities.

S: When I moved to New York to go to college, I met most of the community I currently surround myself with through the city’s college scene. More than anywhere I’ve ever been, young people in New York have this incredible urgency to create. This resonated with me, which made finding a community easier than I anticipated. My friends, and the artists around me that I look up to, are some of the hardest workers I’ve ever met. We are always pushing each other to do more, while also acting as a support system for each other.

Living in the city and learning from the people around me has not only changed my creative process, but redefined the way I approach art and music. The arts scene is constantly changing, and being in New York is like having your finger on the pulse of society. It’s really incredible to get to live and create in New York.

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Sarah Davis a.k.a. DJ_Dave (left) and Maddy Davis (right), shot by Farah Idrees

AC: For Sarah, your work tackles the representation of femme artists in male dominated spaces, specifically in tech and rave communities. What aspects of these dynamics do you confront in your music, and how do you go about capturing your feelings on this subject? 

S: I first noticed this lack of representation when I would rarely see female DJs at my favorite clubs. Whether it was the most packed night of the week or a slow weekday, the DJs were almost always men. I was tired of seeing the same group of guys getting the spotlight, given the fact that womxn DJs are everywhere, so in my own work I collaborate exclusively with femme musicians and artists. Algorave as a community is actually very female dominated, so using this artform as my way of bringing more womxn representation into club scenes seems very appropriate. I’m surrounded by incredibly talented womxn in music, and it’s honestly just so exciting to collaborate with them and show people our work! 

AC: Branching off of that, we heard that you further combined your passion for technology and safer-space practices to develop an app. Can you tell us more about it? 

S: Yes! So when I was a sophomore in college, I conceptualized an app called Outro that acts as a safe space for women, the LGBTQIA+ community, and people of colour in nightlife. The app allows users to rate and review nightclub spaces based on safety and quality to prevent future unsafe situations from happening and promote spaces that consider safety their number one priority. Outro is available on the app store for whoever wants to check it out!

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Sarah Davis a.k.a. DJ_Dave, shot by Farah Idrees

AC: In a similar vein, Maddy, you strive to make space for womxn in not only performance spaces, but production spaces as well. How does having control over every aspect of your music, from songwriting to execution, impact your relationship with your art? 

M: I grew up with the understanding that producers were almost exclusively men.  As a result, I never considered production as something I could pursue, let alone learn. That is, until I saw iconic femme producers starting to emerge and realized that I could produce too. Fast forward five years or so, and now I’m producing all my own music, and repeatedly explaining to guys in my DMs that I don’t need them to send me beats. When I started producing, it unlocked an entire world for me to find my own sound as an artist. This allowed me to better articulate what I wanted to say with my music, and express myself as an artist entirely. 

AC: With this, what advice would you give to womxn trying to navigate gatekeeping in the music industry based on your experiences? 

M: Womxn are taught that men make more money, men are stronger, men are generally more successful, etc. … These same beliefs, unfortunately, exist even in creative industries. The advice I’d give to womxn trying to navigate the music industry, whether on the business side or the creative side, is to not feel intimidated by men. Don’t be afraid to speak up in a session or during a meeting, because your voice matters too. To this day, I still encounter imposter syndrome pretty much whenever I’m in a collaborative environment with men, but I try to always remind myself not to degrade myself and understand my worth as an artist, writer, and producer. 

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Maddy Davis, shot by Caity Krone

AC: Moving forward, the track you’re releasing today is a remix of Maddy’s song “Can’t Do This Alone.” What was it like collaborating together and what inspired you to combine your musical feats in the first place? 

S/M: We’d always written and performed music together growing up, so it was inevitable that we would eventually collaborate once we both started releasing music. One of us (Maddy) has this organic ethereal sound, while the other (DJ_Dave) uses a geometric method of music production, so we were inspired to see what the combination of our two contrasting styles would sound like. 

AC: What was the highlight of working on this track together? Did you encounter any challenges? 

M: I’d say the highlight for me was hearing the first versions of the remix. I loved that DJ_Dave was able to transform the song to fit her signature sound, while keeping some of my favourite elements from the original. I’d say the biggest challenge was deciding when the remix was actually finished between the two of us. It took a lot of different versions, but when the final was done, it was pretty obvious to both of us.  

S: “Can’t Do This Alone” is one of my favorite songs by Maddy, so the highlight for me was getting to work with the stems and combine our really different styles. I would say my biggest challenge was maintaining the message of the song, which is so strong and important, while manipulating the tracks.

AC: Before we let you go, is there anything you’d like to add? Are either of you working on any new projects at the moment?

S/M: Since being in quarantine, we’ve both been working on a ton of new music that we are super excited to share soon. Also, just a huge thank you to Also Cool for giving young emerging artists a platform and a chance to get their music heard! 

(Editor’s note: Thank you! We love hearing your music!)

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Sarah Davis a.k.a. DJ_Dave (left) and Maddy Davis (right), shot by Farah Idrees

Keep up with the sisters and their music!

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Photos by Farah Idrees and Caity Krone

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VAULT Unlocked: How Montreal Raving Builds Community

Visual by Malaika Astorga

From the organizers of the infamous tunnel rave that entranced Montreal this past summer, VAULT: Unlocked brings you almost 24 hours of pure rave bliss and community events. NON/BEING is the collective behind some of the best underground raves in the city. Over the past few years, they’ve brought the community together -  from their early days at Barbossa (FKA Blizzarts), to the depths of an abandoned tunnel in Griffintown. 

Tickets are selling fast, be sure to pre-order here to avoid the increased ticket price at midnight. The daytime events are free, and open to the public.

VAULT: Unlocked is a celebration of the collective’s forthcoming compilation album Certified Reality, which features international artists such as Murder Pact (NY, USA), Tati Au Miel (Montreal, Canada), Jaclyn Kendall (CA, USA), Minimal Violence (Germany), and many others.  The festival itself is centered around sharing knowledge and resources, and bringing various scenes, practices, and communities together. The event experiments with the relationships and sentiments shared on the dancefloor, but this time recontextualized in daytime events and community-oriented activities. 

VAULT events are known for their excellent rave-invite websites, all created by Remote Access. You can catch their radio show “Digital Hell” on N10.as Radio every fourth Wednesday of the month at 5pm EST.

Also Cool Mag is proud to co-present the community panels portion of the festival, where we will have a facilitated open discussion on Montreal’s various creative scenes, and how we create, support, and sustain the communities' efforts. The panel discussions will be led by community leaders and creative organizers from different academic, social, and experiential backgrounds, bringing together people and perspectives from many different parts of Montreal's cultural foundation.

Read our interview below with NON/BEING co-founder, and VAULT: Unlocked coordinator Diana Baescu a.k.a. D. BLAVATSKY.

Also Cool: Who is Non/Being? 

Diana for NON/BEING: NON/BEING IS THE MURKY SLIME THAT COVERS A DANCE FLOOR AFTER A RAVE. We are Diana Baescu [who is speaking in this interview], Simon Rock, and Heather Mitchell at its current core - but we are more importantly a research studio built by the sentiments and moments we share in warehouse rave basements and late night chat rooms.    

AC: How did the idea for the Vault: Unlocked festival come about - what was your vision?

Diana: The VAULT: Unlocked festival all came together in about a month - but it has also been something we have been working towards for many, many years. Our vision is all of us hanging out in a big warehouse sharing time, knowledge, and resources. Maybe eating some snacks, or dancing...but mainly just being together in celebration, with ourselves, and with one another. 

AC: The festival is an opportunity for exploring the meaning of community and the various interconnections that exist within it - what is the significance of collaboration between various 'scenes'. How can Montreal's creative community benefit in particular?

D: Montreal has always been a very fragmented city. Based on a very clear separation between Francophone and Anglophone culture/communication, there is a type of transience present with how people interact with this city that makes it difficult to establish long term creative infrastructure. Collaboration is the most important thing. Although our different scenes might nurture varying aesthetics and sonic preferences, the lack of communication and resource sharing happening across even just the different rave communities within Montreal is really limiting our abilities to set up secure community roots. It shouldn't be this difficult to find spaces to throw events and work out of, nor this tough to seek out knowledge and advice from older, more experienced community developers. 

The difficulty and conflicts that each new generation of creatives faces in Montreal is ultimately based on how impermanent living in this city feels. People living here are constantly looking at places like Berlin and New York as cultural focal points to raving and other forms of art organization, but the reasons why people can do the things they are doing there now is because they have generations of infrastructure to tap into for resources, knowledge, and support. The point of collaboration is to come together and share what we have/what we know, and although dancefloors and rave spaces might be our current focal points for these community organizational practices, collaboration will only enrich our lives as creatives and individuals. 

I think that it is pretty clear at this point in time that institutions in power are not concerned with our states of being. They are not here to protect or nurture our interests or basic needs of living, and although at a younger and more naive point in my life I may have been inspired to try to ‘change the system’, at this point I am only concerned with establishing alternative support networks for the ones that continue to fail us. 

Raves are important, but this isn't just about raves. It is about using raves as spaces for celebration that expand to other aspects of our social livelihoods. This festival is a small contribution to our deeper social reflections on how we can support and flourish with one another, in a world that feels like it is falling apart - we will only continue to fail at building broader long-term community infrastructure, if we do not learn the best ways to collaborate and live with/alongside one another.     

N10.AS is an online community radio, who will be co-presenting the daytime market portion of the festival

AC: What events have you previously organized and how have those experiences fed into putting together the festival? 

D: Everyone in the NON/BEING and festival crew has organized a wide range of events. Vault itself has been running for two years, and has been most deeply impacted by the abandoned tunnel rave we threw over the summer. Completely changing our personal perspectives on our capacities as organizers, and really slamming down on some important aspects of illegal event throwing, the abandoned tunnel rave has informed us as both ravers and community members in really special ways. 

Throwing a festival of this sort has always been a dream of mine. Having moved to Montreal two and a half years ago, some of the first conversations I was having with people I met in the rave scene were about wanting to put something like this together. Based on zine-making events and punk shows I used to organize when I was younger, I have always wanted to expand the special feelings I have while raving to other forms of community gathering. 

When we first started thinking about this event on the 29th, we did not intend for it to be a festival. But after the tunnel rave this summer, the idea of organizing just a rave did not interest us as much. After exploring different warehouses and abandoned churches for a while, Simon and I found the first space for the fest and quickly started fantasizing about different ways we could use it. Also marking the launch of our new collective, NON/BEING, we wanted to do more than just throw a rave. I have always valued markets and group discussions for their shared abilities in bringing different people, perspectives, and experiences together - and it all just kind of came together really fast. So here we are.   

Frankie Teardrop is an event planner and DJ based out of Vancouver. In 2014, Frankie co-founded Slut Island Festival alongside Sultana Bambino. Within the same year they founded LIP, a queer events series, in which both projects are based out of Tio'tia:ke. They will be a speaker on the second panel, and a DJ during the rave segment of the festival.

AC: Who are some of the people in the panel discussions and what important topics will they be covering?

D: I am fan-boying over all of our panel speakers so hard. You can read more about each person in detail on the facebook page/fest document we sent out, but it will be an extremely interesting two hours. Drawing from knowledge bases and experiences that are involved in Montreal institutions like Mutek, Moonshine, Slut Island, Inner Circle, McGill and Concordia Universities, Lagom, Taking What We Need, (you folks at Also Cool), and so much more - a lot of really great humans are coming together to share their perspectives and ideas on community. The panels will be segmented into two one-hour conversations, with different folks for each discussion. Broadly asking ‘what is community?’, the first hour will more philosophically look at how community manifests within our lived realities, and why strengthening and expanding community support/conversation outside of rave and dance floor spaces is important. 

Comprised of generally younger members involved in more recent years of art and cultural development within Montreal, the first hour is intended to identify the tone and structure for why and how we should organize ourselves moving forward. The second discussion group will then build off of what was shared in the first hour, to more-specifically talk about the issues our communities face around spaces and funding. 

Incorporating very real dynamics of not only our community structures, but also of our personal lives - we will be graced by more experienced members of Montreal’s various scenes to talk about how we can establish sustainable spaces to work and gather within, and reflect on how we can better collect and direct funding sources within our community practices.

The self-taught, Montreal based artist Jimmy Bertrand (Neo Edo) creates through any means digital. They will be performing live at the festival.

AC: For someone who's never attended a rave before, what would you say have been the greatest lessons you've learned from those experiences?

D: Wow this is a really great question. One of the things that makes raving such a profound aspect of who I am today, is how it can be an extremely personal thing, yet a broader social/community-based undertaking at the same time. Raving has opened up a whole new understanding of embodied existence to me, a relationship between self and the physical that I was never able to fully grasp before moving to Montreal. It has taught me how to be with my physical self, and has offered the resentment I had developed growing up as a trans/non-binary individual, the opportunity to heal. 

Celebration is important. Having spaces we can experiment, escape, and explore relationships with ourselves and one another are founding sentiments for my beliefs in the power of raving. For so long I felt trapped and detached from the physical aspects of my existence, but through this development across my personal journey of raving, and the community relationships I have built - raving has taught me, and continues to teach me, lessons that inform complex aspects of my personhood. 

HONOUR YOUR INSTINCTS. You know yourself best. Always check in with yourself and reach out to people around you if something feels off. Consent and mutual respect should inform every aspect of the intentions you bring into a social space, especially raving. Although raving can be a beautiful and powerful exploration of self, acknowledge and respect how your personal journey affects and impacts the other people sharing space with you. 

We all have something to gain and learn from raving, but your experiences will always be more fruitful for both yourself, and those around you, if you move through them in consideration of broader community sentiments and mindful practices. Raving is a great place to begin these journeys, but I do not think they are the last and only places these feelings, conversations, and lessons should be shared.  

FESTIVAL SCHEDULE

12-6pm: Meet the Community (Co-Presented by N10.as & Sweatboxx)

A daytime art market co-presented by N10.as and Sweatboxx featuring local artists and vendors. Local DJs and VJs will be performing and broadcasting live on N10.as during the market.

6-8pm: Community Panel Discussions (Co-Presented by Also Cool)

A facilitated open discussion on Montreal’s various creative scenes, and how we create, support and sustain the communities' efforts. The panel discussions will be led by community leaders and creative organizers from different academic, social, and experiential backgrounds, bringing together people and perspectives from many different parts of Montreal's cultural foundation. 

Panel One: What is community? 

With speakers Malaika Astorga, Diego Cabezas Watson, Willow Cioppa, Sophia Sahrane, and Jacqueline Beaumont, moderated by Diana Baescu.

The first hour of panel discussions will more philosophically explore what community is, and how it manifests within our lived realities. Reflecting on scene-building within Montreal in reference to broader international art networks, this hour will touch upon how we can nurture fruitful locally-based cultures, while analyzing the political implications of our social organization within the real world. 

Panel Two: Community Spaces and funding

With speakers Odile Myrtil, Danji Buck-Moore, Milo Reinhardt, Estelle Davis, and Frankie Teardrop, moderated by Diana Baescu.

The second panel will be looking at more concrete questions of community spaces and monetary accumulation/redistribution. With the quickly shifting housing market within Montreal, how can we establish sustainable spaces/studios to work out of, and how do we find new venues for rave throwing and event organization. Closely intertwined with questions of spaces, speakers shall also be touching on various resources for funding, and shall reflect on how we can fund projects, pay one another, and redistribute wealth in productive/beneficial ways. 

8pm-Midnight: Live Performances

Live hardware performances from various local electronic musicians Liar/Lier, Exe.Jocko, Neo Edo and Dregqueen.

Midnight-7am: DJs/Rave

DJs and Vjs Pulsum, Frankie Teardrop, Lis Dalton, D.Blavatsky, Art Director B2B Fresh Out, The Dryer, Anabasine B2B Dileta, Remote Access and She.Phase, Viiaan and MPM10.

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