Interview: Catch Up With Beat Market Before They Go International

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The jazz-electronic duo Beat Market was nice enough to let me hang out with them for a little bit on Saturday August 2 at Osheaga. Maxime Bellavance and Louis-Joseph Cliché are a great pair. After meeting at university where they studied jazz, the two used to be in a punk group. Luckily for us, some of the members of the group were habitually late to practice and that’s when these guys realized what they could do as a pair.  Now working on their second album, Beat Market is something to check out. I would suggest getting on their bandwagon before they go international – if you don’t believe me check out my interview with them below.

Robyn Homeniuk (RH): How is Osheaga so far for you two?

Maxime Bellavance (MB): I mean it’s Osheaga – it’s great.

Louis-Joseph Cliché (LJC): I think if it was raining it would be different, but the weather’s perfect. We are VIP and we can eat as much as we watch – it’s really great.

 

RH: It’s always a bonus when you get unlimited free food and drink.

LJC: Plus we got big sound on a big stage, which was amazing.

 

RH: Right, so how was your experience of playing Osheaga – compared to any other show?

MB: It’s different, you know. Everyone is here to dance and have a good time, and at the same time they are discovering [your music]. Either they love it or they hate it, but we had some fans come for us. I felt like people really came for us today.  It was nice.

 

RH: Montreal and the area have a lot of festivals. Is Osheaga your preferred fest?

LJC: Yeah, it definitely is.

MB: I think for us it is. People come from all over – United States and Ontario are well represented. It’s a lot of English speaking people. This is really rare for us, because Quebec is really French.  We want to go out and be international, so it’s great to have different people experience us.
RH: Other than the fans, what’s different at Osheaga?

MB: It’s not so different from other festivals – you’ve got a big stage and big sound. Usually we play smaller venues, and they don’t have enough power for the big sound.

LJC: In electronic music we need big sound, so it’s great. In a small bar they don’t have that.

RH: What has been your favourite performance so far?

MB: The last really great performance we had was at Jazz Fest. It was crazy; it was quite different than here. We played three days in a row with different people. The crowds responded very well, and they were already drunk or on drugs.

 

RH: Where is your dream place to play? Anywhere in the world, where would it be?

LJC: In the desert.

MB: Bon Pays. Or maybe on a volcano.

LJC: In space actually, that would be amazing.

 

RH: I don’t know if sound travels in space…

LJC: On the moon; on a desert volcano on the moon.

 

RH: Who would be your top three guests at this desert-moon-volcano show?

MB: Ronald McDonald

LJC: The guy who invented Microsoft – Bill Gates.

MB: And Miss Piggy.

LJC: It would be really private, and we would play jazz.

MB: But seriously, I would love to play in front of my favourites. Daft Punk, Justice, that would be amazing.

 

RH: Is there a producer that you would most like to work with?

LJC: To be produced by Daft Punk would be the ultimate goal.

 

RH: Can you tell me a bit about your discography?

LJC: Yeah, we have an album out. But we’re working on a new one that is much different. It’s still really dance-y and disco, but we have a lot of different samples that we worked with. We want to add voices too, so a couple of features.  We already play about 70% of new songs at our shows.

 

RH: When is it due?

LJC: It’s coming out in February or March at the latest. We want to focus on some vocals form other countries, so this will be different.

 

RH: English and French?

LJC: Just English really, we want to get out of Quebec. It’s a prison – a great prison, we have great steak and potatoes – but we want to get out.

 

RH: Where are you moving to next then?

MB: New York or LA? Then we would like to spend time in Germany.

LJC: Of course in Europe, Germany or France… The electronic music there is fantastic.

 

RH: What artists have you seen at the festival so far?

MB: Outkast yesterday, it was awesome. These guys are so cool and they are still on top of their shit. The lights were cool. Moment factory were doing the visuals, and we’ve worked with them before. They were great.

 

RH: What’s happening for you after Osheaga?

LJC: Full production of our album.  That’s the main thing. We have a lot of shows in September, a bit in Quebec and a bit in Ontario. We have a lot of show cases coming up, so that will hopefully help to get us out of Quebec in the future.

 

RH: That’s amazing; I’ll definitely be trying to catch another set from you. Do you have any last words for your fans in Montreal?

MB: We plan to have a single in the fall, before the record comes out. Expect stuff from us. We want to go international, and go on tour.

This duo was great to chat with. As we were concluding our chat, we had another group at the festival come over to say how amazing their set was that afternoon. Actually throughout the time I got ot spend with the pair, they received praise from several fans. Beat Market was not compared to Daft Punk without a reason; they have a lot of talent and bring a lot of their jazz training into their music. They are on the new label Lisbon Lux, and it is filled with other artists that are talented as well. I expect great this to come from both Beat Market and the label.

Listen to them here.