Aida was in Montreal, discovered new bands and communities – and wonders whether a creative city is also a question of political will.
Okay, it’s time for confession. I believe, dear readers, that you now know me well enough that I can open up. Or? So: sometimes I lose interest in music. Only sometimes. But it happens. Then I do the same thing as all normal people who haven’t dedicated their lives to pop, I actually only listen to old favorites or simply nothing at all. Sometimes simply because everything is too much and I long for musical comfort food – and sometimes also because, given the changes in the music world, the concentration of (market) power among majors, streaming platforms that pay artists virtually nothing, and now AI-generated fascist chart-toppers, which in turn are mainly listened to by bots, I simply no longer know what it’s all about.
But I’m happy to tell you: That’s over for now. Why? Because every day for five days, as if in a frenzy, I saw incredibly good bands, real subcultures and communities that don’t just arise and disappear on the internet, and I felt complete enthusiasm again, where I only had one need: to run into the middle of the mosh pit. Only: Unfortunately it wasn’t in Berlin, Hamburg or Munich. But in Montreal. More precisely, at the M for Montreal/M pour Montréal festival, which presents newcomers from all over the world and all of Canada, but above all from the bilingual city and the French-speaking region around it. And the special thing about it: The festival’s two bookers present each act with genuine enthusiasm, so that you can’t avoid at least giving the respective artists a chance.
A city with pop history
Real pop nerds already know that Montréal has a long pop history: Leonard Cohen, Céline Dion and Goodspeed You! Black Emperor (what a list!) came and came or worked from there, the careers of Mac DeMarco and Marie Davidson began here, and yes, also those of more problematic figures like Grimes or Arcade Fire. And it still has a huge music scene today with subcultural greats like Sean Nicholas Savage, Braids and La Sécurité, to name just a few names that should find their way into your playlists. And other pop culture isn’t neglected either: zine culture and the graphic novels and comics scene are also extremely strong here. And there is no doubt that the pop culture of the noughties would be unthinkable without the magazine “Vice,” which was founded in Montreal, even if you couldn’t do anything with the cynical, loud-mouth culture of the early “Vice.”
The secret: cheap rents and support programs
There has to be something going on in this city that doesn’t even have two million inhabitants but still has a huge influence on pop music and culture, right? Something in the water? Something in the air? Is it the view from Mont Royal, the freezing winters where you can’t leave the house, the fun fact that the city is an island? Or maybe it’s the lead in the old pipes, as some people suspect?
I believe the secret is as simple as it is difficult to achieve: cheap rents and support programs. Of course, Montréal is also subject to massive gentrification, but there is still some form of accommodation in the city, there are rehearsal rooms and a lower cost of living, which means that perhaps a part-time job (and at some point: none) is enough to make a living from music and you have time and space for creativity. And of course, funding programs also help and can also ensure a certain level of professionalization, which enables artists, but also the entire ecosystem around them, labels, organizers or management, to no longer just run the whole thing like a hobby. Well, and the lead in the pipes definitely has an effect on top.
Berlin as a comparison
Does that remind you of anything? By chance, the rise of Berlin as an international address for creativity, music and art? Yikes, me too. But this kind of Berlin is becoming increasingly rare – a failed rent policy means that people can no longer afford the city, people who want to move here can’t even find anything, and what is available is mercilessly overpriced. There is indeed a funding landscape in Berlin with various institutions that does a really great job of promoting pop culture, but it also needs to be defended from the state and federal government’s orgies of cuts in order to push through their pet projects (we remember: the CDU’s currently ongoing funding scandal in Berlin, the current federal government’s pushing through of money grab projects). From 2027 onwards, it is said, the cuts will become really brutal. Great views. Can I please do the expensive military service again, the usefulness of which is still being debated? No? I thought to myself.
Such developments have more far-reaching consequences than just for the cultural workers themselves: those who have to work a lot to cover their living costs are more likely to forego investing in concerts and may have less time to go to small shows and discover their next local hero. Perhaps there are no longer any smaller and medium-sized venues that organize their concerts that can afford to give space to more experimental acts so that they can gain a small initial audience.
Five days full of discoveries
Five days in Montréal, five days of favorites like the jazz/hip-hop project Badbadnotgood or the Francophone dance-punk band Choses Sauvages, and above all bands and artists that were completely unknown to me like the wonderfully delightful newcomer Fine Food Market, the multimedia madness experience by Annie-Claude Deschênes and distraction4ever, a French-English cross between DAF, Current Joys and Bauhaus. I then take another glass of water with lead.