Kid Lucifer or Henry Girard, Quinn Letendre, Sam Schuette and Linus Heyes, are the band originally from Vancouver who moved together to Montreal to follow their dreams, work on their music, and develop as a band.
Their debut album, Nothin’ But Bangers, was released on July 21st. All the songs are inspired on their experiences in Montreal, and it’s the band’s attempt to start from scratch, now that they have a clearer vision of the kind of music they want to make.
I had the chance to chat with members Henry and Quinn to talk about their new album and all the exciting Kid Lucifer has in mind for the future.
Estefania Barron: I know you guys wanted to develop your band and your music and you decided to move to Montreal. It must’ve been a big decision to make. How did you guys come up with the courage to do that?
Quinn Letendre: It’s part of being young, I think. Living your dreams while you still can. And it didn’t really take much convincing, to be honest. One day I just said “Hey guys, do you want to move to Montreal?” Montreal is known as the music Mecca of Canada, where young musicians walk through. Mac DeMarco, for example, started out here. It’s a good place to work on your music and grow as a musician because everyone is incredible. I haven’t seen a single bad band here, after almost a year of living here. So it’s really nice to be a part of a community were people are always constantly growing and constantly pushing themselves further.
It just seemed like the right fit because in Vancouver we weren’t really going anywhere. It was really expensive to live there. Here we all live together, and we write music together. It’s just a better set up.
Henry Girard: I think it’s a better scene here. The whole city is really supportive of artists and musicians, so you get a lot of musicians from all over. It’s a very interesting mix of people. Very multicultural. It’s just easier to make art, I think.
EB: What has influenced you i your decision of becoming musicians?
HG: I’ve always been really into music. I knew it was a matter of time before I started a band and started making music. I was always going to concerts, and my friends were starting bands too, so it just happened naturally.
QL: I grew up with my dad and he was the biggest inspiration for me. I would always here really good music from my dad’s side- I can’t say the same for the rest of my family. He listened to a lot of progressive rock, and psychedelic music, Peter Gabriel, that kind of stuff, when I was really, really young. So he made me really curious about it, and then it was kind of a natural progression. I went into guitar, and then I went into bass. And Sam turned out to be a much better bassists than me, so I had to pick up drums instead.
EB: What kind of reaction did you guys get from your family?
QL: For me, my dad, being such a big music enthusiast told me that as long as I had a house and I could feed myself, I would go for it. At the end of the day, he said, you’d probably regret it if you didn’t go. The rest of my family, they’re happy with what we’re doing here.
HG: My parents didn’t really care too much. I wasn’t living at home for the last year and a half anyway, so they didn’t really have much to say. But they’re really supportive and happy. I think they really see that we’re really happy here, so they don’t have much to say.
EB: What is it like living together?
HG: It took a while to adjust at the beginning. But we never argue too much. My girlfriend actually moved in, so there’s five of us living under one roof. I don’t think it’s gone too bad. Especially because we live together and we have a practice space at our house, so we’re able to practice 4 times a week or so. It’s good because at the end of the day if I do want to kill one of them, I don’t, because in the long run, I won’t have a bassists, or a drummer.
QL: It was a bit of an adjustment for Sam and I especially, because we were living with our families. But we have a lot of communication, so we are able to figure everything out
EB: What has it been like managing work and your music?
QL: For me I find that I’ve been getting day jobs, and doing jobs that were not super interesting, but I feel like I’m working towards something, because every single minute that I’m not at work, I’m doing exactly what I want to be doing. So whatever I need to do, I’ll do, is kind of how I feel.
HG: For me it’s been a lot of kitchen jobs. And I know it’s the same for Linus and Sam. One thing we found out is that Montreal is the city of bad bosses. I try to shift it from job to job to keep it interesting. I recently worked with my girlfriend at a vegan restaurant, and the boss was a total crazy asshole. I recently left that job, so I’m currently unemployed. For the most part, most of us just go from job to job, trying to get enough to survive. The nice thing about Montreal is that, if you want to take a month off of work, you can do it. You don’t need a lot to get by financially.
EB: I read that the songs on your upcoming album are based on your experiences living in Montreal. So what was the inspiration for Fourth of July?
HG: Fourth of July is this world renowned holiday, so I wanted this to be more a celebratory song, but also talk about real issues. I talked about drug use and trying to find yourself. I think moving to a new city, it’s easy to fall into the traps that are there for you. It’s just about rising above all the BS in life, being resilient and coming out a better person.
EB: So what’s next for you guys? What do you want Kid Lucifer to become?
HG: We’re planning a couple of tours right now- a couple of runs down to Toronto and Ottawa, but eventually, inevitably we are gonna make our way down to the US. Preferably sometime in 2018, or early 2019, we’re not sure yet. But we’ve been in contact with bookers, promoters, and trying to make it happen. On top of that, we are gonna start recording our next album pretty soon, just because we have a lot of songs ready. We’ve got almost an entire album worth of songs, on top of the album we are gonna release on the 21st. That’s another thing that’s big on my mind. Keep recording, keep working hard, keep writing songs, and then just see what happens from there.
By Estefania Barron