Also Cool's POP Montreal Top Picks: Round One

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Isabella Lovestory via Bandcamp

September’s end is upon us, which means POP Montreal is just around the corner! Celebrating its 21st anniversary this year from September 28th to October 2nd, POP Montreal is an integral fixture in our hometown’s music circuit as a five-day festival; presenting more than 400 artists between panel discussions, film screenings, fashion shows and more! As per usual, this year’s lineup does not miss a beat with legendary headliners and movers & shakers from our local music scene and beyond. To get into the festival spirit, take a listen to our POP Montreal selections and jump venue to venue with us!

Isabella Lovestory

Isabella Lovestory is Montreal’s resident reggaeton-pop princess. The alter-ego of Honduras-born Isabella Rodriguez, the vocalist and producer meshes sugary hyper-pop tendencies with entrancing, bass-heavy club beats into a rousing, Y2K-reminiscent frenzy. Her breadth of influences chart her musical upbringing; drawing inspiration from reggaeton acts like Plan B, to Britney Spears and MIA, as well as alternative Brits like The Smiths and The Cure. Since her emergence on SoundCloud, Lovestory has released her debut album Mariposa (2020), a handful of ear-worm singles-turned-EPs, and appeared in Nylon and Dazed. A self-proclaimed “fashion freak,” Lovestory turns heads for her equally iconic sense of style, captured in her glamorous music videos and alluring online presence. Let her steal your heart this POP season. 

Isabella Lovestory plays Casa Bianca (terrace) on Saturday, October 1st at 6PM.

Isabella Lovestory  

 Instagram | Bandcamp

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PACKS via Bandcamp

PACKS

Slack-rock quartet PACKS has been on our artists-to-watch radar since their debut LP Take the Cake (2021). Led by Madeline Link, the project began as a creative back-and-forth between Ottawa and Toronto, with Link sending her bare-bone bedroom demos to her bandmates for exploration via Google Drive. The resulting album was a smash and saw the band tour their slow-burning, timeless sound extensively. Since, Link has made it clear that she isn’t resting on her laurels with the release of her latest EP WOAH this past summer. Accompanied by an acoustic guitar, WOAH has Link returning to her solo, unbrushed songwriting roots with a refined lyrical palette and imaginative composition (and an ode to Ottawa commercial radio on the track “fm”).

PACKS plays Casa del Popolo on Friday, September 30th at 8:15PM.

PACKS

Website | Instagram

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Boyhood by Monika Kraska

Boyhood

Boyhood is the moniker of alt-pop singer-songwriter Caylie Runciman. Since 2014, the Belleville-expat brews jangly, brooding mirages, sprinkled with atmospheric synth and candid vocal grit. Runciman now calls the woods of Central Frontenac home, where she has been writing, composing and producing her upcoming LP My Dread - out this coming November. Long-anticipated since her beloved 2019 debut Bad Mantras, teaser singles from My Dread “Don’t You Dare” and “Stroke It” find Runciman standing ground against darkness past, reconciled between tough basslines and twinkling oscillations. Though a limited vinyl-run of My Dread is now available for pre-order, we implore you to catch Boyhood live in her element before its release.

Boyhood plays La Sala Rossa on Thursday, September 29th at 8PM.

Boyhood 

Instagram | Bandcamp

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Strange Froots by McKim Jean-Pierre

Strange Froots

Supporters of Also Cool since day one, Strange Froots is Mags and Naïka Champaïgne: a duo of multifaceted singer-songwriters, beatmakers and musicians based in Montreal. Originally planning to attend a series of workshops for femmes in hip-hop, the alt-soul group met in 2014 at NoBad Sound Studio, and shortly after formed Strange Froots. Strange Froots describe themselves as “the coming together of different backgrounds of the same Black diaspora [...] to convey the message that everyone should embrace who they are, no matter where they’re from or what they’re going through.” Performing extensively with an emphasis on nurturing community, Strange Froots have taken the stage at Slut Island, Suoni Per Il Popolo, Fierté Montréal and will be returning to POP Montreal for the first time since 2017 this year!

Strange Froots plays Théâtre Fairmount on Friday, September 30th at 9PM. 

Strange Froots

Website | Instagram

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Cymande

Active in the 1970s, British group Cymande are revered for their blending of funk, soul, R&B, jazz, rock, African rhythms and West Indian folk. Though they disbanded in 1975 after releasing three albums, their legacy and sound were kept alive through a cult-following and samples from acts like Wu-Tang Clan and De La Soul. In the 2010s, the band reunited with a new vision and rekindled excitement from the early years. After touring alongside artists like Al Green, Patti LaBelle, KC and The Sunshine Band and Kool and the Gang, Cymande will now be making a stop at POP Montreal for a show you won’t want to miss.

Cymande plays L’Entrepôt77 on Wednesday, September 28th at 7:30PM. 

Cymande

 Website | Instagram

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Kamikaze Nurse by Dennis Ha

Kamikaze Nurse

Vancouver rock outfit Kamikaze Nurse’s music has been described as “ethereal skronk,” “Deleuzian rock” and “best of the 90s.” Their melodic, confrontational sound is encapsulated on their sophomore album Stimuloso, which arrived earlier this spring via Mint Records. The album was conceived during the first wave of the pandemic, with each band member self-recording their parts over a six-month period. The result is a flowering wall of noise that combines the group’s interests in poetry, film and literature. Keep a pulse on Kamikaze Nurse’s psychedelic-rock-meets-shoegaze sound with their inaugural POP Montreal performance.

Kamikaze Nurse plays The Diving Bell Social Club Wednesday, September 28th at 8:30PM.

Kamikaze Nurse
Instagram | Bandcamp

POP Montreal

Website | Instagram | Facebook

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Digital Sleepover 2 Interview: Magi Merlin, Mags, and Naïka Champaïgne on Hip-Hop Culture, Soul, RnB and more

Have you heard? We're having a sleepover, and you're invited! Digital Sleepover 2, is our latest upcoming collaboration  Hip Hop You Don't Stop and Strange Froots. On September 19th at 8pm EST we'll be livestreaming a roundtable panel disucssion from the Also Cool HQ with JU!CE, Khadijah, Faneva, and Magi Merlin, followerd by an online dance party.

As we did with our previous Digital Sleepover, we're raising funds for our communities: half of the proceeds will be donated to Maison d'Haiti to help with relief efforts in recovering from the earthquake, and half will go to sustaining the ongoing work of Also Cool (staff, web maintenance, etc.), at the very kind request of the Strange Froots crew. You can donate to the fundraiser here.

In anticipation of the event, we caught up with Mags, Naïka Champaïgne, and Magi Merlin to chat about Hip-Hop culture, different genres, and more. 

Mags & Naïka Champaïgne of Strange Froots

Malaika Astorga for Also Cool: Can you tell us a bit about your relationship with Hip-Hop, R&B & Soul music? 

Magi Merlin: Growing up, my parents mostly played classical music when I was around. I also heard some old-school R&B from my dad and some pop stuff from my mom, but my parents were never that music-oriented. So, as I grew up, and after realizing that I wanted to pursue music, I made sure to listen to all genres of music in an attempt to find what resonated with me the most. I naturally found myself drawn to Neo-Soul, alternative R&B, and Hip-Hop; the voices in these genres really spoke to me. Being a blank slate and not having much outside influence in what I was listening to at a young age almost made my connection to these genres stronger because it felt like we chose each other.

Naïka Champaïgne: My relationship with Hip-Hop, R&B and Soul has been through the sounds being played in my house. My mom had numerous R&B CDs, Hip Hop CDs and was a HUGE fan of Prince. Hearing soul and R&B specifically on Sundays meant my mom was cleaning. It just always has been part of my life. I can’t tell you when, where or how it was brought to my life because it’s just always been there. 

I have a really intimate relationship when it comes to those genres because I always wanted to know more; who sang this? Who wrote this? Who sampled this? Who composed this? What are the different ways they performed it? My mom sometimes would be surprised that I knew this artist, because I was not born during their time, but I was just a kid (and always am to this day) that searched for the artist. I started their discography from the beginning to the end, with the artist’s bio, with the album bio, creative process, writing process and lyrics all open next to me while I listen to the songs, in order to fully grasp the music. My relationship with Hip-Hop, Soul and R&B differs in terms of what/who I’m composing for.

With Strange Froots I focus a lot more on Hip Hop ways of writing and flowing and the more 2000s girl group R&B vocals harmony, and as a solo artist I focus more on the Soul vocalization and melody composition.

Mags: All of the Hip-Hop and RnB I grew up listening to I got from my older siblings, mostly when they would pick me up from school or when I had to tag along with them and their friends hanging out in the 90s, if not simply from having MTV or VH1 on the tube. My family also was really REALLY big on CDs and cassette tapes; my earliest memories of those include TLC’s CrazySexyCool, Michael Jackson’s Dangerous, Brandy’s debut eponymous album, Whitney Houston’s My Love Is Your Love, and the soundtrack to the 1995 film Waiting to Exhale (which included a lot of the aforementioned artists on top of introducing me to some of RnB’s staples like Toni Braxton and SWV). My dad was a huge part of my musical upbringing, in many genres, but he bought me my first CDs when I was in elementary school: Nelly’s Nellyville (which is all Hip-Hop with a few Cedric the Entertainer skits), and the soundtrack to the Will Smith 1999 film Wild Wild West (which was mostly Hip-Hop, with a bit of RnB and Latin-infused music). 

Within Strange Froots I’d say a lot of my artistry as an MC is heavily influenced by Missy Elliott, as a singer I might say Brandy, Nelly Furtado and Destiny’s Child (especially for harmonies), and as a group member overall influenced by TLC who often merge genres.

via Magi Merlin

Also Cool Mag: Have you found that RnB & soul music are often considered hip hop? Why do you think people want to expand the definition of hip hop?

Magi Merlin: I have not personally considered these genres a part of Hip-Hop at all. When people lump genres like these together, it is partially because a large portion of the R&B and Soul community collaborates with the Hip-Hop community. There is a reoccurrence in the names associated with each other, so people may make a subconscious combination of all the people they've seen together, regardless of genre. However, I also feel like it also might be rooted in an assumption that because most people participating in these communities are BIPOC, there is an assumption that they all participate in the same space.

NC: I find that R&B and Soul have been considered to be Hip-Hop because they are Black music. Hip-Hop, R&B and Soul are Black music. Hip-Hop beats sample a lot of R&B and Soul music. And I think the reason why people want to expand the definition of Hip-Hop, it recreates familiar Black sounds into an entire culture of being more vocal, direct about what is on their mind. Hip Hop is a way for Black people to express so much. There is something very ancestral about Hip-Hop while also very much grabbing the old to create something new, to redirect something to a new lens but honoring what came before us, what is now and what could be and that is why Hip-Hop is always expanding and people want to expand it.

Mags: I think there is a double-edged sword to bunching soul and R&B music in with Hip-Hop. On the one hand, it makes complete sense that so many of our diasporic rituals, social cues, cultural references, schoolyard antics and the like all come from these genres, and especially so from the 1970s to the early 2000s; on the other, this expansion allows for non-Black entities to further homogenize us and place labels on us that may not even apply. 

Strange Froots in our early days (before we started regularly rapping) would often get booked on lineups that didn’t make sense for us at the time, simply because we were three Black kids from a youth center in Cote-des-Neiges performing over beats, regardless of whether we were singing or doing a form of poetry. There is a correlation between Hip-Hop, Soul and R&B to the point that they often are categorized under the “urban music” genre, for obvious reasons; that doesn’t make them the same, and folks would be wise to know the difference. It’s also worth noting just how much overlap and collaboration there is between R&B artists and rappers, such as Ja Rule and Ashanti. RnB hooks and interludes over rap songs were all the rage in the 90s and early aughts.

Mags & Naïka Champaïgne of Strange Froots

AC: Do you think that the different genres have been gendered at all? Or hold any specific perceptions? What has your experience with that been like?

Magi Merlin: For sure, I think that Hip-Hop is predominantly occupied by men. Obviously, this is changing, and there is a visible shift, but I think that both Rnb and Hip hop were very gendered. I personally am very lucky to not have any negative experiences in the genre that I occupy space in. I am not a rapper, but I do feel like female rappers might have a harder time and may feel like they need to "prove" themselves in order to be respected by their male peers. Of course, this is usually the case in any career field dominated by men so Hip-Hop, producing, songwriting is no different!

NC: I do think they are extremely gendered– and if we are moving away from being extremely gendered we are still holding heavily onto the binaries of gender expression (feminine and masculine). And that also ties into colorism. Light-skin Black folks who are R&B and/or Soul artists will get more recognition, more clout, more opportunities because R&B and Soul are perceived to be more soft, more palatable to popular culture, and more feminine. That is highly linked to skin colour; colonialism and white supremacy see anything that is closer in proximity to whiteness to be more soft, good, gentle and dark skin to be aggressive, hypermasculinized, harsh (and that is also why dark-skinned femme and the standards of beauty and desirability do not favour them at all). You will not see as many dark-skinned Black folks in the R&B and Soul genre at the top.

Mags: I think the gendering of the genres also extends to the audience on top of the artists. There’s this idea that rap music is known for expressing a lot of bravado, material wealth and is more explicitly sexual, which not only reaches mostly men in terms of aspirations and relatability, it can be often paralleled to the dehumanization of dark-skinned folks, whereas many R&B songs are made up of more romantic or melancholic content, that feminine audiences find appealing. All of this typically applies, even if the RnB singer is on the darker end of the spectrum (eg. Omarion, Mario, Joe...), or the rapper on the lighter end (Ludacris, Nelly, etc). As I mentioned before, many R&B artists would be featured guests on rap songs, and more often than not, if the genders were different, it was a light-skin female RnB singer over a dark-skin male rapper’s song, furthering the image of near-subordination from the former. 

In my experience, while Strange Froots was in its infancy, many of the girls that came through to NBS Studio (where the group was born) were asked to simply sing while the boys did their raps. Even now, I’m not sure I can think of a Froots song where I sang more than the others rapped (lol); maybe that’s something I need to work out in my subconscious.

via Magi Merlin

AC: Who are you most excited about in Montreal's hip hop, RnB & soul scenes?

Magi Merlin: I love FERNIE!! They are super fantastic RnB such a sweet ass VOICE! I've been super into Skiifall lately as well. Not sure if Kayahoax falls under hiphop, maybe experimental rap but she's sick too! Also always listening to jamvvis and DO, The Outcast.

NC: OOOOH okay so Backxwash, Malika Tirolien, Shem G, Elle Barbara (‘Délice Créole’, love the Disco Soul vibes), and Elena Stoodley.

M: I think Janette King is someone who tows the Hip-hop/R&B line so beautifully, Shah Frank is another RnB artist people ought to look out for. A lot of people know Basics for his rap career but did y’all know this man can sing??

Tune in to Digital Sleepover 2 on September 19th at 8pm EST.

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ACM x HHYDS Presents Digital Sleepover 2 An Online Frootiversary Panel and Dance Party

We're having a sleepover, and you're invited. On September 19th at 8pm EST, Also Cool is partnering with Hip Hop You Don't Stop and Strange Froots to bring you the second edition of our Digital Sleepover event in celebration of the Froots' 7th anniversary of their debut album.

The event will take place online as a part of HHYDS's hybrid festival format this year, and will be streamed from the Also Cool HQ. We'll be hosting a round table discussion on what we learned about the music and entertainment business during the pandemic, RnB's place in hip-hop culture, towing that line, navigating being a guest in the culture, and what queer representation looks like in the Montreal hip-hop scene. Our wonderful panellists will be JU!CE, Khadijah, Faneva, and Magi Merlin. After the panel, we'll have an online dance party DJed by JU!CE and Faneva.

RSVP to the event here

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Anime, Hip Hop, & Your Inner Child: Mags Releases AMV Remixes with Backxwash, JU!CE, & More

Photo cred: Mahel Pfaff

Who else wants to be a kid again, watching their favourite anime on a rainy day? In a time where nostalgic comfort is more valuable than ever, MTL-based multidisciplinary artist Mags of Strange Froots has created a new series of mixtape-inspired AMVs (anime music videos) set to last year's Green Apple: The RMX, a short EP made up of six remixes of the titular song.

With society all but collapsing, Mags maintained her creativity through many mediums; today, she’s sharing with us her mixtape-inspired AMVs, and spoke about childhood favorite animated shows with her friends and mixtape collaborators: JU!CE, Jassah (aka Youmna), RamehS.eS (aka Shem G), Little Cashew (aka Kajo), and Backxwash.

Mags (“Granny Smith” Rmx): I think we’ve all had a hard-ass year, to say the least. As I approach my 30s (*deep existential cringe*), with more and more of my friends declaring that they are, in fact, baby, I realize how important it is for us to nurture the inner child that may have been neglected decades ago. I’m really thankful for my chosen family, and all the people I’ve met in Montreal who’ve introduced me to some of my new favorite things, from Steven Universe to Azumanga Daioh. Sometimes it feels like we’re making up for lost time, or even lost youth.

Mags: Last year I put this remix project together with these talented producers, in honour of my band’s five year anniversary; objectively five years isn’t that long, it doesn’t even have its own name as a unit.

But looking back on old photos, videos, promotional posters from festivals and more, we can be aged or grow (yes there’s a difference) by so many different things in our lives. Sometimes it’s okay to honor that growth with a renewal of fond memories from the past, especially when it’s growth for the better.

What is your relation to the anime chosen to accompany your respective track?

JU!CE  (“Calville Blanc” Rmx): Code Lyoko was a show I would always watch when I was younger. Either early Saturday mornings on Cartoon Network or reruns at certain hours. I was in love with the show and characters so much that it was one of the top shows I would watch. In terms of my style with my music, people say, "you always feel out-of-world or in another dimension," and knowing Code Lyoko is actually that, fits perfectly.

Youmna/Jassah (“Flower of Kent” Rmx): The anime Mags chose was new for the both of us, and it fit so perfectly. It's abstract, but there's clearly something deeper unfolding. The specific shots align so well with the story I created with the remix. It feels meant to be.

Ramehs.Es (“Pink Lady” Rmx): I watched Cybersix growing up, on Teletoon, when I was supposed to be in bed. It's the perfect animated reference to my already budding vigilante, dual identity lifestyle.

Kajo/Little Cashew (“Duchess of Oldenburg” Rmx): I grew up watching a channel called Spacetoon that aired Arabic dubs of anime. Case Closed was one of my favourites and the one I recall the most of. I think all the action and tactics was what caught my attention. I definitely used to go around pretending to use my watch to shoot sleeping needles at people (lol).

Backxwash (“Arkansas Black” Rmx): I like Hellsing. It is extremely edgy and very very goth. I also love the religious aesthetic towards it.

How would you describe the final AMV product?

Youmna/Jassah: I also really love how Mags inserted Strange Froots in the anime edit. Watching it felt like a trip in itself, which I aimed to do with the track, so it feels really good to have a visual to accompany it.

Ramehs.Es: The edit tells the story of childhood innocence and memories turning into something real dark, real fast, night and day, two coins, etc.

Kajo/Little Cashew: Honestly, it was hard to imagine a music video for "Duchess of Oldenburg" because it's very all over the place. But seeing the anime MV reminded me of how much I enjoyed watching anime as a kid, and watching them on Spacetoon more specifically. That channel was iconic. It makes me sad that the second I got western channels, I just ghosted anime and Arabic channels. But now that I finally found the real names of those anime (not the Arabic titles), I can look them up and reminisce. So I'm happy with how the MV turned out!

Do you have any old cartoons/anime that ground your inner child?

JU!CE: Shows that help me stay grounded to my inner child is kind of a tough take. I would say Courage the Cowardly Dog, Ed Edd n Eddy, Teen Titans, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, Sonic X and The Powerpuff Girls. By far, Cartoon Network was the only station I would watch, second to Nickelodeon, then Warner Bros TV. These are some shows I plan to rewatch at some point in my life. I miss the nostalgia.

Youmna/Jassah: The Jungle Book is a cartoon that grounds my inner child - I always related to Mowgli, and I loved being transported to the jungle itself.

Ramehs.Es: Cartoons with dark, spacey themes as well as proper character development. Classic Batman, Cowboy Bebop, even Static Shock went through way too much for someone his age. It was really telling stuff that taught me way more than any suburban Laval school could (haha).

Kajo/Little Cashew: I would say the ones that I loved the most growing up were Case Closed and Akachan to Boku. I remember casually seeing scenes from Remi the homeless girl [Remi, Nobody's Girl]. I will say though, the one that hit the most was Akachan to Boku, but it's just not the vibe for the track 'cause it's a very calm laid back anime, and I wanted action for the MV.

Those were my go-to as a kid. I think it's because they came out in 1996, one year before I was born, so they were airing when I was really young. I also remember that Captain Tsubasa J was a huge deal when I was young. I didn't to watch it religiously; I mostly just remember parts of the intro song (in Arabic.) Beyblade was also huge, I don't recall the show but I remember buying the Beyblades and attending a competition inside a gift store with a big ring and almost 50 guys stacked in a small room trying to watch.

When I grew a bit older, we got an orbit subscription with the western channels (Disney Channel, Cartoon Network, Tiji). I kind of forgot about anime and began watching cartoons like Recess, Pinky and the Brain, Brandy and Mr. Whiskers, Tic & Tac [Chip and Dale]. So those would be the shows that entertained me and kept me dreaming and distracted from real life as a child.

Backxwash: A lot of 90s-2000s anime is what I was into. Ninja Scroll, Saint Seiya, Sailor Moon of course, Ranma ½

Mags Instagram I SoundCloud

JU!CE Instagram I SoundCloud

Backxwash Instagram I BandCamp

Kajo/Little Cashew Instagram I SoundCloud

RamehS.eS Instagram I SoundCloud

Youmna/Jassah Instagram I SoundCloud

From Beatmaking Workshops to Community Leaders: These are the Froot Origins

If you haven’t heard of Montreal’s Black, queer, hip-hop trio Strange Froots already, it’s about time you drop everything and check out their entire discography on Bandcamp… STAT. The group is comprised of the talented Mags aka Passion Froot, Naïka aka Dragon Froot, and Sage aka Star Froot. Next week, Strange Froots will be celebrating their 6th anniversary as a band with us by throwing a Digital Sleepover — and you’re all invited! Come play our favorite party games, learn trivia about local artists, and have an open discussion about the COVID-19’s impact on our community, as well as the contributions made by its Black artists! DJ Mollygum will also be playing the after party.

The event will be streamed online, and will also serve as a partial fundraiser, with the proceeds donated to the Black Lives Matter DC, Regis Korchinski-Paquet’s family, to Taking What We Need (a Montreal-based discretionary fund group for low-income trans women) and Also Cool Mag's Artist Emergency Fund. Janice Ngiam (of Sun Astronauts), has volunteered her talents and allyship all the way from Hong Kong. For every new donation 20$CAD or more, Janice will produce a short, personalized song about anything you want! Discover her music at www.janicengiam.com/music.html

Join the Froots this Thursday on Instagram from 5pm to 8pm for a Frootiversary Happy Hour, and get a taste of what's to come this Saturday!

We got the chance to catch up with the Froots to reminisce on their early beginnings, discuss their future aspirations, and hear their thoughts what work has to be done to make Montreal’s hip-hop circles more inclusive and safe for QTBIPOC folks. Check out our interview below!

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Strange Froots (from left to right: Mags, Sage and Naïka), photo by Didi M’bow

Also Cool: Before we begin, tell us who you are and about your individual artistic pursuits.

Mags aka Passion Froot: My name is Mags. I’m an illustrator, cartoonist and graphic artist by trade, as well as a beatmaker, singer-songwriter, MC and casual guitarist.

Naïka aka Dragon Froot: My name is Naïka, I’m a Haitian, queer, Black woman. I’m a singer-songwriter, a guitarist, a bassist, and an MC. I recently released my first solo album, Painted Imageries, this past January.

Sage aka Star Froot: Hello, I’m Sage! I'm a singer, songwriter, actor and producer. I am also a passionate linguist, studying Spanish and Mandarin. Learning languages is a really interesting and ceaseless artform to me. 

AC: Individually and collectively, how has music helped you learn and grow?

M: On an individual level it has helped me spiritually for as long as I can remember, producing (more so than writing) has somewhat helped me translate my journey to sound. It’s also helped me reconnect to my ethnic origins as a first-generation African-American; in learning how to sample, I’ve been able to reimagine classic songs my parents would play around the house, or that I would hear over the summers of my childhood visiting relatives. As part of a collective, I think I’ve been able to contribute the story-telling attributes of my instrumentals, as well as the eclectic sounds of our diaspora. 

N: Individually, music has helped me grow into who I am and explore every facet of what I am., [Music] has given me the ability to express myself in a way that can be scary, but at the end of the day, honestly. Collectively within Strange Froots, this band’s music has allowed me to step out of my comfort zone by pursuing artistic directions and musical styles that are not necessarily my go-to. The band keeps challenging the ways that I write, compose, and structure music, and I love that about Strange Froots.  

S: Music has given me a way to express myself creatively and honestly. As a dynamic introvert, I spend most of my time reflecting over socializing. Music has been a great conduit for me to both share who I am and bond with those in my circles. It’s how I found Mags and Naïka all those years ago. I can’t imagine life without music. If I don’t like the song, I’ll change it, but there are very few times where I’ll go for silence. 

AC: What are the Froot origins? How did your diverse creative backgrounds come together for the first time? 

M: At the time of our meeting (Spring 2014), I was in my last year at Concordia. I was VP Marketing and Communications for the then-named Hip Hop Heads Concordia, of which I am a co-founder; this was a revival of the university’s long-defunct hip-hop club. I had by this time already been acquainted with a few of Montreal’s hip-hop artists, and it’s through them that I was introduced to NoBad Sound Studio. 

N: The manager of NoBad Sound at the time wanted to do a “girl” workshop, ‘cause few of them were at the studio and few were seen in hip-hop in general. It’s through this that our diverse creative backgrounds came together. I came up with the name Strange Fruits (paying homage to Billie Holiday and Nina Simone) for our band, as we are all Black and know what the song talks about: it was very dear to me, to us. Then Mags came up with the spelling “froots,” like the cereal, ‘cause we’re all nerds like that and are all pretty “out there”... fashion and personality wise, we’re all very colourful. But it says a lot too: the “roots” within fROOTs, refers to our Black roots, and it is also a derogatory gay term that was reclaimed by the queer community; which includes all of us in this band.

S: I was the last to arrive. I went to NoBad interested in beatmaking workshops, when I met Mags and Naïka days later. We shared our musical taste and gauged that we all had very different musical backgrounds. As the alternative member of our alternative-chill-soul collective, I am influenced by rock, house, jazz, pop, film scores, musicals, i.e. eclectic. I was also part of a theatre troupe and sang in choirs growing up, so working together came very naturally 

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Strange Froots (from left to right: Sage, Naïka and Mags), photo by Andrée-Anne Guy

AC: What is your creative process like as a collective, and how has this evolved over the years?

M: A lot of our collaboration these days (COVID withstanding) has happened digitally, sending beats, voice notes, guitar riffs and the like, due to ever-conflicting schedules. In the very early days, even after our first EP dropped, we would continue to meet up at NoBad and much of our collaborative efforts happened there. Then, you have songs like “Regular” that come about from very random inside jokes created well outside of the context of the band, and just from goofing around as friends.

N: OHHH child it has evolved! At first, we would all sit down together and write to a beat Mags or Sage produced, or a riff I played on the guitar. We held a lot of importance to composing all together in the same space and time, but it’s not always feasible and realistic. Now, we tend to write separately, propose something from one person who wrote, created a riff, laid down a beat and then the rest adds to it. We talk more openly about what we want to change, about directions of the sound. It’s literally a constant draft and constant back and forth within our capacities and availabilities, instead of depending on each other’s presence to finish a song. 

S: I think now a major difference, especially with our individual artistic pursuits, is that we create music with an understanding of if it’s for Strange Froots or for another passion project. If I can imagine Mags dropping a fierce 16 or Naïka working magic with her bass for example, then it’s for Strange Froots. It was easier in the beginning to put us all in one room for a few hours to create, but later became very unrealistic. 

AC: Since meeting through the NoBad Sound Studio workshops, do you feel that the Montreal hip hop scene has become more inclusive? In your view, what work has to be done to further grow hip hop spaces in this way?

M: In the 6 years of our existence, I’ve seen some slow, gradual efforts to not only include more cis women than they did at the time (because if we’re being honest that was their first hurdle). We’ve seen some kind of attempt at understanding and including the LGBTQ+ community. They’re not going to get it right all the time or on the first go, (some might even say there’s a  sense of pinkwashing and “you-go-girl”-ism), but I’d like to think that our group’s existence helped create more waves in that direction, especially in the Black community. 

N: Adding to that though, the Montreal hip-hop scene is VERY underground. The hip-hop that you see out there, that is being paid attention to, is mostly performed by white cis Francophone men. It completely disregards the Black and Latinx folks that laid the groundwork for hip-hop in Montreal, and the deeply ancestral history of hip-hop for Black folks. It’s our culture. In the last 10 years or so, Quebec suddenly “discovered hip-hop” from white kids, even though it’s been here for decades... So is it more inclusive to women? Meh, not really. We make our spaces. There needs to be a lot of work done for women in hip-hop and for queer folks. Hip-hop was made by marginalized folks who were Black and Brown: you have to include women and queer Black and Brown folks, not just the cis het straights, ‘cause they are marginalized as fuck. 

S: I agree, there’s still a lot of work to be done. There is hope – queer and black artists like Backxwash lighting the ground up – but when it comes to the hip-hop scene in Montreal, space is sparse and divided. White Francophones are still the dominant voices of hip-hop in Montreal unless the event is specifically curated to showcase queer and POC voices. Considering the origins of hip-hop as a tool for the marginalized and oppressed, it is crucial that more queer artists of colour are able to share their multifaceted truth and be on the mainstage. I hope we can get to a point where black and queer-owned venues exist and our music is not competing for airtime and spots in the margins. 

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Strange Froots (from left to right: Naïka, Sage and Mags), photo by Kinga Michalska

AC: Beyond music and performances alone, Strange Froots has acted as a collective driving interdisciplinary collaboration in Montreal. How have you connected with the music community, and how has that had an impact on your outlook as artists and activists?

M: From experience alone, I’d say due to the varying types of shows we’ve been able to play, we’ve not only made some great friends and musical colleagues, but we’ve been able to connect them to each other in many ways. With amplifying other artists through our platforms and association came an organic sense of belonging, like, “some of us are synth artists and some of us do hip-hop and some of us are riot grrrls but fundamentally we want the same things.” I was able to adopt this mentality when I was approached to co-found the multidisciplinary winter festival Lux Magna in 2017, alongside certain members of the Suoni Per Il Popolo festival.

N: I’m a part of a collective that I I co-founded called Fruition. Fruition is by and for QTBIPOC, and ensures that we have the space to thrive and access the resources we need to survive, succeed and heal in spite of systemic racism, oppression, assimilation, colonialism. We create art/music events, workshops, panels with QTBIPOC folks within our community so they can tackle their artistry in a way that is safe and radical. Individually, that has a lot of impact on me to help me grow and feel even more secure in my identity, but has also helped me find tools to build within our community. 

S: I find activism goes hand-in-hand with hip-hop, since injustice is not too far behind. In our collaborations with The Rap Battles for Social Justice, we had opportunities to explore deep rooted issues in our society, like austerity, police brutality, and climate justice. It inspired me to become more politically informed and recognize the power of music to facilitate important discourse. We are all writing our own artist blueprint while also having to navigate the erasure of inclusive physical spaces to share our art. In Montreal, the helping hand comes from utilizing our network and own creativity. That’s why it’s crucial to stay connected and support each other. I think it’s great that many collaborators are people we can also call friends, but at the very least, are people who share our values. These are people that I want to see flourish, so my activism is about standing up in the face of injustice and also facilitating joy as a form of resistance.

AC: Now that we are coming up on your anniversary; what has been a defining moment in your band’s history, and what are some of your future aspirations as a group?

M: Not to be a total Leo rising about it, but I think our priorities and our individual scopes had to severely shift when I was made to leave Canada. Long story short, I had a few bureaucratic hiccups regarding my status in Canada, and so I was turned away at the border when I was returning from a home visit from Silver Spring, MD. A lot of things were put on hold, and I attribute a lot of my shortcomings in taking care of my status, to hyper-focusing on keeping the band afloat. I held an unhealthy amount of self-worth in what I was able to do for the community and how I was able to alleviate my bandmates’ workload (I was the only one done with school), it took me away from myself in some very detrimental ways, and I think we’ve finally reached a place where we see that clear as day, and are constantly working to not repeat the mistakes that lead to several kinds of pressure and burnout. I hope that our group can continue influence positive and progressive change in Montreal’s youth, to make our queer circles less racist, and the hip-hop scene less queer and transphobic overall, and I hope as more doors open for us, we can hold them up for our friends in the game.

N: A defining moment in our history was going to Senegal and finally seeing our community of QTBIPOC fam come together when we put on hip-hop performances for queers. For future aspirations, I want us to keep creating and finding ways to create for ourselves, as a way to sustain imagery and art within our community.

S: I would love for us to all be in the same place physically for longer than a week! Technology helps, but our first in-person rendezvous will be something. The most defining moment for me so far has been our trip to Senegal. The connections made there and the wisdom shared will last with me forever. If the fates allow, I would love to journey with the Froots again to another motherland. Ultimately, I wish for more growth, love and understanding and for us to keep doing the work we do. The journey has been incredible so far. I’d like to see how much further we can go.

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Strange Froots (from left to right: Sage, Mags and Naïka), photo by Mariel Rosenbluth

Keep up with the Froots on their socials!

Strange Froots

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Mags

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Naïka

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Sage

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Lux Magna 2020 x Also Cool Present: Age of Aquarius

Visual by Malaika Astorga

Lux Magna is everything you would want a music festival to be. The festival is entirely operated by a group of women and non-binary curators and artists, who redefine how arts events should be run. They emphasize the importance of lifting each other up, rather than tokenizing and commodifying each others’ work. Lux Magna does this by shining a light on the music, dance, spoken word, and visual art unique to their community.

Also Cool has the privilege of co-presenting a Lux Magna event this year: Age of Aquarius: An Aquastellar Experience with Cosmique Tea. We’ve worked in collaboration with the festival to launch a series of fun “Guess The Sign” visuals (answers at the bottom of the article), and we will have an “Intro to Astrology” zine available at the event!

Read our conversation with Mags from Lux Magna below.

GUESS HER SIGN 1 Visual collab Malaika Astorga x Lux Magna

Malaika Astorga for Also Cool: Tell us a bit about why Lux Magna started and how it has evolved over the years.

Lux Magna: The festival was born out of a desire to not only expand outside of the corporate understanding of festival curation, but also to see our favorite artists play during a time of year that isn't typically associated with festival season. Winter is a very difficult time in Montreal, especially for mental health, and Lux Magna is one of few ways to relieve that.

Also Cool: Your team has previously voiced frustrations about how music festivals are run. How are you making the changes that you wanted to see with Lux Magna? 

LM: Some of the ways we challenge current festival norms is by ensuring safe(r) space policies and giving accessibility info about our venues. With accessible venues becoming few and far between, not to mention closing down altogether, it's the least we can do.

GUESS HER SIGN 2 Visual collab Malaika Astorga x Mags & JUICE

AC: You've also emphasized that it's essential to be inclusive without tokenizing the communities that you're trying to uplift. How do you implement that into your festival planning and programming?

LM: The simplest way that we do this is by ensuring the team reflects different parts of the local scene, and as a team we go over projects we're genuinely excited about and would benefit from our platform.

AC: How did your team get Lux Magna going? It's incredible what your team has achieved, and we're curious about what that journey has been like. What would your advice be to someone who wants to start a music festival, but doesn't know where to begin?

LM: For my part, I joined the initial team in 2017 after I was invited to curate a show for Suoni Per Il Popolo 2018. My input as an independent event organizer, as well as a younger artist with an ear to the ground in terms of what millennial QTBIPOC were interested in, was noticed and valued. My advice would be to develop a solid work ethic in the public sphere, especially if it's DIY. Often people mistake DIY or working with friends as less professional, but it equally requires doing the homework and showing and demanding respect, while acknowledging all the ways capitalism and mainstream event organizing limits our mobility in the scene.

GUESS HER SIGN 3 Visual collab Malaika Astorga x Mags & JUICE

AC: How do you find and select your artists?

LM: A lot of the time, the local artists we pick are artists we've seen live and are excited to offer a larger audience where we can. Depending on who we're listening to, or discovering on SoundCloud or Bandcamp, we try our best to match artists to a lineup in order for their respective fanbases to discover something new. The best thing about this is that many of our artists end up discovering each other and collaborating after the festival! Honestly, it’s the best feeling.

AC: Let's talk a bit about our collaborative event, Age of Aquarius: An Aquastellar Experience. For those who don't know what's going to be going on, and what are we celebrating?

LM: So, it just so happens that every year, Lux Magna coincides with the beginning of Aquarius season, whose sign is associated with innovation, community and looking into the future. I have been working on an album with my dear friend, and talented multidisciplinary artist JUICE, that we've named Age of Aquarius. This event will serve as its official launch/listening party. During the first half of the evening, we'll be playing the album while our magical Aquarian friend Toni (Cosmique Tea) does 10 minute $10 PWYC tarot readings, which have been made more accessible thanks to our partnership with Overture with the Arts.

Afterwards, Toni will lead a short guided meditation, followed by an Astrology 101 talk that I'll be co-facilitating, as well as some fun zodiac games (prizes may or may not be involved 👀)

JUICE, Mags & Cosmique Tea by Malaika Astorga

AC: Tell us a bit about the Age of Aquarius album. Where did the initial inspiration come from, and how has the project developed over time?

LM: The inspiration behind the album was very random and sudden. In fact, I don't even remember the exact thing that spurred it initially because the themes are so intrinsic to the friendship JUICE and I have built over the last year or so. For example, we are both very much into astrology;  it's part of our daily conversations. We are also both nerds in our respective ways. While we both love anime and cartoons, JUICE is definitely a bigger gamer than I am. That said, I have an appreciation for the music featured in the video games and online games I grew up with. So, the idea to combine both astrology and video games into a musical project came very naturally to us. 

Age of Aquarius cover art

AC: What are your signs, and how do you think that they affect your work and specifically this project? 

LM: The current Lux team is comprised of two Aries, two Capricorns, a Gemini, a Sagittarius, a Scorpio, and I'm a Virgo. If you know anything about these signs, you’ll know that for the most part they like to take charge, but are also able to work independently. So, a lot of this project has been each of us doing our own thing, and then coming together at pivotal moments. JUICE is also a Capricorn but with very heavy Aquarius placements, which is one of the reasons behind why we named our album as such; we both have at least four Aquarius placements in our chart. I feel like working on this album allowed me to bear witness to the conflicting nature of Earth sign and Air sign tendencies, none more than within Joyce, so powering through it together was something very special. I think it comes through in the songs. 

GUESS HER SIGN 4 Visual collab Malaika Astorga x Mags & JUICE

AC: How would you explain astrology to someone who never even thinks about the stars?

LM: Literally the other day I was just saying how the Myers-Briggs test is just the layman suburban mom's astrology. Certainly with astrology, there comes important knowledge of astronomy, the movement of the stars and planets. The concept of astrology is usually described with the phrase "as above, so below,”  meaning the way we see the planets interact with each other from Earth is reflected in the way people act with each other on Earth. All the signs can be split up into different elements, different polarities, much like how the Myers-Briggs is split up by introvert/extrovert, feeling/thinking, perceiving/judging etc. It's these different combinations that make every person so unique. The Myers-Briggs test limits its results to 16 types, astrology is dependent on the exact star map of the time and place you were born. Not everyone's sky is the same. Even with twins, some traits are nurtured throughout life more than others between siblings. I should know, my mom is a twin. 

TL;DR, it's a way more entertaining Myers-Briggs test and nobody's results are ever really the same..

GUESS HER SIGN 5 Visual collab Malaika Astorga x Mags & JUICE

AC: Tell the world what you have going on. (plug any projects, links, whatever here)

LM: Follow me everywhere @Mags119 for more beats, illustrations, possible rants about Steven Universe, and follow my band too! @StrangeFroots

Lux Magna

Event I Festival I IG

ANSWERS TO GUESS THE SIGN

1. Libra

2. Virgo

3. Gemini

4. Cancer

5. Pisces

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