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?We?re a professional industry event that has now, officially this year, introduced a festival component, Le M Fest,? M for Montreal founder and executive producer S?bastien Nasra (right) says. Mikey Bernard (second from left), director of programming of M for Montreal, says among the acts he?s looking forward to hearing at the conference/festival is Eight and a Half. (John Kenney/THE GAZETTE)
Photograph by: John Kenney , montreal gazette
It?s a DEFCON 5 identity crisis, a low-level PR problem, that has plagued M for Montreal from the outset. Is it a festival or a conference, a bird or a plane, or something else entirely? And in much the same way that many of the emerging musicians they showcase are better known internationally than in their own artistically overgrown backyard, so it goes with M for Montreal itself.
As M for Montreal powers into its biggest and baddest seventh edition, organizers still aren?t 100 per cent confident that Montrealers have a sufficient understanding of what it is, exactly, that M for Montreal does. But that?s about to change.
?I would like to say yes, people know who we are,? confides M for Montreal founder and executive producer S?bastien Nasra, ?but I don?t feel that we?re where I would like us to be in terms of comprehension of our mission and what we do. The difficulty with that is we started off as a professional event; we presented ourselves as a music industry conference. And that of course didn?t speak to a wider audience, the general public, in any sense.
?This year we took the time to refine what we?re doing,? explains Nasra, ?because we came to a crossroad where we need and want to be open to the public and have an accessible side to our professional mission. Most festivals are the other way around: they?re there to serve the public, but more and more you see them branching out into industry- and networking-related activities. We?re exactly the opposite: we?re a professional industry event that has now, officially this year, introduced a festival component, Le M Fest.?
Le M Fest is a self-described weekend music marathon, all of which is open to the public. ?Something like 70 bands are going to be playing over the Nov. 16-17 weekend at 10 or 12 venues, and it?s really an opportunity for the public to embrace M for Montreal as a real festival like other Montreal festivals. And a lot of the shows are sold out already, so it?s so far, so good.?
Add these to the shows taking place during the conference part of the four-day M for Montreal, and you?re looking at 100 performances by 100 artists from 18 countries, popular and proven locally produced commodities like Young Galaxy, Plants and Animals, Duchess Says, Socalled, Les Trois Accords and Bran Van 3000, as well as a ridiculously talent-thick contingent of ascendant Montreal-based artists the likes of Suuns, Half Moon Run, Mozart?s Sister, Folly and the Hunter, No Joy, and former Lady of the Canyon, MA?A.
It?s the usual embarrassment of homegrown musical riches, and it makes it nigh on impossible for M for Montreal director of programming Mikey Bernard to isolate any of the ones he?s looking forward to taking in. Gamely, he gives it a shot anyway.
?There are so many to mention, but off the top of my head I?d say Eight and a Half, with members of The Stills and Broken Social Scene. Their new record is one of my favourites of the year and there hasn?t been enough hype around these guys in Montreal. ? Secondly, I?m excited to see (Montreal-born, Toronto-based experimental rock outfit) Yamantaka // Sonic Titan. I haven?t seen them yet, so I?m sort of booking them for myself, though I?ve heard enough great things about their live show that I think their presence at M while resonate.
?And then there?s Death Grips, who were just signed to Epic Records, and it?s the most influential, futuristic hip-hop you?ll ever hear,? enthuses Bernard. ?They?re from Sacramento and they?ve got something no one else has in modern music ? what they?re doing is completely revolutionary.?
That kind of excitement radiates from all corners of the M for Montreal concept. Creating relationships and networking opportunities ? for representatives of industry, artists and industry, and the artists themselves ? is at the heart of what M for Montreal does. Their successes, those who?ve been the beneficiaries of a not-insignificant leg up, are not in dispute. Not just creators like Montreal avant-pop starlet Grimes, whom M for Montreal helped shop all over God?s greenish Earth, contributing to Grimes being signed to famed independent U.K. label 4AD, but also all of those who?ve gained from M?s attention to the commercial side of the music industry paradigm.
To that end, nine innovatively themed panel discussions and interactive roundtable workshops (tickets to which are available for the public, space permitting), featuring heavy-hitting insiders representing such entities as Universal Music, Island Records, Paramount, Capitol Records and many more will address topics ranging from managing a band (versus being its in-house psychiatrist), to the tricks and checklists necessary for performing cross-border, to the creative science behind music integration in video gaming.
?We get inspired by what?s out there and we also try to do things a little bit differently,? says Nasra, ?but always with a Montreal angle or something that would be beneficial for the local industry and artists.
?Personally, I?m really excited about the big music supervisor panel ? music supervisors are people who play a key part choosing music for films, commercials, TV shows etc. ? and we have an A-list of music supervisors coming, mainly from L.A., but also from the U.K., France and elsewhere. There?s also a panel about music in advertising and that?s exciting because it?s an emerging outlet for music that?s taking a much more important role in helping musicians and writers earn a living.?
And while M for Montreal, the conference and the festival, is for musicians, for music and for the mechanisms that propel it, this time around it?s also for ? moustaches.
?This year we?re doing a special closing event in honour of Movember,? says Nasra. ?We?re playing the moustache game for fun, of course, but also to support research for prostate cancer and mental health for men. We?re doing a big party at Club Soda on the closing night, Nov. 17 ? a bit of an improvised music and comedy night and a great opportunity just to celebrate and give money to the cause. I?m highlighting this because it?s something special we?re doing this year, it?s dear to my heart, and I hope people will come.?
?It?s a great event for a great cause and we?re just happy to contribute and do what we can while we have all this media attention,? adds Bernard. ?And (Nasra and I) both have our moustaches totally grown already.?
M for Montreal from Nov. 14 to 17 at various times and locations. For registration and concert information, visit mformontreal.com.
? Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette
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