INTERVIEW: PēLIKEL: A NOT SO LINEAR JOURNEY
I know you're originally from Beirut. What was your first impression of Montreal?
Kevin: Love this city. It’s not too different from the scene in Beirut. Music-wise, it’s very close-knit, and almost everybody knows everybody, very communal and welcoming. But I guess, the first shock was how alone and isolated we felt at first. Then open mic after open mic, we made friends here and there, which helped us get into the scene. It’s also really diverse, you find music from all over the world in Montreal, which is really cool.
Joey: There are a lot of freaking sick venues here too. L’Escogriffe is definitely one of our favourites. People are very open to newcomers, which we’re really grateful for. They’re curious about musicians, the city’s very open-armed, honestly.
Roy: One good thing about coming here and picking the band back up is the fresh start. Our links with and love for Beirut are still very active, but this gave us a chance to test what it means to be Pēlikel away from home. The move to Montreal coincided with the production of the EP, which also felt new and fresh. It feels like we came here at the right time.
Besides people being open to newcomers and a diverse music scene, what would you say has been your favorite part about living here?
Kevin: Just the art scene in general, the multidisciplinary nature of it here, how everything interplays. It creates that sense of community we know and love from back home, but on a much bigger scale, Montreal is huge.
Joey: Yeah, you feel small in the grand scheme of things, but you always have a place, everything is connected.
Kevin: There’s great history too. At least, art-wise. Colonization, though... not so great.
You played your first show here in 2022. Can you remember much from that night? Can you walk us through that night?
Joey: Three songs, at an open mic. My favorite band, Porcupine Tree, announced a reunion tour after more than a decade, so I called the guys and told them, “No matter what, I’ll be in Montreal, we all have to see that show.” Since we were all in the same city for the first time in a while, we looked up venues with open mics and stumbled on Sundays at Brutopia on Crescent Street.
Roy: After being apart for a couple of years, we finally reunited and started jamming in our living room. We played “Okay, Maybe” together for the first time, which turned into a small acoustic set with just the three of us. We took it around bars that summer.
Kevin: We also missed playing stuff from our first album and had an urge to do a heavier electric show. Which fit better with Hémisphère Gauche’s Wednesday open mic. Since it was just the three of us, we switched instruments a lot. I played drums at some point, and Joey hopped on bass. It was really sweet, a bunch of our friends showed up. It felt like we could finally say, “we actually make music together.” It was a great night.
I know two of you have backgrounds in film. Is there a movie score or soundtrack that left a mark on you recently?
Joey: My favorite film composer is without a doubt, John Williams.
Kevin: I hear a lot of John Williams’ influence in your compositions, that's true. You can definitely hear a bunch of Williams’s whimsy in ‘Okay, Maybe’, which fits with the EP’s themes of childhood. Joey and I are brothers, and E.T. (1982) was a big part of our childhood. We watched a lot of John Williams films on VHS.
Do you still own VHS?
Kevin: Oh yeah, most of them are back in Beirut. We only have a couple Harry Potter tapes here. Gladiator as well... As for a more recent soundtrack, I'd say Challengers by Ross and Rezner. A complete 180 from Williams haha. That soundtrack is a party in the theater, insane. As soon as the screening ended, I felt the need to go clubbing, which never, ever, ever happens.
You have a music video out for “Aether Voyage”. How was the process of shooting it? Who came up with the concept?
Kevin: It was really fun to shoot. I think we shot it in four hours…? We had to catch the light, since we were shooting outside in our backyard. It looks very DIY which is convenient for a low budget, but it’s also the point. The song is about growing up and letting go, we wanted the music video to reflect the recklessness of it. I made hundreds of Video Star edits with my cousins when we were kids. I truly hope people know what this app is. I needed this video to feel very Video Star-ish, with cheesy transitions and choreography.
Joey: We only used an old camcorder and a single projector for the night scenes. The most annoying part was definitely the bed. Kevin’s own bed was in the background and we had to dismantle it and put it back together. We had to reshoot and rebuild it multiple times.
Kevin: We might’ve broken it too, now it squeaks every time I sit on it. Night shoots in August means mosquitoes, which wasn’t fun, but the karaoke part was a blast. We coordinated some moves, and it was a really good day overall. It felt fitting, this was our first song in four years, we’ve been making music together since we were 12, so for our first ever music video, we just wanted to have fun with it.
If you had to shoot it again, say tomorrow, would you do anything differently?
Kevin: I guess it would depend on the budget? But in reality, we love how it turned out, and I personally wouldn’t change a thing.
Can we expect any more music videos in the near future?
Kevin: Yes. It’s kind of hard for us not to think visually, images come pretty naturally with everything we do. We see things every time we work on a new song, and we try to bring those images to life. Do we have the budget for it? Rarely. So could the aesthetic stay the same? Potentially, haha.
Joey: That’s where we get creative.
Kevin: Love restrictions, necessity is the mother of invention, I guess. The less you have, the more creative you get.
You have a song that's seven minutes long and two songs that are over five minutes. Some people prefer shorter songs. Have you ever thought about reworking longer songs before putting them out? Or do you decide “That's how we like it. We'll just put it out as it is?”
Kevin: We’ve definitely thought about it. But whenever we catch ourselves tending to the listener, we come back to what the song actually needs. People will connect with art that feels honest. As long as we stay true to the vision, it’ll find its audience.
Roy: We also rarely even look at the timestamps, we realize the length of a song after it’s already taken shape. There’s always that moment like, “Oh, did you know ‘Cumulus Humilis’ is actually seven minutes long?”
Kevin: To be fair our songs aren’t even that long. A ton of way longer tracks exist in the prog world, bands like King Crimson, early Genesis, Tool, Dream Theater, longer forms feel natural. It can definitely be harder to get heard and noticed, since attention spans are thinning… It’s not impossible for us to write shorter songs, though. We’ll see what happens.
Joey: Mind the Rip Current.
Kevin: Haha, yeah, that one’s 26 seconds. Balances things out, doesn’t it? Then again, even that song was later developed into a longer song with our latest single, ‘I'll Just Lay (For A While)’.
Do you think you would ever, let's say, put out a full-length LP with songs that are on the longer side and maybe a few shorter songs that you would aim to be on the radio?
Kevin: I don’t think we would do it consciously. It’s really about intentionality. If we write something and it says everything it needs to in 2 minutes and 13 seconds, then that’s it. But if it calls for more, who are we to refuse? We try to follow the song’s pull and see where it takes us. Anything we cut feels like a disservice to it. It’s not like we sit down and say, “We need a three-minute single.” It wouldn’t sound completely horrible, but it wouldn’t really sound like us either.
Roy: Our group chat is full of demos that are already about three minutes long, they’re just fragments of longer songs that aren’t half-finished yet. It’s all pretty open-ended. We genuinely don’t know where any of them will lead, which is exciting.
Your songs don't follow the typical verse chorus structure, which I think is cool. I know some people might prefer a more typical structure. What would you say to someone who might be hesitant to listen to a band like yours or any other bands who don't follow that structure?
Kevin: I’d say it’s like watching a movie (though attention spans for that aren’t much longer either these days, hehe.) I do believe parts of our music is impressionistic in how it unfolds. It’s not trying to do anything except to make you feel. When we write, there’s usually a clear image in mind that we’re trying to express, and all the choices we make serve that image, finding ways to make it more defined, in focus. It’s less about repeating sections and more about exploring one specific scene or idea in as much depth as it deserves.
Joey: It’s similar to free-form classical music. Some pieces have recurring sections, which is satisfying and rewarding, but other times the music needs to move forward to fully express the idea. If you trust the flow, it can surprise you, and that’s all the fun of it. Just give in to it.
Your sound is incredibly diverse. Could you pick one band each to sort of represent the different aspects of your sound?
Kevin: I'd say all three of us have very different influences. But we can confidently start with the one common influence we have. On three… 1, 2, 3, …
All three: Porcupine Tree!
Kevin: Definitely a band favorite. I guess we’re nicely sheltered under the prog umbrella, though less ‘70s technical, and more soundscape modern, which is why early 2000s Porcupine Tree fits us well. I’ll then personally throw in Elliott Smith and Sufjan Stevens, especially lyrically.
Joey: Pink Floyd is another undeniable influence. Really helped solidify our love for conceptual albums, a record that flows from start to finish, where songs are parts of a whole. Forces you to commit to the record. I feel the same about our EP. I rarely play just one song, I usually listen to the whole thing. That’s how it was meant to be heard, really hope people do the same.
Roy: I'm a very riff-leaning person when it comes to composing. System of A Down comes to mind, but then also Snarky Puppy, for some reason. Very playful music, which is what I try to bring into our writing.
Kevin: We try to maintain that playful side in our compositions, even when the themes aren’t always light. A lot of it comes through in Shambles, and I’m really happy to hear it in the newer writings too. The new material is definitely high-energy, I can’t wait to work on it next.
You have two acoustic performances on your YouTube channel. What do you like more about performing acoustically versus electric and what do you like less?
Joey: Best part is re-arranging songs for an acoustic setting, exploring “what if” versions of what they could have been on the record. It lets us look at our music through a different lens, and makes us fall in love with it again. Acoustic sets are also quite intimate, I guess.
Kevin: Yes, it always feels very living room-y. It takes us back to when Joey first arrived and we all shared an apartment for two years. Daily living room jams. I’m sure our neighbors really loved us.
Roy: Okay, Maybe is a pretty large piece of music with a lot happening at all times. Doing it with two or three acoustic guitars and two vocals was the challenge, the EP still needed to feel full and heavy. Less is more in these cases.
Joey: And we can’t talk about the acoustic set on YouTube without mentioning Leslie Torck on the keys. He definitely elevated it.
Kevin: He plays a big role in bringing the EP’s grandeur to our electric shows, too. An incredible musician and a beautiful person, we’re really lucky to have him join the band. Same goes to Étienne Desruisseaux on drums, another great addition we’re grateful to have with us. Love them very much. Otherwise, the only downside to acoustic sets is listening to these two complain about cutting their fingers on the strings.
Roy: Mean.
Kevin: It’s not something that I necessarily like.
Ariane
LINKS TO FURTHER DISCOVER AND SUPPORT PēLIKEL
Pēlikel on YouTube
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