Introduce yourself… (Where are you from, what band do you play in etc..) Mark Gendron, born and raised in Montreal. I play in the band Palmetto.

Why do you play music? It's just really always been the thing that I connected with the most from a very young age. I never found it intimidating or daunting, I always wanted to participate and mess around with it. Somewhere, there are cassette tapes that my brother and I made of these ridiculous songs, us just banging on a drum and strumming our mom's crappy old acoustic guitar and blasting a toy flute. My brother used to amuse his friends by putting on "Ruby Tuesday" because I would stop whatever I was doing and start crying. I have no idea why, but from Raffi all the way to Wu-Tang Clan, music just does something to me.

Later on, I sort of became disillusioned and tried to sideline music as more of a hobby but it kept pulling me back in! Working with my closest friends in Palmetto really feels like the right place to be and I'm very proud of what we're creating together. It's the best feeling. Maybe I could just boil it down to that last sentence.

What was a major influence on you as an Artist/Band? Well, as I mentioned I can't really remember a time when music wasn't casting some kind of spell on me. I get influenced by just about everything. Even stuff I don't like very much can be an example of what NOT to do. I'm addicted to finding new music and digging things up from the past, so it's ever-changing, but I would say that someone whose career and style and ethos I find admirable has always been Beck Hansen. I like that the lyrics are important in his music, but that they don't have to be serious. Tom Waits is like that, too. Sometimes the words just have the right rhythm and sometimes they carry more weight. But Beck has a unique ability to jump from genre to genre without critics or audiences giving him too much grief for it, I think because he does it genuinely and with some respect and competence. That's the kind of thing Palmetto aims for. Minus the scientology part, of course.

What's your ideal festival line-up? I'm taking the liberty of making this a "living-or-dead" category, so probably: Otis Redding, Hank Williams, The Band, Fela Kuti, early-70s James Brown, Parliament circa "Mothership Connection," Dylan, Neil & Crazy Horse, The Stones, Prince, The Roots, Outkast, My Bloody Valentine for some volume, Devo, the Beastie Boys, the Pixies in their prime, Nirvana, for that matter, Deerhunter, the Velvet Underground, David Bowie & the Spiders From Mars, Flaming Lips for that feel-good thing and all the balloons & confetti, Grace Jones, Captain Beefheart, The Flying Burrito Brothers, C.C.R, Tom Petty, The Oh Sees, Grinderman, The Supremes, Hendrix, and maybe Palmetto on a small stage. That's day 1 of 3.

Do you prefer the recording process or performing live? Hmmm. That's a tough one. It totally depends because they're two different "modes." I love writing and recording. There's almost nothing like when a new song or idea comes together, and I like the collaborative nature of it, at least with Palmetto that has been the case. We've been lucky enough to do all of our stuff so far with a home recording set-up, so we have our methodology down and it works for us. It's a LOT of fun. Having said that, I often find myself getting itchy for the stage when it's been a while between shows - I really love the performance aspect as well because of the immediacy of an audience, the unpredictability from night to night and room to room, and the challenge of arranging sometimes complex recordings into a viable live rendition because that's all part of it, too. I think it's like comparing apples and oranges but they somehow go together. Like peanut butter & jelly.

What would be a dream collaboration? Gosh, there's so many. I'd like to write a loose concept album about the Gold Rush with Bob Dylan. I'd like to collaborate with Madlib on the soundtrack to a documentary about artificial intelligence. I'd like to co-produce a Sade record with Daniel Lanois. The mind boggles at the possibilities!

Describe a favourite album. I really like albums that are a pure snapshot of the time & circumstance that they were made in, particularly dark ones. I'm thinking in this case of Neil Young's "Tonight's the Night" or the Rolling Stone's "Exile on Main Street." One's due to personal tragedy, the other to tax evasion, but they're both palpably druggy, dark records.

Alternatively, I like albums that were made to be listened to as a whole, in order. I think we're losing that nowadays, for better or worse, because of streaming and that darned internet. But a great example of an album I adore like that is "Aquemini" by Outkast. That's just a masterpiece that basically has them taking the mantle as the modern day Parliament/Funkadelic - it took quite a while to grow on me when it came out but now I can't stop going back to it. It's perfect.

What's your favourite local haunt? Well, certainly L'Esco is top of the list. Honey Martin, the OLD Cock N' Bull, and Bar De Courcelle have special places in my heart as well. Right now the "scene" (for lack of a better word) that Palmetto finds itself in is one of really great, like-minded, very talented people who are making exciting music. I'm thinking of Lightbulb Alley, Paul Jacobs, Bland, Fuzzy Undertones, Binoculars, Chacal , Vypers, Gentle Mystic, Kaleidescope Horse, Hot Garbage, Priors, and a whole bunch more - they all seem to take the stage at L'Esco, not just once but many times. They have a good thing going, L'Esco does. Even DJ nights there are great and the sound people are always very good at their jobs. They're good to bands and it's a place you know you can just wander in and have a good time and most likely meet a friend. Even a new friend!

What's your strangest experience while performing live? Well, Nic Power and myself played for many years in cover bands in bars so there's a lot of stories there. I had a great time living in London, UK for years and I did some gigging there and hosted some open mics that were definitely a mixed bag! Hard to pinpoint just one experience, honestly. Maybe the time I threw up so discreetly while performing that neither the band nor the crowd noticed. Location will remain unnamed (this was many many years ago, you understand…)

What are some of your favourite aspects of being a musician in Montreal? I think that Montreal is one of last best North American cities for a creative person with a less-than-stable income. It has its foibles, to be sure, but it remains an affordable place for creative people of all stripes to ply their trade to a willing and engaged public. It's not too big to get swallowed up in, and not too small to feel claustrophobic (at least not all the time) and the population is diverse and full of life. I also like that we're not as puritanical as some other provinces, and there's that "Bon-Vivant" aspect to the proceedings here.

If you weren’t playing music in Montreal where would you be ? I would almost certainly be back in London. That's a hell of a place, but MUCH more expensive. Aside from that? Somewhere where it never snows.

Any sage advice for young musicians? It's been said before but I think it bears repeating: Avoid following trends. Especially now, the pressure of keeping up with how fast things change, be it the news cycle, fashion, your Instagram feed, whatever - it can be hard not to get caught up in this "What-have-you-done-for-me-lately" attitude. But the best results really do come from being honest with your output, even if it seems out of step.

I think as a rule, listeners have a sixth sense for authenticity, and often it's what sticks out rather than what fits in that engages people. Even if there are formulas that we all follow as musicians or boundaries to butt up against, either self-imposed or otherwise, if you can find a way to inject your own "voice" into the mix, that's the ticket to creating something you can really stand behind. And that's what success really is at the end of the day.

Pleased To Meet Me:Mark Gendron