Under non-pandemic circumstances I would have preferred to have met Philippe Larocque , Co-founder of MOTHLAND and DISTORSION for a pint or two within L’Escogriffe, a suitable location not only for atmosphere, but because of the strong ties between his favourite watering hole and his respective record label and their work with music events and promotion. Apart from DJ ing there regularly, his work with MOTHLAND/DISTORSION has brought an impressive amount of bands, both local and international, not only to L’Eesco’s stage but many venues and non traditional venue settings alike throughout the city.

DISTORSION V was due to take place May 6-9 and has obviously been cancelled due to Covid-19, another casualty for the Montreal music landscape during this pandemic. Luckily for us, Phillipe had some spare time to answer some of our questions via e-mail.

Who are MOTHLAND? Introduce us to the team. What brought you together?

Mothland started with Marilyne, Max and myself. Recently, Jean Philippe from Analogue Addiction joined the team. Marilyne is an Italian cuisine fanatic, she co-founded both Taverne Tour and DISTORSION. I’ve met her the summer before we started DISTORSION, we bonded over our love of weird music. The first time we hung out, I made her listen to Half Machine Lip Moves from Chrome, she dug it and I knew she was one of us.

Max is in a bunch of bands and worked at my favourite bar, L’Esco. We’ve met on the very first night I moved to Montreal, there was a gathering of friends on a rooftop to celebrate moving all our stuff in our new apartment. A bunch of people connected to L’Esco were at that party.

As for JP, we were already working with him, co-presenting a lot of shows with Analogue Addiction. He was also the super-duper cook at DISTORSION. He was already working with Material Girls, Grim Streaker & Pop 1280 in the States. It was just natural for him to join in. Hanging out at l’Esco brought us together. We had our first meeting for what became DISTORSION there.

How long has MOTHLAND been active?

Our first official Mothland event was at Sala Rossa with Yonatan Gat, Paul Jacobs & Atsuko Chiba during M for Montreal in November 2017. We’ve been working together on DISTORSION since 2015.

How was MOTHLAND formed?

I was already working with Paul Jacobs, we went on tour together in Europe, I was zookeeping the band. I was becoming more active in the local scene and I was also more in demand for booking shows for touring bands outside of the festival. Marilyne was already working with Yonatan Gat, Atsuko Chiba and many more. So we talk about starting a booking agency. We asked some friends in the USA and some visual artists to join in and they all agreed.

Can you explain MOTHLAND’s role in the live music scene in Montreal? Promotion, Festivals, etc…

We are putting on two festivals: DISTORSION Psych Fest and Taverne Tour. We are doing a bit of everything with a strong DIY ethic. We started with only the booking but we evolved into doing management and being a label. We love to blow minds for a living. We want to make things loud and subversive. There is so much boring stuff so we try to make space for music that is interesting and that we like. We love to collaborate with other events or festivals and try to add our own weird touch. We had a showcase at Sala Rosa last year, we could have kept things simple but we decided to have 8 acts, 3 different stages, 3 projectors on two floors. We totally transformed the place and I think it really demonstrates what Mothland/DISTORSION is trying to do. We already had a web of like-minded people. People started to use the term Les Mottés. We just made some connections between people, pushed a community to grow and but a brand on it.

Were there other promotion companies/Record labels that inspired you to form MOTHLAND?

Analogue Addiction for sure, I went to all their shows when they started. As for the label, I’d say 4AD, they are still really relevant and a lot of the music they release is timeless. I really love the late Vaughan Oliver’s work, the man behind their visual identity. Goner Records was really influential too. I love the fact that they have their own festival. Constellation Records for obvious reasons but there are so many more indie labels that made me want to do this: Touch & Go, Teenage Menopause, In The Red, Sub Pop, Bella Union, Sacred Bones… The book, Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground, 1981–1991 by Michael Azerrad made me want to quit my day job.

In a city with an abundance of Festivals, you have managed to successfully bring Distorsion Fest for the last 4 years in a row (with this year being cancelled)… Can you explain what goes on behind the scenes to bring a music festival to life? How do you choose which acts will participate? How long does it take to get all the pieces together?

There are now ten of us in the DISTORSION family, there’s a lot that happens behind the scenes. We worked really hard because we had to make everything from scratch. It is still really DIY and we have barely any funding. This year was supposed to be the fifth edition and our biggest yet. We like to go to a cabin during the fall and try to work on the festival and have listening sessions.

Most artists in the festival are local but we tend to have more and more bands from outside the country. We want to stay close to our community but bring new sounds, images and ideas to it.

Can you share a favourite memory from a past show or festival that you put on?

We had Lydia Lunch Retrovirus with FRIGS, Victime & Red Mass at DISTORSION III, I think it’s my favourite show, we’ve put on. Last year, we did a spoken word event for Lydia Lunch’s book, So Real It Hurts, she’s one of my favourite artists, so it was nice to work with her.

When did you start operating as a label?

I always wanted to have a label but when we started Mothland, Marilyne told me she didn’t want to start one. Fast forward to October 2018 and I’m planning a tour for Le Prince Harry a synth-punk band from Belgium. They wanted to release their split 12’’ with Duchess Says for the first time outside Europe. I convinced her to make a couple of limited edition tapes and MOTH0001 was out. The ice was broken and we became more serious with last year’s release of Atsuko Chiba’s Trace.

Can you explain the process/ challenges in starting the label?

Well, there is a lot of music being made so it’s hard sometimes to put it out there. I think you have to start building a strong community first and then reach out to other communities around the world so everybody can grow together.

You have already released albums by Atsuko Chiba, UUBBUURRUU and Red Mass …How do you choose which artists you would like to work with?

If we dig the music and the band is willing to go on the road. As of now, we only release music from people that are close to us. We want to grow organically with the people that surround us.

Are there any other album releases on the horizon?

We have a split 7’’ coming out soon! It’s from a local band as well as a band from Japan. We are now at MOTH004 and we are planning MOTH007 for 2021.

Name a dream band that you would sign to MOTHLAND.

The Cocteau Twins would be nice! Also, I’d love to find a cool hip hop collective to work with.

How has Covid -19 affected the day to day operations of MOTHLAND?

We had to cancel DISTORSION V and every tour/show we had set-up, we are now pushing the label side of it, we are still waiting for news from the people in charge to start the machine again and let’s just say we are staying in our cocoons for a tiny bit until we can stretch our wings again.

With Distorsion V cancelled, you can continue to support Mothland by ordering your physical Mothland releases over at www.mothland.com here.

Peel Back Slowly: MOTHLAND