GRAND TRINE

Montreal’s punk scene is currently exploding with a new breed of bands taking the form in refreshingly new directions by adding elements of psychedelia, noise and more. One of the more musically adventurous punk bands in our burg right now is Grand Trine, who’ve just released their barnstorming debut EP, Sunglasses. As their controlled chaos threatens to careen off the rails, unlikely bedfellows such as ’70s electronics and an outside jazz sax add further depth and density to their attack. The Mirror sat down with these three hunky punks (including Mirror columnist Raf Katigbak) at a popular St-Laurent bar and eatery.

Mirror: Seeing as you’re friendly with a lot of local labels, why did you decide to go with Halifax’s Divorce?

Tobias Rochman (bass/vocals): Well, I’m from Halifax and my old band Be Bad put out our stuff with them, so I guess we’ve always worked closely together. They were really excited about what we were doing and they’re close friends, so it just made sense.

M: The songs on the EP are really varied in style—was that conscious?

Raf Katigbak (drums): I think that’s kind of the driving force behind this band and I would theorize that it’s what will give us longevity. I can’t imagine just being in a band that only sounds one-dimensional. In the end, we’re just making songs that we want to hear and I guess sometimes it will work against us, but it would be so boring to just do one kind of music.

M: With the Montreal punk scene becoming increasingly fractured with subgenres, where does Grand Trine fit in?

TR: We don’t really know. There’s a lot of talk about weird punk, but most of those bands aren’t really that weird. I think why bands like Dead Wife have such a broad appeal is not that they are really all that weird but because they’re just a really good band. We’ve been lucky and gotten pretty healthy crowds out to our shows, and I think that may be because we aren’t too specific to just one scene.

Shub Roy (guitar): People can label us whatever they want, but to us, it’s just rock ’n’ roll, and hopefully our music can offer different things to different kinds of people.

M: Montreal has always been known as a hotbed for indie pop but there seems to be a new vibrancy in the live scene for punk, hardcore, noise, doom, drone and so on.

TR: When I moved here from Halifax two years ago, I was really impressed that I could see touring bands that I had records of. That blew my mind, but there would be the same two local bands opening for every show. Now there are a million great bands in the city as well as a million great venues and loft spaces for them to play. When there are spaces for bands, great things happen, and I think that’s something we should cherish. It just happened so quickly too, and for a band like us to play to 400 people in a loft, there’s just nothing better. Montreal has really got something special going on now and I think the people that live here are just starting to realize it. What we have in Montreal right now is pretty fucking awesome. - Montreal Mirror

In roughly a year, Montreal's Grand Trine - a trio featuring vocalist/bassist Tobias Rochman, drummer Raf Katigbak and everything-else-ist Shub Roy, have pulled together a sweaty raw success of an EP. It hints at classic Sonics witchcraft nd modern Black Lips mayhem and packs energy and variety. Lead-off track I Am A Magnet travels with high-speed bass lines through a cloudy haze and back. The mood calms for reverb-soaked psychedelic Catatonic State; the Export USA bursts into experimental blooping and electronic vacillation that might be the sounds of a 70s-era Skylab mission. The last two tracks close on a fuzzy, rocked-out high, leaving us wanting more.
Top Track: Nazi Gold - Now Magazine