A Meditation on Montréal

Thoughts on the city ahead of my show at Casa on March 15th

Mar 02, 2025

Circa 2013-2014 in my old Mile End apartment

Montréal will always hold a special place in my heart. This was the place where I truly learned how to be an artist. I felt free to be myself for the first time when I moved there in 2009. Growing up in Edmonton, I used to get yelled at and called gay slurs by guys in pickup trucks, presumably for wearing white jeans (I’m currently wearing white jeans as I type this).

Back in the early 2000s, there was more hostility towards anyone who was different in Alberta than there is today. I would see Facebook photos of Edmontonian friends who had already moved away to Montréal and they were all flamboyantly dressed and wearing makeup. In all the photos, they were laughing.

It looked like a safe place to let your freak flag fly. I was highly motivated to go and see if I could hang in the city where our country’s best musicians hung their hats. Depending on the year during my time in Montréal, I rocked an afro mohawk or a high top fade and I generally dressed like an extra from Downtown 81. The spirit of the city encouraged me to express myself fully.

Before I moved there, I remember watching Ladies and Gentlemen... Mr. Leonard Cohen on NFB all the time and fantasizing about the purely artful bohemian lifestyle that glimmered in every frame of that film. Turns out it was still exactly like that almost 45 years later, the spirit remains.

To this day, it’s a city that truly respects artistry, a phenomenon that has become increasingly rare in the intervening years. Look at Mayor Valérie Plante’s $5.5 million nightlife revitalization plan that calls for “the creation of nightlife vitality hubs” and a grant system to pay for the soundproofing of venues that are under 3,000 capacity. Venues in the hubs will be allowed to operate past 3 AM.

This all was done in the wake of La Tulipe being forced to close due to frequent noise complaints by their neighbour. Local artists took the streets outside to bang drums in protest of the venue’s closing. Rather than pretending that the artists don’t exist, the city has listened and is actually making some decisions to deal with the reality of the situation in front of them.

Comparatively, artists and musicians are rarely considered in municipal decisions in Toronto. With a freshly minted Conservative majority in Ontario and a possible federal shift to the right on the horizon, I can’t help but appreciate from afar any efforts to acknowledge the socioeconomic impact of music and the arts on cities. Toronto has cycled through periods of being a hotbed for folk, reggae, indie rock and hip-hop over the years with no governmental support beyond the occasional mural decades later.

This has led to a bland feeling of homogeneity that has infected every aspect of the city, though there are many groups and individuals creating and fighting against it. Conversely, cities like Montréal and Berlin appreciate the reputational impact of having a healthy local music scene.

Coming of age in Montréal was one of the great joys of my life. I’m playing at Casa Del Popolo on March 15th with Fireball Kid and I hope to see some familiar faces that night, whether it’s at the show or wherever we end up going afterwards. You can get your tickets for the show here.

A Meditation on Montréal

Thoughts on the city ahead of my show at Casa on March 15th

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