At the core, Montreal Moog-rock band Duchess Says are a family affair. Their relationship can be traced directly to the friendship of co-founders Ismaël Tremblay (keyboards, guitar, programming) and Annie-Claude Deschênes (vocals, keytar, guitar, programming), who met at the age of 14 just outside of Quebec City. She attended a convent while he went to a nearby boys’ school.
“We were both a little bit rebellious, and started making bands together from the time we were 16,” says Tremblay from his home.

They had many, but it was after the duo had learned more about recording, moved to Montreal in 2001 and met like-minded musicians Simon “Says” Besre (drums) and Phil Clément (guitar, bass, feedback) that they formed Duchess Says in late 2003.

They connected through a shared appreciation of bands including Sonic Youth, The Velvet Underground and synth-punkers Brainiac and Six Finger Satellite. Since then, the bonds have grown.

“We have a deep chemistry,” says Tremblay of the band. “There is a kind of family link that is strong. We relate through music and can communicate and improvise without even talking.”
The first musical evidence of their kinship came in the form of Noviciat Mere-Perruche, a four-song EP released in 2005. But the aspirations of Duchess Says have always extended to other mediums. Like many musical Montrealers of the past few decades — including now-defunct comrades Les Georges Leningrad — Duchess Says are art punks with a number of creative ideas on the agenda.
“We’ve always seen Duchess Says as a way to practise all arts together,” says Tremblay, mentioning that he and Deschênes also worked on multiple projects while she studied visual arts at the Université Laval. “Duchess Says is like our big installation.”

He then points to the group’s rather nebulous “parallel project,” the Church of Budgerigars. The premise is that Duchess Says makes music to promote the Church and spread the gospel of The Duchess, a deity they refer to as the spiritual budgie. So what’s the word?

“The message is, in fact, something that is actually felt,” says Tremblay carefully. “Using words to describe it, we feel, would constrain or kill it so it’s a little bit undefined and we’d like it to stay that way. It’s a work in progress.”

Although this is vague, and services the band once offered on their website — including psychic phone lines, tarot readings and a religious shop — smack of a piss-take, Duchess Says are sincere about their religion.

“I think the main thing is that we want to be an inclusive band,” says Tremblay. “It’s just a way to express a little bit what we feel is happening in our shows — a festive connection between the audience and us. It’s not a show that we want people just to watch, we want people to participate. It’s always like a big family and we’re having fun together.”

This, as anyone who has witnessed Duchess Says live, is an understatement. Both times that I’ve attended their shows, I’ve been in awe of just how blurred the boundaries between band and audience are. Duchess Says pound out aggressive, accessible rhythms, Deschênes shrieks over walls of feedback, wailing guitars and dark synths, and the crowd goes crazy, bouncing on and off the stage as well the walls.

Amazingly, Duchess Says has captured this near-chaos on their debut album, Anthologie des 3 Perchoirs, out April 15 on Alien8. Recorded over the last year and a half, the album offers many a hook and melody amid the din. Like their live shows, the album is also extremely intense, reflecting the bandmates’ personalities.

“Yes. We’re all very passionate people and a little bit tortured too so if we express ourselves, it’s going to be that way,” chuckles Tremblay.

“Offstage, we’re naturally reserved, but stepping on the stage is like stepping in your living room and having a TV party with friends.

“We leave a lot of room for improvisation so the show is very directly influenced by the crowd itself. It creates and energy or resonance that goes higher and higher. It’s like having sex —when you try to give your partner an orgasm, you work towards it.” 

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