We get the scoop on this year’s Anachronik festival, featuring a reunited Gutter Demons, We Are Wolves, and more

Montreal is hardly strapped for festivals. Yet as Anachronik co-founder Frédéric Roy-Hall points out, there is definitely a space for a self-proclaimed “vintage music” festival mid-way between the various free outdoor gigs throughout the summer, and the higher-tier festivals like Osheaga.

Enter Anachronik. Now in its second year, Anachronik will take place May 2 & 3 in a number of venues throughout the city, capped off by 2 nights at Club Soda headlined by dance-rockers We Are Wolves, and psychobilly heroes Gutter Demons,  their first show since disbanding 6 years ago.

We caught up with Anachronik co-founder Frédéric Roy-Hall to get the scoop on this year’s festival, Montreal’s vintage scene, and his picks for the can’t-miss acts at this year’s edition.

Where did the inspiration for Anachronik come from?

The inspiration for Anachronik came from various other festivals in the world that I had the chance to visit. My partner and I have organized over 500 events in the last few years, and we were starting to be a little bored. Shows are generally amazing, but there is so many other ways to present them than to just put them on a stage on a Saturday night.

The inspiration came from our passion for old school music and from our need for new challenges in event organization. The vibrant vintage scene of Montreal is one of the biggest in the world, but there is no one that ever focuses on it, yet we have over 17 vinyl stores, 30 vintage clothing shops, and much more thrift shops than we can imagine. Jive and swing dance schools are fully booked, and open new offices in bigger spaces. St-Laurent is a paradise for vintage lovers, but nobody knows it yet.

How do you see Anachronik fitting in with Montreal’s huge number of festivals?

We realized, me and my partner Benoit Trottier, that due to several laws and the culture in Montreal, we didn’t have that many quality festivals. We certainly have a lot in Montréal, but most of them are for a general public and free. There is no festival between a free festival downtown, and a 250$ per weekend festival like Osheaga. We wanted to create something that represents the creativity of Montreal in an event, and not just on the scene.

The first year of the festival seemed pretty centered on rockabilly / punk bands, but you’re stretching out stylistically this year with We Are Wolves, among others. How did you go about picking the bands for this year’s edition?

Actually, we don’t think we’ve changed that much, but we think people will only understand it when they will be at the event. We Are Wolves is known for their synthetic electronic garage music for sure, but if you have seen them live lately, they turn out to be so much rock n’ roll and garage on stage. They are a garage band to me, even if they weren’t two years ago.

For sure there is more garage bands than last year, but to be honest, this year in Canada, and much more surrounding Montreal, there is a major boom in different lineups. Rockfest decided to go big, Heavy Montreal decided to turn rock, and there is a big burst of small festivals in different regions. Getting great bands to play was a really hard thing to do. We are proud of the bands we have, but yes, sometimes with major promoters like Evenko in the path, we have to be creative to have a great lineup.

People seem particularly excited about The Gutter Demons reunion for the festival. How did you end up convincing them to regroup?

Benoit Trottier is the hero behind that story. He worked hard on different levels. We’ve been working for years  doing great shows and paying bands good money, sometimes at a loss. I think we’ve built a reputation for crazy excitement and respect for the artists’ work. We made them an offer that included our support in their career. After a couple of meetings and a lot of good discussion, they chased us, even with many promoters on the line. We are proud and we thank the band for that.

Passes for the festival are priced very low, which is great. Is that a reaction against festival pricing in general?

No it’s not a reaction; we would like to ask for more for sure, because artists need to put food on their plate too. We work hard all year long to achieve this kind of event and there is no money return yet. We were expecting it though. We think it’s the price people want to pay, and not the value of the event.

Where would you like to see the festival in the future? Is there anything you would specifically like to work on for future editions?

We want to push the concept further and organize in store concerts, fashion events, and crazier stages. We already have a couple of huge surprises to showcase, and we want that kind of stuff to be our trademark. We want people to have more than want we expected.

Apart from the headliners, what are some of the newer bands people should look out for at this year’s edition?

There are for sure some bands that we are excited about. First, Prieur&Landry, a duo from our city, they are just amazing. It’s kind of a “Nirvana meet The Black Keys” sound, and we expect a lot for them in the future. They don’t even have any music out yet.

There is also Hey Sugar, that just launched their new album 3 weeks ago. We expect a really heavy show.

A last one for good luck would be The Cheap Thrills concert. It’s been a while since they played, and their set is at 2 am in the morning when party animals will be raging. We expect people to go out of their mind. Literally.

Anachronik runs from May 2-3 in various venues throughout Montreal. Passes start at $21, and are available at http://www.anachronik.com/#!box-office/c3cg.