Category: Multiple Chord Music

“Chez MCM l’on ressent une belle camaraderie, un support pour le plaisir de la musique et l’indépendance d’esprit de ses créateurs. Après cette soirée l’on se dit que le jazz québécois est toujours bien en vie, vigoureux, entre de bonnes mains. Mais comme me l’a dit Alex Lefaivre, le jazz aujourd’hui c’est l’underground de l’underground…”

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View the gallery here.

 

Here’s an interview with Claude Thibault from sortiesjazznight.com about Multiple Chord Music. The original interview was in French and the text was translated by Claude Thibault.

Young independant label Multiple Chord Music (MCM) launches fall season with concert and showcase of artist roster at L’OFF Jazz, Tuesday, Oct. 6th – Casa del Popolo.

Young independant label Multiple Chord Music (MCM) launches fall season with concert and showcase of artist roster at L’OFF Jazz, Tuesday, Oct. 6th, 8pm at the Casa del Popolo.

We wanted to find out more about MCM with the two founders, bassist Alex Lefaivre and keyboardist Gabriel Vinuela, both of the Parc-X Trio…
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CT – With the significant drop in sales of CDs in stores and online and the difficulty of jazz labels, large and small, what led you to create MCM?
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AL – “Originally, we started the company to release our own albums (Parc-X Trio), because we found that what existing labels offered was absolutely ridiculous. With time, other artists showed interest in joining our label. Our main objective is to create a business structure that allows artists to have the advantages of a label (digital distribution, access to the various forms of financing, booking and promotion consulting, technical and moral support) as well as getting the largest share of the sales possible. We’re only the distributor, so a self-produced artist keeps all it’s editing rights and the master recordings. If the artist prints physical CDs, they are all his as well as the revenues. With our digital distributor, our artists can track their sales in real time, something transparent that traditional labels don’t offer. To sum it all up, we want to help Quebec jazz artists even if the industry is losing ground by working on a new business model that allows the artist to keep a larger share of the revenues.”
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CT – The Andy King Group, Rachel Therrien Quintet, Marjorie Fiset, Annie Dominique Quintet, Frédéric Alarie, Jason Stillman, Tertio,  Mark Nelson’s Sympathetic Frequencies et your own Parc-X Trio…how did the MCM roster add up ?
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AL – “We’ve been working with Marjorie since 2011. Gabriel Vinuela, (his MCM associate and co-founder) plays keys in her group and she asked us for some help on her first album. Last summer (2014) Andy King and Frédéric Alarie joined. I helped Andy with the graphics on his album and mastered Frédéric’s last two albums. They had no more budget and I offered my help graciously to help them finish their projects. They then asked me if they could join MCM. Rachel came on board last October and she introduced us to Believe Digital, our digital distributor. Then the other artists joined by word of mouth. We’re all friends that know each other from the Montreal/ Quebec jazz scene. I encourage all the artists that are interested in MCM to send us their project ideas, our objective is to help the scene at large, not just
a circle of close friends. Don’t be shy, give us a try.”
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CT – Is there a  MCM musical style?
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AL – “Not really, we’re very open in our project selection. Some are more “straight-ahead”, others more contemporary. We have electric jazz-rock groups with a lot of distortion and other groups with a purer and more acoustic sound. The only criteria we have is kind of  abstract, we have to like it enough to be able to wholeheartedly promote it.”
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CT –  What can we expect Tuesday, Oct. 6th at L’OFF Jazz ?
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AL – “The best goddamn jazz party of your whole life! 9 great bands on the Montreal / QC jazz scene that each play 20 minutes.”
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CT – What’s up and coming for  MCM?
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AL – “I can’t reveal anything right now but other bands have gotten in touch with us to possibly join MCM. Parc-X trio is launching a EP in December. Two of our artists have applied for Musicaction for the first time and we’re doing reseach on possible funds from the SODEC. Both of us, Gabriel Vinuela and I, are both musicians so the administrative side of things are done slowly but surely.”
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CT – Your distribution is online and in stores?
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AL – “Our distribution is 100% digital. To be honest , I don’t believe in traditional hard copy distribution anymore, especially in jazz. We encourage our artists to print
copies so they can sell them at concerts or online, which allows them to keep a larger share of the profits.”
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CT –  What would be your wildest dream as a label and producer ?
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AL – “My biggest dream would be to maintain and grow a viable business that offers the most advantages for the artists. I dream of eventually becoming a record producer. I want to create a new business model with an ethical approach for artists. I hope that the local jazz scene continues to grow even if the music business is having difficulties.”
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Interview : Claude Thibault
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Photo : Nicolas Boulay

MCM concert and showcase at  L’OFF Jazz
Tuesday, Oct. 6th 2015 @8pm
Casa Del Popolo
4873 St-Laurent

 

« On veut tous la même chose au fond, jouer notre musique et se faire entendre le plus possible. » Alexandre Lefaivre, MCM

Read the whole interview