LEAVE

The Montreal-bar and club hitting band we were waiting to see, Leave, is one band worth checking out. I’ve listened to their songs way before off their website and was completely astonished at how special their lyrics were, and how talented these young men were. Not many bands these days can confidently say that Pink Floyd and the Beatles have been great influences to their music, but this band says it proudly, and proves it quite well on stage. The added touch of melodic piano lines of Mathieu’s keyboard, Patrice’s moving lyrics and structuring drum beats, the perfect vocal alterations between Mathieu and Jeremie, Jeremie on guitar and quiet Benjamin on not so quiet bass, all with the overall genuinity of the band expressed through sincere almost child-like smile exchanges and stage-sense-of-humor, come together to form Montreal’s hottest Brit-rock style band. I couldn’t help but doodle some hearts near their faces off a flyer I had on my table at Café Campus. Hey, they’re good looking guys! 
Heavy (home-made!) promotion, crazy website, and refreshing musical skills are taking this band to a higher level. The abilities they picked up from school and from experience, and uniqueness, delivered one hell of a night and I’d check out this band again anytime!
I had the chance to interview Patrice, the song writer and drummer of the band. It’s a long interview but worth checking out. These guys have got their goals in mind, and know what grounds they’re stepping on. No more floating in “I wanna make it big and our band is the best”, these guys are modest and know their shit.
INTERVIEW 
Psyko: You guys seriously rocked the show and have really given me hope that there are still original bands out there. Your uniqueness is captivating and quite refreshing. What would you say are Leave’s main ingredients to have made it this far, or for song writing? What makes you guys special?
Patrice: Simple, we like the sound of a good melody. There are a lot of bands today that try to make good songs, but not a lot of them are able to find the melody. Anyone can write a song, but not anyone can write a song with a good melody. Combining the rich sound of a piano with the raw sound of a guitar, gives you Leave. Add the melody to it and you end up with something original. Most of bands out there just wanna rock. There's just a lot more to music than just distortion. Most of the best rock songs ever written claim are extremely rich. Take "Hey Jude" or "Stairway to Heaven" for example. They are both made up of good lyrics, rich and mature sounds and of course perfect melodies.
We sound different from other bands because we wish to sound different. Every year, new bands emerge with the same
alternative sound of 2 guitars, 1 bass and 1 drums. But what happened to the piano and the rich sound of the DJ or the Mellotron? They got put away in North America. They're all instruments invented in the Rock & Roll era or before, and they just sound great. Why put them away? These sounds are the major reason why we don't sound like any other rock band. We also have only one guitarist, so our sound is richer and more Brit-like. We are basically using the same instruments that Pink Floyd, the Beatles or Coldplay used or are using. We want to show the people that rock music can be rich and
purely simple by using the same gear as they did 35 years ago.
Psyko: I’ve noticed that you all are French speaking but yet I couldn’t help but notice that your songs are in English. Is there a reason for this? (Maybe you want to make it big in Canada but not necessarily in Quebec). You guys are in a local Montreal band, have you considered writing a French song? 
Patrice: We like English songs, written by English artists. So if we're going to have a band and write songs, why not do it in English since we love it so much. We are all proud of living in Quebec, and for speaking French, but musically
speaking, we all dig English music. We listen to what we like, we buy what we like, so we're going to continue writing music in the language we like. English music is what we grew up to and it touched us in a way no other music did, so we're
continuing it's history. We don't plan on writing a French song, not even a single track! We've been asked this before, and it's not in our plans. We like Brit-rock, we sound Brit-rock and well, French is not part of the Brit-rock sound!
Psyko: How did you guys get together anyways? I noticed genuine exchanges of smiles between you and Mathieu, and with the other members of the band, and Jeremie made me laugh too a few times with his expressions on stage. You seem to be close, were you guys friends first? And when you guys practise, is it hard staying serious, or is it hard to even be laid-back at all?
Patrice: We met long before Leave was on paper. Mathieu and Jeremie were in a band before Leave, and I met Mathieu by playing in a Philharmonic Orchestra at I.S College. Benjamin was also a musician at the same college. Time passed and we all hooked up together mainly because of the same passion for the Brit-rock sound and the love of melody. Mathieu and Jeremie are the 2 clowns of the band. They share a great sense of humor. As for myself, I'm more the clam and wiseman of the band. Benjamin is more the quiet type. We understand each other very well and practises are rarely ever negative. Being organized as a band, we don't tend to relax or take it easy in practise. For us, having a band is very serious and almost a full-time job. But Jeremie is in charge of making us laugh once in a while to remind us that we must enjoy what we do.
Psyko: You guys have a strong British style, in terms of clothing and hair. Why were you (Patrice) wearing a UK sweater in one design of your flyers? And also, your lead singer has short hair and is the only one!, are you guys gonna kick him out? 
Patrice: The UK shirt on our flyers was just a simple blink to our love for British music. We don't dress and put our hair down to be more Brit-like. We dress that way because we like it. We are 4 French speaking guys with a love for the
Brit-style and music, and that's it! No more, no less. Any member of the band can dress the way he likes and we won't judge him for that. We believe in ourselves and in our music and we plan on staying that way for the rest of our lives.
Psyko: You boys are really good looking. How would you feel if you became crushes for little girls? Flattered or dissed? 
Patrice: We really don't mind if we people say we look good or not, we're musicians, not models! I'm sure peopl will like us for what we play and not for what we look like, but I rarely doubt that 14 year old girls will be on our feet someday. We don't think we have this kind of crowd and music. If we do, well at least once in their lives they'llb e hearing good and
intelligent music. We tend to be loved by University students or young adults, but if our music can reach a younger
audience, well why not! To me, it'll confirm that we make really good music because people of all ages can be touched
by it.
Psyko: I’ve read your lyrics a few weeks back, and was very impressed, and listening to you guys play live impressed me even more, what is the message Leave is trying to portray through the lyrics? They are so different from the typical lyrics we hear out there. You bring up politics. What’s the message? 
Patrice: Music is great, music with good lyrics is even better. We hate songs that don't mean anything. No one writes a song just for the fun of it. Leave wants to make people realize that rock songs are meant to tell a story and not just to have fun. There's a difference between a good song and a great song. The great songs will often have something the other songs
don't: meaningful lyrics! Making a song is a chance to speak up, or tell others about your opinion on certain subjects, so why not use it wisely? We wish that people will read and be puzzled by our lyrics. We don't want to change the world but we'd like to make our songs say something intelligent and wise. Make people react to them. Make them realize that a song is not only entertainment, it's art. Art can be political, fun or serious. With a sound as smooth as ours, the lyrics are even more important to us.
Psyko: How did your promotional plans come about. Can you tell us a little bit about how it works in case new bands would like to promote themselves through flyers and such? 
Patrice: Our promotions were all home-made. Flyers, posters, website, are all made by the band. It helps having a
graphic artist (myself) in the band. But one thing I can tell you for sure is that Promo HELPS A LOT!!! I'm telling you, no band can survive, get feedback, gigs, make promos, and make it big without a WEBSITE! Not in 2003! Our website has given us a lot of results and contacts that we didn't even imagine we could have. It's easier to promote a website than to promote an unknown band. It's sad to say but by promoting the website, people can discover Leave at their own rate, and then decide to come and see us or not. Give them a flyer or a business card after the gig and they'll remember you. Give them nothing to hold on to and they'll forget you as soon as they leave the gig. Sad to say but it's true. We really need to push hard in every direction and as often as possible.
Thank you Patrice and thank you to Leave for inviting MMS to your show! Keep us updated! And for all those interested in taking a ride, make sure to check out www.leaveband.com !

~psyko~ - ~psyko~