The Sound of Sea Animals

THE SOUND OF SEA ANIMALS
Fractions of Fictions

The Sound of Sea Animals sole member is Etienne Chan Kane. Etienne plays everything from guitar, bass and percussion to sitar and keyboards. His talent doesn’t end there as he also sings lead and wrote everything that is Fractions of Fictions. On stage, The Sound of Sea Animals is performed by The Sea Animals, an ever-changing collaborative effort, composed by many of Montreal’s best and brightest. Presently the group is Ysael Pepin on bass (Demons Claws / Mind Controls / Chocolat), Alexandre Brassard (Psycho Riders) on drums & percussion, Nicotine on guitar (Le Nombre), and Catherine Love-City on keyboards (Le Volume est au maximum / Comme un homme libre).

A huge fan of the colourful 60s, Etienne’s personal project echoes some of yesterday’s and today’s most influential musical outfits. Jangly pop guitars and dreamy choruses give way to cinematographic landscapes sown with psychedelia and images from taken right out of spaghetti westerns. He explains, “My music has always been inspired by films: the way a story develops, scene by scene. I often use this same approach when I write my music.” The tracks on Fractions of Fictions are composed of several layered elements that, much like a kaleidoscope, share turns at being in the foreground; but in the background, always a melody, that even if extracted from its musical environment, could almost be an entire song on its own.

“When I was younger, I would record different tracks onto separate tapes and would record myself playing while two or three cassette players would be playing in the background.” Etienne finally upgraded his technique in college, using the abandoned college radio station’s console and a box full of used tapes to record his project. The final mix was recorded over a sound effect cassette entitled Sounds of Sea Animals vol. 1.

His musical musings were put on the backburner until fate dealt him a hand, “I was DJing one night and by the end of the night I was getting lazy, so I decided to throw on some compilations to fill the time. By accident, one of my songs got into the mix, some people heard it and it ended up on a desk at Audiogram.”

Etienne grew up playing in several noise-rock bands in his native Sherbrooke (Quebec, Canada). After having moved to Montreal, he dropped his collegial music project and focused on making a living by working with local artists like Comme un homme libre, Sunny Duval, Les Breastfeeders and Malajube. His past job descriptions range from being tour manager, sound engineer to out-and-out friend. Like all inspired musicians, Etienne could not be held back from his art and working behind the scenes with talented and enthusiastic musicians only inspired to take his music further. Now, 4 years later, we get to hear The Sound of Sea Animals.