Today I’m excited to bring everyone the latest single from three-piece rock band, Population II, called “Pourquoi qu’on dort pas.” On this electric new track, the band delivers a heavy, psychedelic rock-infused sound with feverish funk rhythms, a hint of jazz philosophy, a burst of early punk energy, and a love of minor scales that harkens back to the roots of heavy metal. I was able to catch up with the band for a brief interview below.
The new track, “Pourquoi qu’on dort pas” is a bit more aggressive than we’ve seen in the past two singles, could you talk a bit about how the song came together?
We find it’s a very nuanced track as the aggressive and dark intro and end leave room for passages of light in the verses. The song came through our usual way of improvising. Pierre-Luc and Tristan were grooving together on the verses and Seb stuck that intense intro and conclusion with wonderful bass Melodies. The title is a direct nod to “Why aren’t we sleeping,” from Kevin Ayers/Soft Machine.
”Pourquoi qu’on dort pas” translates to “Why aren’t we sleeping?”
We took the riff from that and changed some notes and it started sounding like Black Sabbath. Our friend Colin Fisher then added some pretty tasty counter melodies and lead lines to the track.
You’ve about how the band’s music is inspired by various musical scenes of the 60’s and 70’s. What is it that you find so appealing about the music from that era?
We think it’s the organic nature of that music. Most of what inspires us are from German music from the late 60’s to 80’s, the Canterbury scene and various punk scenes. We want to continue to push the envelope and aren’t aiming at being a retro revival band but we love those past years scenes for its authenticity (that is still present to this day, but mostly in different forms than a live band). We want the album to sounds as much as us as possible so most of what you’re hearing on our records is us three playing in room and we sprinkle other layers on top. While these artistic decisions might not give us the trendiest overly produced pop banger it makes us who we are. Friends expressing themselves in a communal way.
With the release of your sophomore album, Électrons libres du québec coming this Friday, what’s next for the band?
Population II all over the world! we haven’t toured much in general these last years (haha). Another album and EP is already on the way. And mostly, make something new for us, everybody, to bring joy and hopefully inspire a few to pick up some instruments. Everyone can do it!