Meet you in Metropolis
Anomalie to mix and master the essence of Montreal in TA show
Not only does Nicolas Dupuis use the sounds of his city as a means of embellishment in his EP series, Metropole, the two-part live electronic project is quintessentially Montreal.
“I am heavily inspired by my hometown,” says Dupuis, known professionally as Anomalie.
As a strict instrumentalist and producer, the young Canadian keyboardist does not rely on lyrics to carry an explicit message in his songs. Instead, he draws his inspiration from particular moments – images, feelings, memories – that paint the Montreal landscape via sound.
If you listen with a razor-sharp ear to “Canal,” the opening track of Metropole Part II, you can hear water droplets sampled straight from the Lachine Canal. “I love walking around the city and biking along the canal in the summertime,” Dupuis explains. “I’ll always bring a small recorder with me to get some different samples – the wind or the water or local conversation.” He then applies these samples to his music as an FX sweep, a percussion loop or “whatever comes to mind.”
The first EP – which was released in 2017 – also invited listeners on an aural journey through various Montreal neighborhoods, but Dupuis came at it from a less obvious place. The track “New Space” sums up his new apartment in the city, but does not name a specific street: “I wanted to create something that everybody could relate to at first,” he reflects.
However, the sequel is more sight-specific. Dupuis admits to listing off iconic streets like “Crescent” and “Parc” this time around, in an effort to bring clarity and continuity to the project. Another way in which he achieved this was through a series of viral videos, some of which were recorded in the urban world.
These video clips were vital to the musician’s early success. Dupuis views his visual content as “an incredible launchpad that has been at the core of the project’s extension since their inception.” His string of homemade online jam videos even caught the attention of Brooklyn-based producer Gramatik, who invited Dupuis on tour – a huge stepping stone in his new career.
DESPITE BEING surrounded by primarily electronic influences while growing his own electronic image, Dupuis’s classical and jazz roots crossover the electronic currents of Metropole Parts I & II as seamlessly as metro lines overlap in downtown Montreal.
“You caught me,” Dupuis smiles. “My mother is a classical piano and music theory teacher. And before retiring, my dad had a classical music radio show.”
Dupuis traveled down the jazz-fusion path during his studies at Saint-Laurent Cégep, where he acquired a new set of skills from their music program after drinking the killer Kool-Aid of jazz-fusion legends like Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea. It was also over this period that he started playing around and developing his keyboard-centric style, which today he proudly sports as an electronic badge of honor.
“It was rare at the time to play synthesizers in real time [live], as the majority of producers were creating most of their sounds through mixers and programs,” Dupuis says. “I chose to place the keyboard at the essence of everything.”
This bold approach also helped the young musician establish his performance persona: Anomalie. Before having a sense of meaning or direction, one of Dupuis’s goals was to find a name that was spelled in French, but could also be pronounced easily in English, French and other languages. He also believed that his approach was somewhat of an anomaly, at least when he first threw it into action.
“Now that I’ve been in the game for a couple of years,” he says, “I’ve realized that this approach is becoming less and less unusual as producers, instrumentalists and singers from different backgrounds step into the production game. It’s really what the industry is planning to see in the future.”
WITH TWO EPS under his belt and an oleo of new material on the way, Montreal’s mixmaster is stoked to bring his four-piece live show to Tel Aviv’s top performance venue.
“We’re most excited about the weather. It’s been damn cold here,” he laughs. “But in all seriousness, after narrowing my focus on one Metropole for the past few years, I’m eager to take in the sights and sounds of other major cities. The more we travel and see the world, the more I feel external influences sinking in. Perhaps they’ll become themes in an upcoming album. I can’t say... yet, but each new city we visit definitely becomes a part of me.”
Anomalie will perform at The Barby in Tel Aviv on February 26. For more information visit anomaliebeats.com.