Clash Meets Montreal Duo She-Devils

As part of our SXSW round up...

Montreal duo She-Devils head to their first SXSW to play a Canadian showcase at Swan Dive in the heart of down-town Austin.

Sampled sounds and textures by Kyle form the foundation of their woozy psychedelic pop, with pretty reverb-heavy melodies from Audrey floating in the ether above.

With thousands of people on the streets and police car sirens clearing the way, Clash caught five minutes with the band to find out where these heavenly sounds come from.

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Is this your first SXSW? What do you think of this madness?
Audrey Ann Boucher: Yes. It's pretty good actually. It's intense, but it's not bad.

Kyle Jukka: I didn't like it at first. It was bewildering and I didn't know what was going on, but now I'm five days in it feels good.

You released an EP last year. Any news on the follow up?
Audrey: It's not out yet. It's up coming. Very soon. That's all I can say about it. Ooh, a little secretive! For those that missed the EP, tell us about your dynamic as a duo.

Kyle: I really like just exploring sound and sort of like mess around until I have something that has a face and Audrey does her thing.

Audrey: Kyle gives me a minimal loop and then I do whatever I want with it, like write a song on top of it and then I give it back to him and he adds tonnes of things on top of it. We don't jam, we just share ideas.

Watching Kyle, where your gear wasn't even really facing the crowd, would it be fair to say you’re a head down sample obsessive kind of guy, always listening out for that next sound? Where do you get your sounds from?
Kyle: Yeah, there's a bit of that, especially when you listen to old music. I'm always listening out for sounds I can snip out. A lot of my sounds I make. And a lot of them I sample and just snip them up.

So Kyle creates the sounds first and gives Audrey a vibe of what to do with them?
Audrey: Yeah. I like it when they're as simple as possible because I can have full control. If there are too many sounds and already a melody going on, I can't work with those samples. I can only work with the ones that are really open. I need control! But at the same time the things he gives me that click really work. That's something I really cherish.

It's a really nice contrast that you both have. The complex fuzziness that Kyle produces and the melodies from Audrey that are simple and lovely on the top. It keeps it all together.
Kyle: Yeah, it's something sweet and something hard together.

How long have you known each other?
Audrey: Almost six years. We met at the Torn Curtain jam space in Montreal. He was already making music and I thought his music was really cool, which made me want to hang out with him. We just took it from there. It took a long time before we started doing this together, but once it clicked it really clicked. We've been making music together almost three years now.

Are you playing any shows in England soon?
Audrey: We are! We’re playing the Great Escape and Moth Club. It looks cool. I've never been to England.

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Catch She-Devils at the following shows:

May
18 London Moth Club
18 – 20 Brighton The Great Escape

Words: Gemma Hampson

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