Pouzza Fest

2012 sees the second year that punks take over downtown Montreal over the May Long weekend with Pouzza Fest – a three day punk festival with 175 bands including the likes of Hot Water Music, The Lawrence Arms, Bouncing Souls, Menzingers, The Holy Mess, Lagwagon, Less Than Jake, Mike Park, The Flatliners and many, many more.

With less than a month to go before the festival, we gave Hugo Mudie – the founder of the festival – a call to talk about what people can expect this year, the inspiration behind the festival, why it stands out amongst other festivals and, most importantly, what type of pizza to use when making Pouzza.

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 Bobby: We’re less than a month before Pouzza Fest – are you excited?

Hugo: Yeah, we’re pretty excited. It’s a lot of work right now but I think it’s going to be great and people are responding well to it. We sold out of three day passes, so yeah, we’re pretty excited.

Bobby: This is the second year of the festival – what made you decide to launch the festival last year?

Hugo: It was mostly from going to Fest in Gainesville. With my band, we’ve been to Fest in Gainesville three times and every time we were like “fuck, this could work well in Montreal” but we were busy doing the band and other things. But then I started a production company and booking agency with my friend and we were ready to organize a festival. That’s why we did it last year.

Bobby: Did you take any lessons or cues from watching how The Fest in Gainesville did grow up over the last decade?

Hugo: What I did is basically based my festival on the experience I had at Fest and other festivals of the same genre. I took what I liked about it and tried to change what I didn’t like about it – which was not a lot; but some stuff I thought could be different. So that’s basically what I’ve done to apply it to my festival. But yeah, I think without Fest in Gainesville, I don’t think I ever would have had the idea about doing a festival like this here.

Bobby: You said that you wanted to change some stuff – what type of things did you put into Pouzza Fest to change it?

Hugo: Well, it’s mostly to adapt it to Montreal. It’s just that Gainesville is a small town and it’s only basically one street with a lot of venues. But Montreal is a lot bigger, so I just wanted to adapt it to a bigger city. I wanted also people to experience more the feeling of the city, of Montreal; which is a great place to visit even if it’s not for the festival. So yeah, that and just the way, as a band, the whole experience of going to a festival like this – how you are treated when you get to the city and how the information you have and all that – I just based it around my experience at The Fest.

Bobby: Do you think the fact that Pouzza Fest is in the heart of Montreal which is, in itself a thriving and exciting city, serves as a big draw for the festival?

Hugo: Yeah, I think it helps a lot. We also based it around it. We know that people like Montreal and want to visit it, so people that are into punk rock – I think it’s the best weekend to do so because if you’ve never been to Montreal but you were always kind of interested in it, now there’s another reason to do it. We have a lot of people coming from all around the world coming for this weekend and I’m sure the fact that it’s in Montreal helps a lot because those people probably heard cool things about Montreal already, already like Montreal and now we have a festival like this that people can also enjoy.

Bobby: The central hub for the festival is the Uqam, the university – kind of like the Holiday Inn at The Fest. Do you think having a bit of a central hub where everybody stays and you have registration and stuff helps create a better environment and community feel for a punk festival?

Hugo:  Well, that’s what the goal is but it is certainly hard to plan that kind of stuff. We want the bands to stay at the same place and people tend to get a room there, so of course the sense of community is a big thing with those kinds of festivals. That’s probably like the main thing behind it – is that we want people to go to the barbecues and hang out there. We want people to go see the movies and hang out around the venues. It’s all about meeting new people that are like minded and from all around the world. But yeah, I think it’s cool if people all gather around that and all the bands meet. I think It’s super cool.

Bobby: You just mentioned the movies. You are doing two screenings of documentaries – The Other F Word and Punk: The New Wave. You’re also doing the Stomp Records Hangover Records and the Pouzza Bambino for kids. Can you tell us a little bit about all these extra activities that you’ve added?

Hugo: Yeah, we’re doing this movie thing. We wanted to do it the first year but we kind of run out of time to plan it so we did it this year; we’re really proud of the movies we’re showing. It’s two great movies that are related with punk and also we’re doing the Bambino thing. We all have kids and we’re at that age where all our friends have kids and sometimes we would like to bring them to shows but it’s always either too late or in a bar. So we decided to do this, so all our friends with kids can come up and other people that have kids can come see a show with them. It’s also a kid friendly show from people who did records for kids lately and also, there’s going to be stuff like mascots and little treats for kids. We’re going to have other activities like instruments that the kids can try and play on them – stuff like that.

We’re also doing this thing called Skate and Destroy on Sunday at Fou. We’re going to have a ramp upstairs and the bands can bring their skateboards and we’re going to have a little friendly competition with skateboarders from here and the bands and all that.

Bobby: So that’s going to make it quite interesting. Do you think it’s good to be able to offer more than just the music for three solid days?

Hugo: Well, I think it’s essential actually. There’s a lot of music and it’s non-stop from early afternoon until night, so I think it’s cool to have something else to do and also we’re always taught that the punk thing was more than just music. It’s about, like we said before, the community aspect of it and meeting new people and celebrating a different kind of lifestyle – so we wanted to include that in the festival for sure.

Bobby: It’s also a nice opportunity, with like Pouzza Bambino, to introduce the punk lifestyle to a younger generation as well.

Hugo: Exactly. And we want also to kind of destroy the prejudice that punks are fucked up people on drugs and they can’t take care of kids – which is not true. We kind of want to celebrate the fact that we can have kids and we can be good with them and all that.

Bobby: We did kind of talk a bit about this already because you have added a lot of unique things to this festival – but right now there’s a ton of other punk festivals out there. There’s The Fest, Way Out West Fest, Death to False Hope, Riot Fest and so on and so on. How does Pouzza Fest stand out amongst them all?

Hugo: Well, I think we’re the only ones in Canada first; and I think that the Montreal aspect of it is what’s most different. Also, the French aspect. We have bands singing in French and we have a lot of people that speak French involved in the festival which, I think, is a lot different than if you go to an all-American festival just as a culture. And again, just like the name of it – Pouzza is poutine and pizza which we only have here. It’s just a celebration of Montreal and the culture here and all that. I think, like we said before, the fact that it’s in Montreal adds a lot of things to it.

Bobby: With the festival this year, you’ve actually jumped from around 100 bands last year to around 175 this year. Who are you most excited to see?

Hugo: I hope that I’m going to be able to see a couple bands. Last year I only saw Lifetime and Roller Starter because I was too busy working. But this year, I plan on seeing Classics of Love. They’re playing last on the last day – so I’m thinking I may be able to make it. I’m really excited about the old bands, like Poison Idea and Naked Raygun. They’re all bands that never come here and it should be very interesting for people to see. I’m super excited about the ska night at the Sunday at Club Soda where Less Than Jake, Suicide Machines, Voodoo Glow Skulls are playing. It’s all bands that I listened to when I was fourteen and saw at Warped Tour when I was young. I think it’s a super cool lineup for people that like that kind of music.

Bobby: I read that you were trying to get Banner Pilot to come up and play but you had trouble getting the drummer over the border. How hard is it to get the paperwork in order for all these bands from all over the place?

Hugo: Well we’re kind of learning more and more how to do all that. It’s not that hard if you don’t have a criminal record. That’s the only problem we’ve faced – everything else is good. We take care of it and it’s all legal, but if there’s a criminal record involved, it gets harder.

Bobby: Other than Banner Pilot, have there been any really big problems where bands weren’t able to make it or got in trouble because of the border crossing?

Hugo: Oh no, nothing like that happened last year. Everybody got in so we were pretty happy about that and we’re doing the same this year.

Bobby: I know you, yourself, are playing a solo show with Fred Jacques. A few months ago you announced that the Sainte Catherines were calling it a day and you’re actually playing your final show tonight at Club Soda. Why didn’t you set up Pouzza Fest to be your final show?

Hugo: Because it’s too much at the same time, emotionally and work. Too much work and too much emotion at the same time. I wanted to end The Sainte Catherines before I could start working seriously on Pouzza. I think it would’ve been too much.

Bobby: Yeah, it gives you time to separate the two I guess.

Hugo:  Yeah, especially emotionally. It’s going to be a lot of emotions tonight and Pouzza Fest is a lot of emotions because it’s a lot of work and when it’s over you finally start to breathe again. So all this together would’ve been crazy.

Bobby: It would’ve been a bit of an overload I guess.

Hugo: Exactly.

Bobby: You said earlier that you’ve sold out the three day passes to Pouzza Fest. One thing I do find interesting about Pouzza Fest is that on top of the three day passes, you’re also selling individual tickets for the shows. What was the reasoning behind deciding to do that?

Hugo: Well, I mean it’s a financial matter.  It’s the only way we could make it work financially. If it was only passes, the passes would have been a lot more expensive which is not the goal. We don’t want the passes to be two hundred bucks because we think it’s too expensive. So we found this way which we didn’t invent actually. It’s based on other festivals, where thirty percent of the festival is reserved for passes and then seventy percent is for tickets but that doesn’t mean you sell out of the seventy percent. Some shows will but some shows only sell like twenty percent of the seventy, so then there’s another fifty percent of passes that can go. So it’s just the best way we found so far. I mean, if we find a better way – we’ll do it. But so far that’s the best way. And of course, you can’t please everyone. Some people are going to say “yeah, but I bought a pass and now I can’t go see this show.” It’s like “yeah, but you can see another show at the same time which I think is as good as the other one.” That’s how we do it.

Bobby: Do you think there’s going to be a risk of the chance of people complaining loudly if they can’t get into the show they want with a wristband?

Hugo: Well there is already a bit, but we explained that… I mean, tell me a better way to do it and we’ll do it but that’s the better way we found. I mean, out of the twenty people that are going to complain – there’s probably going to be two thousand that are going to be super stoked about the whole thing. So it’s not a big thing for me.

Bobby: Just a few more questions. Pouzza Fest, like you mentioned, is a rather unique name. Is Pouzza something you eat on a regular basis?

Hugo: I try not to, but it’s something I really like. But I’m getting old and I’ve got to not die from a heart attack.

Bobby:  Is there a specific type of pizza that goes best with the poutine?

Hugo: Personally, I think its only cheese. It’s only plain pizza with plain poutine. Maybe the only thing that I would accept is hot sauce or hot peppers. But that’s all. No crazy ingredients.

Bobby: I guess that’s about it – do you have any final thoughts you would like to add about Pouzza Fest?

Hugo:  I just want people to have fun for three days and meet new people and go crazy and just don’t think too much for three days and just enjoy the moment.

Bobby: One thing I did forget to ask was that last year Dear Landlord had a secret show. Do you have any plans for anything else like that?

Hugo: Of course. There’s even more this year. There’s secret locations and secret shows but I’m not going to tell you. *laughs*

Bobby: It was worth a shot to try and get it out of you.

Hugo:  We’ll see, but we’ve planed some crazy stuff – that’s for sure.