The Saint Catherines

The third and final interview of the day (the firsts being with Me First & The Gimme Gimmes and Dead To Me) took place with Quebec’s number one punk rock sons the Sainte Catherine’s who have been constantly touring their freshmen Fat wreck Chord’s release Dancing for Decadence. The band recently took home an award for “Best Independent Punk Album” at the Quebec Independent Music Awards.

I had a chance to chat with the group’s lead singer Hugo before their performance opening up for Me First and the Gimmee Gimmee’s at the Phoenix in Toronto.

---

Lanny: First Question. Does winning “Best punk album of the year” at the Quebec Independent Music Awards lead to this??? (Holds up a photo of Hugo signing a girls breast)
Hugo: (laughter fills the room) that happened in California actually, so it’s not related. That was cool. It was my first time signing anything. We were touring the US for Cracktober Fest, and the boyfriend of the girl came up, as I was doing an interview, and said “Do you want to sign my girlfriends tits, so I said sure, and drew my face on her breasts, and later while we played, she got on her boyfriends shoulders, and showed everyone at the show.
Lanny: California girls, eh Hugo!
Hugo: Yes, I have signed a lot of things before, but never a pair of breasts.

Lanny: Traveling around the world, attending shows, most of your lives, is there anything you miss in today’s punk scene that was there when you originally fell in love with punk rock?
Hugo: Yes, everything is missing actually. It turned out to be not exactly what I had in mind. There is not a lot of community like I thought there would be. Not a lot of bands care about stuff, other than equipment or who their tour manager is. I don’t like hanging out with other people in bands. All they talk about is t–shirt sales, and who their booking agent is. I like to share great moments, and real moments with people. That is why I like a band such as Dead To Me, because they are like the kind of people we thought we would meet out on the road. 
Lanny: So would you say there are too many divisions in punk rock right now?
Hugo: Yes exactly, before you could go to a show with different bands, and different styles. Now people are like “ Oh no that is a ska band playing, oh my god”. So what it is just different people playing different styles, and that’s how it should be.

Lanny: What’s it like touring with the fat guy who signs your cheques???
Hugo: Well we did that in Europe too. We toured with Me First for three weeks in Europe in March, and it was cool, because we never met him before. He signed us without seeing us play or anything. So when we met him we asked “why did you sign us?”, and he said “I don’t really know,” and nobody really knows. It is fun to hang out with him. He is a really cool guy. When we tour he makes a point to hang out with us, even gives us money to go drink, and hangs out at the bar, it’s an “on me” attitude you know.
Lanny: When I saw you at the Warped Tour this summer I noticed Fat Mike, side stage while you played genuinely getting into the music. That has to feel good.
Hugo: Yes exactly it felt awesome, and that is the kind of guy he is.

Lanny: Well thanks for your time Hugo, but I have to go shoot Dead To ME, thank you again for the interview.
Hugo: Yes go watch Dead To Me, Cheers!