Music
Meet Pierre Kwenders and his collective, Moonshine
Congo-born, Montréal-based artist Pierre Kwenders is establishing a platform for modern African music in Canada.
There's something brewing in Montreal. For nearly three years, the Moonshine crew has hosted its lunar-based monthly event at unpredictable locations across the city, celebrating diversity in dance culture. Focusing on the sweaty fringes of electronic music and the African sounds that inform them, the crew has hosted a wide swath of guests: Branko, Win Butler, Kaytranada and Dam-Funk among them. One of the driving forces behind the collective is Pierre Kwenders, also known for his musical outputs. We catch up with Kwenders to celebrate the recent release of his sophomore album, MAKANDA at the End of Space, the Beginning of Time.
Pierre Kwenders is showcasing modern-day diversity
© Neil Mota
In your past life you were an accountant. How did you start in music?
At some point I started singing in a choir, then my best friend and manager knew some people in music and put me in touch with them. We started a collective back in the day called DIFA. It stood for Doing It For Arts. A year after doing those DIFA songs, I thought maybe I should give it a try and do my own thing, so I put out my first EP in 2013, Whiskey and Tea. The response was quite good. A few months later I put out another EP, African Dream, and the response was even better.
There are a lot of different sounds in your music. What sort of sounds are you influenced by?
Music has always been a part of my life. My biggest inspiration is mainly Congolese rumba. Being born in Kinshasa, that’s just the music that plays on the radio. It’s like being born in Canada, where you would probably listen to more folk music or rock and roll. Moving to Canada, I started liking – I don’t want to say electronic music because it’s so vague and everybody does electronic music – but I got into more techno like Tiesto.
Tiesto? How did that happen?
That was actually a friend that got me into Tiesto. It’s a funny story: when the first iPod came out, he had one. So I bought myself one and got him to put all of his music on it. That’s how I discovered techno/house music. I just fell in love with it.
Pierre Kwenders
© Neil Mota
How do you balance your African and Western influences?
My music is influenced by Congolese Rumba, but the aesthetic of what I do is not exactly like Congolese Rumba. In Congolese Rumba, sometimes there will be a song with no chorus. See what I mean? But most of my songs have a chorus. I try to put that in my music as well, but I also write songs in my a very Western way: you have a verse, chorus, structure.
Who are some of the artists that inspire you from the Congolese sound?
Papa Wemba is a legendary Congolese rumba artist. I believe he is one of the first to really add a crossover sound to Congolese rumba. He worked with people like Peter Gabriel and took Congolese Rumba to another level. I believe, today, if I’m doing what I do, it’s because of him. He opened us up to trying different things. I think I’m basically just following in his footsteps, even though I’m doing it in my own way.
How do you grabble with the genres assigned to your music?
I was just speaking with someone who said some people describe my music as afro-futuristic. That’s another thing just to put us in a cage. I’m doing music for everybody. I believe anybody could be singing on a beat that I did, and it wouldn’t be considered afro-futuristic unless they came from Africa. There are African influences in my music, because I’m African and I’m proud to be African, but there’s also this other part of me who’s this young kid who came here and grew up here and learned so many different things. I’m just combining both backgrounds that I have and showing people who I am and my identity. I think my music is meant for anybody. I don’t want to be put in a little case [of a genre]. It’s for everyone.
Your new album came out earlier this month. How did you approach this project differently?
I’ve been more open about myself on this album. “Woods of Solitude” is the most personal song of the album. It’s not about being in the woods, it’s more of getting out of it. On it, I talk about this introspection, self-discovery and self-acceptance. In life you just get to a point where you decide not to follow anybody’s path. I think I reached the point where it's time for me to just be me, and not to lead what people think my life should be. I need to lead my own life and be my own person.
We wanted to give a voice to other types of music and bring something new in Montréal so people could say, “Oh, I didn’t know Montréal could bring me this much joy or diversity.” And that’s how the party came about.
How would you describe Moonshine to someone who had never heard of it?
It’s a collective-slash-label-slash-party. It started as a party. We would usually gather at friend’s apartments or my apartment. We didn’t go out because the music you would listen to doesn’t really represent us. So we were doing that for a while, just doing parties and having noise complaints from our neighbours. Then we thought, “Why don’t we just start a party that represents us?” We wanted to give a voice to other types of music and bring something new in Montréal so people could say, “Oh, I didn’t know Montréal could bring me this much joy or diversity.” And that’s how the party came about.
How did the evolution into the label-like entity come about?
It’s not about being a label. We don’t really like calling ourselves a label. We’re just trying to have a platform that will give a voice and a place to some type of diversity that we don’t have a space in the music business for either in Montréal or Quebec in general, or in Canada. That’s what we’re trying to do with Moonshine, have a place where anybody can come without discriminating on race or gender.
And the ender: what’s next?
I feel very, very inspired right now. I need to get back to work. I have a few ideas and I’m looking forward to being in the studio and start working on it. I have a few songs that are recorded already.
