About Vanessa Muri
Montreal City Editor Vanessa Muri has lived in London and Tokyo, but finds the charms of her hometown irresistible. From the latest scoops to the best deals in Montreal and everything in between, don't miss her weekly take on life in the fair city.
I finally got around to one of my New Year’s Resolutions this past weekend, attending more cultural events in the city (I'm still looking for time to read). So Friday I enjoyed a little live music at La Sala Rossa.
The main attraction was Sweet Mother Logic, an instrumental band of five members (Justin Wright, Jean-Pascal Saint-Cyr, Eric Kaplan, Jack D. Kelly and Adrian Aitken) blending cellos with synthesizers, electric guitar and drums. The music is difficult to describe if you haven’t heard it before (I heartily encourage you to visit their My Space page and listen to their first album, Ascension Island). 
This is music that takes me outside myself, lets me fully escape the usual nattering of my mind and sends me on a journey. You don’t know where each song is going until they take you there, note by note, chord by chord. The result is a voyage into an exciting new realm in music, with haunting melodies that stayed with me long after the night was over.
Their youth (four band members are in their early twenties) belies their talent and skill, and the fact that they’ve only been together just under two years. I interviewed Eric Kaplan, main keyboard player, on the origins of the band (condensed for space).
VM: How did you come up with the name Sweet Mother Logic?
Eric: The band was together for probably around 6 months prior to finding a name. In fact, we worked on our sound for about a year before ever doing a show. We would spend hours just throwing names back and forth. It kind of became a joke after a while. Finally, one evening I was messaging Justin, stringing random words together:
Eric: Focal Balloon…Logic Balloon…Logic Face…Sweet Mother Logic…Focal Locus
Justin: I like sweet mother logic...actually I really like that
Eric: awesome…I like it too
VM: Who composes the music? Or do all of you come together and just "let it happen"?
Eric: Initially, Justin and JP (the cellists) would compose stuff together or separately. But as soon as more members joined, first Jack (guitar), me (keys) and then Adrian (drums), we all started adding our influences to the mix. Now as we write songs, it usually is done with all five of us in the room, at our instruments. Most often it will just start out of the blue. We always record what we improvise and draw a lot of our songs from there. After that however, is a long composition process of matching bits together, organizing and finally just getting it right.
VM: Are you working on a new album?
Eric: It’s in the planning stage. We want to make it a full-length album, so probably around 10 songs. It will be different from the EP, which was recorded live off the floor. We are not yet sure on what the direction of the album will be, however we do know that there will be one, artistically in any case.
After an inspiring night like this one, I plan to keep this resolution more often. Don’t miss your chance to experience Sweet Mother Logic live at the Discover Indie Festival on Thursday, April 23rd, 9:00 pm at Le Divan Orange.