Dan Mongrain was already a well known and well respected guitarist in the Québec Heavy Metal scene when he joined Voivod in 2008, after the unfortunate passing of the great Denis “Piggy” D’amour, in 2005. He was known for his band Martyr, which has been releasing music since 1995, but also for playing with many well known local artists, including on the great Gorguts album “From Wisdom to Hate”. Piggy had such a distinct and unique playing style that it was hard to imagine someone who could would be a worthy follow up, but Dan not only did it but he did it masterfully. When one hears his compositions in Voivod, it’s easy to hear that he is a longtime, die hard fan who has truly studied the Voivod sound and deeply understands it. The abums he recorded with Voivod have all been very well received critically and, their latest LP, The Wake, is, in my humble opinion, one of their top 5 all time best, which is quite a feat considering the strenght of their discography. I had the pleasure of discussing music with Dan for about an hour, over zoom, with a glass of wine, just before the Holidays. Make sure to check out his private lessons at https://danmongrain.com/ ,
the Martyr vinyl reissues here and don’t miss out on Voivod’s new live album Lost Machine which, along with their latest studio album The Wake, are available from Century Media.
What have you been listening to lately?
Actually, it’s been quite a while since I’ve listened to music just for fun because I teach, I write. I give guitar lessons as well as theory, so when I have time off, I don’t play or listen to music. But lately, since maybe four months, I got back to having the curiosity of listening to new stuff, and old stuff too because it’s been a while since I did the exercise. But there’s things in recent years that’s always in my car. That’s where I listen to music, usually. The band that I have listened to the most probably in the last four or five years is CARDIACS. It became one of my favorite bands of all time. The Seaside is my favorite album, but it changes over time. It’s a band from the late 70’s, early 80’s, and they continued until maybe 2008, because the main singer and composer had a stroke so they had to stop but they’re really heroes of mine. The music is so intricate, so unique. You know, they call it Pop, but it’s not Pop. There’s a Pop flavor to it. There’s a kind of FRANK ZAPPA meets the SEX PISTOLS kind of vibe. It’s pretty out there, pretty interesting. There’s nothing, nothing that I know of that sounds like that. It’s very unique. That’s something that I’m looking for, when I listen to old or new music, it has to surprise me as a listener, and as a musician as well.
So you like music that’s really original, really different from the main sounds that we hear all the time. You don’t like music that reminds you of what exists already.
Yeah. It has to be the aesthetic of the music, the structure that I hear. I kind of see lines when I listen to music. I don’t know why but that’s how I see it. I see lines and it moves. There’s some kind of sculpture going on like it and when it’s a new image, it works for me.
For example, I’m pretty sure Cardiacs influenced bands like MR. BUNGLE or many other acts, actually. Maybe MELT BANANA from Japan? Stuff like that.
Those are two bands that are pretty original themselves!
Yes, original. I’m pretty sure they were influenced by Cardiacs, but when you listen to them, you can see the influence without finding so much similarities. The similarity is more in the approach and the creating process than the result itself.
What’s the album that you think you’ve listened to the most in your life? Do you still enjoy it or listen to it?
I think it’s strange to say that but, I was not playing in the band at the time…So it’s two Voivod albums, I’m pretty sure. Nothingface and Killing Technology are probably the two albums that I’ve listened to the most in my entire life. It sounds like a conflict of interest, but I was a fan for long time. The first cassette I bought was actually Killing Technology. It was probably the album where I understood where the Thrash, Speed Metal band met Progressive Metal Rock. It’s where a lot of new harmonies could be heard in Metal, lots of dissonance and structures of songs that were unexpected once again.
Can you name 5 of the most influential albums to you? What is it that made them so important to you?
MICHAEL JACKSON Thriller would be one of them. That’s probably the first album that I was conscious that I was listening to an artist that was creating music. I could recognize the songs and that introduced me to the world of Pop music, and when I say Pop, it includes Metal and it includes a lots of genre, but you know, it’s not Classical, it’s not Jazz.
I was playing the piano a little bit at a young age, and I knew about Classical music a little bit because my mother has been singing in the same choir for 40 years. I went to many concerts to see her sing in the choir. I knew a little bit about the structures and the arrangement without really putting names on the process of arranging but I could recognize it in QUINCY JONES’ arrangements on that album. Quincy Jones is a legendary arranger, composer, and used to be a singer as well. He did all the arrangement on Thriller, and it’s brilliant. The architecture of the songs, how he used new sounds at the time, they had new synthetizers, and I think they had access to new sounds before everybody else. I’ve heard that Michael had shares in Sony or something like that, and he could have the sounds before every other artist. Maybe I’m wrong on that but you can definitely hear new sounds on this album, for the era that was put out. You just listen to the most famous songs, maybe Thriller in particular, if you listen carefully to the bass line, and the guitar popcorn Funk kind of part, and the brass section, and the drums and the keyboard pads, and the vocals, everything is perfect. It’s very close to perfection that album, the entire album is like that. One of my favorite song is Baby Be Mine. It’s not a famous one, everybody knows Thriller or Beat It or Billie Jean but this one for me, the melody and the chords are just perfect.
Other than that, in different styles of music, maybe DEATH – Individual Thought Patterns. I think that’s one of the album that made me like Death Metal. I was a late bloomer on that kind of music. When CANNIBAL CORPSE and SUFFOCATION and bands like that started, and even before that, I didn’t understand it. I didn’t get it because I was more into Thrash Metal, TESTAMENT, MEGADETH, FORBIDDEN, ANNIHILATOR. I came from more of a METALLICA, Megadeth background when I started to play so it was a little bit aggressive for my ears to listen to guttural vocals, and that’s what I liked in Chuck’s vocals, it was not guttural but more high pitch but still it was not really determined notes. This, and actually a band from Quebec called OBLIVEON, which they approached the music in a kind of a crossover between Death Metal and Thrash Metal. The vocals were a little bit similar to what Death was doing, and the guitar made me think of Forbidden a little bit. It was pretty intellectual music but very well played and executed as well and it was pretty original at the time. That was my bridge to the more extreme stuff later when I got used to the sound of Death Metal and I finally even composed in that style. It was more a mix between maybe the early Thrash scene and then, Death, CYNIC, MESHUGGAH and that that was the main influences. DBC from Montreal as well, it was a huge influence. It was kind of a mix that created the Martyr sound.
Did you ever go back to those bands, like Cannibal Corpse or Suffocation, after you started getting into Death Metal, or you never got into them?
Suffocation, I did with Pierced From Within, but Cannibal Corpse, I saw them live, I met the guys, they are really cool guys and all that…I respect what they did and the popularity that they reached, because they were one of the first bands doing that and also being in the movie Ace Ventura. It was a big deal for Metal actually. It was something that put them on the large scale map. But I never got into it, to actually like it but I saw them live and they were very solid. For me, DEICIDE and Cannibal Corpse fall into kind of the same category, that gore-y, Satanist -as well as OBITUARY, even though it’s quite different musically- but the early Death Metal bands, I never got quite into that. I don’t like this word but I was into the more technical stuff, with developed ideas and themes, that are transforming and yet Progressive Death Metal.
Other than that, other albums? Well, Alice In Hell (Annihilator) was one of them. That’s another Canadian band, actually. Jeff Waters and his band at the time was the closest thing, I think, to what was Metallica at that time. It was Canadian, and they had a different sound, but the guitar playing was fantastic. That impressed me as a young guitar player. I met Jeff, a couple of years back on a cruise ship and we talked a bit and we became friends. I told him, like a fanboy, that I respected his playing and all that and his career. He’s still fighting. He’s like a warrior with his band, he’s still out there. It’s admirable in many ways. He also influenced the playing precision and locking in with a band, and the guitar sound is really, really good. Bands like that, it’s hard to say which one influenced the most, but Forbidden, Twisted Into Form, for sure was a good one. Very influential for me, guitar playing wise, for the riffs, the composition, and I think it was pretty original to have a high pitch singer in a Thrash Speed Metal band, and he sang very well in that context, and I kind of admired that. I’m friend with Craig too, we met in Japan in 2008.
TESTAMENT, The Legacy, The New Order, were in that era as well. Rust In Piece, Megadeth is classic. And Justice For All, Metallica, because it’s probably the most progressive one.
Is that your favorite Metallica album?
Um, Ride The Lightning and …And Justice For All are my favorites. Master is not far behind. It depends on the week! But I don’t listen to those records anymore because they’re overplayed everywhere. It’s not like I’m sitting and listening to them but there’s some gems and some really, really great moment on those record for sure. I like the sound of Ride The Lightning, the production. It’s very crisp and clear. There’s a kind of metallic vibe to it that I really like.
Other than that, very influential guitar wise was Perpetual Burn by JASON BECKER, because he was the youngest, the fastest and the craziest guitar player of his time. I couldn’t believe my ears when I first ordered the cassettes from Mike Varney. I think it was Shrapnel Records. They had all sort of shredders like GREG HOWE and MARTY FRIEDMAN and CACOPHONY and RACER X and stuff like that. I ordered a bunch of cassettes, and I was listening to it non stop. My brother was going crazy listening to fast notes, non-stop for I don’t know how many years, and now I can’t stand it! I don’t listen to it anymore but I still play some riffs that I’ve learned because I’ve transcribed the whole Perpetual Burn album when I was between 17 and 19 year old years. It took two weeks, on and off, and I still have the tabs. I would transcribe a bunch of songs and then stop for a few months. I mailed it to him actually back then, and I got an answer from his father, with a guitar pick and an encouragement letter. There’s some warm ups still that I play some of his riffs.
Not much later, I discovered a guitar player called ALLAN HOLDSWORTH and he’s a big influence not only on guitar, but on composition as well, harmony and improvisation. Since the early 90’s, mid 90’s, I still listen to it and I transcribed some solos and it’s part of my playing for sure. He influenced a lot of Metal players, like the guitarist for MESHUGGAH for example. My favorite album is The Sixteen Men of Tain. That’s his last solo album, he passed away a few years ago, unfortunately, but I had the chance to meet him in Joliette. He played a gig in my hometown, dream come true, so I shook hands and I gave him a bunch of Hopfenstark beer because he’s a beer aficionado. I didn’t want to disturb the soundcheck or anything, but yeah, I’m a big fan. You know right away when he influenced a guitar player because his signature is so strong that, when a guitar player like me or anybody else, when it’s part of our vocabulary, if you know the music of Allan Holdsworth, you can tell when someone is into it, right away. VAN HALEN was a huge fan of Holdsworth, even though he was playing very differently from him. And also FRANK ZAPPA, he was one of his favorites.
So you can hear the influence in their playing?
Not those two because they already had a strong personality even before knowing Holdsworth, but he was a game changer in so many ways like the equipment, the attitude, the sound, the way of phrasing and everything. Actually, there’s a song on one album called Metal Fatigue. I’m not sure of the title of the song, maybe it’s Metal Fatigue, but there’s a lick at the beginning of the song and it’s pretty much the same as the Hot For Teacher tapping lick. I’m sure Van Halen got it from there. But he doesn’t use tapping, he got big, large hands and he could play it without doing the tapping thing.
There’s a lot of Classical music too, as influences. The Miraculous Mandarin by Bela Bartok. It’s not an album, but it’s a composition. Stravinsky, Rites Of Spring. There’s so many things that I’ve listened to, so in that aspect, I think that influenced my way of writing and structuring ideas when it comes to arrangement.
What are some of the most memorable shows or concerts that you’ve been to?
STEVIE WONDER. In Quebec City, outdoor summerfest, one of the best concert I’ve ever experienced. That’s the word, that was an experience. I love Stevie Wonder. I like the album Innervisions a lot. It’s pretty Jazzy. I think he plays drums on it. He plays a lot of instruments. That night was not so long after the Lac Megantic accident, you know, that train exploding in the city and so he talked about it. It was kind of like a mass, really, a celebration of life. He managed to gather everybody into one place, talking through things, directly to the heart and yeah, it was a life changing concert really. And the music was amazing. The musicians were the best on the planet. It was groovy and funky and he sings like no one else. He sang a Michael Jackson song that night, I think it was The Way You Make Me Feel, and it was brilliant. It was just magical.
GILLES VIGNEAULT was another one. A poet, really. The oldest one and the most famous one in Quebec, I guess. I think it was an hour set for a political event and I was was totally transformed by that. His way of standing on stage at 90 years old, very straight, and the way he delivered every text. So much experience in that men on stage and everything was just magical.
What else? What else? I’ve talked about it but my first time seeing OBLIVEON in my hometown when I was younger, it changed everything about how I was practicing with my own band Martyr. When we saw the band playing, I thought we sucked! *Haha* We didn’t sound good, we didn’t play that good. Then, we started to get more serious. It was realizing that we could do better, we can reach that level as well. I could see how and I could hear why and how. I think Obliveon, at the time, in Quebec, brought that will to sound better in people. You have to reach that standard if you want to have success and be a better band. They had a sound guy already. The bar was set higher because of them. They brought everybody up a notch for sure.
IRON MAIDEN. I saw them a few times but I saw the first show when Bruce came back to the band. It was a great show and they started with Aces High right away, first song! Voivod was opening for them so I was there for Voivod basically, cause I’m a huge Voivod fan. I stayed for Maiden, of course, and they played just a bunch of old songs. It was great. What I admire from Iron Maiden is that they’re one of the most physically active band on stage, they’re running around, there’s always action going on, puppets and, you know, it’s never boring. It’s not like seeing a bunch of guys with long hair headbanging for one hour. It’s inspiring and when I’m onstage, maybe I’m moving too much sometimes, but it’s kind of in me now. I don’t want to be bored or boring. So maybe it’s annoying from time to time for people to watch, but I feel the need to move. Whatever stupid moves I make! *Hahaha*
Oh, yeah! Last one, I just thought about it. My most life changing show was in 1990, Voivod on the Nothingface tour. I was 13 years old and it was my first Metal show ever. I was not supposed to be there, I was too young, but I looked a little bit older. I had a juvenile mustache! *Haha* We went with one of my friends, we were playing guitar both and there was a local band opening for them called GENETIC ERROR. Dominic Laroche, who plays in Voivod with me now was there too but we didn’t know each other at the time. That show changed my life. I wanted to do that in my life. I had been playing guitar for two years maybe, and that just reinforced my will to to have my band and living off playing music.
What’s the band that you’ve toured with that impressed you the most? One that you had to watch their set, night after night.
There’s probably many, but we played with MOTÖRHEAD, like four times and, you know, you just watch the show. It was amazing. We played with HEAVEN AND HELL, four days in a row, with Dio. It was in the last years of his life. Incredible, incredible singer and the band was on fire. He was sick at the time but nobody could tell. Touring with NAPALM DEATH was very inspiring. They’re really into it every every night. They give their all. I mean, we’re lucky when we are not headlining, because you get to watch the last band! Have a glass of wine or beer and watch the show and talk to people.
Your shift is done and you can just enjoy the show!
Yeah, you have time for a shower! *Hahaha* I try to go watch pretty much every band but a band that I’ve watched a lot, Napalm was up there. I was not a big fan, but I kind of learned to like them on the road. Sometimes, seeing a band live, that’s where the truth is. You’ll know right away and Napalm is a great band to see live. What else? We’ve toured a lot, the last 12 years. It’s not always bands that I know a lot about, like, when I saw SICK OF IT ALL a year or two ago. I was like, “What the fuck!?” They’re all in their 50’s and they jump around…Again, the physical thing, you know? That’s very inspiring to me to see guys like that who still have the fire. It gives me hope! *Hahaha*
Is there any band that you didn’t like at first, but you learned to appreciate over time, or even years later, going back to it?
Yeah, actually. I didn’t mention that before but another Canadian band that I loved was STRAPPING YOUNG LAD. The first time I’ve listened to City, I think it’s the second album, I didn’t get it. Put it in the drawer for two, three weeks, two months, I don’t remember. But I bought the album because the singer was on a Steve Vai album, and the drummer was playing with Death. I thought, “oh, maybe it’s a good combination.” Then, I listened to the record and I couldn’t hear shit. I didn’t understand the thing. It was too much Industrial, not enough Metal, it was kind of chaotic. Then, two or three weeks or two months later, I tried it again and I understood. It processed at some point. I saw them live, maybe twice, and it was a great show, even though Devin was very sick. But Gene was there and it was the original lineup with Byron on bass and Jed Simon on guitar. Very solid band, amazing. But I already liked them, it’s not because of the live show that I appreciated them more. There’s a lot of bands that I’ve had the chance to watch in festivals that I knew of but I was not really a fan that impressed me a lot. I understood their popularity. Yeah, it’s great to see bands live and I miss it, ah!
What are some of the heaviest riffs ever, in your mind?
I was about to say Jaws’ theme.
That’s menacing for sure!
That’s genius to me. JOHN WILLIAMS is a huge influence. Heavy…I mean, MESHUGGAH is pretty brutal. I’ve known them since the album Contradictions Collapse but the album after that, Destroy Erase Improve, is still one of my favorite of theirs. It was new, they were tuned a little bit higher than now -I think playing with seven strings instead of eight strings- and we could hear the chords and there was a lot more harmony back then. It was polyrhythms and heaviness and it was brilliant. Not so long after that, I think I’ve discovered the DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN and I was just crazy about the Calculating Infinity album. For me, it was very unique, very new, new approach. They changed the game quite a lot. Different aesthetic, but there’s some similarities. One is organized chaos and the other one is chaos organized! *Hahaha*
I see what you mean completely.
We played with Meshuggah a few times, we became friends with them and they’re actually Voivod fans and the drummer’s just amazing. He’s just a time machine, so to speak. He’s one of my favorite drummers in Metal, with Gene Hoglan. It’s super heavy now. It’s heavy structured and the sound is just huge. But there’s some heavier riffs than that. I think some of the riffs that Tony Iommi wrote are the heaviest on Earth. Classic BLACK SABBATH is heavy as shit.
Can you think of three songs, in any style of music that you consider to be perfect songs from start to finish?
Yeah, of course there is. There’s so much. Like I said earlier, the MICHAEL JACKSON album for me is close to perfection. So any song on Thriller pretty much. Thriller is one of them. As cheesy as it can sound, I can’t see anything wrong in the song. It’s kind of perfect.
I’m a big fan of The POLICE too, especially live in the early years, when they were young and they were thirsty. It’s a hard question for me because I think everything is kind of perfect the way it is. Especially when it goes through the years and eras and it’s still relevant. I think that’s where it proves it’s perfect. Even imperfection is perfect, you know?
Is there an artist that you like in a style of music that you don’t typically listen to?
I don’t know. I listen to a lot of stuff, a lot of different aesthetic. The genre doesn’t matter to me really, if it’s well executed, done, written, felt, delivered…I’m good! But I’m less into Hip Hop and Electronic music. I never really quite tried enough to have a strong opinion on that. It’s not something that is attractive to me but I played in a Hip Hop band once, maybe three gigs. It was called L’ASSEMBLÉE, in Montreal. They hired me and they asked me to join in to do the launch of an album. Actually, I was quite surprised with the crowd. I’ve played with many, many artists, different styles of music, and that was the crowd that was the closest to a Metal crowd. The energy was so high and that’s why I play Metal. It’s for the energy that I can’t find anywhere else in other kind of music. That was the closest thing to the intensity. Not the clothes, not the attitude, the aesthetic and everything but the intensity was quite close.
Which band do you think has achieved the best sequence of three albums in a row?
For me, Voivod, Killing Technology, Dimension Hatröss, Nothingface. That’s the first thing that comes to mind. My favorite trilogy of all time.
What are some of your favorite lives records? Do you tend to go to the live records a lot or do you usually prefer the studio versions?
The POLICE Live. That’s one of my favorite live album because it’s raw. It’s nervous. It’s thirsty. It’s arrogant. Oh, yeah, this live CARDIACS album, Garage Show. It’s all their early, crazy songs played at a special show in 2003. The quality is amazing and the songs are hilarious. This is as unique as you can be.
I have a couple of live favorites but I don’t go for live usually. I think it’s a good thing that bands put out live albums though. You know, you can’t go see The Police now, but you have the record. I’ve seen them when they got back though, for the reunion tour, but it was not the same at all. It was kind of sad actually. Maybe another night was better but that night in Montreal, it was kind of bad.
I saw the VAN HALEN reunion the next week and it was brilliant. But this, it was not the best show I’ve seen. Some bands that you don’t get to see, you’re not in town when they’re playing, we’re on tour, or we’re even playing the same city, but you know, we’re playing! So that’s a good reason to buy a live album and when you kind of want to time travel, it’s a good way to do it to. The sound, the production, the performance, everything.
Is there a band that you’ve never seen that you really wish you’d seen live?
There’s a band I saw live in Quebec City again, RUSH, one of their last tours, but there was a thunderstorm during the show and they had to cut the set short, just before playing all the classics, I was bummed! The show was fantastic and I knew the album they were playing, Clockwork Angel, and it sounded great but they were going to play Y, Y, Z and 2112 and stuff like that and I didn’t see that. I’m still grateful to have seen them before the passing of Neil Peart.
Otherwise, it’s a bit late now, but GENTLE GIANT, I would have loved to see them perform for sure. Some friends of mine saw them in my hometown in the 70’s but I was not even born.
That pretty much wraps it up. Is there any other artists that you feel we should have touched on?
Well, Sean Malone just died, bass player and Sean Reinert, drummer who played a lot together, also passed away earlier this year. It was new and they were kind of misunderstood when they came out with CYNIC. It’s still relevant and very musically complete. The bass player, Sean Malone played a little bit with the sound of a Jazz bass player. He was a teacher and he wrote some books and stuff. So yeah, I really liked this album (Focus).
A band from Detroit. CHILD BITE. Amazing, very, very, very unique. I discovered them touring. They were opening for Voivod on the tour in the US and we became friends. Anybody who’s into unique music, that’s for you.
Blackstar DAVID BOWIE. It’s the best. It’s a must. That’s just a journey. You listen to the whole album, you go elsewhere, you know?
WAYNE KRANTZ, 2 Drinks Minimum. That was recorded with a cheap recorder in a bar in New York. Jazz power trio. Funky, Jazz, Modern Fusion. That’s just magical from start to finish. It’s all improvised, with song structure but that’s it. That’s something very special.
There’s a lot more stuff. Jazz. JACO PASTORIUS, FOCUS. Classic but MILES DAVIS. The feel, the vibe, the improvisation…Modal Jazz.
In conclusion, is there anything you’d like to promote?
Promote music! Well, talking about live albums, we have a new live album called Lost Machine. That’s the last show we did, on the last tour, in Quebec City. It was very special because we were playing in front of a lot of friends and known faces. We were on fire because we toured the whole thing for almost two years so the setlist was very, very solid. We did the Montreal Jazz Festival just one week prior to that show. The vibe, the ambience, everything you can hear on the record. It’s perfect in its imperfection. because it’s a live record, there is no overdubs, there is no over edit. It’s raw, it’s true, and you can feel the vibe, feeling like you’re in the place. And we have a beer called Lost Machine by Hopfenstark Brewery and it’s available now in specialized stores all around the province and maybe a little bit outside of it. The sales outlet are on the Hopfenstark Brewery Facebook page.
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