La Sécurité drop new single and video "Ketchup" - out now via Bella Union!
Currently on a Winter US tour, and following their recent single “Detour”, Montreal art-punk collective La Sécurité today offer up French scorcher “Ketchup”, their second single for Bella Union, also available on the other side of the pond via boutique label Mothland. The track comes is accompanied by a video directed and animated by Philippe Beauséjour – listen and watch HERE.
“Ketchup” kicks off with a tightly-wound post-punk gallop anchoring the most distorted bass line ever recorded to go along with dizzyingly catchy keys and spooky guitar licks. The verse, coming by way of a supremely ingenious chord change, sees the Montréal collective build a compelling case against small talk. The song is not about condiments, rather sarcastically alluding to the delicious tomato-based sauce with the line, “L’affaire est ketchup”, a Québec expression meaning: “All is well”.
“Though we knew we wanted to write a song about small talk, when we started working on the music, I was mostly scat singing, save for the words “L’affaire est ketchup”. Hence, the song title. We noticed while playing the song live, that the tune got people bouncing all over the place. The track seems to have that special energy. To keep that energy, Renny [Wilson] went all out with the production. To be fair, we did suggest that he made every track “clip”. – Éliane Viens-Synnott from La Sécurité
“Upon listening to the song, I noticed that it was about small talk, and all these subjects that come up in conversation when we have nothing to say. These empty conversations are often about what “normal” people see on television (weather forecast, news, funny ads…). The papercutting animations stem from my love for Terry Gilliam’s work.” – Philippe Beauséjour
Currently on a Winter US tour, and following their recent single “Detour”, Montreal art-punk collective La Sécurité today offer up French scorcher “Ketchup”, their second single for Bella Union, also available on the other side of the pond via boutique label Mothland. The track comes is accompanied by a video directed and animated by Philippe Beauséjour – listen and watch HERE.
“Ketchup” kicks off with a tightly-wound post-punk gallop anchoring the most distorted bass line ever recorded to go along with dizzyingly catchy keys and spooky guitar licks. The verse, coming by way of a supremely ingenious chord change, sees the Montréal collective build a compelling case against small talk. The song is not about condiments, rather sarcastically alluding to the delicious tomato-based sauce with the line, “L’affaire est ketchup”, a Québec expression meaning: “All is well”.
“Though we knew we wanted to write a song about small talk, when we started working on the music, I was mostly scat singing, save for the words “L’affaire est ketchup”. Hence, the song title. We noticed while playing the song live, that the tune got people bouncing all over the place. The track seems to have that special energy. To keep that energy, Renny [Wilson] went all out with the production. To be fair, we did suggest that he made every track “clip”. – Éliane Viens-Synnott from La Sécurité
“Upon listening to the song, I noticed that it was about small talk, and all these subjects that come up in conversation when we have nothing to say. These empty conversations are often about what “normal” people see on television (weather forecast, news, funny ads…). The papercutting animations stem from my love for Terry Gilliam’s work.” – Philippe Beauséjour
(photo credit: Joel Thomas)
La Sécurité live dates:
2025.01.31 - West Palm Beach, FL @ Respectable Street
2025.02.01 - Jacksonville, FL @ Winterland Festival (w/ Omni)
2025.02.03 - Orlando, FL @ Will's Pub
2025.02.05 - Athens, GA @ Nowhere Bar (w/CDSM)
2025.02.06 - Atlanta, GA @ The Earl (w/CDSM)
2025.02.08 - Montréal, QC @ Taverne Tour (w/ Chandra)
2025.03.10 - 2025.03.15 - Austin, TX @ SXSW
New Bella Union signings La Sécurité are an electrifying Montreal collective whose art-punk is equal parts jumpy beats, off-kilter arrangements and addictive melodic hooks, run through an insomniac filter. The music is all about living dangerously, perfectly agreeable to being blasted onto dancefloors; while the lyrics share the ethos of the Riot Grrrl movement and celebrate the autonomization of women, friends, as well as benevolence. The eclectic bunch meanders the fringes of punk, new wave and krautrock, mischievously flouting stylistic form every chance they get.
La Sécurité’s debut album Stay Safe!, released via Mothland in June 2023, is manic yet surprisingly laid-back, painting unique sonic graffitis evoking a polymorphic reality. Bill Pearis from BrooklynVegan describes the long-player as “an enticing batch of party-friendly jams shouted in sneering Franglais that recall everything from Le Tigre to Neu! to Kleenex/Liliput”. For their first full-length, the collective turned to producer Samuel Gemme at Gamma Recording Studio (Corridor, Population II), printing songs that are empowering, flush with urgency, but also denote a dash of melancholia. Earlier this year the flamboyant bunch offered Stay Safe! REMIXED, a collection including remixes from Born at Midnite, The Mauskovic Dance Band and Freak Heat Waves, giving listeners a yet another fix of that “addictively angular pop” (The Line of Best Fit).
You can find La Sécurité sporting thrift-shopped goodies in dark underground venues, on the rooftop of a tanning salon, or on VHS tape performing tunes for Audiotree Live, indulging in a symbiotic hurrah of disheveled music, cloaked poetry and improv dancing, with movement as a main creative fuel. Since coming together in the Spring of 2022, the five-piece has been invited to perform noteworthy events such as The Great Escape, Reeperbahn Festival, SXSW and Focus Wales. “The bilingual post-punk jams the quintet dishes out are insanely catchy, with vocalist Éliane Viens-Synnott’s carefree dance moves and multiple trips into the crowd making for a captivating frontperson.” (Consequence)
“On Stay Safe!, La Sécurité spike the punch of their pitch-faded disco bass lines and warped synths with sawtoothed post-punk delivery, tackling topics as serious as bodily autonomy
(and as lighthearted as being chronically late), ultimately urging fellow outsiders to take care of themselves — and each other.” - Exclaim!
“Arty, danceable new-wave post punk from the heart of the fertile Montreal underground. Stay Safe! is equal parts hooks and attitude with an enticing batch of party-friendly jams shouted in
sneering Franglais that recall everything from Le Tigre to Neu! to Kleenex/Liliput. It’s been done before but never quite like this and rarely with so much snazzy zeal.” – BrooklynVegan
“Drawing on punk, New Wave, krautrock, Riot Grrrl, and a certain je ne sais quoi, the bilingual outfit spits haywire odes to living dangerously over minimalist, off-kilter arrangements,
amounting to a listen that’s as tight as it is exhilarating.” – KCRW
“The collective is a true representation of the Montreal scene, the disparate artists coming together to create a bilingual, danceable form of post-punk.” – Consequence
“Ketchup” single artwork:
