F.I.T.S Eject Some 'Fureur' into French Canadian Hardcore Punk

F.I.T.S may have come from the francophone side of Montreal's punk scene, but the four-piece have achieved the rare feat of finding a home that straddles both sides of the city's language divide.

The band match grinning aggression with feelings of anxious hysteria, slotting in as the logical progression from their now-defunct north-Eastern contemporaries in The Omegas, Dawn of Humans and Thee Nodes. We spoke to the band just before the launch of Feeding Illness to Society 7", six tracks of manic, bilingual nonsense soon to be released on Blow Blood Records.

NOISEY: F.I.T.S feel more fun-loving than destructive, was focusing on that antics-driven side of hardcore intentional?

Max Gosselin: We're all fans of the old school punk hardcore scene and we play what we wanna hear. Nonetheless, when we get to writing, "on est en tabarnak raid." Like most bands we write about what really pisses us off, so we transpose that frustration into intense fast paced nervous energy. It's more of a kick to the face than a stab in the gut.

What changed for the band between the demo recording and the 7"? It sounds a lot more confident, but still has the nervous energy of the first.

We practiced…

When we started the band, we wanted to change the line up so we traded instruments for our own diversity and personal challenge. The demo was recorded after only a few months whereas for the 7'' we took our time to make it sound really solid. The recording process hasn't changed though. Always recorded full band/ one take in a small room to make you feel in our nasty confined jam room with us. Hope you enjoy, or don't, whatever.

Montreal has a strong recent history in creating inventive, chaotic punk in bands like The Omegas and Thee Nodes. As newcomers do you feel more like a continuation of this, or a new addition?

We're fortunate to be in a city where such sick bands have emerged, we learned quite a bit from them. I guess the idea is to take what you love from previous bands and to push the sound a little further. We're not saying that we're reinventing anything here but we're not limiting ourselves to fit in the boundaries of a certain style either. If it sounds the shit to us, we'll play it. Old or new we don't fucking care.

The band has navigated the francophone/anglophone divide in Montreal really well and seem at home on both sides. What do you think of that language barrier in punk here, and how do F.I.T.S fit into that? 

We believe all Montrealer's should be bilingual. If you don't try, it's just your bad cause you'll miss out on the best of both worlds. We grew up with the notion that punk is made to break social barriers so why contribute to Quebec's language separation based on misplaced nationalism? As for the lyrics, nobody fucking understands the words anyways so we write in whatever language we feel like.

What has the reception been like for F.I.T.S outside of Montreal?

We've been well welcomed in other cities. I think it has more to do with the fact that we're a relatively new band and that people are hungry to discover new shit every day so they'll show up in front of the stage even if they have no clue of who the fuck we are. The bookers have also a lot to do with it. They're either themselves in bands from the scene or simply passionate about it. So when you get somewhere new, everybody seems to already have a general idea of who we are, what bands we've been in before, or just what kind of influences our sound is from. While touring, we like to take the time after sound checks to pre-drink in the back alley with the other bands or those too eager to see the gig that they show up at 6 pm for a 10pm show.

'Feeding Illness to Society' is available now through Blow Blood records.

Images: Jeslyn Lam