Three isn’t always a crowd, especially when it comes to the Montréal Guitar Trio (MG3).
The group made up of Sébastien Dufour, Marc Morin and Glenn Lévesque actually found having a musical group based around the guitar to be more of a challenge.
“With only three, you are the focus. You’re on the spot and everyone has to be tight and strong. For us it was a goal to achieve, to make powerful energetic music with only the three of us. This way we have to be creative, arrangement wise,” said Dufour. “We really worked hard from the beginning to do some particular orchestral arrangements and make it sound large, even if we are only three guitars on stage.”
The beginning for MG3 was over 15 years ago when the three were studying music at the Université de Montréal and they felt a need to show people what the guitar could do.
Dufour said from the beginning they tried to approach the guitar as an orchestral instrument and experimented with its sound and tuning finding influences from all different styles from all over the world, including progressive rock, heavy metal, flamenco and Brazilian samba.
A tribute to all of these influences can be found on their latest release, 2013’s Der Prinz, which Dufour described as ‘a homage to all of the groups that inspired us and a good representative of where MG3 is now as a band.’
One cover in particular that was special to the band was ‘Tom Sawyer’ by Canadian rock icons Rush.
“It is the band who opened our ears when we were teenagers to more complicated and sophisticated music. It was a huge influence, and for a while we wanted to find an arrangement to play a little homage to a great rock group,” he said.
Dufour said during a sound check at a show, they began rehearsing it as more of a joke, but their sound technician was impressed with the unique arrangement, which Dufour described as going back to more folk and roots. He explained that because of their classical background it took a few years before they decided it was OK to branch out, with their first album, 1999’s Meninas, consisting of mostly classical music.
“After a while we said, ‘Let’s just do what we want.’ The three of us are multi-instrumentalists. Even in the last few years we integrated a lot of other instruments, not only the guitar. We felt at some point that it was good for us to start opening the frontier,” he said.
That frontier now includes an upcoming collaboration with the California Guitar Trio, a group that Dufour said they play with quite often.
The two trios recorded a live album in 2011, but this upcoming recording will be an original studio album released next fall. Dufour said there is a lot of buzz surrounding the project and it would be a mix of everything, with some compositions by individuals and some done by all six.
“Because we both have busy schedules, we try to do the most we can on tour. We do rehearse and compose a lot backstage. It’s nice because it is a direct impact of what we are feeling at the moment. It’s spontaneous music. It gives you other directions when you compose with six musicians together. It really brings another kind of composition that you cannot achieve separately.”
MG3 will be performing March 7 as part of the Bragg Creek Performing Arts season. For information visit braggcreakperformingarts.com.
