Between Rumors and Surprises…

Hey,

I hope you’re doing well! It’s Sunday night, it’s 23h13 (11:13pm) and I’m on my own in my Amsterdam airport hotel room. I’m in transition between Groningen, where I spent the past few days as I do every year now, attending the Eurosonic Festival and going back to Tangier tomorrow. There were no flights today so I had to “sadly” wait an entire day on my own in one of the most beautiful cities in the world–what a tragedy! So, guess what I did??? I worked!!! 😳 I know…! I just can’t help it!

I really had a great week at Eurosonic! As you know, Alex already announced a festival for May 2025, and I wanted to add a few more to the mix, as we’d love to play a few more during the summer, not only in Europe, but since I’ve been invited by the government of Quebec to attend the festival, why resist! Great music, great people, great meetings, not much time to properly eat, sleep, and under terrible weather, but, you know, what a privilege to be part of such a wonderful event and to meet like-minded people and connect around Alex’s music!

I had wonderful sit-downs with really cool festivals, as this clearly was my main focus, and I’m pretty excited to say that hopefully, let’s say maybe, more announcements will come in the upcoming weeks regarding concerts🤞! To add to the mix, touring usually also means new music being released around the dates! I had this conversation with Alex this morning as I was on the train toward Amsterdam, and he told me how things evolved really well music-wise as I was out for the week, and I think, I’m really not sure, because you know how sometimes the line can cut when you’re on a train, or maybe it’s just a feeling following the lack of sleep and proper food, but I heard something about a new release coming out soon!

This is the most precise I can be for now, as I might need to clarify a little more with Alex, but I wanted to share this with you anyway! Maybe it’s because I’ve been living in a lowland fog for the past week and things will change tomorrow as I reach sunny Africa but this is now!!! 😊 2025 is kicking and thriving! So excited to go back and work on all of it!

I’m really not sure, because you know how sometimes the line can cut when you’re on a train, or maybe it’s just a feeling following the lack of sleep and proper food, but I heard something about a new release coming out soon!

As I was working from my room all afternoon catching up on emails and meetings and projects between the vinyl pressing plant and some serious and boring accounting deadline we have this week, I received a text from a friend I made last night at the festival inviting me for dinner with a bunch of other music industry people who are in Amsterdam leaving on Monday! That sounded pretty cool and nice of him to invite me, as he’s from Seoul, South Korea, and he mentioned he was with people from India, Hong Kong, and some local Dutch friends...! I’m like, yes, of course, until I realized how far I was from central Amsterdam… I started to hesitate as I also had a lot of work to do…! The joy of leaving for a few days: the amount of catch-up is just insane!

I finally properly argued with my work-addict self, tricking him by mentioning that this dinner was part of my job while I was away for a few days and so was spending time with festival bookers! So here I was, sitting around this round table in a beautiful Chinese restaurant in the heart of the city close to the red light district! So wonderful to hear all those inspiring stories about how they all started their own festivals, wanting to bring music to their respective countries.

I really had so many questions for them, and it was so rich to realize how powerful music is and how valuable it is, especially now as the world is going backward and music doesn’t have the same cultural value it used to have. We truly went deep into the topics, and it brought me to share about you, about us, about our Tuesday rendezvous where I can share with you on such a beautiful and meaningful level. They were all in awe hearing about the Club! What a treat! We made a toast in the end that was so simple but so powerful: To music!

I then left the restaurant as they were walking toward a bar for a few drinks, and I decided to head back to the hotel and share my little experience with you! As I was walking toward the station, I started taking some pictures as the air was still crispy and the fog left after a week, and I started to remember our very first European tour as Your Favorite Enemies as we stopped by Amsterdam... October 2007! For poor kids from Montreal, walking on those incredible streets wasn’t a small thing!