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Apr 16, 2025 Web Exclusive By Dom Gourlay Photography by Emie Chayer

Meet DVTR, an electronic punk outfit from Montreal. Over the past year they’ve been shaking up the Canadian punk scene while also taking their wares elsewhere – last year’s Focus Wales being the first time Under the Radar caught sight of their incendiary and unforgettable live performance.

Since then, the co duo – Demi Lune and Jean Divorce – have released a series of singles and EPs culminating in a live album which comes out on Friday 18th April via Lisbon Lux Records. Entitled Live Aux Foufs, the album was recorded at DVTR’s sold out show at Montreal’s Foufones Électriques last December and features tracks from their BONJOUR EP, former single “Né Pour Flàner”, along with new and unreleased songs including brand new single “K.C.D”.

DVTR’s French-speaking, female-fronted, short and not sweet at all diatribes about vasectomy for all, rum, coke and MDMA have been compared to Jay Reatard meets the B-52s or Atari Teenage Riot and escribed as “A simple fuck off to anyone who’d need a reminder before everything burns.”

Bearing all of the above in mind, Under the Radar caught up with DVTR’s main conspirators Demi Lune and Jean Divorce for a mid-tour chat recently.

Dom Gourlay (Under the Radar): You’ve played a number of festivals all around the world over the past year. Which has been the most enjoyable?

Jean Divorce: We did all the summer festivals in Quebec. I think you saw us as a duo at Focus Wales, but in Canada we play as a four-piece with two other musicians on stage and people can actually understand the lyrics. Same as when we play in France, I think it does make a difference when people get the lyrics as we sing in French. It gives the show more of an edge, so I’d say France and Canada are always exciting places to play. But if it’s naming a personal favourite, I think we’d both say Mexico. We did one show in Mexico City last year, and it was crazier than any show we’ve ever done in Montreal. I don’t think Mexicans give a fuck about the lyrics, just loud music and trash!

I think there’s something quite appealing about bands that sing in their native tongues, especially to audiences that might not be familiar with that language. It feels a lot more genuine than bands just changing their lyrics to English to appease the audience, which sometimes doesn’t work.

Jean Divorce: We’ve never really thought about it in that way before. It’s interesting what you say because the minute someone starts a band that sings in English even though they don’t speak English as their first language, they’ve already compromised themselves. I want it to work, I want to make it big, I want it to travel, so I have to speak in English. That would be too much of a compromise for us. It would also be much harder for us to write songs in English

DVTR has only been in existence since 2023. Where did the idea come from to start this project?

Jean Divorce: We also play in a French-Canadian band called Le Coulour, which is more guitar-based than what we do in DVTR. So, we decided to start this because we wanted to have more fun on stage. Tearing stuff apart, jumping and dancing. Sometimes we might go a little over the top crazy when we perform live! Anyway, we recorded a bunch of demos which sounded great then played our first show which people seemed to like so that was it. DVTR became a thing. We just want to have fun. We don’t give a damn about anything and surprisingly people can relate to that.

Your live performance can be quite confrontational. Is that important when conveying the messages within the songs to a live audience?

Jean Divorce: As long as Demi doesn’t fuck up my gear! At one of our last shows she started strangling someone in the audience with one of my guitar cables. It makes the difficulty level higher if nothing else! But seriously, a lot of how we perform is a way of relieving stress for ourselves. We’ve played a lot of industry showcase events all around the world and they can be really stressful playing to people that don’t know us and expect to be entertained.

Demi Lune: I try not to overthink it too much whether people will like the performance, but at the same time I want them to have fun and remember us.

Jean Divorce: Our music is an eclectic mix of thrash punk and electroclash so I think that stands out on its own, but we started this band to have fun and we want people that see us to have fun too. I get what we do is quite niche and might not appeal to everyone.

Demi Lune: We’ve actually had people come up to us and say I don’t like your band at all but I loved the show!

The BONJOUR EP came out last year and there’s a new single (“K.C.D”) due imminently as well as the live LP. Will there be a studio album in the foreseeable future?

Jean Divorce: We went in the studio earlier this year and wrote some new songs. It’s been more about finding the time because we’ve played so many shows over the past year and a half. We don’t want to come back to the same city for the fifth time playing the same old set for the fifth time in a row, so we’re aiming to put out as many new songs as possible in between playing live. The extended version of the Bonjour EP was more of a compilation of our earliest recordings which is basically the live set we’ve been playing for the last year or so. It’s basically a collection of songs we recorded between tours.

Do you see DVTR more as a live band than recording artists at this present moment in time?

Jean Divorce: I think we initially did it for the live element.

Demi Lune: I hate the studio!

Jean Divorce: We keep it so simple when we’re recording. We recorded 10 songs in one place and try to do as many as possible whenever we record. We use the easiest set up we possibly can, so I don’t think we’re studio geeks in any way. But you never know, we might get there. Our modus operandi right now is to keep us sane, and we do that by playing live.

There does seem to be a scene for bands from Quebec making similar music to yourselves - La Sécurité and VICTIME being two that immediately spring to mind. Is that something you’re aware of and what do you think makes DVTR stand out from those other bands?

Jean Divorce: We have thought about it, and I guess even at the Focus Wales showcase where La Sécurité played on the same bill as us, it did represent our scene but at the same time, also gained a lot of international interest in the Montreal scene. The Montreal scene has never really received that much recognition outside of Quebec. The difference now is a lot of bands are being invited across from Canada to play around the UK and Europe, so I think its great to see Montreal bands creating a presence in new territories.

What makes us stand out? I think we’re the lightest touring band in the world! We have a suitcase and a guitar. We can soundcheck in 15 minutes!

Another facet of the Montreal and Quebec scene and possibly Canadian bands in general is they’re very individualistic in their creative approach rather than following any perceived norms or genres.

Jean Divorce: There’s not a lot of people in Quebec. I think it’s around eight million in the principal part. We don’t give a damn about being played on radio stations any more. Of course there are college radio stations and the BBC of Canada which is CBC that might occasionally play us, but the main stations would never play us or any of the bands we’re talking about. Not at all. It’s been like this for six or seven years. No interesting artist or band has been discovered on the radio in Quebec.

Why do you think radio stations in Canada ignore bands like DVTR?

Jean Divorce: I’d say it’s because there are no punk or indie or niche shows. With Canadian radio they just tend to go for the biggest audience possible so they all play the same music because they’re all trying to reach the same people.

Where does the name DVTR come from?

Jean Divorce: The name means “Where does your rice come from?” It’s a lyric (“ D’où vient ton riz”) from one of the first songs that we did, which is “DVTR”. At that point we were nameless, then we wrote “DVTR” the song and thought let’s call ourselves DVTR as well. Most people don’t understand it but “Where does your rice come from?” is quite topical for the times we’re living in. Extreme globalisation and an economic situation that creates excess everywhere. “DVTR” is also our main (theme) song that shows a bit of everything about us. Most of our songs are very socially and politically aware, and a big thing for us is for our shows to be inclusive. So, while we encourage people to form moshpits and go crazy at our shows, we want people of all genders and ages to enjoy it in the same way.

Demi Lune: We’re not just some angry, bad ass punk band. We believe you can express anything with a song and the same goes with audience participation too.

What advice would you give to a band that’s just starting out?

Jean Divorce: You don’t need lots of money or a studio to create your own thing. Everybody has access to the same tools. You don’t need a lot to be creative. Someone once told me that it’s always your second band that works best, and we’ve both been in other bands trying to convince people while making all the mistakes you can do. Then we started DVTR and we said we’re not playing in that town because it’s shit, and we’re not wasting time in a studio or on social media because its boring. So, just believe in yourself.

Are there any other acts from Montreal or Quebec you’d recommend for Under the Radar and its readers to check out?

Jean Divorce: There’s ALIAS, who you might have seen at Focus Wales last year. Wizard are great too. They’re from France but might not be familiar to a lot of people outside of their country. We love Iter too. They’re also from France and make similar kinds of music to us.

Check out DVTR on Instagram, Bandcamp and Facebook.