Paupière is launching their debut EP

Paupière

On Jan. 29, Montreal trio Paupière dropped their debut EP, a four-track hit of synth-pop called Jeunes Instants. They’ll be launching the record this weekend alongside their Lisbon Lux labelmate Bronswick, just ahead of their first European tour.

Pierre-Luc Bégin (who’s also a member of We Are Wolves), Eliane Préfontaine and Julia Daigle have been at it for two years — Préfontaine and Bégin have known each other for a decade, while Bégin and Daigle were once a couple.

“Eliane is an actress first, but she did a BA in mixed composition,” Daigle explains. “Pierre-Luc learned by himself, but he’s been in bands in Montreal for 15 years. He’s a drummer, so Paupière is the first project where he’s playing keyboards. I’m not a musician at all — I studied visual arts. I was painting and doing collages and Photoshop, but I’m not really into it anymore. Since I joined the band, I became more devoted to music.”

The trio spent nearly a year figuring out their composition process before they played a show during a Halloween party in 2014, in the familial confines of Daigle’s workplace.

“I work at [Little Italy restaurant] Bethlehem XXX and my boss and my coworkers were always very supportive of us,” she says. “They pushed us to do a show — the first three shows we did, we did there. We were not really ready the first time so we only did three songs — it was really our playground to experiment.”

Paupière spent last year working on their live show while recording Jeunes Instants, and even though Daigle felt intimidated by recording the first time around, “like an imposter,” she says, the ins and outs of the studio and stage are coming more naturally to her and her bandmates now. After their Montreal show this weekend, they’re looking forward to the team-building learning curve ahead.

“We’re going on tour in Italy and France!” says Daigle. “We went to Europe before Christmas but it was more to meet a label [Enterprise] and play a couple of showcases. This is going to be our first real touring experience. We’re crossing Italy from Milan to the tip of the heel of the boot — 14 shows in 15 days. After that we’re playing two festivals in France, one in l’Antre and one in Paris called les Femmes s’en Mêlent — it’s a feminist festival, so you can’t play if there isn’t a girl in the band. Then we’re playing another show at Silencio, the club that David Lynch designed.

“We’re gonna come back more confident because we’re going to gain a lot of experience. This is what’s coming for us, and it’s very exciting.” ■

Paupière and Bronswick launch records as part of Lisbon Lux’s third anniversary party at Théâtre Fairmount (5240 Parc) on Friday, Feb. 26, 9 p.m., $5