Fifteen years ago, Jasamine White-Gluz of No Joy was gearing up to perform at a tiny venue called Casa del Popolo in Montreal's Mile End neighborhood.
"I feel like Saint Laurent [Boulevard] was the main hub," she recalls, sitting across from World Cafe's Raina Douris in Mile End's Lahaie Park, a few feet away from Casa del Popolo.
While White-Gluz has since moved on from the bustle of Mile End — her latest album, Bugland, is inspired by her new home out in the country — she still remembers that night performing at Casa.
"First of four: Grimes," White-Gluz says. "Then, Metz. Then, I don't remember. Then, it was us. We headlined ... Grimes made the poster. It was blown out. It was an amazing show, but we just didn't know what we were doing."
While its reputation as an artist enclave dates back to the '80s, Mile End saw a new wave of acts in the early aughts, supported by labels like Constellation and Arbutus Records and an abundance of cheap loft spaces where they could perform.
By the 2010s, the "blogosphere" had gotten wind of Mile End. Music publications like Pitchfork, Dazed and Spin spread the word about an exciting DIY subculture flourishing in Montreal.
As part of our latest Sense of Place series, we sat down with White-Gluz to capture a personal snapshot of that moment in time. She talks about watching her favorite Montreal bands make it big, why she thinks Mile End was special, plus she digs into the making of No Joy's Bugland.
This episode of World Cafe was produced and edited by Miguel Perez. Our senior producer is Kimberly Junod and our engineer is Chris Williams. Our programming and booking coordinator is Chelsea Johnson and our line producer is Will Loftus.
