Comprised of Dragos Chiriac (keys, mastering and production), Jessy Caron (guitar, bass and keys), Odile Marmet-Rochefort (vocals) and Emmanuelle Proulx (vocals) Men I Trust are a Quebec City, QC-based indie electro pop/indie dance pop/trip hop quartet who can trace their origins to when the act’s founding members Chiriac and Caron first met as high school seniors — and as the story goes, Chiriac was a classically trained pianist while Caron was a heavy metal guitarist.
By 2012, Chiriac was finishing studies of a master’s degree in audio production at Laval University, spending most of his days and sleeping hours at the LARC studio working on solo recording projects when he re-encounterd Caron, who at finishing his bachelor’s degree in jazz guitar. The duo chatted about collaborating on a French-Touch/Italo-disco track together and when they set about recording the track, Chiriac and Caron decided to collaborate together full-time in an actual band — but one in which they would work with several vocalists.
As Chiriac went on to pursue a Ph.D., he along with Caron recorded their efforts as part of Chiriac’s masters and Ph.D. studies to maintain constant access to LARC‘s studios — and naturally it helped them develop a unique sound as they were able to mix and master their work simultaneously. In that four year period, Men I Trust’s founding duo were introduced to Odile Marmet-Rochefort, who was at the time completing her bachelor’s degree as a classical vocalist. Interestingly, as the story goes, Chiriac and Caron, who were both long-time classical music fans were drawn to Marmet-Rochefort’s vocals and they invited her to record the single “Introit” and then their self-titled, full-length debut, which created quite a buzz throughout Quebec.
Emmanuelle Proulx is the most recent member of the band, joining last year. A mutual friend had showed Chiriac and Caron a video of Proulx singing and playing the guitar around a campfire with some friends and the Quebec City-based electro pop band’s founding duo was so struck by Proulx that they reached out to her to record “Out in myself,” which was recorded in Chiriac’s small Montreal apartment. And immediately after, Proulx was invited to be a full-time member of the band.
With the release of their sophomore full-length effort Headroom, the newly constituted quartet began receiving international attention as their material landed on Hype Machine‘s charts, as well as several Spotify and SoundCloud playlists. Building on the increasing buzz around the Quebec City-based quartet, their first single of 2016, “Humming man” was released to critical praise across the blogosphere; however, I suspect that the act’s latest single “Lauren” may arguably be their breakout single as the band pairs a sinuous and sleek bass line, shimmering guitar chords and skittering drum programming with hauntingly ethereal vocal melodies to craft a song that sounds as though it were equally influenced by 70s funk and R&B, 80s synth pop and contemporary electro pop. Interestingly enough, the song sounds as though it should have been released through Cascine Records, a label that specializes in releasing silky smooth and breezy 70s and 80s inspired pop while being the sort of song you’d do a little two step to in the club.
The recently released music video follows an extremely fair skinned woman bicycling down a country road while hinting at the follow-the -bouncing ball/karaoke-styled video which fits the song’s breezy yet sensual air.