LA SÉCURITÉ
We Don't Fit Into One Genre
La Sécurité. Photo by Gisela Serra / TMN
The Montreal five-piece, La Sécurité, define their music as a creative, democratic collaboration between people with a few connecting points. Songs, visuals and live performance are all treated as part of the same artistic language.
BARCELONA | By Pablo Herrera | Photo by Gisela Serra and Pablo Herrera
The band doesn't seem to care much about being labeled within a genre. Post-punk, art punk, new wave and krautrock all appear somewhere in their music, but none of them defines their sound. Although there is one label they are comfortable embracing: art punk — artistic experimentation and collective creativity.
“I don’t really think we care about fitting into a label. This band came from an art exercise, an experiment where it was free to just play with ideas. Since we’re five people with different tastes in music, that’s why we sound the way we do.”
Deny, La-Sécurité. Photo: Kristin Sollecito.
Before forming the band, every member was already involved in other musical projects around Montreal, a city with an extensive and very experimental DIY music scene. During the pandemic they started getting together simply to play, with no ambition beyond making music. But they may have been doing something special, because that was when things started to take off. They began by creating organically, and the rest followed.
“It was supposed to be kind of a side project for fun, out of friendship mostly. Two songs later we were having a lot of offers to do shows, but we didn’t have enough music, so we needed to create more songs. That became the first album.”
While talking about the songwriting process, the band remained just as open. Sometimes someone arrives with an idea, but just as often songs emerge from long improvisations in the rehearsal room. A groove between bass and drums becomes the foundation, guitars and synthesizers gradually find their place, and only later do the lyrics begin to appear.
Éliane keeps notebooks filled with poems, fragments and observations. During rehearsals she often recognizes that one of those texts suddenly belongs to a melody developing in front of her. Other times there are no words at all, only sounds that eventually become lyrics.
“Sometimes I’ll just sing gibberish. That’s why we have a song called Ketchup, because something I said sounded like ‘ketchup.’”
La Sécurité. SXSW 2024. Photo: Pablo Herrera / TMN
Living in Montreal means moving constantly between French and English, and the band reflects that reality. Songs aren't assigned a language before they're written. They simply develop in whichever language feels right.
“If the song feels like an English one, then we’ll just go for it. We’re not thinking we should write one in French or one in English. It just comes naturally.”
La Sécurité. Primavera Pro 2026. Photo: Gisela Serra / TMN
Bingo, their second album, was released in June 2026. After almost two years touring together, they felt they finally understood how the band worked as a collective. Instead of building songs around a few members' ideas, everyone contributed from the very beginning.
After touring their first album for almost two years and playing countless shows, they feel they have developed an almost invisible brainwave between them. They now understand what La Sécurité sounds like, whereas during the first record the feeling was simply, "I don't know, let's figure it out.
Compared to their debut album, Stay Safe (2023), the band says recording Bingo felt very different. Having more time, more resources and nearly two years of touring behind them changed the way they approached the album.
“We had more time and more money.”
La Sécurité. Bingo. Still music video. Directed by Philippe Beauséjour.
The record also reflects a visual evolution. Melissa, who plays guitar, synthesizers, vocals and percussion, is also in charge of the artwork. For this album, she moved away from the collage-heavy aesthetic of the debut. Instead, the artwork incorporates original photography while maintaining the DIY spirit that defines the band. Every member contributed something to the final design because, as they explain, La Sécurité has always tried to operate democratically.
The band's logo was also redesigned to communicate movement.
“I designed it so it looked like we’re all in motion. I feel like La Sécurité is always moving, and the graphics needed to represent that.”
La Sécurité. Primavera Pro 2026. Photo: Gisela Serra / TMN
Our conversation with La Sécurité was extensive, including memories of the first time we met the band during SXSW 2024 at Swan Dive. From that point on, we became fans and have been following their work for more than two years. Some of the members even remembered that performance, which is included in the full video interview.
“I remember that show. I’m sure it was a good show.”
There were a couple of particularly interesting pieces of advice at the end of our conversation. One came from Éliane, who encouraged young women to be confident in their abilities and not let others minimize them.
The other memorable takeaway came from Félix:
“Mistakes are good. Our albums are full of mistakes.”
And perhaps the best summary of the band's philosophy: "Just do it. Keep trying different things. Don't imitate things you've heard before. There are no rules."
Our full interview is now live, and you can watch it below.
