The culture of Montreal is slightly Schizophrenic, just splitting a city with a 2 languages alone, makes things difficult. Le Toque started in 2015 as an all French speaking Acoustic band, playing cafes in the Mount Royal neighborhood. Within a year The band had morphed into it's current free flowing dream-pop with eletronica seasonings. There were some personnel changes, but the biggest addition adding Colette Dominique's unique approach of backing vocals and retro-ish synth sound.

Transitioning sound wise wasn't the only change. Founder/singer/guitarist Martin Levesque decided to change his songwriting approach from French to English, and this change wasn't accepted easily from their fans. Montreal music bloggers lashed out, and several other bands that they usually shared stages with essentially declined to do any shows with them. Regardless, they marched on, creating and crafting their new sound throughout Montreal and Southern Quebec.

In early 2017 the band started to re-gain the following they previously had, with rave reviews of shows, in venues that previously shunned them. "We understand that it might be deemed hypocritical to embrace the people
that shunned us, but I get it, and we're happy to have their ears again" said Guitarist and Vocalist Martin Levesque. 

Their 1st EP "Songs about Poutine & Cigarettes" is quite short, and while most bands record full length EP's, Le Toque find's it's easier to work this way. Drummer Abella Dubois commented "it's quicker to work this
way. We concentrate on the 3 songs for a couple of weeks, and spend a day recording and mixing". It's a concept that Bass Player Jackson Strappe thinks several EP's over time can mean more than 1 EP: "It gives you more chances to grow and develop". Collette agrees, "After being in other bands where almost a year would be spent on a recording, I'd rather have smaller collections of work, but lots of them".

Le Toque is happy with the recording, and is planning on recording another EP "as soon as the temperature drops below 0 degrees. "people tend to stay in" chimes in Martin "we'll play more shows when it's above freezing"

Vocals, Guitar / Martin Levesque
Keyboard, Sampling / Colette Dominique
Bass / Jackson Strappe
Drums / Abella Dubois