In Canada: The Inside Story Behind Angine de Poitrine’s Unprecedented Global Breakthrough
Categoria: Musica
Also up north this week: Canada is the No. 4 music exporter worldwide, according to Luminate's midyear report.
Por Billboard | 24/07/2026
Angine de Poitrine are on the cover of Billboard Canada , with a cover story that gives an inside look behind their rise. Since the beginning of 2026, there’s arguably been no hotter band in the world. They’ve earned millions upon millions of streams, praise from idols from Jack White to Shania Twain (more on that later), sold out concerts in seconds and, with somewhere in the vicinity of 100,000 fans, even set a record for the biggest crowd at Montreal International Jazz Festival since Stevie Wonder in 2009. Related In Canada: Inside the Polaris Music Prize’s Big Period of Change, Plus Angine de Poitrine Debuts in Toronto Looking out at the audience, the band’s manager, Sébastien Collin , was amazed at the turnout — not just because of the size of the crowd, but the fact that they had come to see this band. Instrumental microtonal math-rock isn’t the kind of music that usually draws numbers, but Angine de Poitrine have shown there’s an appetite out there for adventurous, virtuosic and just plain weird music. The band’s mix of looping pedals, double-necked guitar/bass and virtuosic musicianship is a sight and sound to behold. “When I was backstage, I was really happy to see so many people enjoying complex music and heavy rock riffs,” he tells Billboard Canada . “With so many people there of all ages, it’s impossible that it was only people who like that type of genre that were there. It’s so much wider. It shows that maybe there will be some more openness to really good ideas and really good music.” No one could have been prepared for the popular explosion when the band’s KEXP performance video went up in February, 2026. It went viral nearly instantly, and the band, then largely unknown outside of their home province, racked up millions of streams. Currently, the YouTube video sits at 17 million views. “A global breakthrough is not something you can plan for,” Collin says. He says the moment it went up, his inbox exploded. Overnight, he had messages from venues, festivals, merchandise producers and fans from all over the world. The Vol. II album was planned for launch in April, just two months after the video went up. The band had to act quickly. With so many eyes watching, how would they meet the moment? The ecosystem around Angine de Poitrine was growing rapidly. They had to find the right partners to press the vinyl, distribute it, construct Khn de Poitrine’s custom guitars, make merch and posters for each show, book concerts throughout the world, register for publishing and figure out next steps — all at a much more monumental scale than they, or most people in the music industry, could be ready for. The biggest decision was whether to release the album on a record label. Everyone wanted to sign Angine de Poitrine. That’s not an exaggeration. “I can say that every major and most of the big indies all contacted us. Smaller indies, too. It was quite a rush. I was having around 10 meetings per week,