Photo of Brooklyn Billinghurst (far left) with Shunk.

Shunk performed during Sled Island on Tuesday, 11pm at Commonwealth (Main Floor) & Wednesday, 9pm at #1 Legion (Main Floor).

Interview Audio:

Interview Transcript:

Brooklyn (CJSW)
All right, I am Brooklyn Billinghurst. Here with CJSW, and I am talking to…

Julia (Shunk)
Julia from Shunk,

Gabrielle (Shunk)
and I’m Gabrielle from Sunk.

Brooklyn (CJSW)
Perfect. Thank you so much for joining me, guys. I appreciate you taking the time out of your day to talk to me. I want to ask you about the name Shunk. It’s very unique. It’s kind of comical. All day I’ve been saying Shunk like that. How did you guys come up with that name?

Julia (Shunk)
Um, I feel like one day, like we were just like at the jam space, and like we heard this like rock, like fall from like above the door, and I was like, oh, this is interesting, it sounds weird, and then we were like, oh, it was shunk, like, and then we were talking about taking a sword out of a sheath, and like, since our album is all about medieval themes, we kind of just like felt like an onomatopoeia, like kind of slashing or a word that sounds cool would work for the band name. So,yeah.

Brooklyn (CJSW)
I like that. And by album, you’re referring to Shunkland?

Julia (Shunk)
Yeah.

Brooklyn (CJSW)
Cool. So, I actually, my next question is kind of about Shunkland that came out in March 2025 I really like when albums are like place names, Shunkland, like who’s the ruler of Shunkland? What does Shunkland look like? What’s the biome? What’s the democratic climate in Shunkland?

Gabrielle (Shunk)
So the ruler of Shunkland is Stu the Rat King.

Brooklyn (CJSW)
Yes, I know about this.

Gabrielle (Shunk)
It’s unfortunately not a democratic process. I’d say it’s more of a dictatorship, sadly, but you know it’s they haven’t installed the surveillance state yet. Okay, so there’s room for, you know, imagination, creation, whimsy, and these will exist kind of outside of the main sphere of influence of the capital in which Stu reigns. Essentially, I think we came to the band and started paying, we all had our very eclectic styles and taste in music, and this first album was really playing with our capacities as bands, our, you know, what we can do, what sounds good, what we like to play together, and how to maybe fuse the elements that are distinctive within Shunk into something coherent, so we do have a lot of very disparate sounds, but I think it works really well if you string them together in a kind of fantasy landscape.

Brooklyn (CJSW)
Yeah, for sure. I found that album, well, I love it, like obviously.

Gabrielle (Shunk)
Oh, thank you so much!

Brooklyn (CJSW)
You’re welcome. but it’s so fun, like I’m having fun, and part of that is your vocal deliveries

Gabrielle (Shunk)
Oh thank you.

Brooklyn (CJSW)
are really, you’re welcome, they’re really wild, like you kind of go to every corner of the map in the best way possible. I read that you have classical opera training behind your vocals.

Brooklyn (CJSW)
So then how did you get into this like rocky shoegaze kind of group, like, what was the journey from opera to where you are now? I guess.

Gabrielle (Shunk)
Well, I like fun. We like fun, yes, yeah, but I think also the way I think, if you love something, you can find pleasure and interest in kind of all different genres and manifestations of what you love. I really love music. I love performing. I also love literature, and just the whole performance act, I think, and creation of stories and lyrics is so enthralling to me.

Brooklyn (CJSW)
Yeah.

Gabrielle (Shunk)
And so I just, I finished my degree in music, and it felt a little bit like I didn’t know where to go with it, and it felt a bit stale, and it’s hard to casually do opera, so I just started making music, and Montreal is such a, like, a wonderful space to experiment and to just show up places and be like “I’m trying to have a band. Do you want to be in a band with me?” Like, people are really open to that. So, I feel like it just, you know, was the perfect space for that.

Brooklyn (CJSW)
That’s awesome. I was going to ask you, has the band- you talked about forming the band in Montreal, and kind of, how that was like a very.. it sounds like organic process. Has it always been the four of you? How did you guys meet? Could you tell me a little bit about that?

Julia (Shunk)
So, yeah, we met just through like kind of being in a lot of similar spaces, but it was really more like Gabby and Peter had been friends for a really long time and had known each other, and they both wanted to start a band, so yeah, Peter and Adrian had been in previous bands like before, so Peter would kind of ask Adrian to join and play drums, and then I ran into Gabby at a show me the body show, oh yeah, at Fufun, and I remember she was like I’m trying to. With this band, and I was like, oh, I would love to play in a band with you, I would love to play bass in a band with you, and then we all jammed, and it just sort of worked out, and it just felt really organic, like right away, pretty much in terms of like other members, I don’t think we’ve ever had like, yeah, we’re closed.

Brooklyn (CJSW)
Yeah, there’s no like Peter Gabriel Phil Collins situation. It’s always been the four of you.

Julia (Shunk)
I think… I think one time I like brought my ex to play lead on something for like a jam, and it was just like because he was in town, it was kind of funny.

Brooklyn (CJSW)
Sure, yeah.

Gabrielle (Shunk)
I think I do have the Peter Gabriel energy.

Julia (Shunk)
Yeah, he’s pretty funny, honestly. Prog…

Gabrielle (Shunk)
Prog flute shaving front in front of my head. Anyways…

Gabrielle (Shunk)
Prog Rock is sick.

Brooklyn (CJSW)
Listen, the Rat King was so giving me like selling ‘England by the Pound’, like I’m a huge Prog Rock fan, so that’s probably why I like rocked with your music so heavy, those obvious influences. So, you’re from Montreal, and you have a few songs, you have a few songs en Francais, like Banale. What’s the reason behind having some in French and some in English?

Julia (Shunk)
I’ll let Gabby answer this one.

Brooklyn (CJSW)
Okay.

Gabrielle (Shunk)
So I’m Franco-Ontarian. My first language is French.

Brooklyn (CJSW)
Okay.

Gabrielle (Shunk)
And I just like playing with both languages. Yeah, Banale was the first one that I wrote in French, and it was a love song. And so I feel like when you’re bilingual, there’s some things that just feel more natural in one language than the other, and love is something that feels very in the realm of French for me. I also was very inspired by more of the French poetry that I was reading, so I think it just depends on like what the energy is, what I’m drawing from, also source wise, because I like to draw from stories or literature, a lot for the literature, for the lyrics, so yeah, it depends on like the feelings, but also what I’m drawing from, and it hopefully it’ll help us get some grants in Quebec.

Julia (Shunk)
Yeah, I feel like for me, I speak French, I personally just think that, like, you know, Shunk music – Shunk is for everyone. We want to write music in French and in English, because it makes it, like, fun for, like, people of all language – well, both of those languages – to have access to listen to. And that’s so nice, you know.

Gabrielle (Shunk)
I think also, just, you know, we talk a lot about how Montreal has shaped us, but the reality is like we’re in Quebec. French, you know, we live in French and in English a lot in Montreal. Yeah, and so that just like reflects our reality of where we are.

Brooklyn (CJSW)
Yeah, absolutely. And it definitely makes you guys unique as well to have a bit of both. Drawing off of when you mentioned what you pull from to inspire your lyrics, what else comes to mind? Like you mentioned literature and poetry. Any cinema or art in any other form that you draw from?

Julia (Shunk)
If Improv is an art form.

Brooklyn (CJSW)
It absolutely is.

Gabrielle (Shunk)
So, I mean, like, just dumb things, like Rat King. I was thinking a lot about the mayor in Buffy. I think it’s like in season two or something, like

Brooklyn (CJSW)
That’s awesome.

Gabrielle (Shunk)
Yeah, I don’t know. I just love that. I also really like New Age, New Wave, Nouvelle Vague Cinema and kind of the like juxtapositions of images, and it’s often like very florid natural spaces, and then like contrasts with like very urban spaces. I think visually that draws on that, but like really I just like reading a lot. Yeah.

Brooklyn (CJSW)
Are you reading anything right now? Either of you?

Julia (Shunk)
Yes, I am. I just started reading The Trial by Kafka, but it’s gonna be.. it’s gonna be.. I’m hoping life-changing, but we’ll see.

Gabrielle (Shunk)
I’m locked into reading Stirner’s The Ego and His Own.

Brooklyn (CJSW)
Wow, um light summer beach reading for both you.

Gabrielle (Shunk)
No, I don’t know, I just finished Neuromancer, I love sci-fi,

Brooklyn (CJSW)
Oh, awesome.

Gabrielle (Shunk)
in films and TV shows, but I don’t like it in a book, which is a controversial opinion, because everyone’s like, but Neuromancer is so good. I’m like, I just.. I don’t care.

Brooklyn (CJSW)
Can I tell you that I share that opinion?

Gabrielle (Shunk)
Really, oh my god. Okay, thank God.

Brooklyn (CJSW)
I am a huge Star Wars fan. Yeah, I do not really care for reading- Like, I’ve read Ender’s Game, if you like Star Wars, you’ll like it. Didn’t, didn’t do it.

Gabrielle (Shunk)
No, I feel that I’m like, I love. Star Trek, and they’re like, okay, but you have to read Octavia Butler, you have to read like Ursula Le Guin, and I’m just like, it doesn’t hit,

Brooklyn (CJSW)
No, you’re right.

Gabrielle (Shunk)
I know. I wish it did.

Brooklyn (CJSW)
I wish it did, I wish it did. Okay, changing gears a little bit. If you could have like a dream festival lineup, like Shunk gets to curate like Osheaga or something, who is Shunk bringing? Well, obviously yourselves, but who else is Shunk bringing?

Julia (Shunk)
Okay, this is really hard. I.. Can, can the bands be dead?

Brooklyn (CJSW)
Absolutely. This is a dream. This is fantasy.

Julia (Shunk)
Okay, so first I would.. I would.. well, actually, okay, Martin Newell from The Cleaners from Venus, he’s still alive. I would get, I would get, I would get Sleaners from Venus, for sure.

Brooklyn (CJSW)
Nice.

Julia (Shunk)
I would reform Spacemen Three, for sure. They would be there, I think. Maybe I would also add, like, I don’t know, like the Jesus and Mary Chain, I guess they’re still alive too. But

Brooklyn (CJSW)
Amazing picks.

Julia (Shunk)
I’m gonna say one more that I’m gonna give it to Gabby right off the top of my head. Fuck it, let’s throw the Beatles in there, let’s get him in there, let’s get him in there,

Brooklyn (CJSW)
Twist and shout, let’s do it.

Gabrielle (Shunk)
I want the Space Lady, I want CD kluch, I want Elizabeth Fraser. She can, you know, solo project, or you know, bring back Cocteau Twins. Patti Smith.

Julia (Shunk)
Iconic.

Gabrielle (Shunk)
Yes.

Brooklyn (CJSW)
This is a stacked festival line-up.

Gabrielle (Shunk)
It is. Yes, I know. Maybe Suburban Lawns, I’d see them. Yeah.

Brooklyn (CJSW)
Very cool.

Julia (Shunk)
Okay, I’m gonna throw in one for Peter. Yeah, he’d probably want some Bill Evans on there. Get some Bill Evans for Peter

Gabrielle (Shunk)
Late Night, like Bill Evans open bar. You can get so many old fashions, and just listen to Bill Evans.

Julia (Shunk)
And then Adrian, Adrian loves this band called Los Tuthanaka. He’s like super obsessed with them. So, let’s bring in Los Tutanaca for Adrian.

Brooklyn (CJSW)
Okay, great. Flying them in all over the world. This is Shunkland Fest, Shunk Island, if you will.

Julia (Shunk)
Oh yeah.

Brooklyn (CJSW)
Shunk Fest. Kind of along the same vein: who’s like a dream collaborator for Shunk? Production, vocals, instruments?

Julia (Shunk)
Oh my god.

Brooklyn (CJSW)
Again, dead or alive.

Julia (Shunk)
So hard.

Brooklyn (CJSW)
It doesn’t matter to me, I don’t make the rules.

Julia (Shunk)
Do you have it? Do you have one?

Gabrielle (Shunk)
I am just so like on my Elizabeth Fraser train. She has this song, At Last I Am Free, and it is such an inspiration. It is so, so beautiful, and I like dream of being able to write a song like that.

Julia (Shunk)
I feel like it would be pretty cool to like collaborate with with Martin Newell from Cleaners from Venus. I’m so obsessed with him, but he doesn’t collaborate with people. He’s so like locked into his like Wivenhoe life writing his like avant-garde pop music in his house. He’s so coo.

Brooklyn (CJSW)
He could make an exception for you, though. I’m pretty sure.

Julia (Shunk)
Maybe one day.

Gabrielle (Shunk)
In this scenario,

Julia (Shunk)
Not worthy.

Brooklyn (CJSW)
No, he would make the exception. He actually told me.

Julia (Shunk)
Thanks.

Brooklyn (CJSW)
I talked to him earlier. What can we expect next from Camp Shunk? What’s in the works? What are we cranking out?

Gabrielle (Shunk)
Well, tonight we are playing at the Legion.

Brooklyn (CJSW)
Yes, you are.

Gabrielle (Shunk)
And we are very, very excited for that. It’s gonna be great. And then this summer we’re also hitting La Nas in early July in Saguenay. Then we are playing at the end of August in Quebec City, and then we are playing the launch show for Le Securitie’s new album.

Brooklyn (CJSW)
Oh, great.

Gabrielle (Shunk)
Yeah, so that’s absolutely super exciting. And otherwise, we are working on our second album, which is due in the works. It’s we have most of it written down.

Julia (Shunk)
Okay, it’s like halfway done.

Brooklyn (CJSW)
Yeah, all right. Exactly. Amazing. Yeah, yeah. One last question for you guys. Shunk, is there anything you want the good people of Calgary, Alberta, at Sled Island to know when they come to see Shunk tonight?

Julia (Shunk)
Get ready to rumble. We’re gonna be loud, we’re gonna be having a great time. It’s gonna be there’s gonna be soft moments, there’s gonna be crazy moments. It’s, it’s just get ready, just, you know, just get ready to have some fun and come along on the, like, the wave.

Brooklyn (CJSW)
Ride the wave, yeah, ride the Shunk Wave, yeah, exactly. Absolutely. Do you have anything to add?

Gabrielle (Shunk)
Thank you so much for having us.

Brooklyn (CJSW)
Thank you for giving me your time. It was a pleasure talking to you both.