Here’s the direct link where you can download it!

So they know their music. We are stoked.

READ THE ORIGINAL INTERVIEW BY JENNA HANNON HERE.

Interview by Jenna Hannon

Earlier this week I heard from my friend Julien Fillion, a fellow Canadian kiteboarder, regarding his music. I am always blown away by his ability to be one of kiteboarding’s ‘gnarliest’ wave riders, yet at the same time a contemporary musician with the incredible ability to capture our deepest of emotions. I caught up with Julien for a few questions about the new video and influences.

Black Swan inspired? Everybody asks this. It’s funny, maybe because of the darkness of the our video. I had the vision of this music video about a year ago (before I even watched the Black Swan).  In Montreal, being the promise land of contemporary dancing, I frequently go see dance shows.

What inspired this album? I’ve been doing music since I was 12 years old. Although,  no one really knew about it. I would always hide to play. Since I didn’t play any popular covers, I thought that nobody could relate to my playing and I would annoy people.  Three years ago, my good friend Sheldon heard me play and told me it sounded really good and I should really pursuit this. So I started writing and I finished the 30 something songs that I’d started. I then teamed up with one of Montreal most notorious music producer Toby Gendron, and together with the band we recorded “Nowhere is Now Here“. The album is a gathering of several of my thoughts from the past 3 years.

Does kiteboarding influence your music? Of course it does! Without kiteboarding, I wouldn’t travel the world the way I do, and I wouldn’t share all those amazing experiences with all my travel buddies. For example, the song entitle Tsunami was inspired by my feeling of big wave surfing, especially the first time I standup paddle boarded Peahi (Jaws) un assisted.

What 5 songs are repeating on your Ipod as we speak? I rarely listen to only 1 song, but I will listen to the same album for months at time. I would say the last 5 albums would be : Clara Furey – Live, Karkwa – Chemin de vere, Pearl Jam – Vitality, Winter sleep – 2003, and this week I started Crooked Fingers – Breaks in the Armor

THE SOUND
Julien Fillion’s vision and the musicians’ collective came together under veteran producer Toby Gendron’s masterful direction. Gendron gave the collective the room it needed to play, the guidance not to get lost, and the setting to have fun in his notoriously relaxed yet professional Montreal studio, the Gypsy room. All songs are at once melodically ethereal, sometimes almost explosive, and always shifting slightly as they progress, unpredictably, along with Julien’s acoustic guitar. The end-experience: a passionate, honest, masterful, playful yet intense debut album with a complexity of musical and lyrical layers that make you want to listen over and over again. In terms of sound, for fans of Jeff Buckley. Arcade Fire. And Radiohead in the early days.

Music Video from the Montreal band Trusted Waters.

Produced: Julien Fillion
Directed : Louis Delisle
Editor: Louis Delisle
Director of photography : Jonathan Fournier
Production Company: Everlast-Ocean

Dancers : Sophie Breton, Anne Sophie Viens, Virginie Riopel, Catherine Allard, Emilie Barrette.

Dance teacher : Amelie Hall

Choreography : Catherine Allard

See you soon Encinitas!

Here’s some pictures from Paul Lang Photography.

And thanks to Sennheiser for themics and the in ears monitor system.

Buy TWs Album Directly

Thanks to Jonathan Fournier for the shots and Jean-Bruno Pinard for the audio, and Sennheiser for the amazing sound in the room, which you had to be there to experiment!

Photo : Alexandre Voyer photography.

Get Trusted Waters “Nowhere is Now Here” Album : Buy the Album Direct
Corners & Cracks

My Montreal

California #7

Our House

Your first impression of Julien Fillion might be that he’s a quiet guy. He always has a thoughtful look on his face, like he’s trying to work out some problem in his head. Get him talking about kiteboarding gear and you’ll quickly realize that not only is Julien not a quiet guy, but his head is so full of ideas that sometimes he has a hard time getting them all out.

When asked about Julien’s strong points as a designer, Liquid Force Brand Manager Gary Siskar said, “His passion, knowledge, and dedication to kiteboarding for one, plus he’s very flexible and rigid at the same time. He takes feedback, processes it, and uses it to make better equipment for kiteboarding, but at the same time he has a forward vision and pushes his ideas that he knows will change the way we kiteboard. He will stick with these ideas even if it is not popular with the group and he has proven over and over by believing in his vision that his ideas have been right on point and have changed the way we use and what we expect from kiteboarding equipment.”

Julien is not only a kiteboarding designer, but he’s also a talented musician, a sponsored stand up paddler, and is also a team rider for Liquid Force. We asked Siskar how it helps to have Julien as a designer and a team rider and he said, “How can it not! He is a top level athlete and he is the one designing and developing the equipment. It’s not just a benefit to Liquid Force, it’s a benefit to our customers!”

When did you first see kiteboarding? How did you get started?
Originally I was living in Maui for windsurfing. I was working and riding with Neil Pryde and I thought my life would revolve around windsurfing forever. To me kiteboarding looked very dangerous.

Most of the guys were not able to make it upwind and it didn’t look like that much of a good time. When I came home to go back to university, windsurfing on the lake or river just wasn’t very exciting anymore. It was actually really boring after riding amazing waves in Maui.

I ordered a few kites and I got into it so much that I wasn’t really into windsurfing anymore, like everyone else.

Do you have a background in design?
I went to school for computer science. I was always interested in design. With design, it’s always been easy for me to learn on my own and to be surrounded by good designers who are willing to let go of their knowledge. In every sport I’ve been into, I’ve always wanted to make the gear better.

That’s exactly what I did with windsurfing. I got really lucky because Neil Pryde really liked my ideas and I was able to ride with the team and learn a lot with them. I love to ride, but I’ve always been a little bored with just riding. I have to do more, and making the gear better is very interesting for me. I love it.

As a designer, what’s the starting point for designing a bridle for a kite?
For any inflatable kite designer, the hardest years are the first three. There’s no school that explains how it all works. There are no books about it, so you just have to try everything.

With bridles, you have to play with where they attach to the leading edge, what angles you are going to use, what kind of bridle to use, the number of pulleys, what kind of opening you want to get, where you want the bridle to lock, and where you want it not locked, and all that comes only after you choose the right outline, aspect ratio, and everything else. For me, the bridle comes at the end.

When you get a new prototype kite, are you ever surprised by how it performs?
When we get a new kite and it does what it’s supposed to, I’m not surprised, I’m just happy. When we try to go into more edgy areas, especially when we play with the number of struts, that’s when, sometimes, the kite just won’t work.

We’re not really surprised by it. For the past few years, we’ve put a lot of effort into removing struts, and it’s a lot more complicated than just removing them. When you choose to build a three-strut kite, the whole structure of the kite has to be built to work with the three struts.

What else do you do other than design equipment for Liquid Force?
I’ve been riding for NPX for many years and I’ve helped them design wetsuits. I designed their snowboard-style drysuit with them. I’m also really into creating equipment to use in big waves and am into SUP as well. I ride for Imagine and I’ve helped them create smaller SUPs.

All that keeps me really busy, but the other part of my life right now is music. I have a Montreal-based band, Trusted Waters, and we’re in the studio right now recording a complete album, which will be released in July.

How does being a team rider for LF change your role as a designer?
There’s many ways to look at design. Maybe I’m not a true designer. I can basically only design gear that I use. When it comes to designing something like women’s equipment, I’m not very good at it because I don’t use it. I have to be in the water because I love it and I get to spend a lot of time riding with all levels of riders, so I see when they have a problem or when they have a good time, which helps me learn the needs of riders out there.

Designing kites is not a normal engineering product. It’s very much about what we believe is right and how we like a kite to behave in the air. You can try to do that on a computer as much as possible, but it’s only when you are on the beach doing the last adjustments that you can really bring it all together. If I wasn’t in the water clocking hundreds of hours a year, I can hardly imagine how I’d be able to create good kites.

You’re the second designer we’ve interviewed who is also a musician. Does your creative musician side help you with your work as a designer?
When you have to travel a lot, there are a lot of lonely times. Those have always been the moments when I’m writing music. When I’m home in Montreal, I can kite a lot, but not all the time, so having music helps balance my life.

I’ll be working on design in the office for half the day, and then I’ll spend the other half of the day playing music. It’s just a good way to split your life. I’m so into kiteboarding and all these watersports that I need another passion to keep me from getting sick of it all.

What is the starting point of a new product?
Usually choosing what to make is related to what the market needs and what our retailers, distributors, and customers want. We don’t try to reinvent the wheel with all our products every year. What we try to do is to look at what people love about our gear and then work off that.

We also look at what people might not have been crazy about and we try to make it better. Between August and October, we ask a lot of questions. What do they love about our gear? What do they love about other brands? What do they want next year? It’s not always the same year to year. Then we create a product line based on what people want and we get to work on it. I’ll be in Montreal doing the drawings and trying the gear, and when the kites are ready, I start mailing these kites everywhere so I can get feedback.

Usually the kites are approved by March or April, and then we have to produce and ship them. It’s not a long window and where we’ve been really good in the past few years is to imagine what people will need next year and to nail it. When we knew that three strut kites would come on strong, we made the Envy and it has killed it. This year we have the MaxFlow and people love it.

When you are introducing a brand new product like MaxFlow, what’s the testing process like to make sure consumers won’t have problems?
It’s crazy. It took us more than two years to make it happen. We knew for many years that using an 8mm valve is a horrible way to inflate your kite. There have been wider valves on the market, but we were never crazy about them.

A few years ago, a friend was working on a crib for babies that used bladders to create the structure of the crib. We have a lot of knowledge of working with TPU bladders, so we worked with him to make his crib really good right away. He’s a very good engineer and was working on this valve that would make it very easy for anyone to use and quick to inflate. I grabbed two of the valves and put them on the leading edge of a kite.

After being used for a year, they had no problems. Everything was perfect. People who were using those valves told us they would get mad when they couldn’t use those kites and had to rig kites with small valves. We had to work on the valve a lot to get it right for kiteboarding.

It has to go on the leading edge, which is not flat, and it has to work in all kinds of weather. Once we were done with the valve, we used it for a year to make sure it was perfect. We knew we were on to something big and everybody loves it.

How do you decide which ideas to pursue and which not to?
Usually before we waste our time on an idea that people may not like or want, we investigate it with our close retailers and distributors. Usually we get instant feedback if we’re on to a great idea or not. People either tell us, “Yes, I want it now” or “Umm, I’m not so sure.”

We usually don’t waste our time on the not-so-sure ideas and we put all of our energy into ideas that people want. When I was younger, I would waste a lot of time on ideas that people were not into. It’s much better to ask before wasting hundreds of hours. A long time ago I was a pro kayaker and I worked on some crazy ideas. I worked on a brace to use inside the kayak and everything was mechanical. I wasted almost a year on that idea and it never went anywhere.

Do you pay much attention to the products from other companies?
I try to know all the product lines to see what the other companies are promoting because that’s a good gauge of where the industry is heading. We have our own way to design our gear and we have our own ideas. I don’t go around and fly all the kites, unless there is a product that everyone is into and I don’t understand why.

Then I’ll try to ride that gear, just to know what people like about it. I’m really not into using other people’s ideas; it’s just not my thing. I’d be really bored if I was just copying other people’s ideas all day.

Liquid Force has an image of being a very wakestyle-oriented brand. How do you make sure your kites will satisfy the larger market while keeping the wakestyle riders happy?
That’s a really good question. We’ve been working really hard for years to get the masses to ride our gear. Our gear is not core wakestyle gear. OK, we have bindings, but that’s because we have a crew of wakeboarding people creating the craziest bindings on the market. Everything else is made for the masses.

Sometimes our wakeboarding image works against us. Liquid Force is the largest wakeboarding brand in the world. We have an amazing kiteboarding product line which we create for the masses and we constantly have to tell people. Some riders think Liquid Force kites are only for really good riders or riders who use boots, but we design the gear for all riders. People are usually surprised when they try our kites.

For example, the Envy is a really easy kite to fly and a lot of people love it, but some riders don’t even try it because they think it’s only for wakestyle riders. The Liquid Force team riders ride bindings because they love bindings. They love to land hard and to have complete control of their boards. When it comes to the kites, control bars, and everything else, we design them for the everyday rider. A lot of us do a lot of wave riding and a kite that works well in the waves will work good for everything.

It needs to have a lot of depower, a lot of power, a super quick relaunch, and to be able to roll around in the waves and come back up. This is what our kites are designed to do. We have to educate people though advertisements and demos that our products are not only for wakestyle riding. Of course, the products work amazing for wakestyle, and we don’t even need to promote it. All those riders already know it.

Can you give us any hints about new stuff you’re working on?
It’s still too early to speak about what we’re doing for 2012. All I can say is that we will have three models of kites next year and there will be some new areas that we’ve never explored before.

There are crazy new ideas coming that we’ve been working on for more than two years. MaxFlow was a huge idea for us this year and we have one or two more big ideas coming for 2012. You’ll see.

Here’s some pictures from day 2, taken by Montreal’s photographer Marie-Eve Des Roches.

Trusted Waters began with professional waterman Julien Fillion’s obsessive guitar playing and compulsive writing of music and lyrics. Then, he met Toby Gendron, who happens to be one of Montreal’s most famous producers/studio engineers. They connected and teamed up.  Together, they brought a melting pot of amazing musicians from all sectors of Montreal’s insanely rich music scene. The collective’s goal : bring Julien’s musical vision to life. While pushing the boundaries of INDIE/ROCK into progressive structures with that unique Montreal sound, the final result showcases their passion for what they do best, play music!

Guitar, Vocal, Moog

ABOUT JULIEN FILLION

It’s easy to underestimate a guy like Julien Fillion: his extremely easy-going, laid-back attitude can be mistaken for shyness. You won’t find Julien boasting about his latest song or asking if you saw him killin’ it during his last wave session. Instead, Julien lets his riding, his art, and his music do the talking.

Whether he’s surfing the biggest waves in Hawaii, chasing the waves in a hurricane’s aftermath, kitesurfing the coasts of Africa or jamming to his latest tunes, Julien’s all-round talent speaks volumes. But sit down at a coffee shop with this guy and you’ll quickly discover a wicked sense of humor and a loyalty to those who are part of his life: he has a tight circle of friends and family spread out across the globe, so that no matter where he is, he’s surrounded by people with a like-minded attitude. He makes it easy to forget that he’s also the lead designer for several extreme sports equipment companies, and has a rep for designing the greatest traction kite gear on earth.

THE SOUND

Julien’s vision and the musicians’ collective came together under veteran producer Toby Gendron’s masterful direction. Gendron gave the collective the room it needed to play, the guidance not to get lost, and the setting to have fun in his notoriously relaxed yet professional Montreal studio, the Gypsy room. The result, a sound that is at once sober and sophisticated. “It was really magic,” says Julien. “Everyone was so stoked. And generous. And everyone gave. These are amazing musicians who respected what I wanted to do but also created in their own right.”

Egos were set aside as veterans and neophytes meshed to capture and express the essence of Julien’s songs, while having fun musically. Every note that is there serves and respects the musical landscape that sprang from Julien’s imagination. A landscape of moods and stories that are an accessible yet unique hybrid of indie, pop, and rock. At times introspective and ethereal, at other times just plain rocking, the collective’s album is at mix of deeply personal songs, ironic commentary, and finely crafted-stories that reflect the crazy mix of worlds and ideas Julien encounters as he travels the planet for his work. “My goal was to make sure that each song was different, that I gave people who listened to the album something fresh with each song.”

And each song is a world onto itself: Our House, for example, uses daringly simple lyrics and haunting guitar riffs and vocal layers to build a surprisingly intelligent, moody rock piece that everyone will relate to; Vampires Are Cool is a party song that happens to be an ironic commentary on youth culture’s obsession with the immediate and nihilistic; with Tsunami, the TWs collective taps into the adrenaline, intensity and borderline insanity that it takes to face and ride life-crushing waves; and in California #7, TWs delivers a dark futuristic ballad about the demise of a not-so distant world. Each song is fresh, but TW’s approach remains cohesive musically and thematically. Water and shiftlessness in different forms, are always present.

All songs are at once melodically ethereal, sometimes almost explosive, and always shifting slightly as they progress, unpredictably, along with Julien’s acoustic guitar. The end-experience: a passionate, honest, masterful, playful yet intense debut album with a complexity of musical and lyrical layers that make you want to listen over and over again. In terms of sound, for fans of Jeff Buckley. Arcade Fire. And Radiohead in the early days.

Flip through it, zoom in, check it out!  Lots of great featured art. http://www.trustedwaters.com/book/

All songs written and performed by Julien Fillion under the direction of Toby Gendron.

Video Credit Jonathan Fournier

All songs written and performed by Julien Fillion, under the direction of Toby Gendron.

Here’s a quick teaser of her work…

All songs written and performed by Julien Fillion, under the direction of Toby Gendron

Video Credit : Jonathan Fournier

All song written and performed by Julien Fillion under the direction of Toby Gendron.

Video Credit : Jonathan Fournier

All song written and performed by Julien Fillion

All song written and performed by Julien Fillion under the direction of Toby Gendron.

All songs written by Julien Fillion

All songs written and performed by Julien Fillion and the Trusted Waters crew.

All song written and performed by Julien Fillion.

All song written and performed by Julien Fillion.