Dark Matter Promotions

Yes Manchester

Annie-Claude Deschênes

Multi-disciplinarity is an integral part of the creative process of Annie-Claude Deschênes, who continues her perpetual personal quest of uniting music and performance art by bending thepre-established conventions of stage presence.
A key figure in the Montreal independent music scene for twenty years, she made her mark as a frontwoman, singer, musician, songwriter, performer, and visual artist with cult bands Duchess Says and PyPy—bands renowned for their electrifying performances as much as for their artistic sensibility. Annie-Claude’s exploratory approach to staging and sound design takes a new direction with the genesis of her solo project: the urgency and intensity that characterizes her work remains, but sheer aggression gives way to cool, dystopian disco vibes. Annie-Claude Deschênes explores and reinvents herself under her own name, driven by a constant need to create outside her comfort zone.
Inspired by minimal pop and the pioneers of electronic music, LES MANIÈRES DE TABLE, her first solo album released in 2024, is as danceable and melodic as it is disquieting—proposing to set the table differently by deconstructing the social codes of politeness imposed on us. In April 2025, she released “Main de Fer,” a single that showcases a new & unique direction in her artistic approach.

The Guardian named Annie-Claude “One to Watch”, describing Les Manières de Table as “darkly seductive electro-pop”. The album went on to be longlisted for the 2024 Polaris Music Prize, while her subsequent single Main de Fer has earned her a 2026 Juno Award nomination for Underground Dance Single of the Year.

But recordings only tell half the story.

Annie-Claude is a multidisciplinary artist for whom music, visual art, theatre and performance have always collided. She has spent her career deliberately dismantling the usual relationship between performer, stage and audience – which means standing politely at the back may not necessarily save you.

With Duchess Says and PyPy she built a reputation for electrifying live shows, touring internationally and appearing at festivals including Primavera, Eurockéennes de Belfort, OSHEAGA and Sled Island.

Along the way she has shared stages with Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Hives, Buzzcocks, Black Lips, Hot Snakes and Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, while her performances haven’t always been confined to conventional venues. Factories, churches and even golf courses have all become stages.She created an absolute storm at Great Escape Festival and is supporting Angine de Poitrine on their US tour.

The DSM IV

• Formed in Liverpool in 2018 by former Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster frontman Guy McKnight, THE DSM IV crystallise the ultra real and the otherworldly, bringing a focused hyperrealism to the party. Their convention-defying live performances toy with audience expectations and stimulate questions of the narratives being sold to us as news—or entertainment—all to the beat of the drum machinist. As if pontificating from a lectern, McKnight sings and gesticulates like his life depends on it, his lyrics enticing or lacerating depending on the mood. In an age of perversion of reality, THE DSM IV poetically reflect on our world’s hypocrisies and dilemmas, with danceability, intelligence, indignation, grace & style—refreshing purity for these polluted times. “We’re inspired by a lot of stuff like books, certain artists and painters,” says McKnight of the band’s world, “but for me personally, especially by film. Directors, photography, film scores. the dark crises that everyone experiences from time to time in our creativity, and confront some of the taboos and blind spots that have haunted human beings throughout history. Particularly now, in this social media generation, it’s becoming increasingly important.”

“Hardcore acid Scouse…McKnight still has the ability to summon demons and bewitch with his hoodoo” – Electronic Sound

“Somewhere between The Stooges primal garage punk and Suicide’s screeching futurism…blistering dance-punk” – CLASH

“Challenging, odd and enigmatic…artful and twisted music that makes you think, dance, and let yourself go” – Morning Star

“A swirling sinister slice of goth pop…dance floor-filling Sisters/Mission dry ice shenanigans” – Louder Than War

“A blend of The Fall, Suicide, Arthur Lee and acid house…dynamic and compelling” – The Quietus