July 2026 Headliner: The Defamed

The Beginning

In the early 2000s, in Chomedey, Laval, there was a forest behind Western Laval High School, where Will attended. Hidden in the woods was a sort of sinkhole where alternative, punk, and goth kids would gather to hang out, party, and do drugs. The spot became known as Suicide Ditch, and it was where everyone met.

Kevin, who attended a nearby high school, met Will there. Bonding over their shared love of punk music, they decided to start a band called The Defamed. Sara, who was also part of the Suicide Ditch crowd, joined the band later on.

Short life for The Defamed

In 2006, we recorded our first album, Stomp on the Radio, consisted of 16 songs. That same year, we travelled to Ontario to play at Spider Fest for Spider’s birthday. We stopped being active, in pursuit of other things, and the band came to an end that same year.

The Defamed are back

Then in the winter of 2024, Will convinced Kevin to start the project again, finally after years of harassment. Not having spoken to Sara in 18 years, we weren’t sure if she would even be interested in the project. She had heard that we were starting The Defamed back up again and she began to stalk us. “Those sons of bitches better ask me to join!”, said Sara. Of course, we did and she said yes right away. We had our first jam in 18 years and it felt like we never stopped, as we instantly clicked and became excitedly nostalgic over playing the songs we hadn’t played since we were much younger.

Shows/Recording

We played our first show in Coaticook with Los Bozos opening and The RUFFIANZ headlining. We realized then how much we missed it and started saying yes to almost every show that was offered to us. We recorded our first album at Studio Pavillon Noir with Germ in the winter of 2025. We titled it The Secret of the Booze and release it on the 20th of April that same year. We had no bass player, so Sara stepped up to play bass on the tracks, with the agreement of Kevin and Will. For our live shows, we interchanged bassists who we knew as friends, like Joe Franken, Jimmy Jenkins and Lucas Maltais. We have continued with this format ever since, but things may change in the future.

Label & future projects

We’re honoured to be part of Pils Records and to work closely with Dizz. We’ve truly learned a lot from him and will forever be grateful. We recorded a single titled Born Again for the upcoming Pils Records compilation featuring other bands from the label. We were lucky enough to play at the last Punx Make Noise festival last year in Quebec City. We have an East Coast tour at the end of July with our friends from Reifer Madness, as well as a small tour with High Society from Germany. We then plan on finishing the recording or our second album when we get back.

Writing: Dizz Hupe & Sara (The Defamed)

Editing: Jess Peach