The Sweet Escape of 17sport

The Montreal electronic duo turn nervous breakdowns, Tumblr-sleaze, and queer romance into shimmering avant-pop.

By Kenna Clifford

Photos by Logan Charbonneau

Published on May 7, 2026

A wave breaks. Muffled yells bob in and out of focus around bouncing synths, amorphous textures transform into what sounds like voices yelling across a playground and marry into a splashy 2010’s drum out of the arsenal of early MGMT. This is 17sport’s “Kill,” an exhilarating single of electronic art pop which – like their 2025 album Blue Heaven White Horse – comes to the audience as if it’s something from a dream, produced in the foggy memory of early aughts witch house and refreshed, re-remembered for a current electronic landscape. 17sport lives in a world of cotton candy, endless summer and monster trucks. Watching clips of their performances, their stage presence is magnetic, much like the air of freneticism and freedom in their flitting, hypnagogic work.

So, it comes as a surprise to hear from Iris and Del, the duo behind a project that fits somewhere sonically between acts like Smerz, ML Butch and Bassvictim, that they were almost a bread-and-butter folk-pop band before settling into their current sound.

“I was at a point where I just wanted to do a band with everyone,” Del laughs, describing the pretenses of their collaboration. She tells me that before working together, neither of them had any prior experience making music, beyond the occasional childhood piano lesson. Instead, they found their stride by simply doing it, making music after running away together to rural Quebec in the throes of early romance.

“[Del] got a job really far away, in a small town…”

“…and you came… you just came for this job, and we were living in this like, small room in a house full of men… a working house…”

“We had a Mac with GarageBand on it, and we’d just go to the lake to record with a guitar.”

Their music aptly feels like escape. Blue Heaven White Horse was an exercise in closeness for the two, a way to cathartically address the anxieties of a new relationship and the intricacies of exploring their queerness for the first time. Through the album, they begin building a sonic landscape for what really does feel like a whole world of art. Since releasing their first album, their work has shifted noisier, melded to their interests, and evolved with the learning curve of creation. As the two focus on the production of their second album, they’re still using the process to play – a way to exhale through art.

“We made our last demo with our friend, when we were collectively going through, like, a nervous breakdown,” Del explains, with a bit of a laugh. “We just decided to cope [by making] a song. We wrote words of affirmation on a piece of paper and that was the lyrics. We made a crazy ass thirteen-minute song, and you can hear “Everytime” by Britney Spears playing in the background.”

“Music is what we’ve found to be the greatest vessel, because you can do visuals, you can conceptualize, you can do everything.” explains Iris. The project exists really, as an extension of their other practices, rather than something that fulfills a separate creative itch. “It’s kind of, like, painting and assembling, and it’s really intricate.”

Chatting with Iris and Del immediately feels like having a sleepover. There is a level of earnestness required for this kind of collaborative relationship, and in speaking to the duo, it’s clear that this drives their work. It’s easy to see just how honest, genuinely funny and close the two are with each other, and others. They both express to me at different times in the interview that they were giddy beforehand just to talk music and later suggest we hang out when I’m in their city next. Iris and Del finish each other’s sentences; they laugh into each other’s laps and even over our call and exude a certain sense of psychic attunement that can only come from spending all your time with someone else.

“Oh my god, we just have so much fun together,” says Del, beaming. “…art is literally so fun because it’s just playing. I don’t think [music making] is sold as something accessible. But every time we meet someone we’re like, do it, do it! It’s really easy. Just, like, it’s really easy. You can do ugly shit, it’s okay.”

The two are comfortable building their world bit by bit, and shifting it as they grow. At times their art feels like scrolling through a shared blog or an old Tumblr diary: the band’s YouTube channel is populated with DIY music videos of CRTV footage and endless white hallways, or coalesced TikTok clips; in their video for “Aquatic Voices,” clips of Julia Fox (of whom Del is a big fan – her tattoo Instagram account is aptly named @juliafoxcontent) are spliced between sequences from varied 2010’s music videos and crashing waves. It’s silly, a little dreamy, and very telling of their interests.

“We have huge notebooks of stuff we just note all the time, of things that make us happy. At the present moment it’s doing music, making video clips, driving in summer with doors open, the beach, ferris wheels, The Pet Shop Boys, and SALEM.” Del tells me, while the two of them pour over the scribbles of two separate notebooks full of project inspiration placed on the bed in front of them.

“We’re obsessed with watching runaway couples right now, too. Badlands, Bonnie and Clyde, Thelma and Louise.” Iris notes, citing these films as a big touch point in the creation of their newest album (to be released this summer). They’re watching in preparation for their upcoming European tour.

Simply put, the project feels like a big collage. To appreciate the work that Iris and Del are making together is truly to appreciate their current state and tastes. For a band that has only been releasing (and creating) music for a little over a year now, and with no prior experience, 17sport’s production, sound and style is extremely polished. Their lyrics are bare and thoughtful, earnest and desiring. In their videos, the two swirl around each other in sequins and frills, holding hands and hugging while they sing. In a way, their music offers an exhale for the audience too, an opportunity to escape into another world.