Bye Parula Are Building Something Bigger

The Montreal trio’s sophomore album balances indie dance-floor energy with quieter moments of reflection.

By Stephan Boissonneault

Photo by Marc-André Dupaul

Published on June 2, 2026

Montreal trio Bye Parula have built an entire musical identity around groove, instinct, and happy accidents. The biggest one came from the opening seconds of “Still Got The Spirit,” a disco-tinged indie pop track whose acoustic guitar and synth-string intro now greets millions of Canadians every day as the theme song to CBC radio’s Q With Tom Power. Four years later, bassist/vocalist Loïc Calatayud, guitarist Sebastián Riquelme, and drummer Sergio D’Isanto still laugh about how improbably it all happened.

Before the song landed at Q, it first caught the attention of Warren Spicer of Plants and Animals, whose mix helped earn Bye Parula an opening slot for Echo & the Bunnymen.

“I remember Warren texting me and saying, ‘Do you want to open for Echo & The Bunnymen tomorrow?’” Calatayud says while sitting on a mustard-yellow velvet couch inside the band’s studio/jam space. “So the next day, I’m cleaning my house in my underwear and I get a call and it’s Ian McCulloch saying, ‘Hey, we love your song, please open for us.’”

After the gig, Calatayud messaged the show’s booker — who also happened to be a producer for Q — to say thanks, and the rest is history.

“It’s funny to think back on it, because we almost scrapped that song until we heard the mix Warren made,” Riquelme says. “Our other songs at the time [on the debut album] were more downtempo, and we wanted more high energy.”

That realization ultimately shaped Bye Parula’s sophomore album, Something Out Of Nothing. Building on the momentum of “Still Got The Spirit,” the band leaned harder into groove and movement, eventually splitting the record into two distinct halves: Part A, “Songs To Listen To In A Standing Position,” and Part B, “Songs To Listen To In A Sitting Position.”

The Standing Position tracks are uptempo indie-dance-meets-funk songs built to make you shake ass, while the Sitting Position songs are slower, more contemplative moments.

“At some point in the album-writing process, we realized that even though we wanted the more uptempo stuff, the slower tracks are also very much us,” Calatayud says. “So we wanted it to be presented in a funny, David Byrne-meets-IKEA-catalogue sort of way.”

While Part A carries most of the album’s dance-floor energy, Part B contains some of its most emotionally resonant moments. “Miedo de olvidar” in particular features Inuk and Québécoise artist Elisapie singing from the perspective of a mother.

“The song is about being a child and missing your mother, so we all immediately thought of her to take this role,” Calatayud says. “She was so professional and immediately understood the vibe.”

Something Out Of Nothing captures Bye Parula at their sharpest: shimmering indie soul and funk layered beneath lyrics that shift between English, French, and Spanish. That multicultural blend mirrors the band itself — Calatayud is from the south of France, D’Isanto is from Italy, and Riquelme is from Chile. The three met in Montreal during the pandemic as newly arrived strangers who barely knew anyone in the city, eventually forming the band within a year.

“After we decided to go a bit more uptempo, our range of culture and musical influences really shaped how we approach a groove,” D’Isanto says.

“At first it wasn’t natural,” Calatayud adds. “Soul and funk weren’t the kinds of music I grew up with, so it’s always been about putting the energy of punk and hardcore into a pop song and making it sound like three guys in a room making noise.”

That tension between polish and spontaneity, movement and reflection is what gives Something Out Of Nothing its pulse. Across the album, Bye Parula sound like a band finally learning how to trust their own instincts. Whether standing still or moving toward the dance floor, the trio have found a groove that feels entirely their own.