His first introduction to language politics, Lavender grew up watching MuchMusic and was enamoured with English-speaking rappers like Kardinal Offishall. Meanwhile Quebec’s francophone schools and socially-imposed language requirements pressured him to stick to his native French. “It didn’t bother me that much,” he says of his francophone upbringing. “I don’t get mad when they say, ‘Okay, you have to speak French all the time.’ But I realized I wanted to rap, and back then, I wanted to rap in English.” So, he learned English from “music, TV, and girls.” When he moved from Montreal’s traditional Quebecois East End to the Anglo-heavy West End, his English finally settled in. “I lived in two universes, almost,” he says. 

Whatever vocal anxieties Lavender once had are gone, or at least masked by his energy as a performer. He routinely takes the stage by himself, acting as his own DJ, engineer, and when the time comes to it, dancer. His self-sufficient spirit could be a leftover from his time taking dance lessons as a kid, where he would be more inspired to freestyle rather than follow an instructor’s steps. He recalls his mom chastising him for his lack of structure and discipline, but this facet tracks over into his music as well.

His beats draw from a limitless cadre of genre. There’s the hip-hop and R&B he’s known for, but he’s also fond of hopping on electronic records and maintaining a punk ethos. For Lavender, genre is never cut-and-dry, only a suggestion. “It’s more like, ‘Yeah, I’m down,’” Lavender says of his explorative sound. “It’s kind of like I’m my own playlist. If I hear it, [and] I like it, I’ll do it.”

He even takes the matters of distribution into his own hands, avoiding labels as a fiercely independent artist. He begins dismissively listing everyone who he would need to go to to release music at a label, from photographers and videographers, to studio people and a handful of assorted distributors. By contrast, Lavender says, “I have the whole thing. I’m the label myself.” 

It’s the freedom that allows him to chart his summer and fall release schedule with songs, as opposed to waiting for a label’s approval. Along with the forthcoming Lyonnaise compilation album, he has some bilingual singles that he’s prepared to release throughout the fall, and a series of tour stops lined up, while going across Canada and working with friends and producers he comes across. 

Even for a journeyman like Lavender, it seems that the journey is just beginning.