“One idea we really like,” he says, “is influenced by Teo Macero, Miles Davis’ producer in the early ‘70s. Basically, Miles would just, during the On the Corner Sessions, he would just play for like an hour — there’d be some guidance of maybe a melody or something that keeps coming back — and Teo would listen to the tape over and over again and just find the little part that catches here and there. He’d then cut everything up and make it work together.”

Their upcoming EP, Serpent Échelle, hot on the heels of their 2023 full-length, Électrons libres du québec, embraces the jam aesthetic through and through. While previous albums perhaps leaned heavier towards the massive sludge riffs and crushing sound, this four-track EP presents a more variegated sound that veers closer to jazz and prog influences. Nowhere is this more evident than on album closer, “Comme tu les souhaites (Ding Dong),” which was written in a mere half-hour almost as an energetic release from the weight of the rest of the EP.

“Basically, we all had parts kind of written for that song on the side,” says Lacombe. “We were in the studio on the last day and we just thought, ‘Hey, let’s record a new song, compose it all in studio. Let’s do whatever and add some layers.’ We played it live between the three of us and layered synths and oscillators all over the place, had some fun.”

As a foil to their sound, that sense of fun is at the core of Population II — despite the growing, gnawing pessimism to be found in the world at large, and at times in their lyrical content. Lacombe describes a more carefree and loose existence between themselves and their friends, a chance to share song, wine and good times. The world is falling apart around them, and, as individuals, maybe they’re too small to effect any large-scale change. But they’re driven to make art for themselves, first and foremost, as a way of building fraternity and resisting the looming apocalypses. So yeah, bite the apple and have fun: it’s all going to be over one day anyway.