‘Progressive’ has become a slippery adjective.

At one time, it possessed an unambiguously positive connotation. The idea of progress was associated with forward momentum. Progressive characterized clusters of artists who expanded upon musical generic conventions. Scientific and industrial progress carried with them the promise of better living through technology. Progressive described groups of people who embraced inclusive and diverse political values.

Today, though, in the wake of the post-truth age and a regressive undercurrent in politics and art more broadly, reactionary thought sullies progress. Retromaniacal threads mingle through music as cycles of commemoration and nostalgia suck up evermore cultural oxygen. A general mistrust of technology now fuels an impetus to return to some idealized atavistic era. And conservative politics have accrued a caché and co-opted principles that once were considered exclusively progressive.

These are emotional as much as rational debates. How do we feel about the notion of purity? Is it an accumulative or subtractive process? Is purity achieved through permutation or reduction?

Karim Lakhdar, also known as Boutique Feelings, embodies this opposition. His music is at once progressive and traditional. And his multicultural identity — half-Tunisian, half-Italian, raised bilingually in Montreal’s St. Leonard neighbourhood — informs his ideology and worldview.

“There is definitely a history in Montreal of bands on the precipice,” Lakhdar, 37, says. “I’ve always felt that growing up here, there’s lots of scenes, but there’s a lot of bands going outside the box. That’s Montreal’s trademark — this kind of melding of so many styles.”

Lakhdar has recently released an album entitled Shwaya, Shwaya (Arabic for ‘Slowly, Slowly,’) via the Mothland label. It deftly melds a melange of styles including Hip-Hop, Jazz, Psych, and Funk into something that he describes as “progressive.” Progress for Lakhdar evidently represents the freedom to experiment and combine rather than to reduce and return.

“There’s a lot of really interesting music happening here,” he says. “I think there’s this special thing about Montreal. It really has this flair to it. There is this camaraderie happening amongst musicians. There’s this really nice energy and specificity to it. I’m very pro-Montreal. I’ve always loved being here. It’s a giant melting pot.”

A self-taught musician and graduate of Concordia’s Electroacoustics programme, Lakhdar grew up listening to an unlikely combination of Arabic music, 1970s Soul, Classic Rock, and Rock that has since become classic. “I was influenced by my older cousins who lived on the same street. Whether it was The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Temptations, or Oasis,” he says. “That was a big one when we were kids. Music has always been peppered throughout my life.”

Lakhdar is a founder member of Atsuko Chiba, a more straight-ahead Prog-oriented outfit, and one of the first bands to land in Mothland’s stable.

“We started jamming with no intention,” he recalls. “We were always tired of waiting for people who really didn’t want to be there. So, we just started and it snowballed from there. Mothland approached us after that and asked us if we wanted to be a part of the label. Obviously we agreed. That’s something we’ve always wanted. And they’re great. We’ve always enjoyed working with them. They really give you the freedom to do what you do.”

In the past few years, Lakhdar has branched off as a solo artist with a unique voice and a more explicitly genre-agnostic operative mode.

“I’ve been creating my stuff all the time on the side without ever giving it a name,” he tells me. He released an eponymous EP in February and has now followed that up with his first full-length album, which launches 21 November at the M For Mothland showcase at La Sala Rossa.

“I recorded it mostly at my house, in my little office,” Lahkdar explains. “We have a studio with the band, but when it comes to working on my own stuff, it’s super spur-of-the-moment. That was the idea of the project, too, to keep things super simple. And really just to capture moments and feelings. We live in an age where you can make things sound incredibly good. You can move things to be perfectly in time. But I think we’re in a moment now where people are a bit annoyed with that. I didn’t focus on making things too crisp or too perfect.”

The relentless pursuit of technical perfection is creativity’s enemy. Either nothing is perfect, or everything is. It’s something that Lakhdar understands intuitively. “I don’t know if it was timing or tone or whatever it was I was after,” he says. “But a lot of the verses are not things that I did a hundred times. I’d write them, perform them, and that was it. Every time I would go back, it would always feel different. So, I ended up leaving a lot of things alone and doing things as they came. Really just leaving them there.”

Quebec is one year away from a provincial election and seems torn between two competing paths: one reactionary, and the other more explicitly comprehensive and progressive. Montreal has just elected a new mayor, and New York has chosen the city’s first self-described Democratic Socialist.

“In any government,” Lakhdar suggests, “you should come to some kind of an understanding of what actually happens on the ground. Dialogue has to take place in order for things to work properly. You have to hear both sides. And the most important thing is to speak with people involved in that community — whether it be noise, or homelessness, or buildings that nobody rents — the people actually living the reality.”

We spend time talking about why it is that artists appear to feel a more profound sense of political responsibility than those in other professions — even politicians themselves.

“I have a duty to talk about politics,” asserts Lakhdar. “To me, it’s really important. Even if it’s not directly or specifically political, it’s always embedded in what I’m saying, or the music I’m creating. I can’t do one without the other.”◼︎

Boutique Feelings performs as part of M For Mothland, 21 November 2025 at La Sala Rossa, 4848 Boul. Saint-Laurent.

Shwaya, Shwaya is out now via Mothland.

_{Cover image: Karim Lakhdar photographed by Aabid Youssef.}