Annie-Claude Deschêne brings performance art to Winterruption 2026

Montréal music scene veteran Annie-Claude Deschêne, coming off a single release and three remixes, came out to Edmonton to play Winterruption 2026. She sat down with The Gateway before her show to chat about her releases, performance art, and her set at Winterruption 2026. 

Deschêne has been in two well-known groups based out of Montréal, and she remains in one called PyPy. But in 2024, she went her own way to release a solo record. In 2025, she followed up with a single, “Main de Fer,” which was followed by three remixes. 

Deschêne said being on her own has made for new dynamics. “I’m working by myself with a beat box and synthesizers. And that is why my songs are more electronic [than before],” she explained. She added that playing all the parts has been a fun experience. 

“I’m not doing conventional structures of EDM,” Deschêne says

While Deschêne’s solo work is more electronic compared to her past material, it isn’t her first time working within the genre. She said one of her other projects, Duchess Says, was also electronic at the beginning. In this project, Deschêne was on guitar. She never planned on making electronic or new wave either. “I never said to myself, ‘I would love to do this style.’ I think it’s just me,” she said. 

Deschêne’s recent single “is really special,” she added. “It’s really far from my album. It’s a lot more EDM.” And she said that with this release, people are beginning to see and recognize her style a lot more. And while listening to Deschêne’s music presents one thing, she said seeing her live adds another layer to it. 

“There’s a kind of punk side of it,” she said. “In a way, I’m not doing conventional structures of EDM. Right now, my show is more like performance art. I’m always trying to include the public in my performances. I’m serving food, cooking food, and just testing stuff on people, having fun with them,” Deschêne explained. 

At her Winterruption 2026 show, Deschêne filled audience members’ mouths with whipped cream, brought them on stage, and at one point had two audience members sit at a table to eat white jello and chocolates that looked like rocks. Deschêne then interrupted their dinner, dumping a vase of chocolate rocks and sitting on the audience members’ laps and overall, having bad table manners. Which is on theme with her debut record, Les Manières de Table.

“I decided to make a restaurant made from plexiglass,” Deschêne says

Deschêne said she began doing performance art during the COVID-19 pandemic. An agent approached her to see if she would be interested in doing performance art, and she said that she was initially anxious, but after being encouraged by friends, decided to do it. 

“I decided to make a restaurant made from plexiglass,” she said. “It had cameras filming people so they felt really anxious and uncomfortable,” Deschêne explained. She adapted her music to fit the performance and was motivated to make more of that music by the positive response. She won an art residency at PHI North in Montréal as a result. 

Deschêne said she never thought the project would make it this far, but it did, and came all the way to Edmonton.