We've all heard of bands splitting over spats caused by inflated egos and personality clashes.

Logically, it only seems to make sense that musicians will work best with kindred spirits, those who share common personality traits.

Not so, according to Beast singer Betty Bonifassi.

"That's the secret of the recipe, man, we don't have at all the same personality. We're completely different," she says of her relationship with Jean-Phi Goncalves, the other half of the Montreal duo.

Beast will roar into town to play the Pawn Shop on Sunday as a four-piece, with Serge Nakauchi-Pelletier joining on guitar and Jonathan Dauphinais bringing the keybass.

"It's harder, but it brings you further," Goncalves says of working with someone who doesn't necessarily see eye-to-eye on a lot of things.

"It's like chemistry, you're a physician and you're trying two projects that do nothing but together they explode."

Having both grown up in France and then become heavily involved in Montreal's music scene, Bonifassi and producer/multi-instrumentalist Goncalves had crossed paths many times before Beast. They finally decided to work together to create some mood music intended to accompany movies or video games, and the result went far beyond what either of them expected.

When Goncalves took the duo's first track home to work on, he decided that his undeniable chemistry with Bonifassi demanded more than a one-off project.

"I forgot about my project and I proposed (to) her to do something together, and lucky me, she said yes," he says. Goncalves had also been working with his experimental electro band Plaster at the time.

The animal spawned from the collaboration with Bonifassi was an inventive fusion of rock, trip-hop and a myriad of other styles served up in a dangerously catchy dish the duo likes to call "trip rock."

The project has seen a few firsts for both veteran musicians. Bonifassi, for instance, infuses her gripping melodies with a few raps on the duo's self-titled debut - something she'd never attempted before.

"She did her first rap, it was her first take, and it's almost the take that you can find on the record," Goncalves says. He stepped out of his comfort zone as well, adding several vocal bits that were initially intended to be replaced by guest musicians.

"I didn't want to (perform) with a microphone on stage, but Betty insisted and she finally convinced me," he says.

"On stage it's still a new thing for me, so I'm working on it. I'm getting better every time, but not as good as Betty. She's my teacher."

Both musicians have had a taste of mainstream success - Goncalves has worked as a producer with the likes of Lauryn Hill, and Bonifassi contributed vocals to Champion a few years back - and Beast is poised to propel them both back onto the charts.

ITunes gave the album a simultaneous worldwide digital release in November, only the second time the online media retailer has done so, and the band has since had offers pouring in from record labels around the world.

Bonifassi says the quickly mounting recognition comes as a "beautiful surprise."

"Yes, we're coming from backgrounds that had success, but we were not thinking that we were going to have (that success)," she says.

From the start, Goncalves saw the project as more of a risk than anything. "This collaboration is more of a hazard than a wish to have success," he jokes.

Now that the fans are coming in hordes, however, he certainly has no complaints.

"It's very flattering. For the first time (on this tour) we saw people singing the lyrics of the songs," he says. "It's a funny feeling."