They are so familiar and new at the same time. Have they not already existed, exulted, moved the multitudes, these ten songs from Pierre Lapointe’s new album? Did he decant them from a thousand tunes of others engraved in him? Is it his most timeless creation, that these Ten Old-Fashioned Songs for the Broken-Hearted ? To all these questions, he answers yes, a big yes. The one who describes himself as “a blacksmith who works gold, a jeweler who sets them [les airs] in mounts”, does not hesitate to affirm it: he finally arrives at the goal. A full disc of “new classics”, as he says.
Of the “great song”, he also said in the first minutes of this interview at the start of the year, via Zoom. The hobby of a lifetime for the little guy from Lac-Saint-Jean. “I have been obsessed with the idea of creating new classics for almost 25 years. I felt in recent years that I was at an age where it was becoming more real, more palpable, so I said to myself: let’s do it. Hence this project which was initially an almost cerebral exercise. »
From hobby to great work
A priori, this album did not covet the now possible and plausible place of best in career. It wasn’t even a project destined for fifteenth place in his discography. “It was to pass the time during the pandemic. I was working on Winter songsit was very advanced, with no need for new songs, but since I was all alone here, I told myself that I would write some songs for the fun. Which I did for six-seven days non-stop, practically. With, in mind, that these could be songs for others. Performers I didn’t know, as much as possible. Singers who have more advanced voices than mine. »
How did this batch of potential non-curricular proposals become this great work? Continuation of the story. “At the same time, with Philippe Brault, my long-time collaborator, I worked on another album, which is now 90% finished or almost. A matter of sampling. A bit as if the Beastie Boys met the French song played by jazzmen Americans of the 1950s. Also at the same time, for fun, I found myself in France and I spent a lot of time with Julien Clerc, Carla Bruni, lots of people. And I noticed something. Once back in Montreal, I spoke to Laurent Saulnier about it [l’ancien journaliste et programmateur, son gérant]. “Do you realize, Laurent, that what makes the world over there fall for me, I think it’s because, for them, I make French songs more French than what they are gamethem, to do?” »
The resourceful geniuses
The sample album was put on the back burner and the exercises of great songs for others collected. And reworked to be sung by Pierre Lapointe. And refined at the Treatment Room, the modest studio run by champions Philippe Brault and Ghyslain-Luc Lavigne in Mile End. “We recorded this in several stages. We often started with piano and voice. Sometimes, piano-guitar-bass-drums. I did the majority of the voices. All alone. Sometimes, guitarist Joseph Marchand sang with me, and we multiplied our voices on top of each other. To arrive at choirs. Often it was six layers of three voices. It would have cost me a lot to do that with a real choir. »
“But quite a bit cheaper than an album of this quality in 1975. Now, Philippe Brault and I, instead of going to record an orchestra of 90 strings in a megastudio, we can achieve a really good result in sections of nine strings that we add. The magic is that, Ghyslain-Luc being a very, very good sound recordist, he was able to make the room below the main studio sound, which is not made for recording strings. We managed to give a very prestigious sound. Even if we don’t have the means we had at the time, we have extraordinary people who find solutions. » Genius resourceful people.
-This you who is an I
These arrangements, both simple and sumptuous, ideally serve songs that speak to the tumore often than is. The process is extremely efficient. From the outset: “All the idols are already dead / And their songs in a way / Are prayers that you recite / When in your head everything is going too fast / You have copied their mannerisms and their mannerisms / You have took their old-fashioned ways.” Who is Pierre Lapointe talking to like this? “ All your idolsI made it for a singer who refused it. But when the project became [officiellement] project and we reworked it, I realized that this song was my Blues du businessman to me. That ultimately I talked a lot about myself. At tuI don’t have a filter. I would never have dared to say that to is. »
Outdated songs thus found their justification. When they are good, they become timeless. “It’s putting yourself above fashion and trend. It’s trying to do something resolutely contemporary, and at the same time looking for the cream of the reference which keeps you in a timeless zone. The best way to not be out of fashion is to never be in fashion. I wanted people to feel like they had always heard these songs, while discovering something new, ideally being as touching as possible. » A fairly rare equation. So Like clay pigeonsa song about his mother’s Alzheimer’s, is poignant without aligning the clichés: an exceptional success.
“These are the keys to Greek tragedy,” said Lapointe, continuing his momentum. It’s always the same themes, the feeling of rejection, social inequality, sadness, love. We stay with deep, universal and human themes. I’m not talking about this today, but I think that, for Brault and me, these are less and less accidents. It’s more and more because we own our medium. As much me in the writing as him in the arrangements. We are starting to become great pros. » That said in all candor. “It’s more interesting than ever to create. We do not sacralize the past, it exists in the present. My material, my gold, I can work it like the Aztecs, like in the Renaissance, but also like in 2025. There is no more retro. Everything can mix, and everything mixes. » The songs that feel good don’t change.
