A little over 20 years ago, Loco Locass launched Amour orala second album whose serious groove will have marked Quebec social, political and musical life. The three members of this now dormant cell return to the creation of their invitation to never stop thinking, the big one, even if it sometimes takes a lot of courage.
Posted at 5:45 a.m.
“In all modesty, it’s an album that still holds up and which, unfortunately for Quebec, has not aged that much,” observes Biz, regardingAmour orallaunched on November 2, 2004, the evening of George W. Bush’s re-election to the United States presidency.
« Free us from the liberalstoday it could be Free us from the CAQ, he said jokingly. It would be enough to change the rhymes in o for rhymes in ac. »
Excerpt from Free us from the liberals
In the early 2000s, Biz and Batlam regularly took the metro together, heading to Joliette station, where the architect of the rhythm Chafiik lived. ” In my opinion, Amour oral reflects a sort of state of grace for the group, says Batlam. We saw each other almost every day, we hung out a lot. »
“We still had the urgency of young creators who want to exist in the public square,” recalls Chafiik, evoking the influence on the making of his music of the woozy pulsation of English grime as well as the well-oxygenated beats of the albums of Missy Elliott directed by Timbaland.
Darbouka, sounds reminiscent of the rhaïta (a kind of oboe from North-West Africa), collaboration with the Montreal-Algerian singer Karim of Syncop: Chafiik multiplies the nods to his roots – his mother is the writer of of Lebanese origin Abla Farhoud, who died in 2021 – and even borrows from other corners of the world, as in Groove gravepunctuated with tablas.
PHOTO BERNARD BRAULT, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
The members of Loco Locass on stage at Club Soda, in 2004
“The music in a song plays the role of the unconscious,” he emphasizes. So if the substance tells you that Quebec would benefit from being independent, but the form is something mixed with lots of cultures, super open, it becomes clear that the Quebec you dream of is an inclusive Quebec. »
The words of Pierre Falardeau with which it opens Amour oral are already pointing in this direction: “I, the world, don’t want to know where they come from”, he says in his proud and cheeky voice, a sample of a speech given during a marathon performance of his young comrades, at Métropolis, July 27, 2002. “I want to know where they are going! »
Not so fleur-de-lis
With its eternal blue and white caps, Loco Locass remains in the collective imagination closely, almost exclusively, associated with the country project, but attentive listening toAmour oral reveals a much less monomaniacal statement, of Bonzaiontheir ode to grass, to the more intimate triptych composed of Spleen and Montreal, Home and Ideal et The Survener.
“In the end, the album isn’t that fleur-de-lys,” Biz agrees. I accept this statement, but what makes Loco last is that it’s not just that. And we must give back to Chafiik what belongs to him. It’s on Amour oral let his genius express itself. He was the one who taught me how to construct a song. »
Powered by the success of Free us from the liberalsa firefight put online in May 2004 and surprisingly embraced by commercial radio, Amour oral will thereby become the soundtrack of several pivotal moments in Quebec social and political life, during which the rallying cry resounded, including the student strike of 2005 as well as the maple spring of 2012.
It is also part of a resurgence of committed singing, in French please, with Les Cowboys Fringants, Vulgaires Machins, Capitaine Révolte and Mononc’Serge.
“Pascale Picard was asked in every interview why she sang in English, whereas now, Charlotte Cardin is never asked,” notes Biz. It shows to what extent it is no longer the same society, the same concerns. »
Systematic repression
In 2008, while The Press listed the most important records of the early 2000s, Amour oral rose to third position. In 2005, it earned the group the Félix for album of the year – hip-hop and the prestigious award for author or composer of the year. Last October, the same album did not appear anywhere among our list of the 25 new classics of Quebec song from this first quarter of a century.
PHOTO -, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Chafiik, Biz and Batlam on the set of Everyone is talking about itin November 2004
How can we explain this discount from Loco Locass to the Memorial Stock Exchange of our music? Batlam, a good sport, attributes it first to the large quantity of great albums created in recent years.
“But for me, it is also a symptom of the systematic repression of politics in art in Quebec,” he analyzes.
The talk of independence does not please everyone and it also brings back painful memories. It seems that because it did not succeed in the referendum, it sends us back to something that shames us.
Batlam
“Think, the big one, it takes courage,” he proclaims in Groove gravethe absolute success ofAmour oral, written in the wake of the attacks of September 11, 2001, an invitation to guard against the fear that permeates many political speeches and to contemplate the abyss of a complex world, without giving in to the panic of calming conclusions.
Free us from the liberals would it have become for Loco Locass the tree that hides a forest dense with beautiful oaks like this one? “If it hides the forest, it contains it,” replies Batlam. Free us from the liberalswhatever one thinks, cannot be confined to one era. The Liberals were Jean Charest’s reengineering of the State, yes, but deep down, it was this liberal thinking coming from the liberal professions that dominated political discourse in Quebec. I have nothing against lawyers, but the problem is that it has completely stifled any other perspective. »
The winning conditions
Loco Locass will be slow to follow up on Amour oralwhich will finally come in 2012 with Quebec is dead, long live Quebec! But for several years now, the trio has stood as a reserve for the nation, Biz devoting himself to novels and animation, Batlam to games and Chafiik to composition. Their last real show dates back to the Tadoussac Song Festival in 2019.
“Loco is a sleeper cell at the moment,” summarizes Biz. It used to be our main house and now it’s more of a chalet. And it’s also a bit of the Pag syndrome: at some point, you’ve waited so long that it becomes paralyzing to start the machine again. »
Chafiik seems the least enthusiastic of the three at the idea of taking the microphone again and pleads his “depression” in the face of everything that concerns Quebec politics. “A people who persist in denying themselves, for me, is pathetic. »
What would be the winning conditions (!) necessary for a return? “I would tell you that they are perhaps closer to us than ever,” Batlam responds cryptically. “Especially when I listen to this record again, which is full of tenderness, full of friendship, full of love. Full of love for Quebec, but also for my friends. »
Hip-hop
Amour oral
Loco Locass
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