Lonny, born Louise, is the youngest daughter of actor Thierry Lhermitte. The singer-songwriter knew Montreal well before recording her first album there, since her brother held the reins of a restaurant in the Plateau Mont-Royal. ex voto, his first album, was released two years after his recording with Montrealer Jesse Mac Cormack. Attention, folk of very good taste and melancholy which feels good.
Posted at 7:00 a.m.
“I don’t know why exile, if I come there to be born or to die”, sings Lonny on April exile.
The 28-year-old French singer-songwriter describes the tipping point that follows immense grief. “This specific feeling of being in a borderline state. It’s either the end of something or the start of something else, she explains. One door closed and another opened. »
Ex Voto, Lonny’s debut album, out Friday, is one of healing and transition.
We joined Lonny in Paris, in his parents’ house, in the 11and borough. However, she would have liked to do interviews in the flesh on this side of the Atlantic.
“Quebec is really important in my musical journey,” she says.
First, you should know that his older brother, Victor Lhermitte, was at the helm of the restaurant Les Cons Servent, formerly located on Papineau Avenue, and that he is raising his family in Montreal. His younger sister therefore visited Quebec several times.
In 2017, Lonny did a mini-tour there with the French artist Refuge. And that’s when she decided to write texts in French when she had only done so in English until then, so that her album ex voto is mostly in their mother tongue.
“The click happened strangely in Quebec. People spoke to me about the lyrics of my songs in English at the end of the concerts, whereas that never happened in France. I understood how important the dimension of the text was and I wanted to start writing in French. »
France-Quebec partnership
This is even before recordingex voto that the French record company Horizon took Lonny under its wing. From then on, there was the idea of creating a partnership with the Quebec label LA be, founded by Louis-Armand Bombardier.
At the time, Lonny already had the demos of the songs The taste of barley and Like the end of the world.
Jesse MacCormack directing
Louis-Armand Bombardier offered Lonny to work with Jesse Mac Cormack and – just before the pandemic – he opened the doors of his B-12 studio to them, in Valcourt, housed in a former family residence of the Bombardiers, built in 1960 by the architect Jacques de Blois. “This place is crazy,” Lonny rightly points out.
When Lonny saw Mac Cormack performing, her “fever” seduced and convinced her. “He eats music… Me, I have a more ethereal approach, so he could bring me a lot. »
« En France, on intellectualise beaucoup la musique. Avant d’enregistrer la moindre note, on boit 12 cafés, on fume 15 clopes et on parle beaucoup. Avec Jesse, ce n’est pas ça du tout. Après 15 minutes, on enregistrait tout de suite. […] I really liked this instinctive way of working. »
Lonny had some references: Adrianne Lenker’s solo album (songs), singer of Big Thief, as well as that of Aldous Harding (Designate), directed by John Parish.
I wanted a natural, real sound that we feel with us.
Lonny
Certain thing, ex voto will appeal to the public of Laura Marling or that of Lou Doillon.
Solitude, rebirth and melancholy
Lonny refers to the English word “lonely”, in particular, because Louise Lhermitte cherishes creation in solitude. “I’m the only one who knows what’s good for me and my music,” she says.
His album opens with the play Incandescent, which reminds us that a little light continues to shine within us even during a trial. On the parts in English Mid-Summer and Black Hole, it is about rebirth.
There are many references to the sea in Lonny’s texts. “The sea soothes me and frightens me at the same time. It’s mysterious. And looking at the sea as far as the eye can see can make me very melancholic. »
“Melancholy is not just unhappy,” she explains. It is a very interesting way of entering oneself. »
The album ends with the piano ballad Come on Sorrow, so thatex voto is aptly named. “An offering that is given as a cure”, sums up Lonny.
It is certainly a beautiful musical gift for this beginning of the year.