After taking a life-saving 10-year break, Vulgaires Machins are back on track: last December, the punk band reissued their catalog in digital format, and they are now preparing to distribute the vinyl edition of the box set, three months later. having unveiled I raise my glass, first extract from the next album, expected in October — just after the provincial elections! “Yes, we still bite, but the question is: how? We’re not interested in coming back after 10 years to say that politics is shit. It’s been said since 1996! says singer and guitarist Guillaume Beauregard.
Marie-Ève Roy bursts out laughing: “We say it differently today, we have become philosophers! » To chat with The dutyLes Vulgaires interrupted their rehearsal day for the concert they will offer Saturday evening at the Festival d’été de Québec, opening for the no less biting and committed American rock group Rage Against the Machine.
He too has chosen his moment well to rev up his engine and rage against capitalism on the stages of the world. “It seems that we artists have antennas” to capture the atmosphere of the world, made uncertain by the rise of the right, the political divide, the climate crisis and armed conflicts, believes Marie-Ève. Let’s just say that there’s no shortage of reasons to yell these days, which we’ll do bluntly on the Plains of Abraham on Saturday.
“We who were waiting for the right moment to return to the stage, he appeared without us noticing,” adds Marie-Ève. Guillaume adds: “In any case, it shows that our artistic approach is consistent with what we live and what we feel, so much so that it seems that the timing seems well chosen. Except that we did not choose to live in this almost dystopian era! It’s still the fun to think that a band like Rage Against the Machine is coming back and occupying such a big place at the FEQ, because what I hear in your questions is: we need to turn things around with music. And we do what we can to contribute, in our own way. »
A beneficial break
Vulgaires Machins is not only one of the greatest punk groups in the history of Quebec, but also one of its most militant. Released in 2011, his latest album, Requiem for the Deafopened with The myth of democracy : “What vast hypocrisy strikes us / to give the impression that they have the will of the gesture / according to what we address / The power to the people is the dirtiest falsehood”.
“When we finished recording Requiem, already, we felt that we wanted to go elsewhere”, explains Marie-Ève to justify the long break between this classic and the album to be released. “Me, I had to move forward on my own, gain confidence and find what I had to say, me, on my side. I also wanted to be gentle, to let another side of me express itself”, which she accomplished on the beautiful and tender Nelson Bluereleased in 2016. “During these ten years, I had children, I experienced something else”, which fed the themes and lyrics of the next album, on which his presence is more heard than on the previous Vulgar albums.
Guillaume speaks of a beneficial break “having given us the perspective necessary to understand that we had to find another way of expressing ourselves than to rage against the system and capitalism — not that our opinion had changed, but we needed find new roots for our songs and our approach. Now that all that’s been said [sur les vieux albums] and we feel that we have gone around the question, what do we do? That’s what’s interesting in the process of returning to the stage and to the studio: questioning yourself, as a human, as a citizen, and asking yourself how to participate positively in this affair, this world, which is going down the drain. »
“We can no longer be nihilistic, hopeless, and spit on anything that moves,” says Marie-Ève. I have children who are growing up, I want to make sense of it all! » The new song I raise my glass – which passes for a ballad in comparison with the rest of the Vulgar repertoire – is of this water, a big hug offered “To the poor and the fallen / to the drug addicts, to the lost / to the orderlies […] those who put loudspeakers on their bicycle / those who put elves on their portico / It’s so beautiful when we love each other / I raise my glass / To the health of love”, sings Guillaume.
“For us, it seemed important, after 10 years of absence, to start by raising our glasses [aux gens de bonne volonté] to clearly establish the intentions of the Vulgars when they return, underlines Guillaume. We are not in a dynamic where we come to throw oil on the fire” of a world already divided enough as it is. “Yes, the album is runny, sometimes irreverent, but this song is important because it expresses the intention behind our approach. »
“Me, he continues, now that the album is done, that the texts are written, I am convinced that we have succeeded in our bet”, that of being reborn after 10 years of silence with a vision, relevant and different , of the world around us. “I live the gratification of having gone through it, of being satisfied with the result, of assuming what is said. Afterwards, I understand that at some point, music becomes necessary when people are outraged, saddened, revolted. Music is unifying, it is a reason to come together and mobilize. To the point of modifying the result of an election, that, I am less sure of…”
Vulgaires Machins will be performing on the Plains of Abraham on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. during the Festival d’été de Québec. The band will be followed by Alexisonfire (8 p.m.) and Rage Against the Machine (9:30 p.m.).