This summer, The duty explores the heritage of different places that have triggered the blossoming of talent here, and sometimes elsewhere, and given wings to a host of artists. Performance halls, studios and workshops. Stories of places that have allowed the creation and dissemination of exceptional works, and that still do. Third stop: “the shed in Placard.
There are many recording studios, sometimes very technological, even flashy, with impeccable design and where you can record albums on consoles that flash like the dashboard of a spaceship. In the shed in Placard”, it is a little, even very different.
Since 2005, several waves of musicians have taken advantage of this modest place that has become mythical, not because of its ambitions, but because of the cordial, family and also very rickety energy — one could say dark without disrespect — that reigns there.
Among those who have practiced or recorded tracks or albums there, we can note Sara Dufour, Caloon Saloon, Chantal Archambault, Louis-Philippe Gingras, Tire le coyote, Vincent Vallières, Laura Babin, domlebo and newcomers like Douance or Guillaume Bordel. This is also where Dany Placard himself worked a lot on his albums, very folk Church rank at the most psychedelic EP Astronomy (continued).
You have to go to the home of Dany Placard, in the Montreal district of Rosemont, to access his shed, an old shed installed behind the house above the garage, like there are thousands in the alleys of the metropolis. To access it, you have to cross the house, go to the courtyard and climb small wooden steps, which have been repaired over the years but which have made several musicians fear the worst in the past.
And there, we enter what the native of Laterrière, in Saguenay, compares to “a man cave “. Physically, something is happening to the visitor. “Me, I think there is an aura that has been created here over the years, says Dany Placard behind his big beard which gives a severe air to this great gentleman. I don’t need to say anything to make people feel confident, it happens all the time right away. They come in and they say, “Oh wow man, do you have that here? Well yes, I have that in Montreal. »
“That” is something. Very full. On the floor, there is a big brown and yellow braided oval rug that was there when Placard bought the house in 2005. There are instruments and cases everywhere, wires on the floor, velvet paintings of the most kitsch taste, wall art horses — animals the owner doesn’t like so much because he’s highly allergic — a “Ladies welcome” sign. One of the few light bulbs hanging from the low ceiling has a large can of sliced pineapple as a shade.
“I lived in the place little by little, says Dany Placard, installed next to his computer, on a small chair wedged next to the drums. It is important: the more it is busy, the better it sounds. If you pick yourself up in an empty room, it’s sure to bounce around, it’s going to resonate in the corners of the wall. » Corners where you can still see joints drawn, but not painted.
Singer-songwriter Sara Dufour worked on the pre-production of her first two records with Dany Placard, in her shed. “I think there’s something very relaxed about being there, through all the objects that are there, and I think it brings a kind of letting go,” she explains. I even have a song called Are you still sleepingon my first record, which I had typed with Placard and I was never able in the studio to record a better version, so on the disc we kept the version of the shed. »
Family package
” There shed à Placard” had its heyday somewhere between its creation in 2005 – with $1,300 in materials and the know-how of the singer trained as a cabinetmaker – and 2015, “when folk was more fashionable”, he admits without any bitterness. “I was asked a lot to make records, then often we did all the vocals here, the guitars, or overdubs ”, that is to say additions recorded after the fact.
In a way, Placard offers a 360-degree package: for a more affordable cost than in large studios, it provides the recording location, takes care of the technique and also works on the production. “But also, you know, we can go downstairs to eat at home. Then, well, I have two free rooms, so sometimes there are people who come to work here and who sleep with us. »
Bassist Michel-Olivier Gasse frequented the shed, where he recorded albums as an accompanist and where he also practiced with his band Caloon Saloon, but also as a musician for Dany Placard himself. “There was something about family there. We didn’t land there like guest artists, we had the code [du système d’alarme] and we could stay there late. Placard wasn’t going to stop himself from making supper with his children because we were still there. This daily life is really trippy. It is precious in esti as a place. »
So there is a specific sound that comes with the place, a “not very clean” aesthetic, but which is consistent with what Placard has always delivered. “It’s more raw, it’s really more raw, compared to a more sanitized, licked sound” from the official studios.
The musician opens a recent recording session on the computer, where you can clearly hear the mandolin in the microphone dedicated to the drums. “I always refer to Neil Young,” he says, pointing to a vinyl cover hanging on the wall. And on Harvestyou hear that everything leaked one side then the other. [Dans la shed], it’s often productions like that. »
Difficult to do otherwise, because of the promiscuity forced by the smallness of the space. But the musicians make do with it and put up with it with a smile. Sara Dufour still can’t get over having brought in a string section. Michel-Olivier Gasse remembers a beautiful cut on the neck of his double bass, caused by the fall of a lectern hung during a cigarette break. “But the notch is exactly at the fifth fret, it’s perfect. I can feel it delicately with my finger without looking at it. This is one of the great deals that crampedness can bring! »
Dany Placard does not budge: his shed Although giving the impression of being a bit of a mess, the universe she creates is fertile. “I hear all the energy that emanates from the songs that are recorded here,” he says. The environment affects the result. »