Between the best and the worst (of the Holidays) | The luminous melancholy of Christmas by Pierre Lapointe

Our questionnaire Between the best and the worst, in which an artist revisits the peaks and valleys of his work, drapes himself in red and green in the company of Pierre Lapointe, who never shrinks from an opportunity to laugh a little at himself- even. The chicest of elves presents a tour throughout Quebec inspired by his album Winter songs with, in her sleigh, her guests Mélissa Laveaux, Patrice Michaud, Mitsou, Laura Niquay and Nathalie Simard.

The most astonishing influence of Winter songs

For several years I’ve been obsessed with trying to write new songs that sound like old classics. And I feel like I hit the nail on the head with At Jules’ first Christmas. It’s luminous melancholy, chiaroscuro lucidity.

And in the end, the pa-pa, pa-pa, it’s Gilberto by Diane Tell, which is a centerpiece of French song and a fine example of a song that sounds like a new classic. It sounds like great bossa nova, but we also feel the signature of Diane Tell.

The weirdest influence of Winter songs

In What we already knowthere is a bit of Phil Spector’s Christmas album, but there is mainly the saxophone of See My Baby Jive [1973] from the Wizzard group. It was a mega hit in England, a sort of strange mix of glam rock and 1950s music. The singer had platform shoes and a multi-colored beard. It could be in bad taste, but since the musicians I work with are good and self-deprecating, it always comes across well.

The artist who participated in Christmas without rain who you would most like to see again in performance

[En 2005, plusieurs membres de l’écurie Audiogram enregistrent façon We Are the World cette chanson écrite par Pierre Lapointe.]

It’s funny, because I would make that song disappear, even if it’s a bit of the genesis of the album Winter songs. I had written it two or three years before signing with Audiogram, and at one point the company wanted to raise money for Young Musicians of the World, so we asked everyone to be there to record it: Ariane Moffatt, Daniel Bélanger, Pierre Flynn, Mara Tremblay, Karkwa, etc.

I was still at my beginnings, I didn’t understand everything that was happening to me, but it was the first time that I felt like I was part of an artistic family, a family that was made up of all my idols.

And there was Lhasa [de Sela] who was there. I must have seen her in a show at least ten times in Outaouais, sometimes in venues where I was not allowed to enter, because I was not an adult. I remember that one evening, Yves Desrosiers [l’acolyte guitariste de Lhasa] had let us in through the dressing room, because he thought it was irrelevant that we had been turned away at the door. During a concert in Lhasa, we were all still in a trance.

Your favorite Christmas album

Ella Fitzgerald’s Christmas (1967) by Ella Fitzgerald. It is both very joyful and solemn, the arrangements are magnificent.

The worst Christmas album you’ve heard

The Jingle Cats one. It’s the funniest and most disgusting thing in the world. But respect to these cats, who must do very good numbers on Spotify during the holidays.

The most beautiful testimony received about the song Mom dad

I received tons of them. I would say that for 95% of people in the queer community, coming out did not go well and had an impact on the relationship with their parents which, fortunately, often ends up being replaced.

Et je suis tanné de ça. On essaie de se faire croire que tout est arrangé, que tout va bien, mais il y a encore des pays où les homosexuels sont brûlés, il y a encore ici des parents qui renient leurs enfants parce qu’ils sont homosexuels. Je ne sais pas trop comment réagir à ça, sinon en étant triste et aussi, par moments, très fâché.

C’est une de mes chansons de Noël que je joue même en plein mois de mai.

Ton plus précieux moment vécu avec Nathalie Simard

Nathalie Simard, pour moi, c’est l’enfance. Une des premières chansons que j’ai apprises par cœur, c’est Donne la patte Chibouki.

Quand elle est venue participer à mon émission Deux par deux rassemblés [sur ICI Musique], she was very stressed and she asked me when she arrived: “Can I hold you?” » She took me in her arms and there was an interstellar connection that happened, cosmic. She was afraid of not being good enough, perhaps because I give off an image that is not in line with who I am.

And when we sang together… Oh my God ! His smile ! Her whole body comes alive when she sings, she has a voice of fire. It seems that she sang a lot in her life. What she has is rare.

One of the most underrated Quebec pop albums

It is El Mundo [1988] of Mitsou, of which we will highlight the 35^e birthday during the show, even if they are not Christmas songs. She’s underrated, perhaps because she came in with sexy looks that hogged the spotlight. For me, a good album is four strong songs, and there are more than four on this album and on Land of men [1990]. They deserve to be listened to again.

Your worst outdoor spectacle, winter

It was in Whistler, during the Vancouver Olympic Games in 2010. Every evening, on the stage where the medals were awarded, there was a Canadian artist playing, like Nelly Furtado and… Pierre Lapointe. And Pierre Lapointe, in Whistler, he is known to a few Francophones and Francophiles, but otherwise, no one gives a damn.

The arena was huge and there were maybe 30 people. That’s where I learned that an audience clapping with mittens on doesn’t sound good. I had fits of giggles during the show, but giggles! I asked myself: What am I experiencing?

Before the last song, I said, “Okay, gang, what’s coming is probably the biggest fireworks you’ll ever see in your life.” You’re going to get about $15,000 worth of fireworks each, enjoy. »

That’s why I often say that anyone who does this job and has a big head is an idiot, because there is constantly something that reminds you that even though you are known somewhere, you you are not elsewhere.

The sentence taken from your work that best describes your relationship with the Holidays

[Dans Chaque année on y revient]

The family has that je ne sais quoi that feels good
Even if it disgusts us sometimes
Every year we come back
Apparently they call it the magic of Christmas

I have a lot of love and respect for my family, but it seems like around the holidays, everyone is obsessed with trying to recreate a chemistry that isn’t necessarily evident with the addition of blondes, friends, children. We want to recreate something unnatural in a very specific context, during an intense period when we all arrive tired.

But there is still magic at Christmas, there are still extraordinary moments. I still like seeing the people I love.

This mixture describes well my way of seeing life in general. I’m never really sad, never really happy.