Blue Album | Marie-Pierre Arthur’s Act of Faith

Marie-Pierre Arthur doesn’t like change very much. But her fifth album, which comes out Friday, is simply titled Blue albumis the result of a period when everything changed around her… for the better.

New collaborations, new musicians, new management and even a new Montreal apartment, after having lived in the same place for 20 years: the move was sometimes voluntary, but in most cases, unplanned. “And I decided not to put a stopper,” says the singer-songwriter from Grande-Vallée, in Gaspésie.

“There is just my buddy who stayed!” She laughs, becomes a little serious again. “Probably I wanted to experience something else. Maybe I had two choices: change buddyor change everything around the buddy ! »

THE buddyit is François Lafontaine, brilliant keyboardist of Karkwa (among others), with whom she forms a unique creative duo. Since her first album in 2009, they have composed all her music together.

“It’s called Marie-Pierre Arthur, but it should be called Frank and Marie. That’s how it starts, all the time,” she said.

And that’s how it started, again this time, even if they worked differently, by first creating atmospheres, which much later became songs. They then worked with their “old buddy” Sébastien Blais-Montpetit who, in co-production, presided over the design of each song.

“It really took me closer to the music I listen to, more produced. That’s why it took so long. There are songs that have five versions!”

Optimism

A question that is surely on everyone’s mind: why did you call it Blue album ? “That’s the working title I gave it. I tried to find another, more literary one, that would link all the songs together, and I didn’t succeed. So, that’s what it stayed!”

In any case, each piece goes “from one mood to another” and to represent the album, it would have been necessary to make a mosaic, to put “a bit of neon, a bit of tree leaves…” And this deep blue cover, where we see the singer from behind, has a real meaning for her.

“In my song The other hemisphere, I look across the void… It’s like an act of faith, moving forward without having any idea of ​​what’s going to happen on the other side. It’s a crossing.”

Beyond the void, there is indeed a glimmer in the distance, landmarks, sings Marie-Pierre Arthur, who has “more than ever” chosen optimism.

The musician also wanted us to feel good in this album that she wanted to be sensory, with grooves that “have an effect.” “I like it. It’s not fast, not slow, but very bouncy.” She put R&B in it, but all kinds of music were inhabiting her during the creation. “I was listening to a lot of Talking Heads, Stevie Wonder, Billie Eilish, SZA… And also old R&B, Otis Redding, all that. I feel it in the album.”

Meetings

It was by force of circumstances that Marie-Pierre Arthur, who has always been a gang girl, worked with several new people. The pandemic period had been difficult for her: her previous album, Lights to seewas unfortunately released in January 2020.

“I wasn’t meeting anyone anymore and fewer ideas were going through my head. In any case, I had just emptied my bag of ideas,” says the designer, who needs to regenerate from one album to the next, to be sure “not to do something that looks like the last time.”

And then the Shirleys called her to produce their album, and everything fell into place. While the “oldies” who were part of her entourage were caught up in personal projects, she got closer to artists, often younger, who took her on new paths.

“I’m on a different path,” confirms the musician. For example, she was seen singing with Étienne Coppée and she collaborated on her album with Rose Perron, from Rau_Ze, and Mantisse, from LaF, but also Caracol, Amylie and the faithful Gaële. Even the group Comment Debord invited her and François Lafontaine to sing during their show at the Francos. “Yes, that was really rewarding, that thing!” And this openness of young artists reassures her.

After all these upheavals, Marie-Pierre Arthur understood that change is not so painful. She hopes that her album will be “loaded and full of life”, that she will surpass her own listening scores, that people will be there in the theaters. “I want to make it short, one year including festivals. It will be like a little explosion in my life.”

After five albums, Marie-Pierre Arthur now sees that she has something that is beginning to be a “real discography” and of which she is proud.

“I still feel there when I come out with something. I feel that there is an audience, a curiosity. And that I could arouse this interest all my life, perhaps? I have less and less the appeal of great success, more that of being there all the time. That would be crazy.”

Indie pop

Blue album

Marie-Pierre Arthur

Simone Records (available Friday)