Claudia Bouvette will launch her first album on Friday, Tea Paradise Club. But the 26-year-old singer-songwriter has taken many paths to get here, from Mixmania 2 to Big Brother Celebrities via the teen series Jeremiah.
Posted at 6:00 a.m.
“Since my earliest memories, I’ve always wanted to be a singer,” says Claudia Bouvette, who we met in 2011 in mixmania when she was 15 years old. “But I’m someone who gets carried away by life and surprises. I often say the butterfly effect. Everything has an influence on everything. »
The singer, who is followed by nearly 200,000 people on Instagram, is convinced that she is the sum of all these experiences, that this album comes at the right time and, above all, that she is “in the right place”.
It’s the first time I’ve thought of an entire universe: music, sounds, what I’m saying, visuals. It’s exciting to arrive at this moment where it exists. It didn’t exist, and there it does.
Claudia Bouvette
Claudia Bouvette receives us in her apartment in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve. She smiles with a certain melancholy when asked what evokes this place she calls the Paradise Club, her haunt since she moved there six years ago with two friends.
“It’s our safe space. I’m the oldest, the only one still here, but all the people who came to live here are best friends. »
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
Claudia Bouvette
It is also there that she writes and composes, in a small corner of her room, and that she experienced the ups and downs of her life as a young adult. That is why Paradise Club became the title of this album which tells his story “through a little love loss”.
“It was three difficult years and this is where I lived them, with my people. »
Tea Paradise Club, whose creation was a therapeutic exercise that allowed him to “get the bad guy out, move on to another call”, is the tale of a toxic relationship and its devastating effects. It follows the “narrative curve” of a long descent, the loss of control and self-esteem… but also the recovery and the relaxation that followed.
“At some point, you find your light,” explains Claudia Bouvette, who is “completely well” now.
“I was ready at that moment to make peace with a lot of things, to move on. But what was difficult during these three years was losing my essence and my self-esteem. »
Positive
Sometimes sad, often bad-ass, The Paradise Club leans mostly on the fun side and could very well be the soundtrack of the summer.
Drawing much inspiration from the sounds of the 2000s, because she is incurably nostalgic, Claudia Bouvette has developed her “alternative dream pop” with Connor Seadel (Charlotte Cardin, Matt Holubowski). They co-produced the album, programmed, explored, arranged, played all the instruments except for the addition of drummer Max Bellavance on a few songs.
Of all the instruments she masters, the fact remains that her very beautiful voice is her main tool. But the musician is much more than an image and claims, with good reason, the status of author-composer-performer.
When you do pop, and moreover when you’re a girl, people tend to think that you’re a product. But for me, it’s so important that the music I make comes from me. This is the most important thing in the process.
Claudia Bouvette
Although it deals with a difficult subject, The Paradise Club represents “only beauty and positives” for Claudia Bouvette, who is “super proud” of this album in which she overcame her fear of writing in French.
“I listened to a lot of Quebec and French artists, and I saw that it can be beautiful and touching. I just had to try it. But that too is a work in progress. Every day, I work to understand how I want to say things. »
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
Claudia Bouvette
The two languages will continue to coexist at home, but for now, the singer is especially eager to play her new songs on stage. She will be at several festivals this summer and has a big launch show scheduled for June 2 at Studio TD (formerly L’Astral). She also took the opportunity to invite her friends from mixmaniaa matter of nurturing nostalgia!
If she could talk to 15-year-old Claudia, what would she say to her? “Brace yourself! ” She laughs.
“I would tell him that everything ends up being resolved. That there will be difficult things, but that time does things well. I would also tell him to work really hard: even if you have the impression that it’s easy, it’s all the work and the rigor that you put into what you do that will make the difference. »
alternative pop
The Paradise Club
Claudia Bouvette
Bonsound