Posted at 8:00 a.m.
The course
Marilyne Léonard is one of those people who discover their vocation at an early age. “As soon as I started elementary school, I knew 100% that I wanted music to be my life. I just didn’t know how. Enrolled in a school with a major in music, she began singing and playing guitar in 5and year, and that’s when it clicked: one day, she will be in a band. She continued music in high school, wrote her first songs at 14, participated in The voice at 15 – the year of Ludovick Bourgeois, where she reached the quarter-finals. A passage that allowed her to get noticed by an impresario, then by Audiogram, with whom she signed a contract three years later. “That’s why I didn’t do any other competitions,” says the young singer, who is now fully dedicated to her career. “I had the contacts I wanted and my goal was achieved. »
Songs
The singer-songwriter likes to do covers of great pop hits, which she uploads to her YouTube channel and Instagram. Instinctively, she therefore wrote her first songs in English, but she saw that they lacked “a richness”. “I’m not completely bilingual. But I needed experience to write things in French that made sense, and that didn’t sound corny. Challenged by her impresario, she makes first attempts, not perfect, but good enough to convince her. “I could say more varied things, make puns, double meanings…” It was all the more important to write in his mother tongue – an urban, spoken, musical language, punctuated with refrains in English – than his texts are very personal. “I don’t like making up stories. I prefer to write about what I feel. I wouldn’t know what to say if I didn’t talk about what I’m going through. Her sexual orientation is naturally part of the equation, and her love songs (or not!) are therefore aimed at a “her”. “It’s much more honest, and it can help young girls who are questioning themselves. I prefer to be an open book. »
evolution
The musician likes to combine hip-hop and soul – she has a lot of it in her voice –, alternating “grated” verses and “catchy” melodies, creating sounds that are “a little trashy and not clean”, and already offers a well-defined universe. “It’s important not to be scattered. But the next album will be even more specific. This one, I did it by discovering myself. » The plot of angel life is also a bit of the story of his coming of age. “I am a teenage adult, yes! During the recording, I got to know myself. You see it in the evolution of the songs and I’m very proud of it. She also learned to assert herself, so much so that she ended up producing or co-producing half of the songs with Marc Bell, while Emmanuel Ethier produced the other four. “I love them, but the four I made, Mirage, In the crowd, When you talk and Dream Life, that’s really the direction I want to go. The next one, I’m going to do it in full, that’s for sure. It’s cool to have an idea in your head, and to realize it from A to Z.”
PHOTO CATHERINE LEFEBVRE, SPECIAL COLLABORATION
Marilyn Leonard
The following
Maryline Léonard tries not to have too many expectations, so as not to be disappointed. “It’s a dream, to release an album, so I protect myself. But what she would like is to “make a name for herself” in Quebec, fill halls as headliners, hear the public sing her songs with her. If she is still learning the scene and the stress that comes with it, the singer knows that she does not want to be a studio artist. “My first shows, I felt like throwing up before, during… But I got used to it, and I noticed how much of a reward the shows are. On April 15, it was my birthday, I opened for Clay and Friends at the Imperial in Quebec. It was the best show of my life. “For the rest, Maryline Léonard wants above all to continue to follow her instinct. “Take advice, yes, but always listen to my inner voice. So that every time I release something, it’s exactly what I had in mind, and I’m zero disappointed with what I sing. I wish myself that… and travel. »
alternative pop
angel life
Marilyn Leonard
Audiogram
Offered Friday