“As I get older, I realize that I haven’t changed that much,” laughs Rudy Caya, the voice, the rage of Vilain Pingouin since the band’s founding in 1986. “I’m still a bit of a teenager , and not because I cling to the past. I’m going to be 62, I’m very proud of my body hair and my wrinkles and my life scars, but when I look around me and I still hear that boomer talk…” Laughter then gives way to despair and it is, in part, what motivates the group to take the stage again and record new songs, including the vital ones from the new mini-album entitled helping hand.
The first of the four short stories is titled race or life and begins by pushing the knife into the wound: “You can tell your father that you will not live his life”, groans Caya on a rhythm between rock and a slow ska held by Michel Vaillancourt, on drums since always, and adorned with the accordion of the last founding member still in the starting line-up of the Penguins, Claude Samson.
Rudy Caya mocks the catchphrase, “the same stereotypes that young people don’t want to work and that they want to have everything. I don’t know, I thought that today, thanks to the Internet, we had access to so much knowledge and opportunities to learn that we would understand that history repeats itself. We hold the same discourse that we heard about young people in the 1950s and 1970s. Children kings? Ben, they inherited a kingdom of shit! » hammers the musician from the generation no future.
old collusions
Vilain Pingouin’s message is all the more powerful since it is shared by another luminary of Quebec rock: Paul “Polo” Bellemare, of the Frères à Ch’val, of Dédé Traké and of the pioneer group of French-speaking Quebec punk Danger. , here in duet with his old friend Caya: “Polo, I knew him when I was hanging out at the Le Glass club”, a staple of the young Montreal new wave scene of the early 1980s. was 18 when I went there? Polo was 22 or 23. When I entered the club, Polo was one of the local rock stars. He always had a look. Afterwards, we met at [Alain] Because we [fondateur du groupe Les Taches]with Francois Lalonde [batteur] and Gilles Brisebois [bassiste] of La Sale Affaire” by Jean Leloup. “Polo has always been a bit of a big brother. »
Back then, we weren’t trying to sound like the musical flavor of the moment. We were never in fashion, but it turns out we weren’t out of style either.
The conversation goes back in time, with Rudy Caya opening up about his vast musical influences — from The Cure to Sonic Youth, The Clash to Bauhaus and Front 242 — to pinpoint the Penguins’ sound, and manner, of their debut album. (1990) to today: “Back then, we weren’t trying to sound like the musical flavor of the moment. We were never in fashion, but it turned out that we weren’t out of fashion either,” he says.
“I grew up in the punk and alternative world. I always kept one foot in it, since it was my school, and what I liked about this current is that it refused labels. An anti-category music, against predictability. »
“At the origin of Vilain Pingouin, we wanted to make crazy music, not necessarily up to date, and this is an attitude that still follows us. The Penguins have often been categorized as folk-rock, whereas we did pseudopunk, pseudoreggae, pseudojazz, pseudo toutte! asserts Caya, pointing out the stylistic discrepancy between two songs from the second album, Rock & Roll — appeared thirty years ago this year! —, The death, heavy blues-rock, and The blue of white paper, which could be described as jazz musette: “It’s always been a bit like that, the Penguin sound, and I think that on the new mini-album, we stayed in this trip, with no song resembling the following. »
Acknowledgement
In 2019, Vilain Pingouin agreed with his former record label Audiogram to recover the master tapes of his first two albums in order to reissue them in vinyl format, putting the two classics of Quebec rock back on the shelves of record stores and in the ears of a new generation of fans. “A teenage dream, comments Caya. We had always dreamed of releasing a vinyl, with the cover and the pleasure of holding it in our hands while listening to the album. »
Proof that the group is still present in our musical memory, last summer was spent on the stages of Quebec presenting about twenty concerts. Failing to be able to play the guitar since the stroke that shook him in 2018, Caya keeps his flame as a leader alive: “Yes, it feels good to go back on tour after the pandemic, says Caya. It gets you back in shape, physically, but also mentally: being with the guys, living the life you have chosen, on tour visiting the province up and down. »
Then, during the last ADISQ gala, a spy warned the members of Vilain Pingouin that host Louis-José Houde had written a joke about them for his opening number. “We looked at it with a little apprehension,” he admits. It was actually a tribute, with the comedian evoking the power a good song can have on our mood: “What is it that when you put the right words in the right order with the right chords, you want to love our enemies? Houde asked the musicians in the room. And it lasts a lifetime […] there are songs that never leave us, that we keep in our hearts all our lives. Me, I can see the years and decades go by, when we come out The train by Vilain Pingouin, with the bell ringing at the start, suddenly, anything is possible! »
“After the number, Claude [Samson] wrote to me: “Calvary, I shed a tear”, says Rudy. You know, we won two trophies at ADISQ [Groupe de l’année 1991, Album rock de l’année, 1993], but honestly, what Louis-José said about us made us more happy than the two trophies. We realized: “Ah, OK! Here, we are part of the story.” »