I noticed that I had a writing tic,” admits Lydia Képinski, finishing her coffee with her head buried in the hood of her cotton swaddle. “In four songs on the album, I say ‘I know’. It becomes a kind of assertion: “I know, that’s my life” now, writing songs and performing them for the public, “and that’s really great, but that comes with its challenges”. »
His new album is called Sinceit contains 11 new songs like so many pebbles left in its path since the release, in 2018, of the album that made him famous, June first. “It’s kind of my confrontation with this career choice. A very tangible reality, no longer fantasized, that I experienced as an upheaval,” she confides.
First, it’s really not a pandemic album: lyrically, I’m still writing. The day after the release of June first,
I wrote a new song. The songs of Since have been composed in the past four years, but the pandemic has allowed me to focus solely on the album.
“Renee Claude! Her, I love her so much! launches Lydia Képinski, just after singing part of the chorus of You will find peace, the immortal song that Stéphane Venne had composed for the icon of Quebec song. “On YouTube, you can watch her concerts, it’s incredible: you see her in her long dress glamour, the public seated in these Italian-style rooms. Renée Claude is truly the Lana del Rey of Quebec! »
Képinski also loves theatrical performances. The last time was last November, in this new room which still does not bear a name, hidden in the Chabanel district. With her musicians, she premiered the new songs of Since, his second album. “It was the first time I had played on stage since the start of the pandemic,” she notes, praising the work of lighting designer Benoît Gromko, who gave so much cachet to this former factory. “I’m really sensitive to lights in life, I like light shows. »
In search of balance
Since the release of the album First June in the spring of 2018, Lydia Képinski somehow had to learn to live in the spotlight, this idea serving as a common thread for the second album of her young career. It’s called Since“like a time marker, as was also the title June first. Since, it marks the passage of time. When I wrote June firstI didn’t really know yet what I was going to do in life, I didn’t know that this would be my life. Sinceit’s my life, characterized by travel, transport, whirlwind”.
On Arbol, she explains the difficulty of having a relationship as a couple in the context where her job leads her to constantly hit the road. Even the exercise of an interview is an upheaval: “I’m not used to telling my life story to strangers”, escapes Lydia Képinski.
“What I find difficult is having to put the switch to we and off at any time. “OK, be entertaining! Say something, be spontaneous!” It’s at times like these that I risk going too far and speaking without thinking”, the kind of regret she expresses in the text of the first extract from the album, the catchy MTL hates me. “It lacks balance, all that… Under the pretext that I write very personal things in my songs, I am sent to the top floor of the brown tower and there, facing the host, I am given three minutes to be intimate and vulnerable! »
Anyway, telling his life to strangers, “I do it on record, but there it’s orchestrated, thought out, polished down to the smallest detail. As in a staging”, spectacular as far as Sincea dynamic and colorful album produced by his brilliant accomplice Blaise Borboën-Léonard, but very different in its conception from that of four years ago.
Decisive round trips
“First, insists Lydia, it’s really not a pandemic album: in terms of the texts, I’m still writing. The day after the release of June first, I wrote a new song. The songs of Since have been composed over the past four years, but the pandemic has allowed me to focus solely on the album”, to spend his days in his home studio, “even on Saturdays and Sundays”, to refine it, to deepen it sound design and text.
“Then the process was different, less static. June first, I remember composing it on the guitar, then taking the songs to Blaise and making the album. There, everything started from an iPad that my mother had given me; on a plane bringing me back from France, in my spare time, I opened [le logiciel de création musicale] GarageBand. I started writing guitar lines with the little pencil. Back in my little studio, I transferred the tracks, I added stuff, I was already sculpting the song before working again with Blaise. Having this starting structure allows me to experiment. »
Although she sings to us in her strong, clear voice, which nevertheless gives the impression of being uncertain, “a bit like when your voice breaks when you are about to cry”, she illustrates, Képinski opens up to us with shamelessness and authenticity. The more danceable impulses of certain songs with an Italo-disco flavor (Two days, The deception, Vasław) link to the remixed version of June first and allow Képinski to stand out in the landscape of new Quebec women’s songs.
What should we remember from this new album? “I would like people to feel a certain nostalgia, to go back and forth in their own lives. Say to yourself “Since this or that, this and that have happened to me”. Having these markers in time allows us to learn about ourselves, to reflect on our own life, to measure our progress. ” And since June first, Does Lydia Képinski see herself as a better author, a better composer, a better performer, a better person? ” Yes ! she replies laughing. I am a superior being — especially compared to before! »