After seven years of silence, singer-songwriter Karl Gagnon, alias VioleTT Pi, is ripe for a comeback, on stage and on record. baloney suicidethe title of his third album, is less cryptic than it seems: it will be about the death we give ourselves and the notion of the false and the illusion, since “the baloneyfor me, it is fake meat”.
The flash came to him as a witness to the degradation of a loved one enduring a series of personal setbacks by gorging on the stuff that brings us closer to our destiny. Rest assured, this album is less gloomy than it seems, even if it refers to Gilles Deleuze, Kurt Cobain and bipolarity.
A bit of context: baloney suicide is originally the title of a collection of poetry that VioleTT Pi published in 2019 by La Mèche editions. Short texts, almost haikus “written under the influence of poutine and rock’n’roll”, said the press release then. “What’s funny, explains Karl Gagnon, is that there’s nothing from the book that ends up on the album—other than concepts that are similar. »
The collection is made up of small texts typed on Post-it notes, stanzas “full of mistakes, written with erasures, they look like pieces of paper found on the ground. The objective is in the exercise, that is to say, to force myself to write something every day, all that to help me then to write a new album, to allow me to grasp the subject more quickly. ‘a song. It also helps to write on Post-its: the space constraint forced me to be concise, to invent short stories with a beginning, a middle and an end that fit on a small piece of paper. It had to be punches. One text a day, thirty a month, I wrote quickly, but with a literary intention. Go straight to the point, while being beautiful to read”.
Instant poetry, but poetry above all. As with Keith Kouna, the musical work of VioleTT Pi is above all close to the great song, the highlighted text, the scintillating voice of Gagnon imprinted with a lyricism which contrasts with the experimental electro-rock form of his orchestrations. On baloney suicide“each song is an atmosphere in itself, a mood different, suggests Gagnon. Which I find extremely difficult to do while being convincing, but it was fun to imagine the album like that, as if each song was its own album, with its own concept. When I listen to it again, I find that it works — it’s like little pearls which, put together, form a necklace”.
Two main themes appeared when putting on the necklace: “I really wanted to talk about suicide and the notion of the fake, specifies VioleTT Pi. All the songs revolve around these themes, but once I said that, the way in which I’m talking about is abstract”, as in Pollen saturatednothing, he illustrates. “There is this person suffering from a mental illness, and one of his relatives who wonders: can he abandon him to his fate? It was my basic idea. »
[Sur Baloney suicide,] each song is an atmosphere in itself, a different mood. Which I find extremely difficult to do while being convincing, but it was fun to imagine the album like that, as if each song was its own album, with its own concept. When I listen to it again, I find that it works — it’s like little pearls which, put together, form a necklace.
The notion of suicide, a delicate subject in Quebec, agrees Karl Gagnon, is declined there in a “metaphorical” way, he tries to explain. “My album is sounds and words, no one dies in my songs. For me, it’s very abstract, the text is built like the music, in an elusive way. For the first time in one of my albums, I wanted to tackle subjects that make me question myself and push me to read on the subject — it’s a curiosity, in relation to suicide and the idea of the fake, that I try to apply in my songs. »
Our conversation then wanders off in all directions. Cheerful, excited at the idea of returning to the stage, Karl Gagnon speaks quickly, his thoughts take detours towards his musical influences – the Quebec alternative rock tradition of the 1990s that he perpetuates in his work, the rock vision that shakes up Mr. Bungle (“We heard more of the influence in my first album”, he notes), the respective attributes of Jean Leloup, Sparks and Nirvana – and literary, while he will quote the philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Baruch Spinoza.
“Spinoza said something like: freedom is to know that you are taken”, he answers when we discuss with him the total freedom of creation that he gives himself. VioleTT Pi makes songs without concession. “And yet, I know I’m caught up in something, despite everything,” says Karl Gagnon. My freedom completely isolates me from a lot of business — for example, I don’t yet know if I will be invited to tour ROSEQ, the network of show organizers in Eastern Quebec, which guarantees about thirty concerts in the provinces.
“People don’t understand everything I do. [En m’accordant cette liberté], I put myself in a cage more than anything else, but at the same time, I’m free to do what I want. All the same, I did with baloney suicide a slightly calmer album… I don’t know, it went without saying that I had to get out of my cage a bit. »
“In the album, I could also have broached the subject of artistic suicide, for example. I don’t know how it would have come out? How could I approach the concept. Anyway, all my albums are one! concludes Karl Gagnon with a laugh.
Need help ?
If you are thinking of suicide or worried about a loved one, workers are available at all times at 1 866 APPELLE (1 866 277-3553), by text message (535353) or by chat at suicide.ca.