The plan was all decided. Christophe Dubé, or CRi for close friends and fans, would finish recording his second album, Miracles, last December. His British record company, Anjunadeep, would tie up with his Montreal label, Collection Disques durs, to launch it on September 22, after which the artist would begin a North American tour at MTelus on October 7, a tour which would take him to San Francisco, Los Angeles, Brooklyn, Seattle and Dallas, among others, by the end of the year. “Except that I was on tour in London last December when my girlfriend called me,” says Christophe. She asked me: are you sitting correctly? »
Christophe Dubé would like to clarify this: it is not because he became a father for the first time last month that he named his album Miracles, even if the birth “is, of course, a miracle,” he adds. “I had already chosen to name the album Miracles before she told me the news, but I had a moment where I wondered if I was really going to call her that, because it’s still a bit cheesy, got there. Ultimately, I decided to embrace this great situation because the concept of the album connected with my real life. »
A song like I Can Make It, which opens the album, he didn’t title it “thinking of the short nights” that awaited him either. “I’m used to short nights, the music I make is listened to at night, but this is different: I’m no longer in a club, but in the room with a crying baby! It’s really crazy, releasing an album, going on tour, having a newborn. » The plan that had been decided was called into question, recognizes Christophe. “But the music industry is what it is. My tour was already planned when my girlfriend told me the news. I called my manager in panic! »
“My album Miracles, it’s a bit like that too: something inexplicable, that we don’t try to control. The concept of the album is to let go and embrace everything that happens in my life. » Because his career has followed a phenomenal trajectory, at least on a Quebec scale: composer and house DJ for almost ten years, the young thirty-year-old is today part of the Anjunadeep stable, one of the most important houses of house records in Europe, traveling the planet to make people dance with his delicious grooves.
In this regard, Miracles is no different from Juvenilereleased in fall 2020: a collection of scintillating and melodious house songs on which we find the voices of old collaborators Sophia Bel and Jesse Mac Cormack, then a handful of new ones, colleagues HANA (on Butterflya drum and bass rhythm that comes out of grooves prog-house), Everyone You Know (British duo who toured with Fred Again), Half Moon Run and, on the existential last song SilhouetteKlo Pelgag.
Small and big victories
Miracles is the album of the small and big victories of Christophe Dubé, who went from the margins to the light, from dark clubs to MTelus – which he reached, after having officiated on the large outdoor stage of the Montreal International Jazz Festival, in July last, to fill a 2,300-seat room with a musical genre strictly shunned by the radios, it’s exceptional. This new album does not change CRi’s winning formula, which, on the contrary, displays its new songs in front of a won over audience.
“Absolutely,” he admits. I don’t yet feel mature enough, as an artist, to change the musical direction, to change the sound of my work. And then, I see the albums as collections, like a triptych – in my first three albums, I look for consistency, even in the very similar visual style of the covers. You can listen to my two albums, Juvenile And Miracles, one after the other, and it works. Well, maybe for some people it will be a bit boring, but I don’t think so. And then, that’s what I want to do. »
“I find it really interesting, to see how it all started and the evolution of the project,” adds Christophe. It’s special — especially since electronic music is rarely played here. But we must recognize that electronic music is very popular here,” he says, citing the success of Piknic Électronik, which attracts tens of thousands of fans to Parc Jean-Drapeau every weekend in the summer. “It’s intense, there are really a lot of people interested in this music, and I’m happy to be able to be part of this movement, and to represent, in my own way, the music from here,” adds he, emphasizing that the majority of his guest singers are from Quebec.
ADISQ announced on Wednesday the list of artists and artisans nominated for its next ceremony, scheduled for November 5. The Album of the Year – Electronic Music category does not appear on the program for either the Gala or the First Gala; we must deduce from this that the association has not listed enough albums of Quebec electronic music to justify the awarding of a prize, which, in truth, testifies above all to the inability of the ADISQ to recognize the dynamism and the creativity of the many actors in this scene in Quebec.
“I find it deplorable, because this kind of music is not even recognized by the association”, denounces CRi, winner in 2021 of the Félix Album of the year – Electronic music and the Félix for revelation of the year . “The industry is ill-adapted to face this reality, but there are also those who refuse to play this game. If artists do not submit their albums, there will be no category. I don’t know what we can do to improve the situation… Perhaps change the rules to open the gala more to stage actors? »