Loïc Lafrance arrives on his second album as he (almost) conquered the Francouvertes stage this spring: with a well-calculated kick in the decor and decorum, a passion that relegates his “song” side to the background, but also, paradoxically, with great sensitivity. Fear is a flower is an anxious but melodic release, steeped in 2000s rock. It is precisely Julien Mineau, from Malajube, who signs the production.
The 12 short pieces of Fear is a flowerwhich in total do not exceed thirty minutes, were created or recorded in a short space of time, largely because Loïc Lafrance, 23, wanted to “surf the momentum of Francouvertes”, where he finished in third position.
“We worked on it for three months, every day, back has back “, explains the multi-instrumentalist born in Rivière-du-Loup, who now lives in the Saint-Sauveur district of Quebec City. “The album is part of the idea of stress, urgency, of living as quickly as possible — and with the deadlines that we had, I think it comes across well. Not in a negative way, in the sense that it was rushedbut there is a certain frenzy. It’s up to you to tell me if I’m wrong!”
And he is not wrong. On Adelaidea hammering drum is doubled by a feverish guitar line. On Roll of the dicevery The Strokes, we clench our jaws while listening to the riffs dense. And on 2034 (the sun falls on you)where Lafrance pays homage to Cage the Elephant and his play 2024the Malajubian frenzy is also reflected in the biting, sometimes shouted singing. A frequent approach on the album. And thoughtful.
“The screams are relatively calculated in this album, it’s really with the aim of symbolizing an urgency once again, analyzes Loïc Lafrance. I think Cage the Elephant is something they do extremely well. It’s extremely theatrical, what they do too.”
In Lafrance, the theatrical is present, but strangely well integrated and measured, often played in the form of exasperation, reactions. He is aware that “there is a fine line” on which he has advanced with the help of Julien Mineau. “He told me to calm my ardor several times!” laughs the one who recently tried the trick at The Voice. “I think that was wise advice. Often, less is more.”
The aim of the album is really to explore fear in all its facets.
And at the same time as these pieces are bubbling in the pot, Loïc Lafrance shows brilliance in his melodies, which carry several of the titles. Yes, there is energy, but if we didn’t hold back, we would sing at the top of our lungs.
“I wanted to take risks at a certain level, but still keep it accessible. I really like the kind of clash dissonant-consonant,” he notes. Lafrance nevertheless cherishes a musical approach closer to that of groups than that of solo artists.
“I understand the hype of the “song”, but at some point, we can debuzzer to do something else. I’m just tired of singing and I say it openly, he allows himself. You know, I have the impression that at the moment, in music in Quebec, we are afraid of being heavy. There is a kind of desire to release your album, to get into [la liste de lecture] Montreal Chill and doing his ROSEQ tour, let’s say. I understand. But at some point, we’re not going to be groundbreaking [innovant] if we limit ourselves to that.”
Variations on fear
A kick in the decor and decorum, they said. Loïc Lafrance has no fear of taking his place. And yet, Fear is a flower is paved with it. The first words of the album are an example: “Fear is a flower that I no longer want to water / It grows everywhere under my feet.”
“The album’s focus is really on exploring fear in all its facets, on really exploring fear as an image. All the songs deal with this feeling in some way or another. We can talk about the fear of time, the fear of love,” Lafrance illustrates. “I think that in this, there is a lot of exposure, of risk-taking. I think that it is impossible to evolve without taking these risks.”
The pandemic has left its scars, explains the man who was once more in the extrovert club. One day, the overqualified university student that he was went to drop off his CV at a local store — the very jovial Royaume de la tarte, not to name it — but on the way, he was struck by an anxiety attack. Blockage and turmoil. Then reflection and action. “It made me say: ‘OK, I have to take the time to face my fears more.’ And the album is really an attempt to free myself from that.”
The musician will be launching his album in Quebec City on October 11 at Grizzly Fuzz and in Montreal on November 15 as part of Coup de coeur francophone. “I don’t like to see the stage as something sacred,” notes Lafrance. “It’s going to be something theatrical, festive. I think I want to integrate a bit of performance into it.”
And above all, he believes that what he presents on stage must be evolving, that he must listen to the audience. He cites the theory of cycles of Théâtre Repère, supported by Robert Lepage among others, where feedback from the audience is important. “I think that a show “It’s better when there’s the sum of several comments, of several people who have different receptors, who have different emotions,” he explains. “Ultimately, I think it’s good to remove the notion of ego from the final result of something. It’s the same thing for the album.”