Regrets. In fact, half-regrets. Those that come from decisions that ultimately bring you a lot of happiness, but which also end up being scratching, weighing down. This is what Dany Placard carries on his 15e disc, titled Having knownon which he returns to his folk-country musical essence. The album depicts long-distance love, the sad loss of his dog, and the ups and downs of life as a musician.
It’s hot on the Verre Bouteille terrace and Dany Placard, over a coffee and a pint of iced water, is counting down his records with us. Those of his youth with his group Plywood 3/4, the projects with his better half from New Brunswick Julie Doiron, his rock albums and those psychedelic ones, without forgetting Hudon + Cupboard And Macbeth cupboard. Fifteen recordings in more than two decades, that forces the assessments, concedes the musician.
“ [Le titre] Having knownthat means that having known that my dog would die, I would never have caught one,” he says, bitter despite the inevitable. “ Having knownit also means: why I started making music, tabarnak. Because right now, I’m stuck with that. Do you understand? »
Is it like a toxic relationship with this job? ” Yeah ! » says Dany Placard, who had already addressed the reality of being a musician in 2012 in his magnificent piece Because I needed. There are moments of total happiness, in front of the ecstatic crowd, there is the tour in gangwhich he is currently doing with Sara Dufour. Placard sums up: “I really like making music. » And there is the great emptiness that surrounds everything, the waiting, the procrastination, the going in circles around the house. All this exists in the frame of the disc Having known.
So behind his beard, Dany dreams of a, well, normal job. “It’s not even so much a financial thing as having a schedule,” he explains. “My ideal was… I would like to be a deliveryman. I would heat a truck. Three or four days a week. You’re walking in traffic, you’re going to deliver flour, liquor, anything. I would like to do that. » Exactly, on Mont-Royal Avenue, there is a large 20-foot vehicle passing by. With sparkling eyes, the Saguenay-born musician gestures with his eyebrows to show us.
Are such thoughts a bit taboo in a context where most young artists are struggling precisely to no longer have to work outside of their art? “I talk about it openly with my friends, on tour with Sara too,” admits Placard. I go to make music all the time. But Julie [Doiron]for example, she has another job. It’s quite correct, it’s commendable, I think. »
Black and gray
In the meantime, several months ago, Dany Placard was brooding at home, without his lover who had returned to New Brunswick, but with his dog Stormy at his feet. Except that the story became even grayer when his faithful companion left the leash, leaving a big void in the house and in the heart of the musician. “That was the last straw,” Placard blurted out, struggling to finish his sentence.
Stormy has a large place on the disc, the animal serving here as a backstory, there as a central character, through its presence or absence. He moves the setting, from the empty house to the streets of Rosemont. On the song Walk the dogbut also elsewhere as on Ashtray Or The sky is bluePlacard walks with his animal, crosses the seasons which pass from one title to another – with the gray of winter predominating.
It was his manager who pointed out the canine vein to him, which is almost a concept. “ Manyou’re right! » replied Dany Placard, who simply continued to compose these pieces as the days passed.
In our ears, Having known advance with small steps, in any case miles from I know nothing about astronomy and his more than microdosed music. We are halfway between the cracking folk of Plywood 3/4 and the songs accompanied by brass instruments of Church rank. Simple explanations: “When you walk around in circles at home, that’s when you play the guitar. I played acoustic guitar non-stop. I started writing on acoustic guitar. Then, at a certain point, I decided: “OK, I’m making a folk album. Like I did before.” »
“Plac” doesn’t like to make the same album twice, and his discography proves it. “This is a return to basics,” he said. In fact, I asked myself that question. I asked myself what music I really like to do. Then I started listening to Neil Young again and stuff that I had stopped listening to because I was more into psychedelic stuff. Then I said to myself: “Look, folk music is what I like the most.” »
“It’s beautiful, we have it!” »
Having known is perhaps the record that gave him the most pleasure in recording, says the musician. The creation was spontaneous and done in isolation or almost. Placard worked with Charles Guay and Nicolas Beaudoin — aka Bobo Ono — and the trio touched on almost every instrument on the record and put their effort into several of the tasks, including mixing.
“Most of the songs we just played once. There are no covers,” explains the man who signed his first record with Costume Records. “I told Charles that the form was this and that, that the riff was this and that, without saying how it ended. Because I didn’t know either. We never knew. It’s really improvised. I hadn’t even rewritten my texts properly. I would take my drafts and sing them. “OK, it’s beautiful, we got it!” »
The approach results in a vibrant, intimate and beautifully imperfect record, brimming with emotion. On stage, it goes out of the box, it swells a little more, the harmonica leads wider, explains Dany. Six shows will take place in the fall, the rest of the performances are planned for the month of May, after Sara Dufour’s tour. “This is the first time in my life that I have had conditions like this, and I am 48 years old. Comfort. Hotel room. Transportation. Stamp. Humanly too. Because we are beautiful gang. We have to fun. »
But still, Placard still watched the trucks pass behind us.