In the studio | The album that dreamed of going elsewhere

At the end of January, deep in the woods of Morin-Heights. In the creative space of musician Éloi Painchaud – a large red chalet converted into an elegant studio – the singing of Cindy Bédard and her acolytes (Richard Deschênes, Richard Boisvert and Adam Lalonde) fills the space.

Laughter, exclamations of satisfaction and instructions from Éloi, who is producing the album, echo them. “Think more Rolling Stones than singer with voice this time,” the Salebarbes member tells Cindy, as she records backing vocals on the catchy piece. At 500.

Good humor reigns, a sign of the great complicity of the artists, but also of pride in the work they have in hand, after three weeks of intensive studio sessions. The creation of this album began a few months before our first meeting, but the process took an abrupt turn, explains Cindy.

“I was going in a completely different direction and I ended up stopping everything, even though it was working and it would have been beautiful,” she continues. “Sometimes it looks better elsewhere, we are told that ‘for it to work, we have to collaborate with this person…’”

“Such person” in this case was Louis-Jean Cormier. However, the singer-songwriter felt, when the first version of the album was almost complete, that she had to “go back home” with Éloi, who had been her closest collaborator on her very first album, 10 years earlier.

“I went all-in on what I really wanted to do, on everything I am, for the album I always wanted,” she says.