Who, Felix Petit? The one and only. Félix Petit, the secret weapon of Les Louanges, Hubert Lenoir and Laurence-Anne, to name only these brilliant representatives of the new Quebec song. Composer, saxophonist, director, happy in the studio like a cat in a cardboard box, although he also says he enjoys “living in the moment” on stage, which he will do on June 16 alongside Les Louanges aux Francos, then the July 7 at the Montreal International Jazz Festival (FIJM). He will then give life to the new compositions of HELPthe first complete album of his jazz-electro-experimental project FELP which will be released next Friday on the Bonsound label.
“I’m lucky: I’m offered projects, then I have the luxury of choosing to work with the artists I adore, those whose pen I love, those whose songs vibrate. It’s my privilege,” says Félix Petit, who arranged to meet us on a Mile-End terrace.
Tinted glasses, low-cut shirt, frank smile, soft voice, Petit is undoubtedly an excellent musician, but you only need to spend a few minutes in his company to understand that he is first and foremost a really cool. A real head of music, stuffed with good and daring ideas, which in addition has this disarming temperament of simplicity proper to calm the singer-songwriters most likely to be plagued by doubt while recording their album. An ideal collaborator, in short.
Many on the Quebec music scene have had recourse to his advice and have not been asked to participate in the recording of his musical UFO entitled HELP : Klô Pelgag putting her voice on the limping funk-jazz of Baby footLaurence-Anne transformed into a hazy electro-pop diva on dinosaurGreg Beaudin and Hawa B in duet on the deconstructed rap rhythm of the extract Brokest Rapper You Know and Hubert Lenoir also playing it MC on FINISHED at the beginning of the album.
“This disc, I first wanted to do it for fun, explains Petit. Working with the wacky song structures I had in mind. Making tunes out of nothing: just a little loop, a piece of reverb from a thing that we place next to it, create a song from that. And doing stuff that I don’t usually do in the studio, exploring other ways of making a recording. »
“Often what’s interesting in a song is the wacky idea behind it,” adds the musician. HELP is a field of ideas that fly in all directions, avant-garde pop, neo-R&B, jazz in the breath of the brass, electronics in its rubbery bass sounds, but which keeps a course, a guideline, believes Felix Petit.
“Don’t feel bad about skipping moments on the album. There are things that we will like, others less”, he believes, describing his work as “new groove, a bit like what we notice in new American pop, but more on the left. It’s…experimental”.
As are the best stews of musical influences. Petit cites old obscure electro albums, Brian Eno’s approach (“This guy has such a way of sculpting sound!”), the rediscovery of Gil Scott-Heron’s last album (I’m New Here2010, then its remixed version by Jamie xx released the following year) and the innovative jazz–hip-hop–electro approach of a Flying Lotus, undoubtedly the most apparent influence on HELP. “His album Los Angeles [2008]I had to buy a second copy on vinyl so much I listened to it…”
Originally from Besançon, on the border of Switzerland, Félix Petit left Franche-Comté at the age of 18 to study jazz saxophone at the University of Montreal. “A crazy program”, given in particular by professors Simon Stone and Dany Roy. His network of collaborators was woven during his formative years in the company of composer and pianist Jérôme Beaulieu (Misc), drummer William Côté, bassist Jérémi Roy, singer Émilie (Em) Pompa, who can be heard on the song Hand’s Up. Together, they will form three projects not so distinct from each other: Bellflower (four albums on the clock), Chienvoler (one album) and FELP, which gave birth to two EPs, the last having been launched five years ago.
At the FIJM, on July 7, we will witness on stage the reunion of all these musical friendships, says a thrilled Félix. “Everyone is going to be there”, the musicians, Klô, Laurence-Anne, Hubert, Greg, Em, the singer Hawa B (who is cooking up a mini-album produced by Félix), “me on saxophone, synths and MPC [un séquenceur], without too many pre-programmed sequences. In Hubert’s group, we don’t play with sequences either — we don’t really like computers in concert, we don’t trust them enough and, above all, we want to live the moment, all together, playing instruments. The album is quite short, so, after having played it, we will do old stuff from the first EPs and from Chienvoler, to please the old ones who know”.