Discreet in recent years, La Bottine Souriante is preparing its return on record for 2023. David Boulanger announces that the collective will return with a more “modern” sound and perhaps even a more “rock” attitude.
Long a staple as the holiday season approaches, La Bottine Souriante has slowed down considerably in recent years. “La Bottine has been rolling at a particular or, let’s say, unusual rhythm for a while now,” agrees violinist David Boulanger, who acts as coordinator and spokesperson for the collective.
There have been many changes since the successive departures of Michel Bordeleau and Yves Lambert in the early 2000s. Of the two young people recruited to replace them in 2002, only Éric Beaudry remains. Pierre-Luc Dupuis, André Brunet, Régent Archambault, Pierre Bélisle and even Benoît Bourque, who arrived in 2008, have also left over the years.
And while the band used to release about one record every two years since 1978, they’ve only released two in the last 20 years…
“We don’t feel the pressure to make new material, pleads David Boulanger. We do it when we feel like it, when we’re ready and when we consider that we have the right pieces to make a new album. »
This time has come.
Of the grooves heavier
La Bottine Souriante has just finished recording a disc to be released in the fall of 2023. It will have around ten tracks, one of which will be unveiled before next summer, probably when the national holiday is in sight.
The characteristic swing of La Bottine remains on the album to come, assures David Boulanger. Brass too. The violinist adds, however, that the collective’s next album will also have something more “modern”. ” Of the grooves a little more funk… and even rock, he slips. Sure, rock is a bit of a catch-all label, but it’s more in the attitude. There is something heavier. »
The arrival of a new double bassist and bass player, Mathieu Gagné, and a new keyboardist, Olivier Salazar, who contributed a lot to the arrangements, weighed heavily in the sounds towards which the group is tending at the dawn of 2023, according to David Baker.
We are not doing the same business as before, we are continuing to move forward.
David Boulanger
The violinist reveals that the group has also reached out to foreign musicians that La Bottine has rubbed shoulders with over the years. Irish accordionist and violinist Sharon Shannon, Italian accordionist Ricardo Tessi and Swedish Erik Rydvall (violin and “nyckelharpa”, hybrid instrument between violin and hurdy-gurdy, equipped with sympathetic resonance strings) have each composed a piece of the upcoming disc . The only collaborator here is percussionist Mélissa Lavergne.
The group plans to reconnect with the scene from the summer of 2023, after having been rare since at least 2018. The collective is not aiming for tours of 75 concerts per year, assures David Boulanger. Each of the musicians has other occupations and “no one needs La Bottine to live”.
Playing with La Bottine, for each of them, is a space of chosen freedom. “We want to do our job well, in good conditions, summarizes the violinist. Since we said that, the atmosphere is super good in the group. It does not roll square! »
Before starting this new chapter, La Bottine Souriante will close 2022 with a concert with Zébulon. Both groups will be at the Coliseum in Saint-Bruno-de-Guigues, Témiscamingue, on December 31.