“Monique: 232! » shouts the loudspeaker of the bowling alley, interrupting the vocal momentum of Jonah Guimond, alias P’tit Belliveau. It must be said: it was he who chose to invite the press to this surprisingly busy venue rather than to a classic café to discuss his third full album. It’s not because he really plays it, but we can make connections: this disc includes effective titles such as the course of a ball rolling at full speed on oiled wood, and musical influences which go into all the senses like bowling after a strike. And, one thing is certain, P’tit Belliveau takes the path of honesty in many ways.
Over these 39 minutes divided into 12 songs, he listened to himself. This is a bit why the Nova Scotian living in Sainte-Marie Bay waited for this third disc to give it his name: Little Belliveau. To find himself, the versatile creator first needed his Greatest Hits Vol. 1 in 2020, thenA man and his piano in 2022 — without forgetting an interlude in the form of a mini-album of covers by an Acadian country star, Baptiste Comeau.
“Even today, it’s not a very old project,” explains the 28-year-old musician in his Acadian language. My career as a lyric composer is still new. It’s a learning process. Then now I learned a lot about myself. Then how am I going to write, what am I capable of doing? All that to say, I feel like I can be freer. I need less constraints, and it’s really fun to work like that. »
Fewer self-imposed constraints, therefore. And it shows on these new songs, released independently and which are more eclectic than ever. “There’s still plenty of country in there, but I allowed myself to open the shell a little more, then insert a lot of styles,” he admits. Music like medium, it fascinates me, the textures, the sounds. From noise music, disorganized, almost unlistenable, to pop music, [à la] Dua Lipa, then everything in between, I love everything, everything, everything. »
There’s a bit of everything in this musical buffet. There is rap-pop on the very radio Comfy with FouKi, punk from the 1990s on Ring ring, kitsch synthesizer lines everywhere. Here and there, P’tit Belliveau even brings out his metal guitars – the cover of the record is even illuminated with his name in the form of a logo typical of groups of this genre.
“It’s just an honesty that I have about everything” [ces styles-là] », says the man who did almost everything alone in the studio. This palette of sounds is part of his world and he is less afraid of infusing its colors into his creation. “I am still capable, honestly, of accepting that it is weird. But again, that’s not my goal. »
He also claims the right to be multiple in what he says: P’tit Belliveau also sings about his love of trucks (Big truck) only touching family memories (The Church of St. Bernard). And he believes that doing so is only showing himself more real, even “naked” in front of his audience.
“I find it a shame these “norms” of music in Quebec where you often have to be either serious or funny, but not both. Artists limit themselves in that. There’s no one who’s just serious, and there’s no one who’s just funny, we’re both. For me, I want to explore humanity in general, and then try to paint portraits of my life that can be applied to your life. And then, if I want to do this in an honest way, in a complete way, I have to explore all these sides. » Here in this discussion without scuppers, it is the very concept of the record which is undermined by P’tit Belliveau – the record thought of as a coherent whole, with atmospheres linked by a certain thread.
“It’s just not something that excites me that much anymorehe assures. [Cet album] it’s a playlistalmost, like singles assembled. There is something romantic in the fact of creating a work, but for me, it turns out that a work is a song, then I put a lot of love into it, then time to create and production. »
The fact remains that at the center of this disc are three pieces linked by the theme of frogs – which explains the cover! Nothing to do with the “ frogs » Quebecois, assures P’tit Belliveau, who explains this choice by his simple love of the amphibians which populate his land and the swamp which is there – and which are not stressed by the “crazy” world in which humans evolve .
“They just seem dumb, sillyThen slimy, then I love them. They are having fun in the mud. She’s like my friends, said the vegetarian. [En ce moment] we see the frog eggs, then in two weeks they will be tadpoles. Then at the end of summer, it will be big frogs. You see their whole life every year. At school, it’s one of the first things in science that we learn and which leaves a mark on us. Yeah, it’s the beginning of our career of being fascinated by life. » We support it without reservation.