The Milk & Bone duo have just released their third album, Chrysalism. After 10 years of collaboration and while pursuing several individual projects, Laurence Lafond-Beaulne and Camille Poliquin meet to talk to us about their pain, their strengths, their transformation and their resilience.
Posted at 12:00 p.m.
Milk & Bone songs are sung with one voice. But Camille Poliquin and Laurence Lafond-Beaulne interpret their texts as if they had both experienced what they are telling. “We’ve been working together for 10 years,” says Laurence. We know each other really well, so when Camille tells me about her idea, I know exactly what she means. There is something magical about this encounter. The songs do not seem to be separated, our universes are complementary. »
“Just to be aware of what’s going on in [la vie de Laurence]to put myself in her place, to ask myself how I would feel if I were her, it allows me to write through her, but with my lexicon, which is different”, adds Camille.
The latter has often had to lend herself to this exercise when writing Chrysalismwhich focuses on Laurence’s journey after a “really painful breakup”.
We weren’t in the same places at all, we weren’t going through the same hardships. I was ravaged by all my emotions, I was in the thick of the pain. And towards the end, quietly, I was letting go of things that aren’t made to exist.
Laurence Lafond Beaulne
Her partner says she has often found herself in this position before. “But during the pandemic, I found a lot of strength to step back on myself, in relation to my condition as a woman. About what I notice in my industry and in the way men look at me and my peers. In her romantic relationship, “for the first time, I questioned whether what the person was asking me was valid,” says Camille. “I felt a lot of injustice from my past relationships. I had a big frustration, but also a huge freedom to be able to assert myself. »
The Calm and the Storm
Chrysalism talk about all this. Of the suffering and healing of Laurence, who recounts having “gained a lot of strength and confidence in [elle] “. This same strength that Camille discovered in herself, which lives in her more than ever. All these themes intersect under the term chosen to cap their new disc. Chrysalism is the calm one feels while inside when a storm is brewing.
This neologism ended up in their folder of title ideas from the start of creation and never left them. “It encompasses the album so well: it talks a lot about this inner world and the strength that we will seek despite the external chaos of our lives, events, injuries, pains, disappointments. »
Camille also mentions the word chrysalis. “It’s to say that we have the right to be still evolving, that we don’t have to be perfect right away. »
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, THE PRESS
Camille Poliquin and Laurence Lafond-Beaulne, from the duo Milk & Bone
The magic of Micah Jasper
The process of creating the disc is far from having been continuous, since the singer-songwriters allow themselves to live all kinds of professional projects on their own, but also, simply, to exist outside of Milk & Bone. “It’s important that we cultivate what we are creatively and personally, so that when we come together, our work really is the equation of the two of us,” says Camille. The more we invest in our personal projects, the more it will feed our project together. »
The duo especially allowed themselves a “real break” before getting back to work. When the time came to create for Milk & Bone, Laurence and Camille called on the American director established in Los Angeles Micah Jasper, who quickly became their best ally for this new disc. “He works with the people we like, he likes the same things as us, he has the same references, says Camille. Micah is really able to synthesize our two universes, to make it a final product to which he also belongs. He was really an important figure in this process. »
The pop side
More “upbeat” and licked, Chrysalism affirms even more the pop side of Milk & Bone, even if the duo considers to have “always made pop music”. “When it’s melancholy, it’s less considered pop, notes Camille. But this time, we can listen to this whole album in the car! »
We also feel the touch of Micah Jasper in the treatment of the voices, which moreover carry much more than before, thanks to the experience and the exploration.
electronic pop
Chrysalism
Milk & Bone
Bonsound