Treat yourself to a creative immersion in 1969, the year of the explosion of all genres in the world of rock and popular song, does that tempt you? The following artists embarked without being asked in the time machine imagined by Connor Seidel: Ariane Moffatt, Safia Nolin, Elliot Maginot, Louis-Jean Cormier, Philippe Brault, Claudia Bouvette, Half Moon Run, the Boulay Sisters, Jason Bajada, Matt Holubowski, Elisapie. Questions to the instigator.
Why 1969, rather than 1967 or 1972, great years just as much?
At the start of the project, I thought I would capture the general spirit of late 1960s and early 1970s musicality. As an English speaker, my exposure to Quebec music was fairly minimal until I met the Boulay Sisters; they showed me a number of albums from that period. My fascination began to grow as I learned more about the history of Quebec — particularly the year 1969 — and it seemed to me that the turn of the decade seemed to capture something quite specific.
The possibilities for inspiration are endless. Where to go?
Musically, for me, the first source of inspiration for 1969 was the album Five Leaves Left by Nick Drake. The project was progressing, and more and more artists were sharing albums that were meaningful to them. The liner notes for the records always said “recorded in 1969”. Joni Mitchell, Monique Leyrac, Neil Diamond…
Halfway through the project, I came across a Mary Hopkin album titled postcard —my grandma told me it was my grandpa’s favorite record—also released in 1969, and that’s when the choice of the year became unmistakable to me .
We usually think of 1969 as a busy, bustling year.
What particularly fascinated me was the more subdued, softer folk movement: a collision of simple folk songwriters and complex jazz arrangements. I found there was a common thread of artists — born into the silent generation — who weren’t quite defined as the main movement, but were relevant nonetheless. To me, our homage to 1969 is not about capturing the entire essence of the year, but actually highlighting a very small niche of it.
Have you immersed yourself in the recording techniques of the time?
Working with sound engineer Ghyslain-Luc Lavigne has been such a blessing! It was his idea to make sure we used the proper microphones and mine to focus on the songwriting, musicianship and arrangements. He suggested not only using the same ribbon microphone for each artist on the project, but also using virtually no compression or EQ during recording and mixing. The album is very light and uncompressed, like many records at the time.
How to avoid pastiche?
I think the idea of this album was not to imitate or copy the era, but rather to draw a subtle influence from it. It starts with writing the songs; the simple act of presenting the context to each artist allowed them to think outside of the typical musical formats of radio and the streaming, to think of complex harmonies, bold tempo changes, and not worrying about the three-minute time limit so often imposed. This, combined with a few arranging elements that tie all the songs together, allowed the artists to still be themselves, but subtly lean into influence. Ultimately, this project was made by and for us, so I never wondered if we were going to be too close or too far apart, I just wanted to smile while doing it.
An eclectic year