A year and a half after acquiring the record label Dare to Care, Béatrice Martin (Coeur de pirate) is finally starting to leave her musical mark there thanks to the release of the first album of the Bravo Musique era, like s today calls the company.Naomi, by the musician of the same name, a disc of modern R&B song, a musical style that the former administration despised and which is also often underestimated by the Quebec musical establishment. However, R&B, “we do it here, we listen to it, underlines Naomi, who sings in French. We don’t have to listen to what’s being done elsewhere to hear that sound. »
“It was not easy for me to recognize myself in the music here,” adds the singer-songwriter. A few years ago, apart from Corneille, there was no salvation for amateurs looking for R&B made here, and in French. “So, obviously, my musical influences are American and British,” adds Naomi, quoting Beyoncé, Alicia Keys and BANKS pell-mell.
FKA Twigs too, the star of avant-garde R&B to whom we will be tempted to compare the Quebecoise, less for their sound aesthetics than for their singular journey: before becoming musicians, both had a career in dance. “I often say that if I practiced dance for so long, it’s thanks to all the musical genres I danced to: each project I worked on was new to me. I dance thanks to the music”, which, she explains, led her to mingle with the actors of the musical scene, “with a little desire to want to make music myself, but without daring it”.
Trained at the School of Contemporary Dance in Montreal, experienced in urban dance competitions, admirer of the “raw, emotional” signature of choreographer Virginie Brunelle, Naomi made dance her first passion, a profession, appearing on all major television sets in Quebec, shooting music videos (for Rihanna, Marie-Mai and, well, Coeur de pirate), among others, and collaborating on the creations of the contemporary troupe Lo Fi Dance Theory.
From dance to music, there was only one step: “My job as a dancer gave me a work ethic and a perseverance that I apply to my musical career,” says Naomi, who admits having sung all his life, but never dared to do it professionally. “I was afraid of rejection — the bane of all artists! It was by meeting my boyfriend and making new friends who make music that I convinced myself to take the leap. »
His companion, rapper Rymz, is collaborating on the writing of the song MEFB at the opening of the album and lays down a verse on the ballad Come back-me, in conclusion. Her new friend Gary Wide (faithful collaborator of Rymz) co-produces the album and offers modern rhythms highlighting Naomi’s versatility while preserving a homogeneity in the overall sound of the album. “Working with Gary made me feel as comfortable as possible, which made it easier for me to let my guard down. At first, I arrived in the studio with my little texts, I was very precious, a little embarrassed, even. And then, he knows how to do everything in the studio, he works really well. »
There’s something for everyone on this album, from festive atmospheres to Ok Alright and Zero Stress to the more introspective grooves ofAmphetamine and of semblance. all oursthe dancing first extract released last year, was co-written with Coeur de pirate, who probably detected a pop star in this dancer.
“If only I knew what she saw in me!” Naomi wonders again. Her association with Bravo Musique is, she says, “pure luck. I put words in my mouth [de Béatrice]but I think she wanted to play the role of artistic director on a new project” and give a different impetus to Bravo Musique by recruiting her at the same time as the electro-pop singer-songwriter Thaïs, who has, meanwhile, released a four-track mini-album last week titled Everything’s Perfect: Act Twothe first act being published last spring.
“What I find fun of my album is that there is nuance. And I didn’t limit myself in terms of styles: there are moments that sound like Paramore, others like Rihanna. ” References elsewhere, necessarily: R&B has never been popular on the radios here. “And yet, I am surrounded by people who make music like that here. No need to look elsewhere to hear this fresh and young sound, made in Quebec”, a sound that evolves in parallel with rap, both belonging to the same culture.
“Everything is interconnected, that’s what I try to represent [dans ma musique] in front of young people here, to give them what I didn’t know when I was younger, proof that this musical style not only has great value, but that it has a place on the music scene Quebec.