Hubert Lenoir doesn’t like social networks, doesn’t like having his picture taken, doesn’t like granting interviews that much, but made an exception today, by welcoming us into this small apartment which serves as his studio, somewhere in the Saint-Roch district of Quebec, not far from the house where he lives with his lover and manager, Noémie.
Hubert Lenoir comes here every day, from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m., sometimes later, to reconnect once again with “the thing he loves most in the world”, music. A story that has lasted since his (former) metalhead older brother, Julien, taught him a few chords – E minor, D, another – enough to let in the songs that were knocking at the door of his head.
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But it turns out that music – and everything around it – is this powerful thing, which can sometimes raise unpredictable storms. The hatred he received after the explosion of his first album, Darlene (2018), did it contribute to this choice to now lead a much more reclusive life and take a step back from public life?
PHOTO EDOUARD PLANTE-FRÉCHETTE, LA PRESS
Hubert Lenoir in interview
“It certainly has a lot to do with it,” says Hubert who, that day, is wearing a gigantic green poncho, the kind you wear to protect yourself from a heavy downpour, among the crowd at a festival. . “I try to fit into a concept,” he will explain about this look, the laconic words, but the generous smile.
“At the beginning, the success was really good,” he says, remembering the first response to his songs from critics and a fervent but limited audience.
It’s when it hits the general public that this polarization happens. And at first, I didn’t take it badly. Not at all. I took it as something that was part of the game. It made me laugh. I had punk influences and I said to myself: it’s part of who I am. I was drunk.
Hubert Lenoir
“But at some point,” he continues, “polarization creates a negativity that constantly follows you. At some point, this negativity makes your mother cry. »
Stronger
Hubert Lenoir remembers it as if it were yesterday: in December 2018, his name appeared in a list of Quebec personalities who marked the year for the worst, almost on a par with Alexandre Bissonnette, the author of the massacre of the great mosque of Quebec. A list established by a survey by the firm Léger, commissioned by The Montreal Journal, which also featured Gilbert Rozon, Éric Salvail and Gilles Vaillancourt. Ayoye.
It was really intense. And this negativity, even if it makes you laugh a little at first, because you are young and you say to yourself “Fuck the world”, it ends up getting to you, through wear and tear, or through the band.
Hubert Lenoir
The nice troublemaker does not deny it: he has sometimes voluntarily added a layer, as if by reflex of protection. “Maybe I didn’t want to seem affected, maybe I wanted to be punk rock, so as not to prove others right,” he philosophizes. You want to stay strong, so you almost don’t want to piss off the world anymore. But it’s still just the same negativity. »
And how do you console a mother who is crying because someone is attacking her son? “I told her not to read the comments, but she did the same. »
In the name of music
Hubert Lenoir says he has become “stronger” today, because he has aged – he will be 30 in August – and because he has placed a large layer of insulating foam between the world and him, in order to preserve intact his mental health as well as his relationship to music.
PHOTO EDOUARD PLANTE-FRÉCHETTE, LA PRESS
Hubert Lenoir in interview
“The more I paint, the more I like anything,” Jean-Michel Basquiat once declared, a phrase that well sums up Hubert Lenoir’s omnivorous relationship with music, he who says he considers himself “extremely lucky” to simply to be able to make a living from it, but also to be able to collaborate with projects that are so different from those of Star Academyby Philippe Katerine (the fruit of their work will perhaps be found on the next album of the most endearing character of French song) as well as with artists from the fringes that he admires, like Crabe and Élégie.
His enthusiasm is still the same as that of the teenager who discovered the Beatles, Donovan, Prince and Bowie, thanks to the vinyl collection of a friend’s father and the invaluable advice from the Music record stores at Sonny’s, rue Saint-Jean .
He tries not to forget that he was once that boy who was exhilarated when his brother, his hero, finally agreed to let him join his group, The Seasons: “That first feeling, of making music, being with my brother, being in a rock band, it was the most beautiful thing that could have happened to me. »
The conclusion of our interview? “I love everyone,” says Hubert. Even those who don’t like it? “Even those who don’t like me.” I love everyone deeply. »
Three quotes from our interview
On his stage flamboyance
“I was playing in the street, on Saint-Jean Street, and I was in a period of my life where I was having trouble paying my rent. I needed to make money. For the world to throw away two piasters, I really had to give a show. It’s as if I had been pushed into the water, because I was super self-conscious by nature. I needed to develop this performer, entertainer side. »
About his meeting with Philippe Katerine
“We met during a show to which Radio France had invited me, a tribute to Françoise Hardy at the Maison de la radio. Philippe, I didn’t know him, but I knew that he had already said good things about me. I saw him come in and at first he didn’t talk to me, then he shook my hand and said “Condolences to everyone like me.” [phrase tirée de sa chanson Secret]. Then he stopped talking. I found it a very iconic moment. »
About his Quebecness
“I have always been proud to be a Quebec artist, but you really have to go elsewhere, to work with other people, to understand to what extent we are what we are, to what extent we cannot escape who we are. When I go to France, I force myself, I have twice as much accent, just to assert who I am more. »