In 2022, Émile Bourgault was among the three finalists in the Les Francouvertes showcase competition. With his long platinum blond hair, the young musician, then only 18 years old, showed great confidence and obvious ease on the Club Soda stage, but the public and the jury – including the author of these lines – quickly reminded him that he still had some bolts to tighten. An electroshock that he now considers beneficial and without which he would not have arrived on Friday with a very pleasant first record – although “imperfect”, in his humble words.
The Boucherville native is now 20 years old and the water has flowed under the bridge. The young artist, who now lives in Hochelaga, casts an almost amused look at the all-green version of himself. “I was so not ready to do that,” he said, laughing. I never with four guys in a basement, we weren’t aware of the arrangement, the staging. You know, I remember the soundman from Club Soda who asked me if my keyboard was stereo, and I had no idea! »
Émile Bourgault was told that his songs “resembled everything”, that he had to “find himself”. “Ouch!” OK. It’s something that got me boosted, there are some that could have broken,” explains the man who until then had always stood out from the crowd, notably at Secondaire en spectacle. The pianist and guitarist, lyricist and composer put his pride aside and rolled up his sleeves. He worked on writing songs and surrounded himself musicians of his generation — including guitarist Thomas Saulnier and saxophonist Florence Beauquier-Léger — who took him to new heights.
Solid foundations
Through this period of reconstruction, Bourgault has accumulated quite a bit of experience, winning the highest honors during My first Place des Arts and the Granby International Song Festival in 2023. “I’m from the school let’s Business”. Because every thing we do, every steps that I have taken, every show that I have accepted, even in front of six people, it has been stones that I have deposited, which accumulate. »
These are therefore solid bases which support his first folk, rock and pop disc, entitled So much the betterwhose main strength is the power of the melodic lines sung with a soft and elegant, but slightly scratched, voice.
A bit like Bourgault, who adopted the wearing of chic clothes from another era, the songs are both driven by the excitement of youth and tinged with a Quebec song tradition. Somewhere between an early Hubert Lenoir and the Gerry Boulet of See you sweet. His parents had something to do with it, they who listened to Vigneault, Desjardins and company. “I remember being on my father’s lap, in front of the old family computer, then watching like Offenbach at the Forum one weekday evening before going to bed! »
So much the better, directed by Félix Dyotte (Évelyne Brochu, Chinatown, Pierre Lapointe), is constructed in two phases, first lighter, rhythmic and fun, then more carried by a vague soul. Two facets that come together on the chiaroscuro cover and also in Bourgault’s words.
“The end of something”
“There is a weight that I carry in this record, which is present from the beginning, but which we discover towards the end with tones that are a little sadder, a little more slow, he says. It’s part of me. » The universe of this first full album evokes “a bit of the end of something”, what the musician accumulated as emotions during adolescence, during his transition to adult life, and the tornado of emotions that comes with it. “The skip rises and we empty all the gravel, after that, we leave with the empty skip. These things had to be spit out. »
There is movement on these relatively long songs, breathing — and even two references to kite flying. “It’s boring, but it flies!” » exclaims the man who decided to do this job at the age of 12 after hearing Émile Bilodeau’s first record on stage.
Émile Bourgault arrives in the industry both confident and humble, believing without being pushed that there is room for improvement, as if to lower expectations this time. “We created the album over the space of a year and a half, in four different places, so the sounds change, the vibe exchange. It’s truly an imperfect album, in the purest sense of the word,” he notes.
So much the better remains, to say the least, “the most accomplished affair” in his repertoire, miles ahead of his first two EPs. “But I am aware that I am 20 years old and still have so much to learn. Fortunately, I’m curious, I sit on nothing, I have my nose everywhere looking for what’s going on and what’s new. I have some crusts to eat, but I’m proud of what we did. These two things can coexist. » The foundations are poured, and the architect is going to have a lot of fun.