The timing of our conversation with Jules Henry couldn’t have been better. ” Because it’s raining ? ” he asks. Precisely, yes: thanks to his electro-pop project Super Plage, Jules has the power to chase away the ambient greyness.
“Indeed, it’s not my style to add to the gloom these days,” he admits. His music puts sunshine in our lives, which we have needed in the last few days. The singer-songwriter and his extended band of eternal pop vacationers will tread the stage of La Sala Rossa on Thursday evening, for a beach party sponsored by the Pop Montreal festival.
A week after collecting his first career nomination for a Félix, in the Electronic Album of the Year category, Jules Henry is still on cloud nine: “How would I tell you that… Ah, that’s the word I’m looking for : the validation ! During the press conference [du dévoilement des nominations], I still felt like a bit of an impostor. A small victory like that helps, it’s like recognizing that I’m a part of this industry that I admired from afar. I take it with a lot of humility, because all these people who accepted me, I felt far outside their circle. I never imagined one day being part of it — I don’t know if that’s the case today, but I work every day to make it happen. »
party machine
Without stopping, that he works, Jules. Even before his participation in the 2021 edition of the Francouvertes, the young Rimouski native had already released two albums, then doing it again with Electro-holiday in September 2021, then with a remix album of compositions by colleagues as musically diverse as Anachnid, Calamine, Safia Nolin, Ariane Roy, Valence and Les Shirley.
The record company Lisbon Lux Records (Le Couleur, Paupière, Radiant Baby, Däs Mortal) has recruited him and is already planning the release of his next album — moreover, Super Plage launched a new song at the beginning of September, illuminated forest, inspired by his concerts given at the La Grosse Lanterne festival, in the middle of the forest, in Béthanie. And rereading the pages of his busy diary for the summer that has just ended, it seems that the word has passed between festival programmers: Super Plage is a party machine.
What is striking, in truth, is to note that there are so few musicians exploiting the vein of danceable electronic song as Jules does. If commercial radio stations had ears, they would play Super Plage all day long, it would make a change from the Anglo-Saxon balloons in front of which Jules Henry stands out advantageously, and not only because his songs are in French.
Jovial and psychedelic jingles
” My story ? Let me sum it up for you in two minutes: when I was young, with my friends, we loved punk, like Sum 41, NOFX, Blink-182. My godfather gave me a guitar, we formed a punk band that we led for six or seven years, and we had the chance to give concerts in Rimouski because there weren’t many other bands in the area. . So when The Sainte Catherines came, it was us who opened. A friend once opened the doors of his studio to me to record something, and I went crazy with it. I fell into the hell of machines”, buttons, small screens, drum machines and synths. Jules even imagined making a living as a director.
Often when I’m working on an album I imagine it will still sound highly realized in the Flume way [vedette australienne de la pop électronique]with incredible sounds, but it always ends up getting closer to the pop song
Instead, he thanks Spotify for putting him on the right track: “A friend introduced me to [le groupe new wave français] La Femme, and Spotify started recommending things like L’Impératrice, Polo & Pan, Le Couleur — which I thought was a French band, until I realized that the musicians live next door. we. The Spotify algorithm understood me, it changed my life! »
In his music, Jules Henry demonstrates his passion for sound design as much as his pif for catchy, jovial (and often psychedelic in his lyrics) refrains, “but at the same time, I listen to a lot of songs, like those of Pierre Lapointe . Often when I’m working on an album I imagine it will still sound highly realized in the Flume way [vedette australienne de la pop électronique]with amazing sounds, but it always ends up getting closer to pop song”.
Super Plage’s next album will be released in the spring of 2023, and we can expect a new unifying pop sunburn – because here is another characteristic of Jules’ musical personality: this guy has made a lot of musician friends, who gladly visit it in the studio or on stage. Mélanie Venditti, Virginie B, Le Couleur again, Meggie Lennon, we forget some. “Yes, I try to be unifying. Above all, I feel very privileged to be surrounded by so many people. I often say that I don’t boast much in life, but I can say that my friends are hot in east! »
In concert Thursday, starting at 8 p.m., at La Sala Rossa, with Virginie B and shn shn, on the bill at the Pop Montreal festival.