With her textured electro-pop and beautifully hushed voice, La Bronze is back with a new album titled live me, which comes out on Friday. five years later infinite bodiesthe multidisciplinary artist is always in search of light, but is also not afraid to look the world in the face.
Posted at 8:00 a.m.
“Darkness exists in society, in the world, in each individual,” Nadia Essadiqi, who has been singing under the name La Bronze for eight years, tells us on the phone.
“But I made this beautiful discovery that when you dare to look her in the face, you allow this darkness to transform. You have to have the courage to name what is unfair, what does not work, what hurts. Explore what is less beautiful in order to transcend it. »
Transform darkness into light, therefore, but also dare to address subjects that distress it: racism, sexism, toxic masculinity. If she talks about it in songs, it’s because we have to “bring them to the surface of the collective consciousness, to be able to free ourselves from that, so that everyone can live a fair and equitable life”.
The very present death
Each song has a very clear theme, she explains. But one cannot help noticing that that of death is very present throughout the 12 tracks of the album – “ I don’t wanna die again / So kill me first / Kill me / Live me / Kill me / If I live it’s in heaven while high “, she sings on the title track.
“Well yes, huh? she said with a smile in her voice. She explains. “I wonder a lot about what dies to live again and to die again. Letting go of what wants to go, daring to be a phoenix, letting go of things to make room for the new. So yes, death has been a recurring theme in this light. »
What interests La Bronze, in fact, are the contrasts. Thus, in live mewe go from love to death, from introspection to elevation, from soft to explosive.
The human experience is made up of a panoply of textures, emotions, sensations… I wanted to make an album that represented that.
The Bronze
Added to this are all the avenues of her electro-pop, whose dressing she instinctively chose, according to the needs of each song – more hip-hop here, an ultra-pop chorus or a simple piano-voice the.
Multiple collaborations
And if she worked with her faithful accomplice, Clément Leduc, and Gabriel Gagnon, of Homy Studio, to give homogeneity to the whole, she was above all nourished by numerous collaborations, because each meeting is rich and full of surprises: Adel Tayeb Kazi-Aoual and Clément Langlois-Légaré of Clay and Friends with Sarahmée on the powerful FarewellRobert Robert on the troubling Monument erectedGabrielle Shonk and Sean Fisher on the moving WatersMoroccan rapper Lmoutchou on the heaviest Haramwhich talks about freedom and which is the only song in Arabic on the album, KNY and Sébastien Blais-Monpetit on the very pop Shinewhich speaks precisely of dependence on the gaze of others, the French musician Voyou who comes to add his brass to the hovering chorus of I was floating.
“It’s exhilarating when the magic hits, because it creates something that I couldn’t have done on my own. Their color, my color, the mixture of colors is unique. I like human sharing, and a space to create together is really fun. »
La Bronze also continues to work as an actress – we saw her this season in Reasonable doubt – and she has several other projects on the go. “It’s always been a part of my life, it’s a big part of my heart. This week, she’s in France to promote her album which is being released there at the same time, she’s planning shows on both sides of the ocean, and she hopes live me will know how to touch “as many hearts as possible”.
“I hope it will connect people to their essence and their truth, that it will give them a desire for justice, fairness and benevolence. To live with passion their full potential. »
This quest has animated her for a long time, moreover, and it is somewhat the common thread of her work.
“It’s fun to live up to what you’re meant to be on Earth. To get rid of what isn’t quite us and to fully enjoy this completely crazy experience of being a human, ”she says.
Electro-pop
live me
The Bronze
Audiogram