During the pandemic, Sara Dufour experienced a small miracle: her album released in April 2019 literally “caught fire”. “It took off again in 2021 as if it had just been released. It’s really screwed up,” says the singer-songwriter who launches Friday Are you going to take a walk?a new album with raw energy in which she recounts both her love for her mother and her return to the region.
The shows which have multiplied in Quebec, the increasingly bigger stages, the opening acts for the Cowboys Fringants, France, the hits radio, TV sets… Sara Dufour is enjoying every moment of this great unexpected harvest, for which she has sown “a little bit all the time” since leaving the École nationale de la chanson de Granby 11 years ago .
I feel privileged. It’s as if someone took me and said: “Look, it’s your turn”.
Sarah Dufour
The 39-year-old singer also likes to say that she clung to a prediction that her mother had made to her before her death, on March 30, 2021. “She told me: ‘Sara, when I think of your career, I see a big wave coming”. I replied: “Mom, make sure I go surfing”. »
Choose yourself again
Are you going to take a walk? is a review album of recent years, which she considers “more mature and more composed vocally”. She talks about the journey she took and the challenges she faced, and how she “re-chose” herself by returning to live in the region.
“I had been leaving stock lying around all over Quebec for 17 years. » This quest has deeply motivated her in recent years, and ended with the purchase of a house in the forest around Dolbeau-Mistassini, where she comes from.
This resulted in songs like I’m going into the woods or the funny one House fret – said house was actually a three-season cottage where it froze a lot last winter. “I went to bed with my heated blanket, the bottom of my bed was frozen, completely white, I could have spent a scraper ! »
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
Sarah Dufour
In interviews, the colorful girl from the Lake wanders from anecdotes to digressions that it is impossible to recount all of them here. But we reassure you: she had her house insulated, which now has a wood stove.
Although she knows that her career does not allow her to be there full time, decisions have resulted from this return to the region, such as recording the album in Dolbeau-Mistassini. “We also did the photo shoot there. I couldn’t do business by halves. Boots had to walk the walk. »
The musicians came up to the Lake twice for recording sessions, but she hadn’t sent them anything in advance. “I didn’t want them to practice, to find a good line. I wanted the big basic frame, the instinctive, the fun. »
Dany Placard, his “soul mate in words”, was once again his writing and directing accomplice. What does he bring her? “Simplicity. » The result is very rootsy, very direct – “We put the amps on broil, no effect, let’s go let’s roll! » –, very much in the country-rock, slightly punk style of Sara Dufour, in fact.
But there are also sweet songs, like My mothera moving tribute to his deceased mother.
My tunes aren’t just about skidoos! I have songs that can make you think too.
Sarah Dufour
Historical
Among the incredible things that happened to Sara Dufour, there were of course the opening parties for the Cowboys Fringants. A relationship that has developed gradually since 2018, which took her to the Bell Center in November 2021, then to the memorable Plains of Abraham concert during the Quebec Summer Festival this year.
“I wrote everything down in my cell phone so I never forget the details of these two days. » She remembers the heartbreaking cancellation of July 13 due to a storm, the media whirlwind following the announcement that the shows were postponed to the 17th, her state of mind on the fateful evening. “I felt ready. I was going on a mission, I was excited and calm at the same time. »
Around 60,000 people were already on site when she went on stage, but she prefers to tell how Robert Charlebois, who sang after her, told her that she had impressed him. “Eille, Charlebois, a historic monument! » At the end of the Cowboys show, she went to join them to sing merchant navythen remained for Shooting Stars.
If anyone was there and didn’t cry that night… It’s the biggest moment of my career, with the biggest crowd. Sometimes I say to myself, what’s going to top that? If there’s nothing, that’s okay, because I’m part of this historic day of music in Quebec.
Sarah Dufour
For the future, Sara Dufour humbly wishes to stay in good health and keep her energy, “two fundamental matters” to continue doing this job. And she hopes that her album will have a broader scope, that we will see the depth and not just the side party.
“I am very associated with the festive and dynamic aspect. It’s true that I like it, I bite, I’m like a horse waiting to run. But he also carries a vulnerability, he is softer and more tender. I hope this will be perceived. »
Country rock
Are you going to take a walk?
Sarah Dufour
Coyote Records