I often tend to say that a song is a moment of day, a moment of life,” explains singer-songwriter Gab Bouchard, who had given us an appointment in the tasting room of a microbrewery in his neighborhood, Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, to discuss Gravinesthe second album of his career.
At this precise moment of the day and of our conversation, we were broaching the subject of classical song, the one he admits to doing, without artifice or concessions to current musical trends.
Gab Bouchard, last of the line of Bouchard rockers from Lac-Saint-Jean (his father, Pierre, is indeed the one who “kills this drum in the title of Gros Mené’s very first album), composes as he sings, that is to say frankly, “and I write as I speak, no complicated words, no scientific turn of phrase, it doesn’t I’m not interested either. I’ve always written like that, ever since I was ten — it really wasn’t good back then. I write from point A to point B; often, when I have trouble finishing a song, I wonder what I wanted to say at the beginning, and where I wanted it to end. It brings me back. »
How the writing process for this second album seemed to bring the musician down to earth. sad the samehis first album — released two years ago and recorded with the same family clan as Gravines, Olivier Langevin (Galaxie) once again directing —, presented Gab Bouchard in a lighter tone, and musically more pop too. This new album is much more mature, as if something serious had happened in the last two years…
“It’s possible”, drops Bouchard, about this album written “over two winters” interspersed with a series of summer concerts when the authorities allowed it.
“It’s not a winter album, but it’s an album like: It’s dark early. It feels. [Mes chansons] aren’t about pandemic or COVID, but it was written when I had nothing else to do and was going to the studio every night. It’s not joyful, it’s nostalgic and melancholic. It feels the same, but these are two feelings that I know a lot about. I am a nostalgic person in life. »
It’s not a winter album, but it’s an album like: It’s dark early. It feels.
Already ? At 26? “I hated my high school, for real, but I miss the time when I had no pressure,” he clarifies. I miss starting something without knowing where it will go. I miss music, before it became music to sell tickets. » Before music became a job ? ” It’s a job, being a musician, I earn my living with that. What I mean is that I miss the time when I didn’t have everything I wanted. Where I collected my money doing a job shit to buy me a single guitar. »
Do not believe that Gab Bouchard is unhappy to do what he dreamed of doing since the age of ten. “It’s part of the game. My father has already told me: “You’re going to make a lot of jobs what you don’t like before doing what you like.” That’s what nostalgia is for me — it’s not missing my first girlfriend, it’s missing the naivety of that time. »
more mature
These feelings made him write beautiful songs, starting with dumpthe first he completed during this cycle of creation and which opens the album, a swaying, melodic and bittersweet pop-rock song: “I have the impression that my life is an old char / I’ll probably end up all alone in the dumpyard / But it’s cool, it doesn’t bother me at all, I ran after it anyway / I always wanted to age faster than you”, sings- he on the chorus.
In Water holeBouchard plays it cooler with his childhood memories, then on It’s coolhe plays it like John Lennon, a posture he takes up later on the ballad Your shift is not over. “I always preferred Lennon [dans les Beatles] and I started listening to his solo albums. there is something fun with Lennon, it looks like he was making tunes because it had to come out. McCartney was super good, but at Lennon, there was an emergency [dans son écriture]. The world had to hear it. »
This impulse can be heard in the title song, one of the most beautiful that Gab Bouchard has written to date. Sweet, the guitar muted, the piano played on the fingertips. A tragic story: “Today you’ve been trying to cure your sores for a long time / I hope, I hope you’re fine / That the world no longer scares you / That you no longer make scratches on your arm when you cry.
“It’s about a friend, but it’s about a lot of people, comments Bouchard. It marked me, since I decided to make a song of it, but it is not alone. All the songs on the album speak a little about me, but [le message] of this album is bigger than me. Gravines, that is to say: everyone is going to live hosts of shitty moments in their lives, but in the end… Ah! says Bouchard, raising his voice to suggest hope.
Gravines is available on the Bravo Musique label.