Ingrid St-Pierre has taken a few liberties on her new album Reines. In the sometimes more frontal writing, in the assumed anger, in the way of singing more seriously. But also more freedom as a woman.
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“Reines is less a tribute than a thank you to the strong women around me, to the women who have their say, who stand up, who taught me not to let my limits be exceeded. »
Ingrid St-Pierre explains this to us gently in a café in Montreal, where she has her habit. The singer-songwriter hasn’t lost any of her tenderness, but if you think she never gets angry or that she’s a “weak and insipid” person, “we’re royally mistaken,” dump her. “That doesn’t change the fact that I’m a sweet and kind person or that this album is just as sweet as the others. »
But at some point you have to say “enough is enough,” and that moment came when she knew she was going to give birth to a baby girl two and a half years ago.
“I realized that I’d smiled and bowed my head at silly comments, that I’d suffered from wandering hands and unwanted French, that I’d spent my life walking around with a hoodie on my head and clenching my fists. But what’s even more disgusting is that even though I had received a feminist education, I thought it was perfectly normal! »
So she wonders how she will manage to break this chain in Le paquebot, which is addressed to her daughter. And launches a real indictment of patriarchy in the title track of this decidedly feminist album.
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, THE PRESS
Ingrid St-Pierre will release a fifth album of original songs on Friday.
In my pen I gave myself the right to go there. to be in conflict.
Ingrid St Pierre
Encouraged by playwright Alexia Burger, Ingrid St-Pierre decided not to cut corners. And she chose clarity because “there are always many boundaries.” “In the beginning I wrote harsh words, but I rather softened them right after. Alexia said to me, “But why don’t you allow yourself to do that?” It was a revelation. »
To count
Of course, in this fifth album of original songs we also find everything we love about Ingrid St-Pierre: the moving poetry, the attention to detail, the steamy atmosphere, the melodies that carry us like waves. A keen observer at heart, she drew inspiration from the places and people around her, but also drew from within to write these songs that she carried for a long time.
It’s like doing archaeology. I just dusted them off and they just arrived.
Ingrid St Pierre
Thus was born this “song rain” that she hopes will resonate with others, whether it’s Parabellum, who speaks of the impossibility of giving oneself a benevolent look “while others do,” or Madame Croft, who speaks of her magical friendship with told a neighbor who was 80 years older than she was when she was a child.
Then comes Mères, a huge song about motherhood, one of the album’s key tracks, which translates another facet of female power in Reines – both embodied in a striking piano voice interpretation. “I like things without artifice, there is something strong in them. »
But even in the more “dressed” pieces, the entire album, produced by Philippe Brault, radiates simplicity and lightness, as if the songs were taking off.
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, THE PRESS
“For me, a singing performance should be the song, Ingrid St-Pierre tells us, I don’t want to do it, I want to embody it. »
“In fact, there are people in Tabarouette on this album! A choir, a string quartet, horns and lots of guitars, I had never experienced that before, I freaked out! »
But everything is in its place, carefully embroidered. Every note is thoughtful.
Ingrid St Pierre
And there is also his voice, which is deeper than usual. This new tone gives her a different vibration, an intonation that matches the anger she is carrying. “I have the impression that certain lyrics have to be sung by this voice. »
Ingrid St-Pierre will soon be going on a tour that will last almost three years – two years with a full band, then solo for the first time. And the singer can’t wait to bring her new songs to life on stage to bring out the voices of these multiple queens who are making a difference… and who have changed their lives.
“They made me raise my voice too, they shaped me. They are renegade Madonnas, as I say in Le Paquebot, grandiose, imperfect. I aspire to be one, to be free from it all. And I hope it will be different for our daughters and our sons. »
The Reines album will be available from Friday
song
Queens
Ingrid St Pierre
Simone Records