On Mens-me, her new album, which will be released on Friday, Brigitte Boisjoli has written all her songs herself for the first time in her career. And she drew on her tormented love past to offer a raw work, cloaked in soul and performed with an open heart.
Posted at 5:00 am
Since her first album in 2011, Brigitte Boisjoli had only composed “a movement here and there” and she had never felt the need to do more. Until she had some kind of epiphany during a collective show just before the pandemic.
“I walked out of there and said to myself, ‘Hey, I’m sick of singing covers,'” says the man who made a tribute album for Patsy Cline in 2015, another dedicated to Plamondon in 2017, and then continued his country successes in Women in 2019.
“After that night, I took out my Canada notebook to write something,” she continues. And I didn’t think crime was worse either! Then I showed it to others and people said to me “It’s good, Brigitte, keep it up”. I counted on that. »
PHOTO HUGO-SEBASTIEN AUBERT, THE PRESS
Brigitte Boisjoli releases an album that consists entirely of original songs.
Eissturm obliges, we spoke to Brigitte Boisjoli via Zoom last week. But the screen is no obstacle to her vibrant and joyful energy as she enthusiastically tells us how she transformed into a singer-songwriter, how the melodies “popped” in her head and “she came into the studio with very concrete ideas.”
“I didn’t do that much trial and error. The melodies I made were almost a finished product that I heard. “To say the process was easy, there’s only one step… she doesn’t cross.
“I’ve had days of agony,” says Brigitte Boisjoli, who wanted to write a hyper-personal album based on her life and experiences. Which led to her “dipping back into a business couple,” which didn’t do her any good. “Things I thought were done, but as I was writing, I was like, ‘Oh look how it’s not done, that thing there! »
honesty
Lie to me is a bit like the diary of a “lover of love” that openly tells about toxic relationships, abuse, infidelity, lies, painful breakups and in which she exposes herself. She confirms. “It’s not the cutie! It’s a relatively raw album. »
She is “colored” by the course, honesty and way of “saying those words” of singers like Adele and Amy Winehouse. She listened to them a lot, which was reflected in her writing.
I am not taking ten paths when I say I am in pain or have been in pain. It came out the same.
Brigitte Boisjoli
Even if there were difficult moments, Brigitte Boisjoli made peace with many things during the writing, as if she had opened the door to therapy. “There are many resilience songs. Are you doing this in your forties? It seems to me that we are more resilient to beautiful and less beautiful things. »
In any case, she now talks about it with a smile, because “just say it heals the wound”. And she now knows well the woman and lover that she is… and was. It is not for nothing that she sings “The path is long / To find my name / This time I’ll take the right one / To find my soul” in the moving Le chemin. A very emotional piece… like so many others on the album, which oscillates between gospel and R&B.
“I gave myself carte blanche to the sound it would make. How does Brigitte Boisjoli sound in 2023? I did not know it. But there it went and it became my guiding principle. »
She worked with skilled craftsmen, Jay Lefebvre on composition and Gauthier Marinof on production. They wrapped her “like a big comfortable wool vest”, but most importantly they were able to understand what she wanted and work quickly and well. “I don’t like it when it’s long. It needed someone to click. »
continuity
Brigitte Boisjoli turned 40 in September … and “roared a lot”. “I think it’ll be quick. I see myself getting old and that annoys me. But I accept these 40 years. “Especially as she is in a good phase of her career and feels better surrounded than ever. Lie to me may not be a fresh start, but it’s definitely another step that begins.
“It’s not my first barbecue,” she explains. But I feel like it’s a continuity that’s more like me. »
There will be cover albums, shows where she’s supposed to sing Celine Dion, and AC/DC. Because Brigitte Boisjoli likes to sing “very briefly”, because interpreting foreign songs in her own way is a profession that fascinates her.
But she’ll keep writing her songs because it’s “invaded her body,” and she embraces singer-songwriter status with a big smile and a lot of pride, even if she felt a bit of an imposter at first.
I never told myself I missed it. I left that to others [Vincent] Vallières and Patrice Michaud of this world. I had classified myself as a performer for life and that was fine. Then I had this call, like when you have the call to be a mother.
Brigitte Boisjoli
She hopes the album gets into the hearts of the public… and that it will be successful! “I’m afraid if the rating isn’t good… It’s super personal! I feel feverish and fragile. »
And she wants people to take away the message that there is a way out of toxic relationships. She proves it, even when there are wounds that never really heal, even when the means she uses aren’t always the best.
“But I got away with it. There is hope. »
Drunk
lie to me
Brigitte Boisjoli
be LA
Friday on sale