Posted at 7:00 am
Josee Lapointe The Press
There’s a sort of post-pandemic call to action in this new Daniel Bélanger album, out Friday. A breath we feel from the first song, Au vent des idées, whose instrumental finale, spanning more than a minute, heralds well what is to come in the following nine.
“My idea was not to make an album about the pandemic,” explains the singer. But I do notice my post-pandemic clothes smell like a denim coat the day after a campfire. »
Mercure en mai is a cozy bubble, with songs with air structures, musical bridges, the singer’s voice multiplied to infinity in the choruses, two instrumental pieces … I have not lost anyone close, I have not fired anyone, I have in continued to work in my studio” – he notes that he probably escaped into music.
“In a song like Soleil levant we go, we get some fresh air… The long instrumental passages are meant to remind us that this space exists. And that we can be there. »
“Life is beautiful, but sometimes rough,” he sings in Dormir dans l’auto. A sentence that seems to sum it all up well.
It’s true that the album he wants. He wants light. But it’s still rough.
Daniel Belanger
We meet Daniel Bélanger in the offices of his new record label Secret City Records (Patrick Watson, Klô Pelgag). After 30 years of fidelity, he left the box that gave birth to him, Audiogram, of which his brother Michel was president and co-founder.
“Just that 30 years have passed was a good reason to go. I think I broke a world record! ‘ begins the singer-songwriter, who assures that his departure has nothing to do with the sale of Audiogram to Quebecor in 2021. “I’m pleased that Audiogram is staying in Quebec, be it Quebecor for example and not Sony Japan. But it was time to shuffle the cards a little. »
With Secret City, Daniel Bélanger rediscovers the “freshness” of Audiogram’s beginnings. So, at the age of 60, he opened a TikTok account where he gradually revealed the first excerpts of the album, I hear everything that’s playing in your head. The strategy was a great success and seems to amuse him. “A guy from the club offered it to me. I said, “Okay, I’ll bring you the content and you take care of the editing and distribution.” I’m doing this on my own terms, just the way I am. »
sculpture
A few days before the album release, Daniel Bélanger is happy and relaxed. “I haven’t felt any pressure for a long time. I present my stuff and those who love me follow me. »
Four years separate Paloma, an album of original songs released in 2016, from the instrumental Traveling (2020). Since then he has also composed the music for the film Confessions by Luc Picard and published the book of poems Heavyweight at the end of August. An experience that enchanted him. “It did me just as good as my instrumental album. Poetry is total freedom, within certain limitations. You don’t have to worry about better vibes… but you do need to incorporate something else! »
Revising his texts with an editor, arguing for hours about the merits of a word, all that really appealed to him. “This is one of the best cases that has happened to me in recent years. And this is proof that he still has something to learn.
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
Daniel Belanger
You have to stay curious. Youth matters, but don’t try, you’ll get old. While you are curious you can preserve it, nurture it, pamper it, protect it. That’s the closest thing to being young.
Daniel Belanger
When it comes to the song, Daniel Bélanger is “more self-confident” and needs less of an outsider’s view: he works alone in his studio, without directing, plays all the instruments and only brings in musicians in the last step – in this case Guillaume Doiron on bass and Robbie Kuster on drums .
“By the time you hit your tenth, every new album is part of a whole and comes together as a sculpture. I’m not saying I know THAT song, but I know mine. I have many references, I know what I’ve done, what I want to do, what I don’t like…”
Where is Mercury in May in the sculpture? “Right now it’s a big floe! ” He laughs. “Here I am in my head and my heart. »
simplicity
While last year we celebrated the 20th anniversary of his flagship album Rêver mieux, some of Mercure’s new songs for May are a direct reference to it. Is it the impact of having talked about it a lot? “I just want to be free,” he replies. Not creating better in response to dreaming, as it has long done, not having the compulsion to “fight against or for.” “I just want to make the album that I want to make right now. to be who i am »
However, he wanted to bring back synths and mix acoustics and keyboards like he did 20 years ago. “There are also memories of the synthesizers of my youth, of OMD or Tanita Tikaram. I have such basses that just go poupoum, poupoum… Just an impulse. »
We’re far from the heavier rhythm of Paloma. “Yes, it was crispier. The beat here is more like the steady pace of walking. He smiles. “And no to the ergometer! »
Daniel Bélanger claims the same freedom in writing lyrics that he improvises in audio rather than on paper. “Instead of deleting a sentence, I delete it and say another. It’s the same job, but more intuitive and unrestricted. ” Result: There is a very rich vocabulary in his lyrics, with titles containing words like wind, sun, joy, stars, flowers…
I try to simplify… without being simple. There’s a lot of prejudice against simplicity, like it doesn’t work.
Daniel Belanger
Simplify, reduce complexity, be more direct: that’s what he’s looking for. “Les insomniacs will be my most complicated album. I wanted people to understand that I like poetry, that I’m able to write it. I sought approval. Today I’m just trying to communicate. »
The singer is expected to tour again in the spring. He rediscovered his love of shows over the summer when he shared the stage with Half Moon Run at the Festival d’été de Québec and during a memorable concert at the Festival La Noce in Saguenay. “There was even body surfing. It was something! »
Daniel Bélanger may be one of the rare Quebec artists to transcend generations, but the response he’s received in recent years has surprised him. “At MTelus, the girls sat on their friends’ shoulders for Paloma! I thought, my god, I don’t live to be 95, what are they going to do to me! »
pop
Mercury in May
Daniel Belanger
Secret City Records