His name predestined him for the profession of musician, and his family of artists also liked to strum the guitar by the fire. At 29, Pierre Guitard offers a touching and mature second album on which he reveals himself as never before, wisely christened anhedonia.
Anhedonia is the inability to feel happiness for something that once made us happy. A term that touched Pierre Guitard in a very personal way during the difficult months of the pandemic, when “something that doesn’t come back broke,” he believes.
From bad to good
Enough for this working title to become that of his second album, an introspective opus whose genesis has done the singer-songwriter as much good as harm.
“This album is a path, a path to follow, ideally alright,” explains the Madran, New Brunswick-based artist. This is the path I took to get to where I am. I’m raising cases that are true, and since I’m not unique, I suspect several people have felt like me during the pandemic. I think he can show people that things can get better.”
With friend Jesse Mac Cormack and Rosie Valland on vocals, the singer, who won the 2017 edition of the Festival international de la chanson de Granby, created an album in the midst of a pandemic “that would take care not to be a pandemic”. As the world went into forced hiatus, his need to create something to pay the rent turned into a need to say things to get better.
The result is a beautiful album that can be listened to in one go, preferably in chronological order, in order to fully understand the evolution and transformation of the artist’s moods, gently allowing himself to be flooded with hope and light.
Open up to help
“I wrote a lot of very real things, without any real images or metaphors,” explains the man who released his first album The stem and the root in 2016. It was coal, not diamond. It’s an important album in my career and journey. I’m proud and happy, but the object is like a big crab that I evacuated. It hurt, it was hard to get out. If he can do good things for people, I’m happy.”
Happier and certainly lighter, Pierre Guitard explains that he wants to show other facets of his personality in his future creations.
“I often make depressing albums, but I’m not heavy, I’m funny in life,” emphasizes the man who wrote his first songs at the age of 16 with a laugh. I might also want to do stand-up because I’m a humor freak.”
The scrapbook anhedonia by Pierre Guitard is on the platforms. To follow the artist’s news, who will be in concert in Gatineau on February 10th, visit his social networks and his official website: pierreguiard.com/