“ Every project takes me far away from myself » says Evelyne Brochu. At the same time actress, singer, mother, lover and muse, the new forty-year-old likes to reveal herself in excerpts that convey a touch of her diversity and poetic facets at the same time. The newspaper chatted with her about her second album, The dangerthat likes to flirt with contrasts.
While her first work, Objets perdus, was an aperitif for Evelyne Brochu, Le Danger captures the heart of the party, sensuality and desire. It was not for nothing that the actress and performer arranged to meet us at a bar on Laurier Street in Montreal.
The singer-songwriter uses nocturnal vocabulary to talk about this sophomore effort, which is both dark and bright. “Musically, this album is more ethereal, we are in a bar, there are people, bodies, synthesizers, dancing and the ceiling is very high,” says the woman, who is visibly intoxicated by the music.
Paul Poulin
Take your writing somewhere else
“I had so much fun with the first album. I love seeing others blossom. I love seeing Félix’s talent [Dyotte, son frère cosmique rencontré à 17 ans et son mentor musical]I feed myself his music, write my own lyrics and watch the musicians work together to make it all come together and watch this thing come to life. I liked it so much that I wanted to go there with even more enthusiasm,” adds the woman who shaped our imagination last year in the series Chouchou, l by playing a teacher who has a forbidden relationship with a young student has.
On her first album the singer wrote exactly the song Seven Days and on this second album she wrote exactly seven songs; a nice coincidence paired with a lucky number. The writing process began on the plane, in the middle of the Omicron variant’s return to work after 14 months of maternity leave in the middle of the pandemic.
“It was the exit from a soft bubble, but also the danger. I was on the plane and had the feeling of vibrating, I wanted contact,” she remembers. There she composed the song Spring. Then came the ideas for the pieces Paris, Le hazard and Les ombres (“with his Plamondon side”).
Our garden is a love letter to her boyfriend, her children and to Montreal, the whole that represents her sleeping garden, to which returning is the most beautiful thing there is.
Paul Poulin
On horseback in two universes
Evelyne Brochu loves the city of Paris without limits, which is why she wants to celebrate it in the song “Paris”. “Cities are like people, you can fall in love with them. I like what Paris does to me, where it takes me, what it is, even if I know its faults and its untimely temperament,” says the woman who has filmed there several times, notably in the film Café de Flore by Jean- Marc Vallée in 2011.
The title “Le Danger” refers to the song of the same name, which sits perfectly between the record’s two worlds: desire and sweetness.
“I am proud of the arrangements by Félix, who is the author of the album. From the emotions of these songs carried by his strings and from my vocal progress. I am proud of our complicity. I admire people who work together. This album is more ethereal and immodest. “I wanted to be braver on several levels,” says the woman who is currently filming Jonathan Beaulieu-Cyr’s film Phénix, when asked what makes her proud of this project.
As for the famous imposter syndrome that multidisciplinary artists sometimes have, the singer and actress has managed to put it aside. From the title of “actress who doesn’t want to compare herself with her idols” she switched to the title of an artist who follows her own path by arriving through a different door, far from the parallel relationship with her favorite artists. “I’m more in the mood: This is me! »
– The album The danger, by Evelyne Brochu, can be found on the platforms. She will perform at the Gesù in Montreal on October 14th and at the Grand Théâtre de Québec on October 19th.