Homage to Blink-182 and Sum 41, a nod to Joe Dassin and sophisticated rap lyrics: Vendou refuses to limit himself to a single label when describing the style of his new album.
“We ask so much of artists that they do conceptual projects and have a guide,” notes Vendou, rapper and singer from Montreal, excited by the idea of presenting the most authentic project of his young career. “As humans, we are more complicated; “We are chaotic and full of contradictions,” he then puts things into perspective.
After offering us Millénium in 2021 and the EP V for the following year, Vendou attacks the fall of 2023 with Nexus, a swing that represents the complexity and multiple influences of this cultivated artist with his literary pen.
On Sérendipité, which opens the doors to the project, we find the rapper Vendou with careful lyrics and a calming cadence, while he openly addresses the period of depression and exhaustion that preceded the production of this album.
“I went around in circles like a breath of grass and ended up drowning in a glass of gin,” complains Vendou, who had been sober for 18 months on the day of his interview with Le Journal.
Back to basics
By stopping using, Vendou was able to reconnect with the little joys in life that he had neglected in recent years, such as playing hockey and playing Magic cards, among other things. The person primarily affected believes that this return to the sources has unconsciously been transferred to the studio.
“I wanted to have fun and show the side of my personality that is fun; I did it with the Fourmis or L’Amalgame projects [deux collectifs dont il fait partie]but with my solo projects I had difficulty achieving it,” explains the artist.
The songs “90’s Kids” and “Shirley Temple” perfectly represent the state of mind Vendou was in when producing Nexus.
The first track, which happens to be one of the album’s singles, pays homage to 1990s and early 2000s punk rock, with sounds and images almost indistinguishable from Blink-182 and Sum 41.
Then on Shirley Temple we find hints of retro and celebratory hip-hop, particularly with a direct nod to Naughty by Nature’s 1992 song “Hip Hop Hooray.”
In the end, Vendou listened to himself. After a break, he regained control of his head and heart and decided to leave the pressure aside in favor of pleasure. a change of direction that delivers an authentic and high quality result.
The Nexus album will be available on all platforms on October 13th.