Daniel Lavoie: official website

Daniel Lavoie: "Ici"

Voir-Montréal, website
By Marsolais Patrick
Octobre 95

Boosted by his magnificent album "Ici", Daniel Lavoie seems to have found, at last, a liking for live performances. From now on, is there any reason not to go and listen to him?

Invariably every summer sees the emergence of a new hit album. One which people prefer for all sorts of reasons, one which will survive the passage of time. Such as the Police, at the beginning of the 80s; Blue Rodeo, Daran et les Chaises and Geoffrey Oryema, in the course of the last few years; then, last summer, just like that, out of the blue, Daniel Lavoie came up with "Ici". People listened to it so much that it was time to move on to something else. And, as luck would have it, the Franco-Manitoban singer is, at long last, appearing on stage, with a strong set of new arrangements for his magnificent melodies.

When you think of it, it's perhaps not so surprising that "Ici" became the summer season’s elected hit; it’s heady and mellow, the themes are intimate, the man talks about winds, tides, Chet Baker, endless roads, all that is very pleasant, at sunset in the Madeleine islands...

In fact, the impression of happiness and comfort is so obvious, in all the songs of "Ici", that you can’t help wondering if the singer wasn’t trying to counteract the legal and financial difficulties he was going through at the time. "There's a good chance that played a part," he confesses. "I know that when I was sitting down to write my songs, I managed to forget everything. All the bullshit that had been hitting me. I found myself again in the universe of my songs, and maybe I was comforting myself with that, really. I'm not a psychologist, but it's quite possible."

So Lavoie knitted his themes around the idea of love, the last thing you can rely on, when nothing else is going right. From the fickle man who ends up falling in love for good, to the man forever in love, from the loving heart to the broken one, from getting back together to tearing yourself apart. It would be hard to better this tour of the lows and highs of passion, while giving the listeners a reflection of their own lives. But, succeeding in reaching out to the public is precisely one of the great qualities of a composer and songwriter. "I like it when people see in my songs things which are different to what I put in . People often say to me: 'I can't get over how well you understood what I wanted to say'. And then I realise that what they meant had nothing to do with me and what I meant. It's extraordinary. I gave a show in an institution for drug addicts, and they told me that "Qui sait" was their tune. That I must have written it just for them. I couldn't believe it. I would never have thought that the song could be applied in that type of situation. It's one of the great rewards of this job."

It's been said and written at length for years that Lavoie is a shy and very reserved man. However, apart from a few songs written by guest writers, the majority were written by Lavoie and his wife, Louise Dubuc. Has the artist changed so much that he now dares to lift the veil on his personal life? "It's certainly autobiographical up to a point," he admits. "I can only draw on my own resources for the experiences I sing about. But I also like hiding behind a character. To act as someone different from me is great fun. Besides, I’d really like to sing other people's lyrics. I don't
need to come to terms with myself or to say 'this is my soul I'm singing about'. If I get into a character, create him in my head, I can give twice as much."

You might, indeed, find a Daniel Lavoie in a state of grace on the stage of the Spectrum. Already, he seemed much less reserved during an interview on Tuesday, when we met him the day before the show opened. The reviews, unanimously positive, have undoubtedly given him a good dose of self-confidence, but there's more than that. You can tell that Lavoie is really enthusiastic about doing a show, that he's itching to get on stage, convinced that he will win that new challenge. "I really like what John Hugues and Slim Williams bring to my show, their influence is very strong. It's only since we started performing together that I’m having fun on stage. They are very R'n'B, when they start on a groove, it's always very funky, and that, in a show, works like magic. They give a lot of life to the songs. They bring out their "black" influences, you could say that it makes things more sensual, more sexy, really..."