Daniel Lavoie: official website

Daniel Lavoie: bringing on a smile

Chansons d'aujourd'hui, a magazine
By Marie Christine Blais
July 1991

To pick up the title of one of the songs on his album, Daniel Lavoie is, at the moment, seated between two chairs. His show ‘Long Courrier’ shouldn’t go on for much longer because it’s expensive to produce during a period of economic recession. He is actively promoting his latest record in France where he goes regularly to take part in TV programmes. And he makes the most of this lull to write songs which will be sung by others: He’s written one for Maurane’s new album, another one for Diane Dufresne and he might well write some with Luc Plamomdon for Céline Dion ( they have already worked together for Céline Dion with the song ‘Lolita’ on the album ‘Incognito’ in 1987)

In his study-come-recording studio, amongst a tangle of wires and synthesizers, Daniel Lavoie remains true to himself, under the gaze of an African mask, the mask of Cree, God of songs.

It is rare to meet an artist with no particular reason, I mean when they’re not promoting a record or a show. So why an interview with Daniel Lavoie? First because his show will open the Summer Festival of Quebec. Then because his seventh French album, «Long Courrier», is one of the best album produced in 1990, and also because seven years ago, Lavoie was on the front page of the very first issue of Chansons d’aujourd’hui and was talking about his new album «Tension, Attention»… The rest is history.

Half the songs on ‘Long Courrier’ seem to deal with – alright, it’s a big word – spirituality. I’m thinking of 'Chant de la terre', about this mistreated planet but especially about 'Belle', which sounds like a thanksgiving hymn…

It’s what I had in mind: to try and produce a more spiritual kind of music, to create a distance with the physical side of emotion. I’m strongly influenced by sacred music, 16th century music, by Bach, and Orlando de Lasso (or Roland of Lassus, a Belgian composer, 1532-1594) particularly renowned for his superb motets. That type of music attracts me immensely because the emotion it expresses is immaterial, it’s far from a ‘Loving my babe’ type of music. It’s not physical, it’s not skin-deep, it’s elsewhere. That’s what I love about it, it evokes something so much… lighter, ethereal. ‘Belle’ is perharps the closest to it, it’s my favorite. It’s also a song which expresses a certain form of compassion for what we really are. You can say that you’re a bad one, and this and that but it’s always a bit in spite of ourselves. We didn’t choose to be like that, we are the result of God knows how many years of evolution. We take what we can, what we can change is minimal. You either accept it or reject it.

Your last show was very firmly centred on music, it was very obvious last December in ‘La fête à Daniel Lavoie’, the show in your honour, at the Francofolies of Montreal. It was even more obvious in your April show: it was a musicians’ show.

I’m backed by superb musicians and I take great pleasure in performing with them. We had, indeed, decided to do a show based on music, with great flights of sounds, albeit kept in check, and without taking ourselves too seriously.

The media were unanimous in pointing out how much more at ease you were on stage.

It was never noticed before because they were caught by the melancolic side of my songs, always the sad, sad, sad side… I do use sadness, I think it’s a beautiful and noble feeling and it’s so much part of our human lot. But there is also a lot of humour in several of my songs. Alright, it’s not exactly Ding a Ding a Dong but it brings on a smile all the same. This being said, it’s nice to be over my ‘blockage’. I remember being on stage, knowing exactly what I wanted to do but my body was seizing up. I worked with a choreographer, I acted in a film (he has the lead role in ‘Le fabuleux voyage de l’ange’ a film by Jean-Pierre Lefebvre), I was able to overcome all that. Now there isn’t much which frightens me on stage, least of all the fear of being ridiculous; I’ve seen what I look like at times when I start moving about!

There is also the fact that you now have a full repertory: you can mix well-known old and new songs for a good two hours. In fact Lavoie as a writer and composer is on the up too: Marie Denise Pelletier is singing ‘J’ai quitté mon île’ on her album Le rendez-vous, Sylvie Trembley has put it in her show Caprices et classique and you are singing it again on stage yourself.

I find it remarkable that someone would want to sing one of my songs twenty years later. Diane Dufresne did sing ‘Ils s’aiment’ (on ‘Follement vôtre’ in 1986) but at the time it was a hit which was sung by many others too. With ‘J’ai quitté mon île’ it’s the first time that someone is singing one of my old songs and I think that, maybe, if they have rediscovered ‘J’ai quitté mon île’ this year they might rediscover ‘La vérité sur la vérité’! I do have a few songs which haven’t aged, which are still strong.

With ‘Long Courrier’ It was your first time as co-producer with André Lambert, with whom you also produced Heart Rouge’s second album ‘Inconditionnel’, and he is also in charge of the musical side of the show.

André Lambert and I met in Quebec, at a show called ‘Vedettes en direct’ in 1976-1977. He was a musician with various orchestras. I found him very good. He played on one of my albums, we went on one tour together, then another one, then he worked with others. When we met again, we’d both changed, much in the same way. I realised we could work together and that’s what we did with ‘Long courrier’. André pays great attention to detail, he works hard, he digs in. When it comes to music, to musical arrangements, he knows a lot of things I don’t know. We compliment each another. I love working in a team, I love working with someone. I love discussing things, exchanging ideas, getting another point of view. That’s why I write songs with Thierry Séchan. I’m not saying it’s the only way to work but I find it very pleasant. I can work on my own but it’s not as much fun. Locked alone in my studio I feel trapped.

The support of André Lambert and the support of Daniel Deshaime for ‘Tension, attention’ in 1983. Looking back, it seems that ‘Tension, attention’ marked what is considered as the rebirth of music in Quebec.

I think so. In any case I was the first to dare to make an album able to compete with the Americans, telling them ‘we can do it as well as you’. Then that was followed up by a heck of a bunch of people and, overall, record’quality in Quebec improved enormously. I would be very proud to have been the first but, mind you, I’m not sure I was…