Daniel Lavoie: official website

Excerpts from de CHORUS magazine

Chorus - les cahiers de la chanson [song notebooks]
Winter 1995-1996
Rubric “record news”: release of the album “Ici”.

Several big public successes have allowed Daniel Lavoie to attain international heights: “Ils s’aiment”, “Je voudrais voir New York” and “Tension attention” among others, now make part of the fairy tale group… Refusing all simplistic labels, the bilingual Manitoban does as well in the French speaking repertory as in the English one. This freedom of spirit and of action is perhaps one of the reasons that holds back the distribution of his work in France. Then, don’t spoil our pleasure and delight us as is proper for the new album, music to perfection, these variations on the beloved piano, these sad string arpeggios, and poetic embellishments on the meaninglessness of life. Sylvain Lélièvre occasionally joins his words to the music of Daniel Lavoie and their coming together is an absolute treat.
(CD Ici, 44.24 – Smatt 6242)

Chorus - les cahiers de la chanson
Winter 1999-2000

Chorus: Which are the committed songs today?

Daniel Lavoie: “Ils s’aiment” still remains a very committed song. It’s perhaps not evident because these things are not said there in black and white but it’s viewpoint is perfectly clear. It’s a song that takes on the cynicism of power and of international politics. It’s not always obviously there in black and white but it’s always written between the lines.

Chorus: The work of a craftsman right from the start, all the time in the current fashion of the moment, the song – it’s completely ambiguous even today – has also become a product of consumption, particularly since the 60’s with the development of the LP and the commercialisation of the record industry. [The song] Hs it become a product of consumerism?

Daniel Lavoie: As for me, I’ve always thought about the song as if it was something useful. It’s an art of consumption, that’s to say that one uses it, that one buys it to help you through the day. For example, it is that which wakes you the morning and which puts you a good mood; also, in the evening when youre sad …and you can throw it in the bin after some time, when no-one is listening to it any more.