Daniel Lavoie: official website

"Daniel Lavoie: At last"

"Paroles et musique" (socan, a magazine)
September - 1995

The songs of this shy romantic have propelled him to the ranks of the great singer-songwriters. Recipient of several trophies, he is returning with a new album ("Ici").

Four years of waiting. It's a long time, a very long time, even for his fans. So imagine what it has been like for Daniel Lavoie, the main character, to go through this purgatory weighed down by contract disputes you wouldn't even wish upon your worst enemy. The achievement from all that? "Ici", a calm, gentle, almost serene record; an album to which you'd listen from the first to last track without skipping a single song.

Perhaps more than several other artists, this new work of Daniel Lavoie is tamed tranquilly. As opposed to "Long Courrier", it doesn't possess a song that stands out. No "Qui sait?", no "Jours de plaine", but an inseparable whole, flowing into an extremely effective pop-jazz mould. It's also a record which seems to me to possess leaner, less complex arrangements than its predecessor. The singer explains:

"There was an absolutely deliberate decision to have a minimum of synthesisers and whizz-bang. We tried to make it tighter. But we had to make it sing out, still. I worked twice the hours on this on than on "Long Courrier". It's more meticulous. In "Long Courrier" there were synthesised arrangements, which were easy to put in, but then I wanted something that came from my roots. I'd fallen in love with the French chanson, two or years before, when I'd plunged into [Léo] Ferré, [Charles] Aznavour, [Gilles] Vigneault and all those marvelous string and brass arrangements. One day people will rediscover all that and we'll find that it wasn't all that bad."

Since the release of the album, many critics have seen in it a return to the past for Lavoie. Not so much in terms of quality, but rather of style. Several call it the first cousin of his record "Nirvana Bleu", even though it was recorded more than 15 years ago. When I interviewed him, the album wasn't out yet, but you could tell that the singer-songwriter was already preparing himself to fend off the blows. So, although no critic had yet appeared, Lavoie repeatedly discussed the importance of surprising, of renewing himself.

"It's sure that many people are going to talk about a return to 'chanson' for me," he announced. "But on the level of arrangements and sounds, it's not a return to the past, it's a step forward. They're very modern sounds, very special. A certain thing is that you don't have the impression of sinking back into an old Aznavour record. Even if we use brass and strings, it's thought of as very 1995. On that level, I think that we'll surprise people. I don't have any pretensions, I don't want to revolutionise the world. It's just a few little different shades which will make people like it."

Contrarily to "Long Courrier", there aren't really any melodies that stick. The type of songs which, from the chorus, announce an important hit, that doesn't rule out a pivotal song. In this case, it seems to me that "Nantucket" is the one which best represents the contemporary Daniel Lavoie. A slow piece, almost secretive, with airy, jazzy trumpet arrangements, which invite reverie. On the intellectual side, it alludes to jazz (Chet Baker) and to travel, two themes dear to the singer.

"It's true, "Nantucket" is really the pivotal song of the album. But perhaps not for the reasons you think. Marc Pérusse and I, when we started working last January, we spent two weeks where we floundered about looking for something, without really knowing what. We even went through a sort of existential crisis, because we had the impression of going nowhere. We even said to ourselves that perhaps it'd be worth separating because we weren't heading in the same direction. Then, during the weekend, Marc called me to say that we had to find a concept for the album. He'd heard the cassette of my show at the International Jazz Festival in Montreal. He said to me-we're going to make a jazz album. I really liked the idea, but I didn't really dare to, even though I knew that we'd be making a pop album with jazz colours. Not a jazz record, I don't think I'm capable of doing that. The next day, we did "Nantucket", and that was the beginning."

"The important thing was to process it properly. We could have made a cha-cha, a mambo, or a rock number with that song. In fact, you can do whatever you like with it, it's raw material."

So finally what do you do with this slow song, at the same time joyous and melancholy?

You have to find the colours. When you've found it, you know that you have something interesting. After that, everything starts flowing. This work gave a sound which we carried on in several other songs, wandering from it sometimes. But we always stayed with the strings, with the brass. It's not an acoustic album, it's an electroacoustic album."

The irony there is that it wasn't even Lavoie who wrote that song, but actually Louise Forestier.

"I wanted to have at least one lyric from a woman," he confesses. "They make me say things I don't usually say. I went to look for Louse. She left for Nantucket, Massachussetts, so she wrote it there. She gave me back the lyric when she returned, and the next day, I had a song. I found it truly wild. The lyric is nice to sing, it sounds good and is full of onomatopoeic words. I think that it's a partnership that will last a long time. I like blending the masculine-feminine duality. I can't put my finger on a specific example, but they're usually things I wouldn't dare to write. In fact, even the first time I sing them, I'm hesitant. I think that women are less restrained than me. I'm very restrained and I consider that a fault.

It's annoying. I can't do just anything, I can't help it. It's genetic. It's like an alcoholic. Perhaps he can stop drinking, but he stays an alcoholic."

One suspects that waiting four years before stepping foot in a studio must have been hell for someone in Lavoie's line of work. You start doubting yourself, you start getting the impression that you're writing for no reason, or even of becoming a has-been.

"I was quite happy to go into the studio. I'd been waiting for two years to make a record. The album was already written, but I had problems which prevented me from starting on it. So when everything started at last, I was elated. Because before, I was held back, I wasn't allowed to work and that frustrated me. I'm very hard-working, from morning 'til evening, I never stop. When I'm on a forced vacation, I find it really dull. I had 25 songs. We were in a bad situation because I liked them all. There were 12 or 13 that stayed in the folder. Rushed because of the release, we worked 12 hours a day, seven days a week, in the last month."

Everyone has probably already read about the affair concerning Lavoie's administrative difficulties. From the release of his record, it was inevitable; each interview, even if they were only four minutes long, broached the subject. He himself confesses that he finds it still very hard to talk about it. But he stays perfectly composed during this torment, and so it is very hard not to refer to it:

"With Gestion Son, Image, my new label, it's very open. We get on very well. I look after my business as much as possible and I have an organisation that provides me with great work. On the French matter, about which there was much uproar in the newspapers, that was very complex and very frustrating. Emotionally, it's something from which I can easily detach myself. The album was recorded while those administrative problems were being sorted out. I think I'd never had as much fun writing. It allowed me escape all that. When I concentrate on writing, I manage to empty myself quite well. So, it became a necessity. That had a certain influence, that's for sure. The writing was part of the therapy. The rest is very complicated. It's a matter of contracts. I don't think that will interest the public..."

He has a simple phrase which sums up his situation very well: "Now that I've lost everything at EMI France, I could say that here [Ici] is my first album..."

Lavoie is positive and already knows what course he will be taking in the next few years. "This record is the first of three. I will make another record with Marc Pérusse after, because I really want to. And you won't have to wait long. Before, François Dompierre and I did a series of shows with the Hull Chamber Orchestra, one piano and 20 strings. It was fantastic. It sounds great, my friend. So, in the third album, I will redo a few songs from the previous two albums and a few others in this format: we will do a remake with an orchestra of 75 strings and an acoustic piano. And we'll get there...you can be sure of it!"