Daniel Lavoie: the official website

He likes to get involved!

Filles d’aujourd’hui, 1990

Some people are hard to describe, to give a label to, to paint a clear picture of, even though they are not ambiguous. I believe that Daniel Lavoie is one of these people. He’s both shy and daring, a reluctant star, a charmer who is aloof. In short, Daniel Lavoie has always fascinated me. What about you?

Last April, four years after the appearance of Vue sur la mer, Daniel Lavoie released Long Courrier, an album long awaited by the public and praised by the critics. In the interview we chatted about his latest “baby”, his work (the best sort of work according to him) and about his involvement in certain good causes.

WHY SING?

As he himself says, songmaking is a very risky way of earning a living. Besides, the first 10 years of his career were not at all easy. To carry on he needed a good dose of perseverance and, above all, the wish to do this thing above all others. But 10 years of struggling against the odds, to carve out a niche for himself and to live by his work, seems a very long time! Why this determination?

DL: Because it’s a fantastic kind of work which allows me to do my own thing, to travel and to meet people all over the world. I get some extraordinary highs, for example, when I finish with a song which I like a lot, and also when I’m working with people whom I like.

In case you were in any doubt, Daniel Lavoie is a writer, composer and performer. What he likes to do most of all is to write and work in a studio to do all the work on a disc there.

DL: Stagework is something different, it’s also very pleasant but physically exhausting. It’s a bit like playing football or hockey, you don’t escape without some injuries. After my last tour with my shows, I couldn’t speak for six months.

LONG COURRIER, IT’S AN ADVENTURE!

DL: Each time a disc is released it goes into unknown territory, you give it your soul, all that you are on a piece of plastic. Then you release the disc to the public and wait for the reaction. You hope they are going to like it.

For Daniel, the release of a new disc is always an adventure. Besides, the title of the album was inspired by the imagery of the wondrous Vol de nuit (Night Flight) by Saint-Exupéry. Long courrier, long distance, in the sense of trying, daring, rushing, leaping into the unknown! In this disc Daniel Lavoie has given proof of his daring. In between other things, he wrote and recorded a really crazy song one day, but he’s not trying to trick us. The famous Pape du rap doesn’t signal a change in his career … this rap was ordered by his son Mathieu, age 15, he’s an ardent supporter of rap and he set his father a challenge. A challenge which Daniel was quick to take up. So what was the verdict of his number one critic? “He said he liked it”. Daniel didn’t try and hide the look of pride which was obvious in his smile. As well as this little sideways move into rap, his new album expresses his wish to explore lots of different kinds of music, a variety of themes dear to his heart, like belonging to a clan, the environment, love, life …

ENTRE L’EFFORT ET L’OUBLI (BETWEEN TRYING AND FORGETTING)

Of the two, Daniel Lavoie has chosen effort, the struggle for the survival of a language and of a culture. He gave it his heart and soul; he put a lot of work into it when he agreed to write the music and theme song (Jours de plaine) for the O.N.F. (National Foresty Office) film Entre L’effort et l’oubli, and for a very good reason! This documentary was shown on TV5 last May. It dealt with a subject to which no one could remain indifferent, the situation of young French speakers in the west of Canada and their daily struggle to preserve their French inheritance. Of course, Daniel Lavoie is deeply involved in this cause because he is himself Franco-Manitoban. To begin with, his commitment to the film was just for the soundtrack, but his opinions soon came to the attention of the director. Because of this he found himself in front of the cameras. Daniel Lavoie spoke bitterly about the fate reserved for his own people and the methods used by politicians to put them down. Then he spoke with the young people who were giving evidence in the film, he was clearly very emotional about it.

DL: They are ready to fight, you need to see them and listen to their fractured French. It’s a very important film. All the young people from Québec must see this film. We hope that other television channels will have the smart idea to include it in their schedules.