Grand voyage désorganisé

“I went into the studio with my musicians in December 2019 without any songs or lyrics, just some embryonic ideas and a desire to explore,” Patrice Michaud tells Apple Music about the almost accidental making of his fourth album. “It’s the first time I’ve gone about it that way. Without planning it, we laid the groundwork for Grand voyage désorganisé.” The rest of the album—whose title roughly translates to “big disorganized journey”—unfolded remotely during lockdown, when the collaborators were hundreds of miles apart. “It’s an album that’s had several lives before seeing the light of day, and the title is appropriate,” the Gaspé-area singer-songwriter says. “I wasn’t afraid to try new things and go deeper than usual, because I knew that the process would naturally bring me back to who I am fundamentally.” Here he invites us along on the trip, telling the story behind each of the LP’s tracks.

"1977"
“It’s a good example of the musical experimentation I’ve been doing. It all started with a piano loop, something that’s done more in electronic and hip-hop music than in pop and rock songs. It’s the vocal melody that gives the song its structure. I chose to begin the album with this one because I wanted something full of light and love. It also talks about an event which, in a way, played the role of common thread for the project, and that’s the launch of the Voyager 1 and 2 space probes in 1977, which I’m really moved by because of what it evokes in terms of our lives down here on Earth.”

"Vous êtes ici"
“This track is like the exercise of looking at yourself in the mirror. Without moralising, and with humour, I examine our relationship with our image, our well-being, our comfort. I wanted to do a sort of wake-up call with a refrain that’s got drive, that’s rallying, with string arrangements in the forefront, a bit like The Verve’s ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony.’”

"Golden Record"
“What fascinates me about the Voyager probes is that they contain objects that act as a calling card, like sending a message in a bottle that’s meant to travel as far away as possible. It makes us conscious of our smallness as human beings. This song ends up examining the issue of our relationship with others, especially those who find it hard to open up. It’s the story of someone who has a lot to give, but who’s unable to cover the distance to get to the other person.”

"La guerre de toi n’aura pas lieu"
“Here there’s no beating about the bush: It’s a difficult breakup song. Or rather one about that standstill before a breaking point—you have to know how to let go of the other person’s hand before you both get badly hurt. I’ve realised that from one album to the next, I often prefer to depict what hasn’t worked out rather than talk about great heartbreak.”

"Un cœur de baleine bleue"
“For me, this one’s the big sister of ‘Golden Record’. It’s a long ballad about solitude, about people for whom reaching out to someone else is a difficult challenge. It’s also a deep exploration of one’s inner self. The piano in the foreground gives it a melancholic atmosphere in the style of Father John Misty, who I listened to a lot at the time. The song suddenly shifts, taking on a very dreamy, hypnotic groove.”

"Je t’aime quand je mens"
“On this track, I question the concept of truth in a relationship that’s guided by feelings, whether they relate to family, friendship or love. When it’s the heart that speaks, sometimes that line between what is true and what is false can be rather blurred. Not everything is black or white. Musically, it’s very organic, edgy, with string arrangements.”

"La grande évasion"
“It’s clearly a song that had a very strong desire to live. It’s the first one we did during our studio session. I wanted something that was a bit punk, raw, that would get straight to the point. This track is the shortest I’ve ever written. It’s Thelma & Louise: let’s go right to the end, all the way to the cliff. In its intensity, it’s the exact opposite of ‘Un cœur de baleine bleue’.”

"À qui l’aura"
“As I began to release more and more songs and albums, I started to worry because I had the impression I was constantly writing the same thing: the story of two people who love each other, but are unable to connect with each other, who are like in some kind of romantic twilight zone. I’ve learned to live with this creative reality, to stop fighting it, and this song is another variation on the theme, but with perhaps a more masculine side to it.”

"Ok maman"
“The starting point for this song is inside a church in a tiny village where I was performing. At an exhibit, I came across a photo with the caption ‘Please die after me.’ That phrase by poet Mélanie Noël marked me like a red-hot iron and inspired me to write this song about a mother who grows old alone and isolated.”

"Origami"
“This track was definitely set in motion by my collaborator Julyan, who created that piano melody of incredible clarity; it was perfect for following through on something I’d been planning to do for ages, and that was write a song about friendship and our need for others. With its sparseness and simplicity, the track also serves to give the album some breathing space.”

"Un point bleu pâle" (feat. Rosalie Ayotte & Shayan Heidari)
“This song refers to the ‘Pale Blue Dot’ photo captured by Voyager 1, which for years was the most distant view of Earth, of our existence, which looks like a minute grain of sand. It makes you wonder about our place in the universe. I went with my own little definitions of life: It’s children running in a field to make birds take flight, it’s secretly kissing in a fitting room. That pale blue dot is all of those simple, great and dazzling moments.”