Although he regards himself as a dreamer, Ludovick Bourgeois knows how to keep his feet firmly on the ground. Between the release of 2020’s 2 and this third album, whose title translates to “dreamer,” the Quebec singer-songwriter became a father. “I know it sounds cliché, but it’s so true: It’s allowed me to discover a form of love I could never have imagined,” he tells Apple Music. He spent the pandemic mostly within his new family bubble, but as soon as public health measures were eased, he felt the call of the stage and began building a new live set. “I’m the type of person who floats dozens of ideas at the same time, but I’m not the best at judging what will or won’t work,” he says. He therefore surrounded himself with a team that would be able to give shape to his ideas. Domenic Pandolfo, aka Domeno, and elijah woods helped him to make his pop cravings a reality. Patrick Bouchard, who participated on his two previous albums, provides a familiar presence, and Benjamin Nadeau also joined the party. Marilou Martin, another close collaborator, returned to help write the lyrics. “I compose a lot, but I’m not really bothered about seeing my name in shining lights,” Bourgeois says. “For me, what matters isn’t my ego, it’s the song. So, when it comes to sorting through all the ideas I’ve accumulated on my phone, I have no problem whatsoever deleting everything and starting over again from scratch.” Here Bourgeois explains, track by track, how he turned a dream into reality with his latest collection of songs. "Dans tes mains" “It’s the first song I composed with Domeno and it aptly represents the style I felt like exploring. I wanted something very pop: my point of reference was Justin Bieber’s ‘Hold On’. Dom suggested a melody and I was immediately taken by it. I quickly wrote the lyrics with Marilou. I wanted to convey that feeling you get when you wake up next to your girlfriend and the sun hits her face at just the right angle and everything seems so perfect.” "Naufrage" “When Domeno came to me with this song, it was complete, with English lyrics sung by elijah, who also wrote the melody. I knew right away I wanted it and that I’d be adapting it to French. I was out of the country, so I asked Marilou to work on it and when she showed me what she’d done, I didn’t want to change a single line. It talks about being there for a friend who’s going through a tough time. In the story, the guy wants to support her, help her to heal and offer his friendship; but he’s secretly in love with her and hoping he’ll finally get his chance.” "Faire semblant" “I did this one with Jeffrey Piton, with whom I wrote ‘Figé dans le temps’, which was on my previous album. We knew we wanted to work together again and write something. From the start, our benchmark was Ed Sheeran. We wanted that melodic and acoustic feel. It talks about resilience, about getting back on your feet after experiencing hardships. Here it’s a story of love, but the message applies to any situation. Resilience, as in staying positive, is something I have to work on every day.” "Ma nuit" “It’s about love in the era of social media. It talks about having a crush on a girl you don’t know and who doesn’t even know you exist. I wanted to do something that sounded a bit like The Kid LAROI, and we recorded it late in the day, because we wanted my voice to be a bit hoarse to better render the emotion. I talk about Instagram in the lyrics, and that’s because it’s a good representation of my generation; I wanted to address that illusion, those perfect lives they keep showing us all the time. There’s something surreal about falling in love with someone who doesn’t exist. It’s got a Black Mirror vibe to it.” "Promets toujours" “I’m a young father and my writing partner Marilou also has a very young child, so it’s a topic that came naturally to us. We wanted to talk about the importance of keeping the flame alive after a child is born: even when you’re drained at the end of the day, you’ve got to continue to talk to each other about your dreams, to stay close. It was normal to choose this one as the first single because it most resembles the style people are more familiar with. It’s like a transition between what I used to do and where I want to go.” "Rien que nous" “I wanted a big romantic tune, the kind you’d use for a marriage proposal, you know, something like ‘Marry You’ by Bruno Mars, even though I don’t expect it to be as big a hit! Musically, I was thinking of that Jonas Brothers song with Marshmello, ‘Leave Before You Love Me’. It’s unpretentious, but I said to myself that if it works for me, surely there are other people who will be able to relate to it.” "Rêveurs" “The title of the album is in the singular form because that accurately describes who I am, but in the song two of us are dreaming, hence the plural. Dreams, the imagination, it’s really important to me: I do a lot of visualizing, something I picked up playing sports. Everyone needs to dream, especially at the moment! During the pandemic, I watched the press briefings every day and I found it demoralizing after a while. I didn’t want to refer to the situation directly, but to instead evoke that need to stop staring at our screens and dream a little more.” "Où tu es" “Marilou came up with a first version of the text which was clearly about my father, and I was reluctant because it’s a subject I’ve always avoided. But she found a way of doing something that explains where I’m at in my grieving process really well. I think it’s healthy to be able to talk about it. And then there are a few references to songs by Les BB, in particular when I talk about an imaginary knight…” "J’étais où" “The music, which I did with Patrick Bouchard, is in a minor key, it’s a little dark. It talks about seeing a friend wasting away, but not being able to be there for them. But the twist is that the narrator of the song is talking about himself. I love pop, but I’m getting older and I also feel like addressing deeper things.” "Ton nom" “I worked a great deal with Nelson Minville on my previous projects and it was important to me that he be part of the album because we have a great professional relationship. Domeno sent him a very pop melody for which he wrote the lyrics, and they were just so appropriate that I didn’t change a single word. There’s a lightness about it, it evokes that time of renewal in spring, when the snow melts and emotions are rekindled.” "Je fais partie de ce monde" “It’s one of the most important songs to me. I pictured a character who’s psychotic, unable to free himself from the shackles of mental illness; but it could just as easily be about someone struggling with Alzheimer’s. I did the music with Benjamin, just jamming and strumming our guitars. The lyrics came to me really quickly, which is a good sign: in two hours, we’d wrapped it up.” "Pour elle" “This one’s for my daughter. It’s actually a lullaby. We wrote it while my girlfriend was pregnant and it was my way of telling her everything I’d do ‘pour elle’ [for her] when she came into my life. We tried to dress up the song, to do it with big arrangements, but at the end of the day, it was the stripped-down version that worked best. I went into the studio and I sang it, accompanying myself on the piano. I’m not a great pianist, but I did it in a single take!”