As the famous saying goes, “Nothing is lost, nothing is created.” But for Quebec singer-songwriter Marc Dupré, it’s a different story. “For me, it would be more like ‘nothing is lost, everything is created,’" he tells Apple Music. "I’ll be celebrating my 20th wedding anniversary this year, and I wanted to pay tribute to the strength and fragility of what I have built up over the years. I’m a sentimental kind of guy, and I’m convinced that things can last if we really want them to." Dupré's first six albums took a straight-ahead pop- and folk-rock approach, but Rien ne se perd (which translates to “nothing is lost”) has a more atmospheric quality—even the occasional skittering trap beat. In other words, it’s an embrace of new sounds: "Seeing as I have three teenagers, there’s always music playing in the house—rap, pop, electro,” he says. "All this has ended up having an effect on my creativity. I never really ask myself too many questions when I’m composing. I genuinely let myself be guided by how I feel at the time.” Dupré tells us more about it as he talks through each track on the album. Rien ne se perd “As is the case for the entire album, this song touches on my personal story, my relationship. I talk about how we’ve been through some tough times but that if we’re still together, it’s because we truly chose each other. I felt like listing all the wonderful things that are never lost. But in order to fit all those lyrics into the song, I decided I needed to break the track and insert a transition, almost like rap, so that the words could stream out more quickly.” Tiens ma main jusqu’à la mort “Both during the composition and recording stages, I like to surround myself with friends, and singer Rick Pagano is one of them. One day, he offered me a melody that he’d originally composed for himself. And the moment I heard it, it was like a light came on. I wrote the lyrics in 15 minutes. Again it talks about how we all go through darker periods in life, but that if we work hard together, we can overcome the challenges.” Sur le fil de ta peau “This one truly follows on from ‘Tiens ma main.’ I examine the challenges of being in a relationship. It wasn’t what I’d originally intended to do, but with this album, I take a look at love and the hurdles that always come with it. And I’m not afraid to express all this through lyrics and music. It’s the same as in real life: I’m convinced that talking with my wife about our problems and never hiding things from each other simply makes us stronger.” Vient le jour “People may be more familiar with my softer side, but I also like heavier rock, like the stuff by Imagine Dragons. I headed in this direction because I needed to express my feelings loud and clear and put across the idea that anything can be changed if you really want it to. I wanted this determination to really stand out in the music. While composing the song, I pictured myself onstage playing it.” Si j’ai eu tort “I’m a super anxious guy and I wanted to touch on this aspect of my personality. When I write a song as emotional as this, where I reveal a bit more about myself than usual, it’s as though my first instinct is to put more into the arrangements, as if to support my fragility. So I opted for really modern sounds, Post Malone-style, with deep rhythms and plenty of vocal effects.” Parce qu’il le fallait “It’s one of the tracks that took me the furthest out of my comfort zone because I was exploring new sounds. There’s even a hip-hop side to it in the way we’ve gone about the rhythms, with the added electro sounds, and how we’ve doubled the vocals. All this sort of reflects the message I wanted to get across in the text: Both artistically and personally, we need to be able to try different things in order to grow. Putting ourselves at risk will always make us stronger.” Mon seul amour “With this one, I had a very specific goal, and that was to write a wedding song. I’m a true romantic and I find that we sometimes say things in a much too roundabout way. Here, I felt like making this song a genuine declaration of love, without being corny. That’s why I decided to go with super simple arrangements, with a little edge that’s reminiscent of the '60s. This paring down of the music, and the more organic instrumentation, highlights the power of the words, but also gives the album a little breathing space.” On entend la nuit (feat. Amé) “I really had fun making this track. I felt like doing something with a groovy sound, a song that makes you want to get up and dance—a bit like Bruno Mars. At first, I wasn’t quite convinced about this song, but it made total sense in the studio when I asked singer Amé to improvise something. And the experience actually gave me a taste for collaborating more often with other artists.” Entre tes bras “When I like something, I’m not afraid to say so, and that’s what happened here. I phoned Laurence Nerbonne, who I didn’t know at all, to tell her I admired her work and that I found her melodies super catchy. She invited me to stop by her studio. When I went, she composed a rhythm , and when I started singing to it, that’s when the melody came together. And I took this song back home with me. It steered me in a new direction; it’s languorous with a touch of hip-hop.” Ce que la vie donne “‘Ce que la vie donne, elle le reprend’ (‘What life gives us, it also takes back’)—for me, those few words sum it all up, and I decided on a fairly minimalist tune and arrangements to accompany them. We all too often take what we have for granted; we forget that life is fragile and that we need to live it to the fullest because everything can disappear in the blink of an eye. It’s a text that speaks of love, but at the same time it has an ecological dimension. We don’t fully appreciate how lucky we are, and we need to cherish what we have.” Dans ma nature “This track was created in collaboration with singer-songwriter Fred Baron. He offered me a text, and right away the music took hold quite naturally. It’s a song where I declare my love to my wife—where I tell her just how important she is to me and that there’s nobody who could ever replace her.” Le bonheur expire “This is one we wrote in the early stages of the project. It’s probably the most pop track of them all. This is exactly the direction we wanted to take, with catchy refrains and pretty simple arrangements so that the focus is entirely on the melody. Once again, I underline the importance of never taking things for granted, that there’s an expiry date on everything—even on happiness.” Renouer “I lost my father about 20 years ago, when he was only 44 years old. When it happened, I kind of shut out my emotions. I’ve reacted like that a few times in my life: Instead of facing up to sadness, I turn my back on it. With this song, I quietly make peace with that period in my life. Writing about my dad is part of the healing process, but it’s also a way to pay tribute to the man who instilled in me a passion for music.”