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Nearly three years after its most recent release, Montreal rap-jazz collective Original Gros Bonnet is more ready than ever to unveil the fruits of its new creations. For the occasion, the septet will close the Tous les jours printemps era and open a new one, this Saturday 17 June at 8pm, on the Scène Desjardins des Francos.
PAM M 360 caught up with François Marceau aka Franky Fade and Vincent Favreau to find out more about OGB’s future projects, their creative process, their time at the festival and more.
Winners of Les Francouvertes showcase competition in 2019, Original Gros Bonnet is made up of Louis René, Vincent B. Boulianne, John Henry Angrignon Atkins, Samuel Brais-Germain (production, sound design), Franky Fade, Vincent Favreau and Arnaud Castonguay. In August 2020, the seven men released their excellent Tous les jours printemps, a project that caught the attention of Quebec hip-hop fans. From the outset, the band stood out thanks to their unique sound identity and carefully crafted lyrics. Even today, it’s hard to find a similar, high-quality offering like the septet’s in Quebec.
Over the past three years, the men have been busy concocting what they describe as their “best material to date”. So rest assured, Original Gros Bonnet is still alive and kicking!
PAN M 360 : Your last release was in 2020 with your project Tous les jours printemps. How has Original Gros Bonnet fared over the last three years?
FRANKY FADE & VINCENT FAVREAU : In the summer of 2021, we started making music again and we haven’t stopped since. We were looking for new sounds and we created a lot of songs. The last few years have really been a development phase for us. Now we’ve got a huge amount of material and we’re getting ready to release it soon. We’ve also done a few shows together. We’ve always tried to get together once or twice a week to create together. In short, we haven’t really taken a break!
PAN M 360 : What’s your new sound like? Is it in the same vein as your first album?
FRANKY FADE & VINCENT FAVREAU : Clearly, Original Gros Bonnet’s signature sound is going to be there. We’ve always floated in hip-hop, whether it’s boom-bap or trap, so that’s definitely going to continue to manifest itself in our music. We don’t put any limits on ourselves and we like to explore different avenues. We love jazz as much as progressive rock. You could hear that on Tous les jours printemps, where some tracks were hard-hitting and others softer. Over the last three years, we’ve really let ourselves go and let our creativity express itself. There’s a maturity that you can hear in this project and it’s really dark. We really want our fans to discover it. They really are the best tracks we’ve done to date. We could have done it quicker, but we’d never have got the result we’ve got today.
PAN M 360 : Has your creative process changed over time? It can’t always be easy to create with seven people.
FRANKY FADE & VINCENT FAVREAU : Over the years, we’ve realised that there can’t always be seven of us composing at the same time. So we’ve learned to trust each other. Often, one of us will come up with a song that’s almost finished and we’ll put it together as a band. When we’re creating, each person brings his or her grain of salt to the songs. It certainly makes the process take longer because there’s a lot of discussion between us and small changes that one day lead to a finished track. On the other hand, we think the final sound is very interesting and offers something new. Now our workflow works really well. Before, quite a lot of our material ended up in our projects, even if some tracks weren’t very popular. For the next project, we’ve created so much that only a third of it will make it into the project. We’ve really practised creating. Creativity is a bit like a muscle and you have to practise it.
PAN M 360 : You’ll be performing at the Francos on Saturday 17 June. What does this evening mean to you?
FRANKY FADE & VINCENT FAVREAU : We see this show as a bit of a redemption. When the pandemic started, there was a big gap in our calendar. The year before, we’d won a bunch of awards and played a lot of festivals like the Francos. Everything was going well and then overnight we had none of that. Playing at the Francos again, it’s a huge showcase to put us back on the map in a way. We want to give a show bursting with energy to show that Original Gros Bonnet is there. We’re convinced that we’re putting on one of the best shows in Quebec right now and that we’ve got something special. This show marks the end of one era and the start of another. In our minds, it’s the last show of Tous les jours printemps. After that, we’ll be putting together a new set. It’s perfect to finish it off at home. Our biggest show ever was the Francos in 2019, so we’re really looking forward to being back.
PAN M 360 : Do you feel that the pandemic has slowed your progress?
FRANKY FADE & VINCENT FAVREAU : In a way, yes. We’re not going to lie, our second album was a bit of a flop. We’d invested an enormous amount of time in the creation of Tous les jours printemps, and that was certainly discouraging. But we kept our heads up and concentrated on our own mental health. It was important to keep our band healthy. During the pandemic, we still made sure we had creative sessions via Zoom. We stuck together and believed in the value of our project. We continued to work hard and we really improved.
PAN M 360 : Do you think being in a group helped you get through the pandemic better?
FRANKY FADE & VINCENT FAVREAU : It’s true that being a septet complicated things, because we couldn’t see each other as a group. So it’s hard to progress and move forward. As we said, we organised ourselves as best we could to create from a distance. We consider ourselves to be a live performance band, and at that level it was hard, because there were no more shows. It was also difficult to release music as a group compared to solo artists. If you look at it another way, knowing that we were all going to get together after the pandemic gave us hope. Above all, we’re a very close group of friends and we supported each other.
PAN M 360 : You’re up for the Prix Félix-Leclerc this year. What does this nomination mean to you?
FRANKY FADE & VINCENT FAVREAU : It feels fucking good. It’s a great honour to be shortlisted, whether you win or not. We have a lot of respect for the other artists who are up for the award. This nomination just goes to show that our project is worthwhile, despite the lull we went through with the pandemic. It’s a real pat on the back and it’s a huge motivation for us to come up with new songs. We’re living in an ultra-fast consumer music context and it’s incredible to see the name of our collective on the list of nominees, three years after our last release. For people, three years is an eternity and it’s crazy that Original Gros Bonnet should be considered for such an award. We’re extremely grateful.
AS PART OF THE FRANCOS, ORIGINAL GROS BONNET PERFORMS ON THE DESJARDINS STAGE, 8PM, SATURDAY 17 JUNE
