Poirier: Tour de force

Interview by Patrick Baillargeon

With one foot on the dancefloor and the other in songcraft, Poirier builds a bridge between eras, styles and communities on his new album Soft Power. A delicate balancing act.

Genres and styles : Electronic

Additional Information

He’s made his name with his numerous albums, EPs, remixes and production credits, and through his popular Karnival, Bounce le gros, Sud-West and more recently Qualité de luxe parties. For 20 years, Ghislain Poirier has been bringing us with him in his carry-on luggage. His music is in the image of Montreal, cosmopolitan, colourful, multicultural and very often festive. With Soft Power, his brand new, 11th album, Poirier wants to bring people together even more. Here, it’s all about balance and delicacy without straying off the dancefloor. PAN M 360 connected with this most groovy of travel agents.

PAN M 360: With your first album Il n’y a pas de Sud released in 2001, you’ve been making music for 20 years now, and yet it feels like it was yesterday…

Poirier: (laughs) You noticed that, huh? I wonder if a lot of people know that. Even I find it hard to believe. It went by fast. When I started making music, just finishing a piece was a small miracle because I never thought I would be able to make it to the end. It was a dream, music was for me a kind of creative Eden that I couldn’t reach, but when I started to compose a song, I realized that I was able to create music. And with every album or song I make, I’m still amazed that I’m able to do that. Now I look at the record I’m releasing today and, 20 years later, I’m still as fascinated by what I’m able to achieve.

PAN M 360: Which brings us to your 11th album, Soft Power, an astonishing record, much closer to songwriting than dancefloor heat. What was the plan?

Poirier: I clearly wanted to do something more paused, more relaxed. I wanted to refocus my music more towards a “song” format, to establish the right balance of something you can listen to quietly at home, but that will make you dance if you hear it louder at a party. So I wanted to explore and master this zone between the dancefloor and the song. I wanted to position myself between the two, but above all I wanted this album to be easy to listen to; I wanted to give my music more delicacy, so for me it was a real work of restraint, both in the mix of sounds and in the structure of the songs. I still believe in the format of an album, I still believe that an artist can take us on a journey of 40, 50, 60 minutes.

PAN M 360: Soft Power is a rather diversified album, on which we find several collaborators and guests. Did it take you a long time to get there?

Poirier: It took me between two and two and a half years. Because it’s not the kind of record you can make by isolating yourself for two weeks in a chalet. It took me several months to get through it, over the course of my encounters, and also over the course of my own creative and artistic development. Some songs took a long time to germinate and mature. The more I progressed, the more it became clear. Because sometimes you set yourself a goal, but you don’t have enough focus, so it takes a while before you can get back into focus. So, yes, it took a lot of hard work, but in the end it’s exactly the album I wanted to hear and I’m really happy with it!

PAN M 360: Flavia Coelho, Flavia Nascimento, Boogat, Daby Touré, Mélissa Laveaux, Coralie Hérard, Red Fox, Samito… There are almost as many collaborators as there are songs on this record. How did you choose them?

Poirier: Well, there are collaborators for the vocals, but there are also musicians involved. There’s a lot of people involved. It’s something that comes about through crossing paths, and according to the songs. Sometimes it’s completely by chance. But I like to have a good base in Montreal in terms of the people I work with, even though there are a few foreign artists on there. There’s no science in terms of the people I work with. Sometimes they’re people I want to work with and the timing is right, sometimes it’s not, or what I offer them doesn’t inspire them. So it’s often a rather instinctive process, I would say.  

Soft Power“ is a record that bridges genres and eras, it is also a record that bridges communities. It’s as if I was showing the face of Quebec today, how I see it, how I live it.

PAN M 360: The record goes in all sorts of directions. You’ve always been attracted to the larger family of soca and dancehall, but now you’re touching on Latinx, Brazilian, Mozambican, West African and Mexican music. Tell us a little bit about this tour of the world.

Poirier: I wanted to do not only a stylistic tour of the world, but also a tour of eras. I wanted the album to be timeless. There are tracks on it that could have been made 10, 15 or 20 years ago, just as they could have been made today and even 20 years from now! I wanted to find a kind of balance between periods and styles so that it all fits into a kind of great musical conversation. But at the same time, I didn’t want to ignore what’s happening today. My aim – and the future will tell me whether I’ve screwed up or not – is for these songs to be able to speak as much to people who know the music and the references I use as to people who don’t have the same references, maybe even no references at all, but let it all speak to them anyway. And also that it speaks to several generations. That’s what led me, for example, to collaborate with guitarists, to put more melodies on my rhythmic bases.

PAN M 360: Would you say it’s your most organic record?

Poirier: Yes, definitely. There’s a mix of acoustics and electronics, but I tried to do it in a subtle way, not to make it too obvious, to make it catch the eye. I wanted it to be a natural mix. I wanted a kind of warmth. And I wanted the voices to be in the foreground. 

PAN M 360: And if we had to catalogue this record, where would we put it?

Poirier: I don’t see this record as being part of the global bass movement, although it’s likely to speak to people who are. I see it more in the songwriting category, a very Montreal record, with artists from all sorts of backgrounds, but fundamentally Quebecois. It’s a very global record in its openness, though. And that’s what I’ve been trying to do since my debut in 2001, which is to be part of a kind of global musical conversation. That’s always been very important to me. So with this record, I think it’s even more convincing. You could almost say it’s pop without borders. It’s a crossover of a lot of styles. I’ve played all over Africa, Haiti, Cuba, Ethiopia, Dakar, Cape Verde, Mayotte, Reunion Island, Europe… I want this album to speak to a lot of people, but I haven’t compromised too much to get there.

PAN M 360: How do you intend to promote the album in these uncertain times?

Poirier: We’re doing what we can. It’s a difficult time, but the music is still circulating and it was out of the question for me and the label to delay the release of the album; it’s been ready since February. I’m not going to play in the immediate future and if I have to wait until 2021, I’ll wait. Because I don’t intend to do a live thing on the web either. I didn’t make a record linked to a specific and current fashion, it’s more timeless. I’m not worried about that. 

PAN M 360: After 20 years in the music business, what still turns you on?

Poirier: I’ve always loved the beauty of art for the sake of art, that the beauty of art can be enough. I like to think that there are statements in the records I’ve made. In 2003, I did Beats As Politics, I did Conflits, I had the Boundary project too… I think Soft Power is in the same vein. It’s a kind of quiet force of art and music that can hopefully change morals, or at least positively influence them. Because you could say it’s really a “living together” record. Just as it is a record that bridges genres and eras, it is also a record that bridges communities. It’s as if I was showing the face of Quebec today, how I see it, how I live it. This record is a musical and social statement. 

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