Additional Information
We’ve always known her as the blonde half of her duo Les Sœurs Boulay with Mélanie, but it’s been 2018 since we’ve heard Stéphanie solo, when she presented us with her first individual breath, Ce que je te donne ne disparait pas. She returns this year with a new, introspective, unfiltered album: Est-ce que quelqu’un me voit?
On it, she explores the themes of love, her role as a woman and the definition of happiness, to name but a few. With resolutely pop tones in its arrangements, mixing synths and well-defined bass lines with timeless guitar, the album takes us to the shores of self-acceptance, the desire to take one’s place, the need for liberation, but also waiting and patience, one of the album’s driving forces.
Produced by long-time collaborator Alexandre Martel, the 10 pieces were first sketched out during a fairly concise pre-production studio session, where his collaborator’s attention to detail helped shape their sonic direction.
The highlight for her on this album: she wanted to get out of her comfort zone and get into her own groove, proving to herself that she could also do things on her own, without having to lean on anyone else. Marilyn Bouchard gathered her thoughts on this new chapter.
PAN M 360: What need, would you say, gave birth to this album? What fire fueled its creation?
Stéphanie Boulay: I’d just separated, and at the same time, I was in the process of being diagnosed with neuro-divergence. So it was a time when I needed to take a pause and think about what others/society expected of me, and what I expected of myself. I needed to come to terms with who I was. I was at home on my own with my dog and, as my relationship with writing is very honest, it was all I had left to tie me to that phase. I needed to write. And I realized that in the end, writing has always been my lifeline.
PAN M 360: There are a few rather melancholy songs on the album, Si l’essentiel c’est d’être aimé, Est-ce que quelqu’un me voit? J’aurai pas d’enfants and La nuit dure depuis trop longtemps: did you have a surplus of sadness to evacuate? Is this a healing album?
Stéphanie Boulay: Definitely. It’s a healing album, a reconstruction album. I needed to tell the truth and not just the beauty, the negative too, to deal with it, to free myself from it. First for myself, a little selfishly, but also for others going through similar emotions.
PAN M 360: In what way did you want to take the research begun in Ce que je te donne ne disparaît pas, published in 2018, a step further?
Stéphanie Boulay: First of all, I developed several new skills in the course of creating this album. I did archival research, both video and audio. I also learned editing and photography from Alex Martel. On Ce que je te donne ne disparaît pas, we were really looking for a vibe, whereas on this one we paid particular attention to the choice and texture of sounds. Alexandre is a very precise and meticulous person, and we could spend an hour listening to a sound. I wrote everything down and then we locked ourselves away in a cottage for 6 days. During the conception phase, I listened to a lot of American pop, both because I wanted to and it made me feel good, but also because I wanted this album to be more pop.
PAN M 360: Unlike your first solo album, there are no collaborations on this one. Is this because it’s more intimate, more personal?
Stéphanie Boulay: Yes, definitely. Also, since I come from a duo and all my life I’ve had other people to support me, it was really important for me to prove to myself that I could do things on my own. The urge was strong at times to send the material to other people or to gather opinions, because that’s my comfort zone, but I wanted to get out of it to give myself the right to take my own pulse. There are a lot of things on this album that I wouldn’t even have told my friends, because I’d have been embarrassed or ashamed, and I didn’t want any self-censorship.
PAN M 360: You’ve always made music with Mélanie as one of the Boulay sisters, so what’s it like to disassociate yourself from “your other half” and really put the focus on your musical individuality? Does it give you more freedom or certain rights?
Stéphanie Boulay: Yes, completely! There’s a certain rawer or sharper register that I have and that I wouldn’t necessarily have felt comfortable exploiting alongside my sister, as I would have wanted to protect her. I’m a very ebullient, even unfiltered person, and I wouldn’t have wanted that to have any repercussions on others. In the end, I’m a little embarrassed when it’s not solo. Also, we work a lot on compromise, and there was none to be made here.
PAN M 360: How did you and Alexandre Martel come up with the direction for the album? There’s a nice exploration of synths in the arrangements, was that an 80’s direction you were going for?
Stéphanie Boulay: We’d already figured out during pre-prod that synths were a direction we wanted to take on the album, but it was really with the input of my keyboardist Camille Gélinas that it all came together. She’s got so many cool sounds, she’s a real gear fan and we’ve been accompanying each other musically for a long time, so it wasn’t Camille’s biai that the album’s synths fell into place.
PAN M 360: I really enjoyed discovering Ces photos de moi which added a sensual and surprising touch to the album, while remaining in tune with the work. Is this an aspect of yourself that you don’t allow yourself to explore or share with us?
Stéphanie Boulay: It’s a song that still scares me a bit, even though it’s out there. But yes, it’s an angle of my person that I expose less often and with which I still have a certain degree of discomfort, but it’s there. Just like its vocal score, where I use my head voice more. It’s one of the songs on the album where we fixed the bass score during pre-production and then everything else was designed around it. I see it as the UFO of the album hihi!
PAN M 360: The notions of patience and waiting recur throughout the album. Would you say this is the driving force behind the album?
Stéphanie Boulay: Patience, yes. Resilience too. The ability to accept that not everything is perfect in the moment, and to tame that discomfort. Someone once said to me: “Happiness is having good hours”. I think that’s a beautiful way of looking at it, and maybe it makes it simpler.
PAN M 360: What are your plans for after 2025?
Stéphanie Boulay: I’ve got a concert tour planned that starts on April 17 and runs until 2026. I can’t wait to bring these songs to life on stage with my gang.
PAN M 360: Do you feel you’ve managed to take your space, to exist to the full, to have “someone see you” with this album?
Stéphanie Boulay: Totally. Because I’m better, I’m more solid. This album has allowed me to let go of certain things and reappropriate others.
