Additional Information
Under the name of his electro-pop project, Super Plage, the Rimouski resident Jules Henry unveils this Friday his fourth opus, Magic at midnight.
Since the creation of Super Plage towards the end of 2019, the artist has not stopped creating: he already has three albums and a remix compilation to his credit. Quickly, he carved out a place for himself on the Montreal scene with a refreshing and dancing sound. Under the Lisbon Lux Records label, Jules Henry also participated in the 2021 edition of the Francouvertes competition.
Greatly inspired by artists such as Polo & Pan and L’Impératrice, the project reveals itself as a portrait of Montreal nightlife. Magic at Midnight represents those evenings where everything seems fine and of which we would never like to see the end. In this opus composed of ten titles, Super Plage affixes more often than usual its vaporous voice to its own productions, and we are not complaining about it! His texts are simple, effective and add more lightness to his sounds. Also, Jules Henry calls on the artists Virginie B, Meggie Lennon and Le Couleur who breathe an additional dose of sweetness into his art.
The Midnight Magic launch will take place at Ausgang Plaza on April 13th.
Photo credit: Marie-Michèle Bouchard
PAN M 360: How did the development of Magie à midnight go? What does your album say?
SUPER PLAGE: It must have been almost two years since I started creating Magie àmidi and I finished it about six months ago. It’s the first album that I started knowing that it was going to be produced by a record company. Despite everything, it’s a project that I did by myself, with all my friends. I started the whole thing when we couldn’t always get out of our house towards the end of the pandemic. I wanted to create a picture of Montreal’s nightlife and the festivals I’ve experienced in recent years. For example, “Rue Dandurand,” the collaboration with Le Couleur, talks about the incredible parties we had at our studio on the street of the same name. It’s a project that has a good vibe. I want people to listen to this in the afternoon at the park or in the bars. My music is simple, I’m not someone tormented in life, I won’t pretend to be to make music that doesn’t sound like me.
PAN M 360: Exactly, let’s talk about the artists who appear on the project. Who are they and what do they bring?
SUPER PLAGE: The artists Virginie B, Meggie Lennon and Le Couleur are present on the album. For me, it’s really exciting the stage where they come to add stuff to my demos and I hear my models differently for the first time. This is often where I understand what the vibe of my tracks is and whether I like them or not. Almost all my friends are my co-directors. My friends and I, we show each other our demos and we’re like “oh yeah, I’ll change the bass on that part” or “I think this part is a little too long.” I really learned a lot by producing with people around me. This process is never-ending and my songs are always improving thanks to the ideas of others. If I had to redo Magic at midnight, it would surely be very different. I don’t think I’ll ever release the album I want to release on the day it comes out, if you know what I mean. I always release the album that I wanted to do a few months ago. Telling me that motivates me to continue producing, to see how far I can go.
PAN M 360: What tools did you use to create your album? Do you have a favorite plugin ?
SUPER PLAGE: I work in Pro Tools. There are not many people who like it to produce in Pro Tools, they find that MIDI is not beautiful. Me, I really like it and I’ve been creating in it for a long time. In the past, I had a great teacher who spent five hours after class showing his projects to interested students. I thought the workflow was really good with Pro Tool. For the creation of Magic at midnight,we incorporated theremin and pedal steel. The album is really a happy mix of stuff, with a few instruments here and there that make it more organic. My synthesizers are all Omnisphere or Serum. Then my favorite plug-in, I think, is the Brauer Motion. It passes the sounds from right to left with a different pattern . It makes everything more alive, and I love it. I think the key is the movements in my music. That’s what makes your shoulders start to move. I like doing that kind of music because it’s so reactive. It shows directly on the dance floor if a song is good or not.
PAN M 360: In your universe, what importance do you give to writing and lyrics?
SUPER PLAGE: I still attach a lot of importance to the lyrics. Personally, I don’t put a lot of lyrics and I find that some artists put too many words in their songs. I really like the phrase of the group Bon Enfant which says “A place in pastel colors where everyone laughs at my jokes. ” I find that it demonstrates a beautiful fragility and naivety, without going through a lot of lame metaphors. This is the kind of writing that inspires me. I like it to be minimalist, while giving great importance to each of the words. I don’t wear any that I don’t like. Besides, I sing more than usual on this album. It’s probably because Midnight Magic is more personal.
PAN M 360: What is your piece “Laurence” about ?
SUPER PLAGE: My manager’s name is Laurence and she is retiring very soon. She has been with me for three years and we are good friends. The last few years have not always been easy for her, but she has always been there for my project. She has always been very motivated towards Super Plage and I am very grateful for that. I created this track last summer when she was feeling down. “Laurence” is both a song to celebrate, but also a professional farewell to my friend and manager.
PAN M 360: What is your vision of the future of the electro scene in Quebec?
SUPER PLAGE: It’s interesting because we really live in a bubble where this musical genre is not super popular. I found it funny at the last Gala de l’ADISQ ceremony, it talked about electronics as being a marginal and endangered category. In Quebec, I know a panoply of electronic producers who are excellent and who are not listed with ADISQ. This scene is much more alive than a lot of people think. I believe that Quebec is a little slow to embark on the wave of electro that has already started for a very long time in Europe. That said, L’Impératrice had a solid success here and it proves that Quebec loves this kind of music.
In the future, I think the next musical direction is going to be house-pop. Recently I saw a documentary about the golden years of britpop from 1993 to 1997. At some point, everything stopped and this musical style ceased to be on top. While I was listening to this, I thought to myself “is it going to be the same for electro-pop? Do we have to plan for it, do we have to leave the ship before it sinks?” I don’t think it will happen, but you never know.
