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A resident of his native Calgary at the time, Jean-Sébastien Audet gained attention under the pseudonym Un Blonde before migrating to Quebec, where he became known for his atypical approach to the territory of avant-pop. In 2018, he abandoned Un Blonde and chose Yves Jarvis. He’s on his second album under the pseudonym (and on the Anti- and Flemish Eye labels), and the material from Sundry Rock Sound Stock is the subject of an audiovisual performance broadcast on Pop Montreal.
“Yves Jarvis,” he explains, “is shorter and easier to pronounce in both languages than Jean-Sébastien Audet, my real name… which has never been an option for my career. When I started the project in Calgary in 2014, the name Un Blonde appeared in a group context. So Yves Jarvis describes the solo approach to my career better. On my birth certificate, Yves is my grandfather’s name and Jarvis is my mother’s last name… so it’s also my real name.”
Jarvis’ albums and performances are iconoclastic. The choruses of his songs are linked by long sequences, bridges of sorts, many of which deliberately go beyond the harmonic and melodic conventions accepted by pop music, long since become redundant in this respect. On stage, the artist triggers structural changes in real time and constantly transmutes his repertoire. No change of direction is planned in the programme.
“I still like to experiment, even if the song form is traditional,” he confirms. “I like this slightly offbeat with abstract parts, I always want to change the context. I also like the impulse of the moment, I want the music to move. In live performance, it has always been important for me to stay tuned to my impulsive side and initiate changes in real time. I love working like that.”
To help us better understand his style, Yves Jarvis doesn’t hesitate to cite his pop, indie pop, electronic, Brazilian, and experimental influences, an archi-eclectic mix at the source of such a special approach. Here’s a brief selection :
“I have been influenced by a number of artists and styles: Brazil’s Walter Franco, Italy’s Franco Battiato, Jamaica’s The Upsetters (Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry) and the Kingstonians, Robert Fripp and King Crimson, the American country singer and guitarist Kacey Musgraves, the American songwriter Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, the rock band Guided by Voices, the first albums of Kanye West, David Byrne, Brian Eno…”
After long episodes of experimental freedom, brevity was the order of the day when Sundry Rock Sound Stock was created.
“It was very important for me to create long and expansive songs with bridges for experimentation. This time I wanted 10 very original songs, with lots of interesting fragments, but I wanted them to be more fluid and concise. In the end, there are fewer experimental sequences, so that people grasp the point better. My previous albums were easier to digest with headphones, but with this one I think it also works in cars, kitchens, living rooms… in any context.”
Yves Jarvis has himself chosen to be concise.“I didn’t receive any pressure from the record companies (Anti- and Flemish Eye) for that, there’s a lot of freedom in this album,” he says.
The recording sessions were conducted in the environment of the Tree Museum, located in the Musoka region of Ontario.
“I spent the quarantine period at my parents’ home in Montreal, and I’ve been living at the Tree Museum since July, so I plan to stay there until the beginning of winter. Most of the material was recorded there, most of my videos were shot there. Why the Tree Museum? Because my girlfriend’s aunt is the manager and gave us an artist residence there. It’s really ideal, there’s a lot of space. Last year, my girlfriend and I did an installation there together, we presented performances on the grounds around the museum – my girlfriend is also an artist; Romy Lightman, who with her sister Sari forms the experimental folk group Tasseomancy. She and I have a very exciting new project that we’ll be starting soon.”
Sundry Rock Sound Stock is a more compact album, but total freedom was nevertheless at the heart of the creative process:
“I wanted to live a production experience without walls. I often set up my studio outside, around the Tree Museum. I recorded and filmed what I was playing there, it became the foundation of this production. I developed other songs on tour, the lyrics came out of me in front of the audience. I worked alone as on my previous albums, I played all the instruments, I produced everything. This time, however, there are fewer overdubs, the focus is more precise. The catchphrases, melodies and chord progressions were better circumscribed, I improvised around them during the recording. I love the studio and recording experience, it’s an ecstatic practice for me, a great pleasure that I renew daily.”
As for the lyrics, Jarvis likes brevity and an anti-conformist stance.
“Generally speaking, the themes of this album are against authoritarianism and the establishment, it was already prevalent in my previous lyrics. I express this position in general and abstract terms, I present them in the form of poetic reflections. My immediate and everyday reality is my main source of inspiration, there’s also a lot of self-criticism in it. From a formal point of view, I love to write in aphorisms, briefly.”
As for the concerts… we will have to wait until the end of the pandemic, with a few exceptions.
“I would really like to collaborate with musicians, I have people in mind but I don’t know what will happen in the future… For the moment, I prefer to create in the studio, I’ll do it until the end of the crisis. For Pop Montreal, I recorded an audiovisual performance on a boat. I play on the water, it’s pretty cool.”
