Shaping the project: music and collaborations Part 2

First one was Yannick, on the drums. After that, I started my solitary sessions, under Ben’s watchful ear. But these sessions were broken off by sessions with my first collaborators. The project I had started as a solo effort was slowly crowding itself with great people.

I think we started to work during springtime, Marcel and I, on Le fantôme Briséand Les vents de Mongolie(Winds of Mongolia). I remember that it was getting warmer outside, but the closer I got from Shawinigan, where Marcel lives, the farther I got from the impression that spring and its warm rays of sunshine were edging towards us, those rays that make even the most hardened souls dream. Maybe it was in February. Here you go, memories.

Marcel is a travelled musician. Guitar is his main instrument, but here’s another guy that can pick up almost any instrument and make it sing. Marcel is like many musicians in Quebec, a passionate man that pursued a daytime, let’s say… traditional career, all the while playing in a thousand venues and endlessly with fellow musicians. He did that his whole life.

We’ve always had affinities, the 67 “oldie” and the 45 year old “rookie”, but when I picked up my guitar again, we instantly had many more points in common. So, naturally, I proposed we work on completing the writing of one or two song together for the album. I chose Folk style songs for him, because Marcel is all about country music, folk, traditional Quebec songs, and after that he likes and plays everything. But let’s work with the strong sides!

I realize that to talk about my sessions with Marcel is going to take at least 2 blog entries. Man, we started by working on Le fantôme Brisé. First off, I had written the demo in Bm and it quickly became clear that we would switch the chord progression to Am. So the first hours were dedicated to put all that in place and to allow Marcel time to experiment on his guitar voicings. I had my classical Alvarez guitar, which I was basically playing as a bass, and Marcel was fooling around with the high tones to settle the melody. I’d like to say: Marcel has an almost inimitable playing technique. I was so happy!

So after a two hour drive, another two hours to structure and texture the song, we finally got to practice with the singing part and all, in the little studio Marcel keeps in his basement. We had something… We had something! It was taking shape. There were parts to work on still, each… the solo, the transitions, but we had something going on… Man, we sure didn’t know yet how we were meant to suffer come studio time. Recording can be a bitch! We never got around that day to work on Vents de Mongolie. I would have to come back! Anyway, we gave ourselves 3 weeks practice (each on his side of the pond) and we would be ready to record the tracks at Ben’s studio… Yhea right!

Fred