“When I’m doing pop songs, I can wear a mask and pretend. But to play like that on the piano, I tremble and I feel very vulnerable. »
The official arrival of spring was almost a given for the first of two Alex Nevsky launch shows for an instrumental album titled Even the Impossible Blooms. During the rehearsals, in the afternoon, the scene of the Ministry was already decorated with flowers while seedlings of pansies occupied the bar counter (before being given to the spectators in the evening).
Nature, gardening and ornithology play an important role in the revival of Alex Nevsky, who lives in the Eastern Townships with his partner Vanessa Pilon and their 4-year-old daughter, Claire.
One cannot help but see in his new 100% instrumental music a metaphor for restraint, the desire to remain silent, or certainly to come back in front of the public with humility.
Before the pandemic and before starting a restorative process with the one with whom he confessed to having had toxic behavior (he and she then publicly made peace), Alex Nevsky’s garden was underbrush, and the flowers were withered .
In February 2020, trying were Alex Nevsky’s last shows after the release of Wild Path, a fourth album whose audiences “didn’t give a damn” about the songs, Nevsky says today looking back. “I had made an album to make an album,” he laments.
The heart was not there. Nevsky had attempted to both run away from and replicate the success of his previous records and he felt torn between his roles as new father and pop singer. “I had nothing to say. I was running out of time. […] I was tired and I hit a wall. »
Undiagnosed mononucleosis (but detected late in a blood test) might explain why the producers of The Voice wanted him to give more as a coach. But whatever. “I was at my wit’s end of TV and being a star. »
In 2013, the album Himalaya mon amour made Alex Nevsky a Quebec prince of pop with numerous radio hits that go “pa-pa-pa-pa-pa” (Alex Nevsky says it almost laughing).
Without denying all the pleasure he had in the studio with Alex McMahon, Alex Nevsky would feel unable in the short term to sing in the show We made them believe or The colored ones.
Feeling like the “product” of a “machine”? No thanks.
But when he composes a piece without voice on the piano, he feels free, and things go by themselves in contemplation.
It was long before the pandemic that Alex Nevsky wanted to release an instrumental album like Cœur de pirate or Ingrid St-Pierre. It was even ready after a studio stint in December 2019. “It was a project that I kept secret. »
However, the pandemic declared itself, which was a blessing, because the one whose birth name is Alexandre Parent needed to “take a break from Nevsky”. But it was short-lived before his name came out in the wake of the movement
Four months after he and Stéphanie Boulay made a joint declaration of peace, and despite Nevsky at some point resigning himself to never returning to the spotlight, he released a song, Mer de splendeur, in the spring of 2021. But there again, the heart was not there, he confesses.
Finally, it is not the instrumental album recorded four years ago that Nevsky unveiled to the public on Friday – because other pieces have been born since – but it will nevertheless be part of the spectacle of his tour, just to “play more than 25 minutes”.
On stage as on Even the impossible flowers, the one who considers himself more of a melodist than a pianist can count on a superb orchestral accompaniment. A string quartet would have been too convenient, so he opted for a French horn and a transverse flute in addition to the violin and cello. Icing on the cake: arrangements by Antoine Gratton.
If Alex Nevsky does not see himself performing Les coloriés in an encore anytime soon, know that he has already accumulated a dozen new songs with texts, including two co-written with Pierre Lapointe and one with Antoine Corriveau.
But for now, Alex Nevsky wants to honor his instrumental music with the small tour planned for a dozen dates in the fall. “I need to get back to something small. »
Alex Nevsky has a new team around him, including record label L-A be. He tells us that he has not been in contact for a long time with Yann Perreau, who was his mentor when he started out and who was also splashed in the wave of
Alex Nevsky can nevertheless speak for himself. “I am a calmer, more solid and more intelligent man. I feel good and I feel lucky to be able to do this again. »
