After being a DJ and producer of electronic music, Robert Robert released an excellent first album of songs in French, Silicone Villeray, two years ago. He’s doing it again this year with Bienvenue au pays, a transparent and vulnerable album that oscillates between the danceable electro pop of which he has the secret and more soaring atmospheres.
It’s clear, Arthur Gaumont-Marchand has a passion for writing. “I don’t know if I have talent, I hope so, but in any case, it’s my passion. I haven’t had my dose yet. For the 27-year-old singer-songwriter, it’s one more string to his bow, giving him even more tools to express himself.
Robert Robert was precisely more him than ever in this album where he could not do otherwise than to shed several layers, he tells us during a frank and sincere interview.
“You can tell an anecdote, if you’re transparent, everyone can recognize themselves in it. Because this vulnerability, it allows you to feel that this story is true. It’s like disarming the person listening to make them experience something and perhaps feel better. »
Robert Robert explains that after years of therapy – which he continues – he identified the “challenges” he was experiencing. And that’s very much what guided the writing of the songs, “in the most raw and unfiltered way possible”.
His inner explorations taught him, for example, that he could get rid of his relationship with cynicism and competitiveness. Above all, he understood that the anxiety that eats away at him can be a strength, and that if it modulates his perception of the world, it is not only negative.
“I couldn’t do the music I do if I wasn’t like that. It’s mine and I do what I want with it. It took me three years of therapy to find out. But if someone had told me about what I live this way, I might have understood more quickly. »
Welcome to the country is therefore the look on the world of an anxious person who takes responsibility for himself. “We grow up in spite of ourselves, I’m willing to try to be old,” he sings in the title track, which sums up the essence of the album and is surprisingly folksy and sweet, given Robert’s penchant. Robert for the groove and the dance.
“I hope people aren’t going to be disappointed,” he says, explaining that the album curves “between non-danceable tunes and very danceable tunes.”
“As much as I was very transparent in the lyrics, as much in the production I try to be more daring to support the story that I tell as much as possible. It gives a mixed result at first glance, but it makes sense with what the album has to say. »
Robert Robert surrounded himself with musician friends to create Bienvenue au pays, such as Hubert Lenoir and Vincent Roberge (Les Louanges), artists who have encouraged him since his beginnings, and also among others Fernie, Étienne Côté (Lumière), Félix Petit , Jeanne Gagné (MoKa), and Benoit Parent co-directing. “He is an integral part of this project. He also looked at all the texts. It’s fun to be challenged. Make sure you say what you mean, not what you think you said. »
In addition to writing songs, Robert Robert continues to explore other facets of his craft. For example, he composed the music for the excellent series L’air d’aller broadcast on Télé-Québec, a conclusive and stimulating first experience, he says.
“You explore new parts of yourself as a musician. My biggest goal is to make as much music as possible, when I’m not with my family and friends. So when I’m told we need 40 songs, that’s candy! »
For the past two years, Robert Robert has been quietly taming the stage, and he can’t wait for his outdoor show on June 14 at the Francos. “I don’t like the five minutes before you go on stage, but once you get more into the emotion of the song, and focus on living it, it’s such a challenge of vulnerability. »
He will therefore further refine his practice as a performer, because the stage remains an art apart which “continues to bring the songs to life in a different way”. And he hopes his album will have a long and beautiful life, that people will feel “something nice” listening to it.
“I put a lot of love into it, I confronted myself a lot. Moreover, he likes that his title, Welcome to the country, resonates in many ways.
That’s what it’s about, freedom?
” Yes. I emancipate myself from my negative feelings by writing songs. Often when I write, I give myself little advice. I feel a lot of freedom to make music. Nothing lifts my mood more than making a song. »