Exactly 20 years ago, on October 16, 2001, Daniel Belanger released his third studio album, I dream better. Two decades later, the singer-songwriter and his main collaborators chronicle the creation of this disc with a challenging theme and relaxed aura.
new game
Photo by WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
MPC 2000 . Sampler
It’s been five years since then Four seasons in chaos When Daniel Bélanger started working on what he would become I dream better. Never seen time pass. He had just completed two rounds – those of the record and a single titled round lonely in space And he spent a lot of time working with his new game: the MPC 2000 sampler.
“It’s an instrument that was primarily used to produce hip-hop,” explains Jean-Francois Lemieux, his longtime bassist. With this new tool in his arsenal, Daniel Bélanger is experimenting. He also finds himself in complete control of his musical world: the models he presents to his assistants, including director Karl Bastian, are very elaborate. ” I dream betterFor me, the guitarist says again, it’s the start of Daniel Bellanger as a moderator. “
“Technically, the album was already defined in the demos. “The brass, the direction, the atmosphere, everything he wanted to build was already there,” recalls his brother Michele Belanger, who was at the time at the helm of the Audiogram label.
Songwriter “Electronic”
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, PRESS
Karl Bastian, co-producer of the album I dream betterWritten by Daniel Bellanger
Daniel Bellanger was like many people in the early 2000s: uninterested in rock and drawn to music Down Tempo (Thinking of Morcheeba) And the electric hall then vogue. He also remembers being struck by Mark Deere’s first solo album, which was released in 1999, and with acoustic guitar in In the dream, Depeche Mode track from 2001. “It just exploded in my head! I found it very interesting, this mix of acoustics and electronics.”
These clicks gave clues to I dream better. “We wanted to mix what was more of a real band and more instruments. Sometimes within the same song,” sums up Karl Bastian. The worlds are subtly connected by to leave you : The tempo isn’t rocky, keyboard notes fly away like bubbles, and the dreary guitar is encased in a delicate synthetic case.
I realized that if I fostered my love for the folk, and invited other elements into it, I could go a long way without ever getting lost.
Daniel Belanger
Daniel Bellanger is still surprised, 20 years later, that the electric aspect of his track record has been emphasized so much. ” I dream better Not so electronic,” he judges, and piano, dry guitar, flute, brass and other acoustic instruments can be heard there. “Electronic music was an inspiration. “
More music
Simon Giroud’s photo, press archive
Michele Belanger, Founding President of Audiogram
Michele Belanger, as a producer, has nothing against three-minute pop songs: it’s the kind of song that can play on the radio and sell an album. With I dream betterHowever, he felt that there was room to get out of this kind of “accountability”. “He always wanted more music,” Daniel Bellanger recalls.
And at the request of the producer, Karl Bastian, for example, recalls, Untouchable and timeless The Song River became about eight minutes long transported by a three-machine long bridge. “I remember saying, ‘Take your time, there’s room,'” Michel Bellanger recalls. “It was all inspired by the demo. It was all there to make the music happen without effort from the listener. Daniel always believed that although the arrangements or the strings It might be complicated, except that the listener didn’t have to make the effort; it was up to us to make sure it didn’t show up.”
6 billion of solitude
I dream better It is an invitation to look forward to something else. Under his flying clothes he feels anxious, sad and lonely. “Worried,” says Daniel Bellanger. “There was a desire for music to love life while others tear it apart,” says Michele Bellanger. The singer’s isolation is not in question. Using writing as therapy is not Daniel Bellanger’s style. ” Lee’s song, That’s really me, but at the same time, there has to be a show in the song, Show Unity, he explains. I love the reality makeover. “
album in orbit
Image provided by AUDIOGRAM
Twenty years after its release, the album I dream better, by Daniel Bellanger, has sold 180,000 copies, according to record company Audiogram.
The sound designer for the record is Carl Bastian, who carefully created the bubble that surrounds the entire album. However, it was Michel Bellanger who built the record by creating the song arrangement. “We had to find a balance between the musical theme and the lyrics,” he says. When the speed was over, I couldn’t believe it. I told Daniel I felt it was an important record. “
not mistaken. Membership was instant. I dream better It sold 100,000 copies in one month and won several felixes for Daniel Bellanger and his associates. It also influenced a whole generation of young designers, who saw it Daniel Belanger – dream again, a podcast in four episodes produced by Télé-Québec and broadcast on La Fabrique Culturelle.
Daniel Bélanger doesn’t try to analyze people’s passion for these songs much. He is satisfied with the love of this record, too. “I love these songs, I love what I can do with them after 20 years. They are malleable, they are real songs. When I play a song from I dream betterPeople interact. I love this record because people love it. “