David Simard - Inside the box of memory

Beating the ghost of mortality with a song. For David Simard it's the best way not to lose anything of life: “When the angels demand my head/ They might envy the life I’ve led”, he proclaims over the notes of “Over Anything”. His debut album, “Slower, Lower“, was one of the most promising revelations of the Canadian singer-songwriter scene in 2011: a handful of songs with the charm of a timeless folk-cabaret. From the woods of British Columbia to the streets of Montréal, Simard tells us the story of a journey undertaken without ever looking back.

The opening track of your album is called “Memory Box”, so let's start by opening your own personal memory box… You grew up on the northern coast of British Columbia: how did those landscapes influence your music?

It's always been hard for me to sense any meaningful landscape in my music. At this point in my life, I've now spent as much time in central and eastern Canada as I have in the west. I'm tempted to say I'm a fully-fledged Canadian, but I think a more accurate description would be that of a true Canadian mongrel. I grew up among mountains, forest and ocean, spent my adolescence amid rolling hills, cornfields and long hot summers, then moved to a big city full of crazy taxi drivers and trendy shoes everywhere. But I've probably still got a pine needle or two stuck in my hair.

Could you tell us something about the beginnings of your musical journey? When and how did you realize you wanted to become a musician?

I honestly couldn't say. My mom always sang, so I did too. Eventually I taught myself to play guitar, and I never looked back after that.

You now live in Montréal, in the St. Henri neighborhood. What's your favorite thing about this city?

That's a tough question... Montréal is a beautiful city with some really dirty fingernails. As far as cities go, it's exactly my type! St. Henri is one of the grittier, more working-class neighborhoods, with the train tracks and the old canal. It suits me, and that's about all I can hope to say.

The members of your backing band, the Da Da's, have a jazz background. How did you meet, and when did you decide to work together?

A mix of shows, Craigslist ads, friends, and late nights. I was tired of playing alone all the time, and the band basically grew up around me.

What was the recording process for the album like?

We recorded almost all the instruments live over four days in our apartment's living room. Daniel, the drummer, worked as the sound engineer. Only the vocals and a few instrumental parts were added afterward. A lot of the backing vocals were recorded together, gathered around a single microphone. It was a very relaxed, friendly process, and I think it added a cohesion that I hope comes through on the album.

The album's title, "Slower, Lower", comes from the fact that you spent a lot of time trying to find the right tempo or key for each song. In fact, your songs often have an elaborate structure. When do you realize you've found a song's identity?

It's a relationship, really – you have to get to know a song the way you'd get to know a friend or a lover. Sometimes it takes longer than you'd think, sometimes you're finishing each other's sentences within five minutes.

Artists usually don't like being pinned down by a genre, but do you think your music could be described as "folk cabaret"?

Absolutely!

Where do you think the balance lies between rooting your music in tradition and trying to push beyond it?

It's both fun and frustrating at the same time. Tradition often sets boundaries, and our natural urge is to push those limits a little further. I usually go with that instinct.

There's often a sense of mortality in your songs. Is that a way for you to live reality more intensely?

Maybe. Mortality is an important thing to come to terms with – so is fallibility.

How do you experience your relationship with live performances?

I've always felt that my songs didn't fully exist until they were sung and heard, so performance is very important to me. The audience carries the same weight as the music in those moments.

If you could use the DeLorean from "Back to the Future", which year (and place) would you choose for a trip through time?

I don't want to go back, just forward with a couple of old-fashioned ideas!

From the treasure chest of his "old-fashioned future", David Simard has a gift for OndaRock's readers: an exclusive track available as a free download, the first recording of a new song titled "Rorschach". With its sense of intimacy and the enveloping touch of his keyboards, it's a perfect preview of the next horizons of his music.

David Simard – Rorschach [download]

(22/04/2012)

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