1- What does this album mean to you?
It means everything. It’s our first full-length album and we chose to go 100% DIY, an amazing decision in the end because we got to choose who we wanted to work with and we took part in all the different steps. We all have other projects but this one is our baby and we made it sound exactly like we wanted.
2- Why "Forever Is Now"?
Because it reflected the present mood of the world and the feeling we were in when we wrote the album. It’s a feeling of living in the now and to the fullest. It just made sense, the songs just came without second thoughts.
3- Where was it recorded and who produced it?
We decided to isolate ourselves in the deep of St-Zénon, Quebec at Wild Studio. We worked with the amazing Marc Chartrain and Simon Kearney as co-producers. Guillaume Chartrain was on the board, sound engineering. We wanted their insight on the production and for them to bring fresh ideas and new sounds to our demos. Because of COVID, we had to finish the vocals and additional overdubs the following summer at Simon’s home studio at Île-d’Orléans, Quebec.
4- One moment you will never forget that happened during the recording?
The day Pascale Picard came into the studio to record her vocal part on Pick Up The Phone. She’s someone we admire a lot for her musical career and the fact she is a pioneer for french artists singing in English exporting it outside of Quebec successfully. Co-writing a song with her is definitely a life goal, check.
5- Break it down:
Fuck It I'm In Love
We chose this song as the album’s first single and opening track because we felt it’s the closest to our roots as a power trio. It’s a straight-to-the-point song with a crazy guitar solo and a big chorus at the end. It sets the mood right off the bat.
Rapha : I wrote this song because until then, I had never believed in love at first sight. It happened to me at a friend’s birthday party in the middle of a restaurant. When I saw her across the table I was struck and thought ‘oh well, fuck it I’m in love’.
Easy Target
Rapha : I was at the airport heading to Hawaii and I heard the song Shark Attack (remixed) by GroupLove and I was mind blown. I was really moved by the chord progression and when I came back to Montréal I showed the track to the girls and we attempted to recreate this vibe and the verse of easy target was born. Dreamy chords with a punchy bassline and a steady drum beat.
Sadgirlsclub
It came about the first time we decided to do a writing retreat in a cabin. On our Instagram account, there’s a video of it dated may 7th 2018 captioned ‘’There’s a new band in town, are you ready?’’ ahahah. wow. We wanted to embrace our punk side and write a fast and furious short track under a minute and thirty seconds. Fun fact: the studio track was the first take we did without a click and everyone playing at the same time.
23
Rapha : I’m what you can call a pothead and a (mild) conspirationist. I’m deeply interested in celebrity deaths and the story of River Phoenix always fascinated me. The fact that he rose to stardom at such a young age and lived like there was no tomorrow in the 90’s LA scene so fast he died from an overdose at only 23 years old, on the cold pavement in front of a famous Hollywood club after a couple of days bender. In the end, fame is not gonna save you and that’s the theme of the song. ‘’Does anybody care for when I was a star?’’
Courtney
Sarah and Rapha:
We were at the cabin for a writing retreat and wanted to try something different for this one so we set ourselves barriers and decided to write a song with only 2 chords. It was a great challenge to make the song interesting and relevant despite the fact that the harmony of the song stayed very static. The melody had to be rich, evolving, and catchy. We came up with this gay pop anthem and gave ourselves the right to modulate at the end to elevate the last chorus.
Once we got in the studio, Marc Chartrain (co-producer) came up with the idea to record the drums separately: the backbeat (kick-snare-hi hat) in the small room which gave a very dry sound and then the tom patterns + a second snare in the big room with a lot of reverb. It gave another dimension to the song that we never expected.
1994
Bottom line, we needed our very own rock ballad. We already had the bass line and we built the song around it, making sure to have that coming of age teenage movie vibe and a very sing-along bridge part. It’s one of our favorites to play live! Inspired by Avril Lavigne and Celine Dion, no shame!
Forever Is Now
That song was written in 2018 when we were working on our first EP. We didn’t feel confident enough about it to release it back then. Before starting writing songs for the full album, we went through our old demos and came across this one. It had something about it but it needed love. We changed the structure, chord progression of the pre-chorus and added a couple of riffs to make it fuller. It ended up being the title track of our debut album.
Trigger
Rapha: As you know now, I love a good conspiracy story so why not write a song about JFK’s assassination back in 1963. I am writing from the killer-fall guy’s point of view. He’s conscious he’s being framed but has no choice to pull the trigger. I (Sarah) wrote the whole instrumental of the song between a soundcheck and a show because I felt we were missing a riffy song for the album. It all came up pretty naturally and slowing down the main riff for the bridge was heavily inspired by rage against the machine!
Pick Up The Phone
Obviously a lesbian break-up song. Like every good pop-punk rock band, we needed an acoustic song, haha. So when Pascale Picard showed interest in co-writing a song with us, we felt it was now or never. Pascale and Rapha met at Simon’s home studio back in January 2020 with only 3 chords. Within 3 hours, they had the whole demo recorded. It definitely was a great match.
Forget It I'm In Love
Fuck it I’m in love’s radio edit
6- What's the best way to support your band?
BUY MERCH ON BANDCAMP!! FOLLOW US EVERYWHERE, TALK TO YOUR FRIENDS ABOUT US AND CALL YOUR LOCAL RADIO STATION TO SPIN LES SHIRLEY.
Love and amour, Les Shirley
6- What's the best way to support your band?
BUY MERCH ON BANDCAMP!! FOLLOW US EVERYWHERE, TALK TO YOUR FRIENDS ABOUT US AND CALL YOUR LOCAL RADIO STATION TO SPIN LES SHIRLEY.
Love and amour, Les Shirley
Comments
Post a Comment