English transcript of the Episode with Fuudge: Les horribles
Please note : This is an English translation of an automated (yet perfected) AI transcript. It is provided for informational purposes only. While we did our best to capture the vibe, automated tools can sometimes twist spoken words—especially with our local Quebec slang! For official or accurate reference, please consult the original audio episode.
Hugo Lachance: Chapter 1: Introduction
We are here on May 11, 2026, broadcasting from La Salle des Tortues in Montreal, and today is going to be a meltingly good episode because I’m welcoming David Bujold from the band Fuudge to L’Album Podcast. Hey, hello everyone! Before I properly introduce my guest, I want to thank Véro Lambert because today we are at La Salle des Tortues studio in Montreal.
Véro is lending us her room for the episode. So, if you need a studio with a green screen to record podcasts, shoot music videos, do conference videos, or anything else like comedy sketches, look up La Salle des Tortues on the internet and you’ll find it easily. We thank Véro. Thanks, Véro!
And there you go, I also want to thank the Hopera microbrewery, which has been supporting the podcast for a long time. Hopera is a microbrewery located in Jonquière, in the Saguenay region. I invite you to taste their excellent products. For real, it’s really cool. It’s a microbrewery truly invested in the cultural scene, run by passionate people.
They have a facility called La Shop, right in the heart of the Jonquière industrial park. You can go down there to grab a beer, and you’ll be very well received. I say hi to Vlad, Félix, and the whole crew over at Hopera. Thank you very much.
Also, thanks to those who subscribed. If you haven't done it yet, please do so on YouTube and on all social media platforms. That's the name of the game. You know how it works: just take a quick two minutes to subscribe. Personally, it really makes me happy.
And if you want to support the podcast, check out the video description or go to www.lalbumpodcast.ca; you can make a monthly donation or a one-time donation if you're interested.
Hugo Lachance: Chapter 2: SEGMENT: Artist Profile
David Bujold, welcome to L’Album Podcast.
David Bujold: It's a pleasure to be here, Hugo. Thanks for having me.
Hugo Lachance: Thank you for being here. I’ve been talking about wanting to have you on for a little while now. Finally, thanks to Ophélie, we managed to make the connection. We're here to talk about the upcoming album called Les Horribles, but also about the fact that it's already been a 10-year career for Fuudge. Have you planned anything to celebrate that?
David Bujold: We would have liked to hold some celebrations for Fuudge's 10th anniversary, but at the same time, it just so happened that I wanted to release an album. For me, making an album is more important. I wasn't ready to tell myself that we were delaying the release of the album just to hold events around the tenth anniversary. Right now, we're focusing on the album. Maybe later in the year, it'll just be a few social media posts, but unfortunately, in a way, there's no real show planned where we would play the first EP in its entirety.
Hugo Lachance: I still want to highlight it, because Fuudge over 10 years means more than 200 shows. You've played at the Festival d'été de Québec in front of 8,000 people, three times at the Francos de Montréal, at the FME, at Le Festif!, in a barn, at record stores, in a skate shop, at the Grand Théâtre de Québec with a string quartet, and at the New Colossus festival in New York. It’s also five awards at the Francouvertes 2016, four Luciens, and then the sync of the year award in 2025.
David Bujold: Holy smoke! That's what we tell the media when we want to show that we're hot.
Hugo Lachance: Bravo! I'm going to ask the same six questions I ask everyone to introduce you and to show that we all start somewhere. So, David Bujold, where did you grow up?
David Bujold: Montreal, Hochelaga-Maisonneuve.
Hugo Lachance: Cool. Your childhood album, the furthest back you can remember?
David Bujold: I don't know if it's the furthest back, but I remember the Gipsy Kings. I had the cassette and I still love it to this day, the album with Bamboleo on it. It's a damn good album, for real.
Hugo Lachance: I've listened to the two or three well-known tracks.
David Bujold: I think you'd be surprised if you listened to it from start to finish. You'd tell yourself that you actually know a lot of them. There are a couple of instrumentals that are pretty generic, but almost all the vocal tracks are huge songs. One of my striking memories regarding that album is that at one point, I had received a toy, a magnet to make a magnetic sculpture. My cassette was right next to it and I put it inside the magnetic field. It didn't work anymore. I was deeply traumatized.
Hugo Lachance: The joys of analog; And your teenage album, the one that shaped you?
David Bujold: That would be Nevermind.
Hugo Lachance: Fair enough. What was playing in your parents' car or at home?
David Bujold: In the car, it was U2: The Unforgettable Fire and The Joshua Tree. My dad wasn't necessarily a huge U2 fan, it's just that it was that specific era when I was a kid. Since my dad was a music lover, he quite liked it, and my sister was crazy about it. But my dad is all about The Beatles, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Yes, Genesis, and Frank Zappa.
Hugo Lachance: You grew up surrounded by that. Yes, I see your magnificent Frank Zappa t-shirt. What was your first instrument?
David Bujold: I think it was the piano, but it's not my main instrument; that's the guitar.
Hugo Lachance: At what point did you realize that music was going to be fundamental for you? Was there a key moment?
David Bujold: I don't really know how it happened exactly. I started playing guitar at 11, in 1991, when there was that whole return of rock on MTV with Nevermind, Metallica's Black Album, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
In the span of a few weeks, six major albums came out. It made us shift back into rock. I was becoming a teenager at that time and I wanted to learn guitar to play those tracks. That's when it became concrete.
Hugo Lachance: Chapter 3: Fuudge
Perfect. You are part of the band Fuudge. I wasn't a fan of Fuudge at first, I had never really listened other than by chance. But I dove into your universe and I really had fun. I listened to your last album and all the influences you just named shine through it.
We’ll start at the beginning: the name.
Hugo Lachance: Chapter 4: The controversy around the name Fuudge
When we did the Francouvertes, some guys showed up at the preliminary rounds and asked us to change our name because they had a band in the '90s called Fudge. How was that scandal resolved?
David Bujold: It was anecdotal and a bit absurd, but it ended well. I had chosen the name Fuudge without knowing there had been a group with the same name in the '90s. There were very few traces of that band left, so it was normal that we didn't know. Some guys from the band showed up, they weren't threatening, they just found it a bit of a shame. We were a bit embarrassed. It gave me the push to add the second "U." From that moment on, when you typed "FUUDGE" with two U's, you fell on the band rather than on fudge recipes.
Hugo Lachance: It gives a nice personality to the band's name. The vinyl of your first EP is spelled Fudge with just one U?
David Bujold: Yeah, the vinyl had already been sent to pressing and to the printer before this event happened. So there's only one U on the vinyl of EP1.
Hugo Lachance: Chapter 5: The importance of the Francouvertes for Fuudge
To tell the band's story, I'm going to use the oldest article I could find on Fuudge, dated June 13, 2016. It says that the group managed to make its mark at the Francouvertes, praised by the audience and the jury, even though you didn't make it to the finals.
You said: "We're not pulling our hair out over it, we still got a lot of positive feedback and visibility." David, the Francouvertes were important for you guys?
David Bujold: It’s a great springboard. It gives you all the visibility you don't have when you simply don't exist. All of a sudden, you're on the map instantly. I have huge gratitude for the Francouvertes.
Hugo Lachance: Shoutout to the Francouvertes crew. Fuudge has a six-song EP that David Bujold took it upon himself to entirely compose and record.
Hugo Lachance: Chapter 6: David Bujold, Mastermind at Fuudge
You said: "In the studio, I do everything from A to Z. I've been a multi-instrumentalist since I was 16." What is the process? How do you write a song for Fuudge?
David Bujold: I'm a music-before-lyrics guy. That's something often discussed in the songwriting world. I make music, and then at some point, making lyrics becomes an obligation, a necessary rite of passage that doesn't come naturally to me. It’s sometimes tortuous.
Once I have the lyrics and the music, I go into the studio. I already had a background with other projects where I had familiarized myself with Logic Pro. I do home recording; I don't own a big studio. For a big project, I rent a professional studio, but I can do the majority of things at my place, like guitar, vocals, piano, or synthesizers.
Ultimately, I just ended up tracking the drums in a real studio. I generally record with a click track because otherwise, I'd have to start with the drums. I accepted recording all by myself because I saw other artists doing it, like Ty Segall, Tame Impala, or even Paul McCartney on his solo albums.
At 16, my dad had given me a four-track reel-to-reel tape recorder and I started doing that in the basement. I was already familiar with that process.
Hugo Lachance: That's impressive. You said that in a democratic band, you sometimes have to drop ideas you believe in. In your project, you said: "I will never accept that. I'm the one driving the engine. I can't make artistic compromises." I think it's cool that you own it.
David Bujold: It sounds a bit arrogant in hindsight, but I owned it back then. For the new album, Les Horribles, it marks a turning point because we did it all together. On every track, everyone plays.
Hugo Lachance: That's interesting, because even if we work for a vision, we ultimately work for the good of the song.
Hugo Lachance: Chapter 7: Discography
We’ll move on to your discography so people can know your story.
Hugo Lachance: Chapter 8: EP "Fuudge" (2016) and Man! (2017)
In 2016, there's the first EP.
David Bujold: I recorded the first two EPs at the same time. Initially, I wanted to put out an album right away, but talking to people in the industry and for grants, it was suggested I do EPs first.
MusiqueAction had a program for the promotion of four digital tracks. I told myself I'd take six tracks for the first EP, then keep the others for the next one.
I find the EPs are very different from the rest, it's the genesis. It was fundamentally original, maybe more than what I did after because I defined myself later on in a more aggressive, more noise, doom, and metal vibe.
It bugs me a bit that on streaming platforms, EPs are mixed in with the singles all the way at the bottom. For me, EPs are like an album, they should be up top with the others.
Hugo Lachance: Chapter 9: Les Matricides (2018)
In 2018, you released Les Matricides. It's a very good album.
David Bujold: It's fundamentally darker. I was really into influences like early Pink Floyd, The Beatles, and '60s psychedelia. But while I was building the project, I started listening to heavier stuff like noise and metal.
I wanted to go towards something more aggressive, while keeping the psychedelic side. That's the fundamental recipe of Fuudge: making a heavy track, but one that stays weird.
Hugo Lachance: I think it's the album closest to your last one.
David Bujold: It's the continuation of something. In 2020, there was...
Hugo Lachance: Chapter 10: Fruit-Dieu (2020)
It's a weird name, I don't know where I pulled that from, maybe the drugs. The lyrics say: "Think twice before biting into that fruit."
David Bujold: It's one of our strongest albums, it holds a special place in my heart. Unfortunately, it was hit by the pandemic. We released it in November 2019 and we had a beautiful tour planned when everything closed in March.
Hugo Lachance: Chapter 11: Déplogué au Grand Théâtre de Québec (2021)
This project recorded without an audience allowed you to revisit your most abrasive tracks with a string quartet.
David Bujold: Our keyboardist, Vincent LaBoissonnière, was studying for the bar exam to become a lawyer and couldn't participate in the project. So we invited Flavie Léger-Roy, a great friend who is in the band Les Princesses, to bring a feminine and friendly side.
There was also Shinako Itoh on keyboards and vibraphone.
The initial idea was to do an "unplugged" MTV style, like Nirvana's. We were supposed to have an audience, but the COVID rules changed. We took advantage of a SODEC grant to film it and stay active.
Hugo Lachance: Chapter 12: ...qu'un cauchemar devienne si vrai (2023)
It's your first album on the Folivora label.
David Bujold: A lot of people tell me it's more metal. There are no ballads on it. It's truly intense from start to finish. It's the only album I recorded entirely in a real studio, Ben Bouchard's.
Before the pandemic, I recorded all by myself in my bedroom, but with remote work, I heard my neighbors all the time. I couldn't scream or crank an amp anymore at my place, I needed to get out.
Hugo Lachance: Chapter 13: The writing of the lyrics for Les Horribles
On May 10, 2023, Sami Rixhon for Sors-tu?ca wrote: "David Bujold does not possess the most refined pen on the Quebec music scene. It is often necessary to grant oneself more than one listen to discover the depth of his lyrics. These lyrics with short and corrosive sentences. Biting, even angry sentences, relating to styles like metal or hard rock."
Hugo Lachance: I'm bringing it up again because I really like the way you write.
Prêt pour la suite (la seconde moitié du texte, à partir du Chapitre 14 avec la fameuse question Ricardo) dès que tu me donneras le signal !
Voici la traduction finale, propre et fluide de la DEUXIÈME MOITIÉ du document (du Chapitre 14 jusqu'à la conclusion finale), en continuité directe avec la première partie et en conservant scrupuleusement la mise en page d'origine.
Hugo Lachance: Chapter 14: The Ricardo Question!
So what better way to talk about the band's latest album than to check out the top comments on Ricardo's Fudge recipe? You'll see where I'm going with this. Giselle V. gave it 5 stars: "Thank you Ricardo, I just discovered this recipe. A true delight, best recipe ever!" But Johanne L. gives it two stars: "Not really the expected texture of a fudge, lacks creaminess, tastes like the chocolate we used and nothing more, was not a hit at our house."
Hugo Lachance: So, after listening to the album, do you think listeners will lean more towards Giselle or Johanne? Weird question, I know.
David Bujold: Well, maybe there will be a bit of both because it's true that I allowed myself to go elsewhere on this album. Nevertheless, there are still tracks that are fundamentally Fuudge, like the last single we put out called "Je sais pas ce que je fais ici." I think that one is fundamentally Fuudge. It's very noise, it's very sludge, it's a bit doom. But there are also ingredients even in that track that I've never done before, like a section that's a little bit Nu Metal in the build-up. It sounds like Limp Bizkit; I've never done that. Besides, I've never really digged Nu Metal that much, except for a few exceptions. But if you look at the music video for "Le mentor," I'm super proud of that video and the song too. I think the song is really not Fuudge in the sense that it doesn't sound like any other track the band has done before. Although I've done some pretty pop stuff before, it never became that kind of pop, a little bit choppy.
David Bujold: It's like the track of the album too. I like it a lot, but it stands out from the entire discography. Maybe some fans will say: "I skip that one every time," like Johanne who liked it less. Maybe like Johanne, some people will say: "No, not my type of Fuudge." But I find that in the album's pacing, it does some good.
Hugo Lachance: Personally, I'm more on Giselle's side. I hope people will be more like Giselle. I'll take two minutes to do the "Salut à toi" segment because I forgot it during the recording.
Chapter 15: SEGMENT: Salut à toi! Le balado des caisses de 24
Hugo Lachance: I'm sending a nice shoutout to Joël Desmarais-Racine and his father who do the podcast Le balado des caisses de 24. It's a podcast that covers every single album by Plume Latraverse, along with interviews with musicians who shared the stage with him.
It's really good, they are long episodes and really interesting. It helps you discover Plume's universe and plenty of details. He also shares archives. I had invited him when we did the episode on Plume Latraverse's comic book.
Back to the interview with Fuudge.
Hugo Lachance: Chapter 16: SEGMENT: Album Presentation
What were we saying? Yes, Les Horribles is an album that addresses themes of the unknown, metamorphosis, and monsters. It is surprising in several respects, notably through a more polished literary approach and a certain extravagance that sometimes recalls the band's early days. If we had to put labels on this album, what would they be?
David Bujold: Well, precisely, I name three themes: the unknown, metamorphosis, and monsters. I think it's an album that is perhaps a bit more personal than some of the others. In general, I often draw from things I experience, but I always try to find the parallel outside of myself that is also reflected in society in general.
Also, sometimes, I will inject straight-up fantasy or fiction into a track. I will personify the central character so that it becomes something, a subject larger than just myself.
Hugo Lachance: It's often conversations in your lyrics, exchanges, we're talking to someone...
David Bujold: I'd have to re-read my lyrics to realize it. Sometimes, I become like the listener. I don't even know anymore, once it's done, I forget myself what I was thinking about when I wrote something. I don't even know what it's about anymore.
Hugo Lachance: Chapter 17: The Label Game
If we had to put labels on this album, what would it be? For a person who has never heard it, change is a theme that comes back a lot.
David Bujold: Change, metamorphosis, and monsters are themes on which I made connections to try to create a universe in this album. It's eclectic too. There are changes, but it remains homogeneous nonetheless. I'm talking about change in general: in my life, I'm going through a lot of changes, but collectively we are going through an enormous amount too.
For the monsters, I drew a lot of inspiration from Kafka's book The Metamorphosis. It's a being who wakes up in the morning and is a huge insect, who is a monster in the end. It resonated with me because I feel like I'm living that in my own life.
I feel like from one day to the next, I'm completely someone else. But I see that around me too. I feel like the world suddenly just took a turn. And monsters, I find there are a lot of them around us. Les Horribles, that's what it is too: it's horrible times, horrible people, and it's also horrible ideas. It's plenty of things that I find horrible.
Besides, the album title took me a long time to find. At first, I wanted to call it L'Abomination. Then I found that a little bit too intense, it sounded like a Marvel Comic, it didn't work.
Hugo Lachance: It's a super beautiful title. I like how you describe it because it's true that society is changing fast and there are plenty of little monsters coming out everywhere on the outside, but also in our heads. You're giving us the keys to the album.
Hugo Lachance: Chapter 18: Album Credits
The title is Les Horribles, year 2026, record company Folivora Records. Production, tracking, mixing, vocals, and guitar by David Bujold. There is also Pierre Alexandre (PA) on bass and vocals on L'Abomination, Vincent LaBoissonnière on keyboards, and Olivier Laroche on drums.
David Bujold: You guys managed to get a damn good drum sound. That's Ryan Battistuzzi. His engineering is magical. Ryan is the person who comes back most often on the podcast.
Hugo Lachance: Studio-wise, there's the Bubu studio, and Ben Média Multi-Média & Friends International Entertainment. That's your own studio, I imagine?
David Bujold: No, mine is the Bubu studio. The other one is Ben Bouchard's studio. He's at La Track, he has a super beautiful studio there. That's where I recorded Cauchemar entirely. This time around, we went there just to record keyboards.
Hugo Lachance: But then, this time, you recorded with your band. Sound engineering: Ryan Battistuzzi and David Bujold. Mastering: Jean-Philippe (JP) Villemure. Publishing: DOZE Publishing. Management: DOZE Management. Booking: Culture Choc. Recording period: I started in February 2025.
David Bujold: I stepped on the gas, but it was more to make demos. I never used to make demos before, but here, since I wanted to do it with the band, I had to make them. When you don't do it with the band, you don't need to: I would start, I'd do a track, and when I was happy, I kept it. At the end, I had a tune and I moved on to the next one.
Hugo Lachance: Chapter 19: The Album Cover
At the moment we are recording, the album isn't out yet, but I got some images. I consider that you guys have always had a very beautiful aesthetic, but really for the latest album, it's great. It's like a sort of human semi-human plant creature. Is that the official cover in the end?
David Bujold: Yeah. It's a photo by Camille Gladu Drouin, a photographer we've collaborated with often for a long time. I was looking for material for the cover and I stumbled upon her Instagram. It was a cyanotype photo.
It's the ancestor of photo development that gives blue prints because the chemical compound reacts to light. The photo is a bit dark blue. It also gives a more textured photo depending on the paper used. It's perhaps a bit more blurry, more grainy.
That's why you don't clearly see the entity in the photo. I thought that was fun. There's one with a hand holding a flower on the back of the vinyl. The one with the mysterious semi-human, semi-flower being, I called it the "Bigfoot." I saw a sort of strange entity and it fit with the monster theme.
Hugo Lachance: Is there anything else to add for the album credits?
David Bujold: I added a credit on the vinyl for the lacquer cutting. It's perhaps a bit geeky, but it's super important. Back in the day when there were no CDs or cassettes, that was mastering. They looked at the grooves under a microscope. They cut the recorded and mixed music from a master tape to a medium.
If you prepare a file for a CD, it's mastering too, but for a CD. When you do mastering, the guy asks if you're making a vinyl, because it requires a different master. In reality, what JP Villemure sends me are the pre-mastered waves. For the vinyl, he removes the limiting so that the guy cutting the lacquer can make the sound distort if he wants to.
The cutter's work changes the sound, he decides if he removes bass or if he pushes more. That's why they send us test pressings. The mastering of a vinyl is done by two people: the person who does the pre-mastering and the one who does the lacquer.
Hugo Lachance: Biz from Loco Locass once gave me a beautiful analogy: mastering is like the coat of varnish a painter puts on his canvas for the finishing touch and the beauty of the thing.
Hugo Lachance: SEGMENT: One Song After Another
We're gonna move on to the track-by-track segment. We're gonna start with, basically, we listen to an excerpt and after that, I invite you to talk about your track. Ah, but wait a minute! Actually, for the lacquer cutting, I didn't say who it was: it's Marc Olivier Germain. He works at Lab Mastering. Well, we say hi to him! OK, here we go with "J'va bientôt t'abandonner."
Hugo Lachance: Chapter 20: J'va bientôt t'abandonner
(Music) "J’m’en viens te dire que j’va bientôt t’abandonner... Tsé, si on arrête pas, on va juste continuer." So, "J'va bientôt t'abandonner." Personally, it made me think of Metallica's Frantic! (Laughter) But I loved it. Super beautiful album intro, frankly. It's like a sort of build-up.
David Bujold: Yeah, it's a build-up that, to me, was obvious: it's definitely opening the album, that thing. Well, do you want to talk about the music or the lyrics?
Hugo Lachance: Ah, I'm more about the music! If you want to talk less about your lyrics.
David Bujold: That's fine. Well, you see, what I had in mind, there's a sort of synth that comes in that is a bit of a "trendy" sound. To me, it sounds a bit Ministry, or a bit Ministry/NIN. I had that as a reference when people ask me what the influences are. In reality, I try to name the influences after the fact; during creation, I don't think about it all the time.
Hugo Lachance: But there are plenty of influences in there anyway, throughout the whole album, and so much the better! You played with that super well. Personally, I think there's also a little bit of Queens of the Stone Age.
David Bujold: Yes, I heard Mr. Bungle a bit too later on. At one point, there's a little section over there that makes it switch. But that's also a formula that is used a lot in Fuudge: taking it out into left field and coming back in "quiet-loud."
Hugo Lachance: Chapter 21: L'abomination
(Music) "Quessé qu’t’as ? J’te r’connais pas... Comment ça que t’es dev’nu ça ? Un ignoble, une catastrophe." L'abomination. We were talking about the lyrics earlier: "I woke up thinking I was still free. The wind was blowing so hard in the house. I ran to the mirror. It was horrible. I am an abomination." It's pretty cool.
David Bujold: It's Kafka's book, The Metamorphosis. I don't hide from it, it's the abomination for me. It's not exactly the same story, but it looks like it: he got up one morning and he was a monster. The two tracks we just played, for me, are about change and metamorphosis.
The "J'm'en viens te dire que j'va bientôt t'abandonner," to me, it means that I went through a sort of metamorphosis in my own life over the last few years where I feel like I'm becoming someone else or abandoning a person who is no longer me. It's about abandoning habits, a way of life, a straight-up metamorphosis.
"L'abomination," without being the exact same text, continues in that direction: I got up, I thought I was free, but in the end, no. I'm trapped in a strange, monstrous new body.
Hugo Lachance: And "Quessé qu't'as?" is the conversation you were talking about earlier. Is that why you asked Pierre Alexandre (PA) to sing the chorus? He's the one singing.
David Bujold: For those who haven't noticed, it's PA's voice. It's the first time he sings a lead vocal on a track. It's fun. Musically, it's really cool. It makes it feel really different too.
David Bujold: Yeah, it's a track that is schizophrenic, with very pronounced "quiet-louds." In the beat, I find there's a little bit of Beck in there. There are so many influences: some T-Rex, maybe a bit of Devo at the start, then some Beatles in the vocal harmonies.
Hugo Lachance: Chapter 22: La honte
(Music) "Tiens, salut, c’est moé, la Honte. J’veux juste te dire que chu vraiment ben là où tu m’as mis." So, "La honte." In terms of influences, that one is very clear.
David Bujold: There are two influences. The chorus is clearly Nirvana. My Nirvana influences date back to day one, I've never hidden that. In Fuudge, it's clear, it even borders on pastiche. I've already put super specific references to Pink Floyd or others in certain tracks.
But for this one, I will never say no: it's clear, it's Nirvana. I embrace the fact that I'm heavily influenced. The verses, on the other hand, are a little bit more Beck to me.
Hugo Lachance: Chapter 23: Le mentor
(Music) "On commence tu’suite, faque suis le tempo... T’as toute le kit, donne toute de c’que t’es." "Le mentor" is perhaps the least "Fuudge" piece in the group's entire repertoire, with resolutely pop choruses that might make fans raise an eyebrow. Personally, I love this track, and the music video is really cool.
David Bujold: I'm not saying I made super conscious choices in my artistic direction, but we made the observation that in shows, the tracks that "paid off" the most were the heavy ones. I saw that on the non-heavy tracks, people found it super good, but on the heavy tracks, they went completely crazy and started moshpitting.
Involuntarily, it made me want to do it more, but I like it when bands try things. For "Le mentor," I didn't know what to do with that riff, I felt it wasn't Fuudge. I have a very folk solo project and it didn't fit there either. I was between the two, but it was closer to Fuudge, so I forced it because it was just too good of a little riff.
Hugo Lachance: Chapter 24: Le cortège
(Music) "Les atomes, les morses, les hérétiques... sont tous venus pour te dire merci d’être venus." "Le cortège" is cool. Was that the one that sounded a bit like Mr. Bungle?
David Bujold: Yeah, it's a track that is truly different, but I find it fits with Fuudge. It's my little treat, my little favorite on this album. I don't know if it's my favorite just because it's so bizarre; it's a resolutely bizarre song, a bit of a "laboratory" track.
Since I released my solo album, I told myself I'd do a Fuudge album, then a solo album. My solo album looks like folk, very Nick Drake. It's acoustic guitar, more "song-oriented," ultra quiet. The album is called Le sol ou le ciel, it came out in the fall of 2024.
Another influence for the solo album is Sufjan Stevens' Carrie & Lowell. To get back to "Le cortège," it's almost a concept album because of the monster aspect. It's an enumeration of entities on social anxiety. There's a bit of Krautrock in there. One of my favorite albums is Portishead's Third, which is very Krautrock. It inspired that sound for me.
Hugo Lachance: Chapter 25: J'vois noir dans l'clair
(Music) "Je sais pas c’que tu penses mais j’pense que tu sais que j’sais absolument rien... J’vois noir dans l’clair, j’monte en bas." "Je souffre mais je le sais pas."
David Bujold: It's a little manipulation of words with inversions, but I managed to breathe meaning into a text that looks absurd. It's the feeling of being completely lost, the loss of meaning. "J'monte en bas" (I'm climbing down), there are a lot of contradictions. It's someone searching for themselves, a bit like in an Escher print, it's surreal.
Musically, we're still in Nirvana territory, but the verses are a little bit more Beatlesque with three-part harmonies. It makes my musicians swear because it's twice as much work to learn, but they are really efficient.
Hugo Lachance: Chapter 26: Pas fier
(Music) "Ch’tu dev’nu quelqu’un ? Si j’t’ai trahi quand j’ai acheté ma vie... Chu pas fier." Tell us about that song.
David Bujold: We're still dealing with shame, the identity search of people tortured by life, with regrets and remorses. It's clearly Bleach, it's very Nirvanesque. I've been criticized before for displaying my Nirvana influences so openly, without shame, but what can you do? That's life. It's not plagiarism, it's just owned influences.
Hugo Lachance: Chapter 27: Je sais pas c'que j'fais icitte
(Music) "J’ai honte des fois d’entrer dans l’antre, l’antre des rois... J’ai besoin de toute." It's one of my favorites on the album, and it doesn't sound like Nirvana on top of it!
David Bujold: There we are more in noise, Melvins style, or even Nu Metal in the part right after. When I say "Je sais pas ce que je fais icitte" (I don't know what I'm doing here), do you know what you're doing here? Personally, I don't know. The track is down-tuned to B.
Ryan Battistuzzi's drum sound on that is insane, he has a gift for bringing that "gritty" touch that sounds right. It's a track that talks about social inequalities and grocery store anxiety. Has it ever happened to you to be in a Maxi or a Costco and say to yourself: "Oh my God, I just don't feel right"? It's the opulence of grocery stores, there is so much stock it's scary.
Hugo Lachance: Chapter 28: Non! Oué!
(Music) "Tu veux-tu du cul, tu veux-tu le mal ? Vivre sans but ou être normal ?" Another avenue on the album.
David Bujold: There's a track like that on every album: it's the Kinks side of Fuudge. A well-crafted "Kinks" moment, bordering a bit on The Breastfeeders, more rock 'n' roll. Then there's an atonal interlude where we play with the keyboard without a key signature: that's our Stravinsky part, or a nod to Zappa who digged Stravinsky.
Hugo Lachance: Chapter 29: Tu t'en fous
(Music) "Les rayons gamma dans nos gueules... sourire à la caméra." It's the little gallop.
David Bujold: It's the first time we use the gallop in a Fuudge song, it's a statement. It's another collage track where there is no connection between part A and part B. The riff from the start, I've been dragging it around since 2018; it was supposed to be on Fruit-Dieu, but in the end, the final version didn't have that riff anymore. We recycle!
Hugo Lachance: Chapter 30: V'là les horribles
(Music) "Attention v’là les affreux, les vils, les froids, les honteux... Mort aux horribles !" It's cool, it's hardcore.
David Bujold: It's a bit more punk. The horribles, they are the new crappy ideas circulating in society, the rise of the right wing. I personify them as beings invading the city to steal your children.
Hugo Lachance: Chapter 31: Les ciels oranges
(Music) "Dis adieu aux affreux, on s’en va très très loin de c’qui existe pu... Tu dessines des ciels oranges." Does a rock version of this track exist in your archives?
David Bujold: Yeah, I have a version with the band that was very Queens of the Stone Age. It was cool, it kicked a lot of ass, but the album had no breaks. I had a flash: I made a smooth acoustic version of it. It does some good in the pacing.
Hugo Lachance: Chapter 32: Ma joie m'étrangle
(Music) "On avait pas de télés din’ poches pis on savait pas qu’la fin était si proche." Quite a track to finish the album.
David Bujold: The last tracks on an album are often moodier, less pop, with a sort of openness. For me, pacing is crucial to tell a story, and it works well here as a conclusion. The subject is nostalgic, it's me reflecting on a bygone era. It comes full circle.
Hugo Lachance: Chapter 33: SEGMENT: Rafales
We went through the whole album! Your top 3 from the album?
David Bujold: "Le cortège," "L'abomination," then I hesitate between "La honte" and "Je sais pas ce que je fais icitte."
Hugo Lachance: Mine: 1. "Le mentor," 2. "Je sais pas ce que je fais icitte," 3. "L'abomination." If you had one track to remove?
David Bujold: Unfortunately, it would be "Ma joie m'étrangle."
Hugo Lachance: Chapter 34: Conclusion
The album comes out on May 15th, and the launch is June 18th. Go grab all that! David Bujold, thank you very much for playing along on L'Album Podcast. It's truly a beautiful album. Go subscribe to David Bujold and Fuudge's social media accounts. Thanks to Hopera, thanks to the new subscribers, and thanks to Véro from La Salle des Tortues. See you next episode!