English transcript of the episode Les Chiens : Éloge de la chute
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.
Transcript: L'Album Podcast — Les Chiens: Éloge de la chute
Hugo Lachance: We are here on April 28, 2026, broadcasting from La Salle des Tortues in Montreal. And today, if it's beautiful outside, well, it's raining cats and dogs inside the studio because I’m welcoming Éric Goulet and Nicolas Jouannaut, who are here to present the latest album by Les Chiens. All of this on L'Album Podcast.
Hugo Lachance: And hello everyone. Before properly introducing my guests, as usual, I want to thank the new subscribers on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, BlueSky, TikTok, wherever. Thanks to everyone who subscribes. It's a quick gesture that doesn't take any time but is really, really important for podcasters like us. So, take the time to go subscribe, come check things out on YouTube too, it's always nice. Also, this episode is presented by La Salle des Tortues. So, La Salle des Tortues is the studio where we are right now. It's a fully equipped green screen studio with lighting, cameras, mics, basically everything you need for your projects, whether it's a music video, a conference, comedy shows, etc., and even podcasts too. So if you're interested, look up La Salle des Tortues on the internet and Véro will welcome you like she always does. Classy.
Éric Goulet: Yes, very classy indeed.
Hugo Lachance: Hi Véro. Also, this episode is sponsored by the Hopéra microbrewery. Hopéra is a microbrewery located in Jonquière. It's a restaurant on Saint-Dominique Street, and it's also Hopéra La Shop, which is a production facility right in the heart of the Jonquière industrial park. Inside, there's a pub. They are super well set up. You can taste their excellent products. For real, it's really, really good. You can also visit the fermenters, which were named after famous Quebec bands, and also have a good time with Vlad and his team. So thank you very much for sponsoring this episode. If you like my work and want to support the podcast, well, there's a way to make a one-time donation or a monthly donation. On YouTube, it's in the description, and for those on audio, head over to www.lalbumpodcast.ca. That way, you can support this wonderful project. Éric Goulet, Nicolas Jouannaut, welcome to L'Album Podcast.
Éric Goulet: Hey.
Nicolas Jouannaut: Hey.
Hugo Lachance: How's it going, guys?.
Éric Goulet: Very well.
Nicolas Jouannaut: Very well.
Hugo Lachance: It's already a 40-year career for Éric, if not more, and 30 years for Les Chiens. How is it going, and what are you going to do to celebrate that? Do you have any projects?
Éric Goulet: Well, we told ourselves it would be nice to make a new album.
Hugo Lachance: Ah yes, that works out great, that's what we're here for. Cool. Look, I'm going to ask you the same questions I ask all my guests. But before that, Éric, this is your third time on the podcast, you were my first real guest. You even did the theme song.
Éric Goulet: True. I say it often.
Hugo Lachance: It's a Goulet original. So, very cool to have you back. We'll start with you, actually, because these are the questions I usually ask everyone, but back then with you, I didn't do them. So we'll take the opportunity to do it now. So Éric Goulet, where did you grow up?
Éric Goulet: Originally from Sept-Îles.
Hugo Lachance: OK. And your childhood album, the furthest back you can remember?
Éric Goulet: Oh boy, I think it was Once Upon a Time in the West, the movie soundtrack by Morricone.
Hugo Lachance: OK. Cool. Cool. And your teenage album? Several?
Éric Goulet: Several, yes, defining teenage albums. Who did I listen to the most? Quite a few. My choices were pretty broad back then. It could go from metal to prog, passing through Quebec music, of course. It makes me think about what I listened to the most.
Hugo Lachance: The Beatles, maybe?
Éric Goulet: Not even The Beatles. I got into The Beatles really late.. Not even The Rolling Stones. It's like that music was already there and it was already a given for me. What did I listen to a lot in those years. And those are important years, the teenage years, you dive right into it. I would probably say Black Sabbath's Paranoid album.
Hugo Lachance: OK. OK. Yeah, that makes sense.
Éric Goulet: I think even if I could name a Genesis album, for example, that's still what left the most lasting mark on me, I think.
Hugo Lachance: Cool. Perfect. And what was playing in your parents' car or at home?
Éric Goulet: My parents listened to the radio a lot, especially in the car, because it wasn't back when we had cassette players, or if you had a tape player, it was an 8-track thing. But my parents didn't have one. So they listened to the radio station a lot, and I must say that back then, for those who are very, very young and have no idea what I'm talking about, it was a radio where the music played was still extremely varied. They would play Jean-Pierre Ferland, Charlebois, Gilbert Bécaud, Roger Whittaker, Tex Lecor—it was truly... And when I look back at that, it was really a blessed era for me because you really heard songs. You heard "Conception," you heard "Le petit roi" obviously, or even "Quand on aime, on a toujours 20 ans." Tracks like that. When you're 5 or 6 years old and you hear songs like that but on the radio, it's not a secret or special place, it's really playing everywhere. So you're like immersed in a weird... when I think back on it, anyway.
Hugo Lachance: Yeah, true. It's like... it's not intimate. It's public radio.
Éric Goulet: It's very public. And if you hear things like "Quand on aime, on a toujours 20 ans," it's the story of someone who stabbed his wife in the back, I don't really know. It feels like it presents you with a weird vision of the world.
Hugo Lachance: True. True. And your first instrument?
Éric Goulet: My first instrument was the violin. I started playing violin when I was 5. And I dragged that along for a few years before falling into the cello for another year or two. Falling back after that onto the organ—they bought me an organ with those little built-in beats—and after that coming back to the cello for a year maybe, until my teenage years when I discovered the guitar or Black Sabbath, as I mentioned earlier, and then the cello was truly finished and I swapped my cello for an electric guitar.
Hugo Lachance: Well listen, excellent choice.
Éric Goulet: And a few years later, I got an amp.
Hugo Lachance: Oh wow! At what point did you realize that music was going to be fundamental for you?
Éric Goulet: Probably at 5 years old.
Hugo Lachance: Oh yeah, OK. What was the trigger?
Éric Goulet: Well, I don't know, it's always been... my oldest memories, I think, are pretty much linked to music. My parents had a... I was saying they listened to the radio, but they also had a big wooden console unit at home with a turntable, a radio, and a couple of vinyls.
Hugo Lachance: A record player?
Éric Goulet: It was more than a record player. It was truly a piece of furniture, a big wooden cabinet with a radio and big white knobs. And I was fascinated by that machine. And yeah, among others, they had records like the music that was popular back then, so precisely Once Upon a Time in the West. There was also a record I listened to a lot when I played with my action figures; it was sound effects. It was all different sounds of a ton of things: sounds of planes passing by, cars passing by, thunder in the distance, thunder close up, rain, all of that. Personally, I'd put that on and invent games around it.
Hugo Lachance: Cool. Nicolas, your turn, you've had time to think. So, Nicolas Jouannaut, where did you grow up?
Nicolas Jouannaut: Rivière-des-Prairies. Montreal, in the East end, I grew up there.
Hugo Lachance: OK. And your childhood album?
Nicolas Jouannaut: My childhood album is going to be pretty much the same thing as Éric. For us, we had... my mom had a record player and it was a 45 of Once Upon a Time in the West, and I listened to that on repeat, over and over.
Hugo Lachance: Yeah. Then adolescence, your defining album.
Nicolas Jouannaut: Teenage defining album, well, there would be several. There'll be the first Led Zep, the first Black Sabbath, Aerosmith's Rocks album. That one, it was truly intense for me, that album.
Hugo Lachance: Oh yeah, OK. But that's a little bit later.
Nicolas Jouannaut: Exactly. And that's it.
Hugo Lachance: OK. And what was playing in your parents' car or at home?
Nicolas Jouannaut: At home, it was also the radio, CKAC or CJMS, with tracks by Jean-Pierre Ferland, Pauline Julien, and company, we listened to that.
Hugo Lachance: But that was fun though!
Nicolas Jouannaut: Yes, yes, there's a nostalgia behind that too.
Hugo Lachance: I remember in the Saguenay, it was CKRS playing at my grandmother's place, and a ton of tracks like that would pass by that normally you wouldn't listen to. And your first instrument?
Nicolas Jouannaut: Personally, I had a friend who had older brothers who had a band doing Beatles covers. And at one point, they really needed a bassist and they didn't know who to pick. So, they literally put a bass in my hands.
Éric Goulet: What an excellent idea!
Hugo Lachance : Yes! We salute them!
Nicolas Jouannaut: A sort of SG, an SG copy, an Epiphone I think. I had bought that, it cost me like 100 or 150 bucks, and then we started doing that.
Hugo Lachance: And at what point did you realize that music was going to be fundamental for you?
Nicolas Jouannaut: It wasn't quite then because I wasn't sure yet. It was a little bit later as things kept going. It felt like I was moving forward and each time I stepped it up a notch with every new band, and then at one point, we fell into heavier rock, Black Sabbath and all that. And then, I really loved it. I really got hooked, but at the same time, I didn't know because it was cover stuff. It wasn't very serious to me yet. But it didn't matter. I kept moving forward and often I'd go from one band to another, and I always went up a bit. I always had fun pushing it further and the passion came progressively.
Hugo Lachance: Cool. We are here to talk about your latest album, the excellent Éloge de la chute. It's your 6th album. However, to properly understand Les Chiens, you have to understand Possession Simple; your musical chemistry goes back really far. And here, I'll launch the conversation with the oldest article I could find on the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales website. OK, so here we go, May 20, '93. It goes back quite a ways. René Lorrain for Le Droit: "Confronted with the hardships of the trade, some musicians left the ship but others immediately replaced them. To the two survivors of the early days, Éric Goulet and drummer Olivier Renaldin, were added in '90 saxophonist Luc Lemire and bassist Nicolas Jouannaut. The shipwreck narrowly avoided, the new lineup has taken flight once more, relying this time on themselves." So, does that remind you of anything, this article?
Éric Goulet: Ah well yes, we'll dig around at home at some point, I have some that are even older than that.
Hugo Lachance: Oh yeah, OK. That's good.
Éric Goulet: I'm older than the national archives. But briefly, well yes, look, that was the story of this band. It was a long journey through the desert, I'd say, for a good while, at least. In fact, it could be Éloge de la chute, it could be the story of my life too, in the sense that it's like falling non-stop but with moments of breathing room in between.
Hugo Lachance: OK. Possession Simple—we'll go through your discography in a bit. Possession Simple was your first lineup from which Les Chiens was born.
Éric Goulet: Exactly.
Hugo Lachance: I'll keep going in the same article, it's pretty cool: "About a year ago, the group undertook to make themselves known outside of Montreal." So I'll quote you: "Our goal is to hit every region of Quebec before the end of this year, indicated the singer. With Gaspésie, Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, and the Outaouais where they will stop tonight as part of the tulip festival, it will be one of the last stages of their tour. We've had a fair amount of success in the regions up to now, he says. People find us a bit out there because of our getup in certain more remote regions."
Hugo Lachance: It's just that we aren't the type to match our socks with our guitars. But I don't believe we shock the Ottawa public too much. If you've seen Jean Leloup, you've seen everything or almost everything, while waiting, of course, for the release of their next album in the fall of '94. So did you guys end up breaking through?
Éric Goulet: Well, not really, no. But truth be told, what I think I was saying in that article is a bit true anyway, that you know, we had really beautiful successes on tour in those years. The places we went, people were truly there. Except maybe in Quebec City, which remains an absolute mystery, but I mean the rest of the places in Quebec where we went to play, it was always pretty much packed. People jumped in, we never faced hostility, we were never ignored, we were always well received. So it was a beautiful period anyway at that level, we did a lot of shows. I still have an old t-shirt we had printed back then, I think there are 75 dates in a single year, a tour. And on it, there's like Rimouski three or four times, two or three times somewhere else. We toured a lot, we never made a single cent off it. I don't know where the money went, but anyway, we played a ton, we traveled around, we met a ton of people, and it was fun all the same. And I think that somewhere, what dragged us down in the end of this story is that the company distributing our album at the time didn't believe in us at all, so to them, it wasn't worth putting records in stores.
Hugo Lachance: OK.
Éric Goulet: Which meant we sold very few albums considering the success we had live. But what was a bit of a ritual—do you remember? In every town we went to, we always went to the record store.
Nicolas Jouannaut: OK. Yeah.
Éric Goulet: There, we went to see if our record was there. Most of the time, it wasn't, or if it was, there was a single copy at $23.99, a ridiculous price for the time. So it was clear that you know, we weren't expected, so we were always fighting against that reality. We'd ask the record company to sell us a box of records and we'd go sell them at the shows because people came to see us after the show and always said the same thing: "Where do we find your album? It's nowhere."
Hugo Lachance: True.
Éric Goulet: And we didn't stop yelling at the record company. We'd walk into a store, we'd find there wasn't a single record. We'd call, we'd say: "What are you doing? You know we've been coming to play in this town for weeks, for months. Why are there no records in the store?" It makes no sense. And plus at that time, if there were no record sales, there was nothing. So it was a bit pathetic. And plus, when we came to put out our second album, the reason why the record company didn't want to release our album was: "You didn't sell enough records." It was like, great business, we love you, you really get it.
Hugo Lachance: The model has changed quite a bit, no more records, but at least it's for other reasons.
Éric Goulet: No, clearly.
Hugo Lachance: But that's it, I was talking about that too because I've hosted a lot of bands and musicians from your generation—I’m thinking of Voïvod, Groovy Aardvark—who in those years, there was also a lot of trailblazing to do in the regions.
Éric Goulet: I think there had been the period of bands in Quebec in the '60s; bands were very, very popular because there were dances. Bands like Les Classels did 150 shows a year; they'd show up in a place and there'd be a show in a village church, the next day in another. It rolled. After that, the '70s arrived, discotheques arrived, so pretty much all those bands crashed because there wasn't as much demand anymore. But there was still a certain resurgence with bands like Offenbach, Harmonium, Beau Dommage, Octobre, all those groups. They still experienced a bit of a second wind. It wasn't as much as the '60s but it wasn't bad. It was Charlebois, there was like a resurgence for Quebec rock, the big shows on the mountain and all that. That's all the late '70s, and then up until around '80, after that it was the ultimate crash. And we arrived like a few years after that crash when, you know, when Possession Simple started, it was still almost reckless.
Hugo Lachance: '86 exactly.
Éric Goulet: It was very reckless even to sing in French. We forget that, but there was truly a time when apart from Les Taches who had started doing it, we were a whole little crew of bands, Vilain Pingouin, Les Parfaits Salauds, who were starting to do rock in French.
Hugo Lachance: Absolutely.
Éric Goulet: And the first interviews I had, pretty much, those were the questions we were asked: "Why do you sing in French?" We talk about it in this article actually: "Well, because it's our language." Personally, when I started making songs, I was more of a musician than a singer. I wanted to have a band but I didn't want to be the singer. I'd write the tracks and then nobody wanted to do it. Every attempt at a band I tried to put together, people only showed up to the first rehearsal. It was truly a bit of the Sisyphus myth, pushing a rock until it rolls back down on you. So when I started making songs at first, language mattered little to me. I just wanted to have a song we could play from start to finish. And then writing lyrics, I wrote in French but it was so bad I couldn't sing it. It was dreadful.
Hugo Lachance: You couldn't sing what was being said before the referendum.
Éric Goulet : The angle wasn't obvious. So then, I started making more songs in English because the meaning was less important or it was easier to camouflage it. And gradually, well, I still realized it made no sense to sing in English.
Hugo Lachance: True.
Éric Goulet : So then, I redoubled my efforts and after about trying for several years, I finally wrote a first text that made sense, that said something and wasn't too ridiculous. And then starting from that one, it seems like it happens to me often in whatever I do, it just takes a first one, a first approach, and once I've found like an angle, then after that I can move forward. As soon as we found that path, which was a little bit before Nico joined the group, we started making songs in French that were starting to make a bit more sense. And then, the band's identity began.
Hugo Lachance: So you scream against the system.
Éric Goulet: Well, screaming against the system, that was one of the first, but that was more of a parody to me.
Hugo Lachance: Which one was the first?
Éric Goulet: I think it was "Guerre d'usure" or "Il sait."
Hugo Lachance: I'm talking about "Tu cries contre le système" because for me, there was a compilation that came out in the '80s, Kitsch 'en squat volume 1. And that marked me deeply.
Éric Goulet: That marked people!
Hugo Lachance: No, but because it stood out completely. I think it's the only track in French on Kitsch 'en squatt.
Éric Goulet: Well yes, it was maybe the only one on top of it! Imagine, that's to say how we were precursors.But back then, there were groups singing in English with the idea of breaking through. That's it. But personally, I always found that ridiculous because I remember seeing bands that were francophones singing in English and seeing them live. They start the show, they sing in English, you don't really know what they are. And then the singer comes up, with his thick Quebec accent, talking in French: "OK, well the next song is called rock and roll and whatever." It's like, oh come on! Personally, when I noticed that—maybe even I did it in the first show attempts we made—and seeing someone else do that, I told myself I can't do that. And that coincides a bit with the moment I had another epiphany, which was going to see Offenbach's farewell show at the Forum in '86. And seeing Offenbach—and I had super good tickets, I was in the third row, I had Jerry singing in my face—and seeing the whole Forum packed singing all the tracks, it truly marked me. I said, well I'd dream one day of having a packed Forum singing our tracks, but it won't happen. But it doesn't matter, at least to see that it's possible. You can reach people much more deeply by singing in your native tongue.
Hugo Lachance: Yeah, clearly.
Éric Goulet: Than by trying to be someone else.
Hugo Lachance: Yeah, especially since the new generation is also interested in that, interested in Quebec culture or singing in French, there's a renewal in that. But I want to bridge this with the previous article, we made a jump of 33 years. There's Caroline Bertrand for La Presse, published April 18, 2026: "This guy is a songwriting machine, an engine, praises his friend the bassist. People don't realize his talent in Quebec. He's a beast. And Nicolas is a great architect of the harmonic foundation of what we've done up to now." Nicolas praises him in turn: "The lyricist and composer, nearly 35 years since the release of Guerre d'usure by Possession Simple, every time we find ourselves in a jam space or on a stage, the magic takes over. It's always a joy to share. We are lucky to be a family." So I think Les Chiens after 30 years, you guys developed this beautiful chemistry. How do you work together? How do you manage to... how do you write a track with Les Chiens with all the time passing? How has it changed?
Nicolas Jouannaut: Well, the big boss remains Éric, who comes to us with stuff. It's sure we put our little touch on it and try to bring our contribution. But Éric often comes to us, all the time with the... at least lately it's been like that. He arrives with the demos and we build on it to take it a bit further. We talk, we play.
Hugo Lachance: But are there things that have changed in 30 years in terms of composition or has it always been pretty much the same thing?
Nicolas Jouannaut: Yes and no, but it always depends. Over time, it seems we give ourselves less of a chance to work on the tracks beforehand, to work on the demos. Saying, well for 3 months we're gonna work on this once a week so it's ideal, but we don't have the same work rhythm we used to have.
Éric Goulet: What has changed a lot is the group's modus operandi because we started from a... I think the era when Nico arrived in '90, this band was the army. It was three nights a week of rehearsals, Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday from 7 to 10. You had to bring a doctor's note if you weren't there, and if you were 5 minutes late, you needed to have a good reason. It was the army. I was very dictatorial about it because I was so discouraged for years from trying to do something and people not taking it seriously. And finally you wound up, you were a band of 5 and you had three who were there waiting for an hour and a half for the other two to arrive. It was demoralizing to the max. And personally, I was sick of it. And I started to be much more dictatorial. We truly passed from three and we were a super band, and back then, there was much more collaboration because we were together regularly.
Hugo Lachance: Oh yeah!
Éric Goulet: And like any band, when you get to the jam space you set up, you tune up, and then someone starts a groove, a riff, something, and everyone jumps in. Many songs were composed like that in the band's history, they were jams. But we don't have that dynamic today because now we all have families, some don't even live in Montreal, so we don't have a band routine anymore.
Hugo Lachance: Each person has their own little studio too.
Éric Goulet: We are more, that's it—we didn't have studios back then, we didn't have access to much to record ourselves apart from maybe a little Fostex cassette recorder. It's sure that that has changed a lot, technology has entered into it too. The fact that on my end, I can produce practically an album from A to Z in my basement. And after that, what interests me is still the band's interaction. For me it's important that especially if I start composing songs and I think it's the group that's gonna play them, Les Chiens who are gonna play it, well I make sure to leave room afterwards. I don't go too far into my programming so that there's room left for the musicians to interpret them and give life to it.
Hugo Lachance: We're gonna listen to the album in a bit, I can't wait to see. I liked it for you guys, it's the photo that accompanied the article in '93, seeing that.
Éric Goulet: No, that's in Le Droit. Elodie Bernier who took those photos. Olivier, quite a chest!
Nicolas Jouannaut: Is that in Voir?
Hugo Lachance: No, that's in Le Droit.
Éric Goulet: They must have taken the same photo.
Nicolas Jouannaut: Olivier, quite a chest anyway!
Éric Goulet: Hey boy! The erotic carpet!
Hugo Lachance: We'll see, well basically your discography from Possession Simple. There are two albums, there's Guerre d'usure in '92, then in '94, there's Cru, which are reissued. That's it.
Hugo Lachance: And now, we'll move on to the Wikipedia fact-check segment for Possession Simple. It's a good way to set the record straight. So I'll give you some facts and you validate them or we discuss them: active from '86 to '96. Possession Simple wins the Envol Rock contest in '88. The first album, Guerre d'usure, comes out in '92. Yes, all of that is true.
Éric Goulet: Yes, absolutely.
Hugo Lachance: OK. The band's name refers, in common vocabulary, to the simple possession of a controlled substance under the law regulating certain drugs and other substances in Canada, that's to say possession for personal use.
Éric Goulet: Yes, that was the reference a bit. Yes, well it's because it must be said that back then we had our three mandatory rehearsals per week, we had a space that, for the anecdote, was Offenbach's old space on Plessis Street.
Hugo Lachance: OK.
Éric Goulet: So, we were very excited about all that, saying: "Hey man, they practiced here man!" That too probably stayed with us, at least on my part, I found it very impressive. And at the corner of the street, there was a place called Cannabis Montréal, and that was a guy who was a pioneer who advocated for the liberalization of soft drugs. And he had literally opened a coffee shop.
Hugo Lachance: Oh yeah!
Éric Goulet: At the corner of Plessis and La Fontaine, I think. And for us, well it was at the corner of our jam space. When we arrived from the Beaudry metro, we always made a quick stop at the coffee shop to buy a little something. It was very much in the spirit of the times, that word came up often in articles. And for us, the first songs we had were songs a bit about passionate or a bit tormented love.
Éric Goulet: Possession of possessives, for me there was a bit of a play on words in there. Finding band names is such a hell that it seems like as soon as someone finds something that doesn't bother anyone, we say: "OK, that's it." Nobody is really for it, but nobody is against it. So it will suffice.
Hugo Lachance: It's like the defense argument if you get caught with weed.
Éric Goulet: That's it exactly.
Hugo Lachance: We keep going. The band's path is characterized by critical success but abysmal record sales, as we discussed. Despite a rare radio breakthrough at that time for alternative rock bands with the track "Comme un cave," commercial success does not materialize. The band's singer and guitarist, Éric Goulet, explains in 2013 that Possession did up to 70 shows a year in the early '90s, but didn't have the right to sell its album at its concerts. The distributor Musicor therefore barely supported them.
Éric Goulet: Well, we discussed it anyway. Yes, exactly.
Hugo Lachance: But I'm not inventing anything, so far Wikipedia works. Thanks Wiki! According to Goulet, one of the band's models is Joe Jackson's Body and Soul album. The group had François Blanchette as manager. All of that is very true.
Éric Goulet: Yeah.
Éric Goulet: Yes. Joe Jackson, for me back then, was a big influence because he was an artist who played in many different genres. He could make a pretty punk rock album like his first two albums, Look Sharp! and I'm the Man. And then he did a reggae-style album. After that he did a jazz album. After that, he did the Night and Day album which was a bit more Latin.
Éric Goulet: After that, he did Body and Soul which was more smooth pop with brass, arrangements. It's artists like that who influence me personally, like Neil Young for example, who can make a truly heavy grunge rock album and then a country folk album without having boundaries. It makes sense in the end. It's sure that in the context of a group as such, I think it's less appropriate to jump from one genre to another, but yes.
Hugo Lachance: Chapter 7: Les Chiens
We're talking about Les Chiens, so what's the story? We'll start with the name: where does the name Les Chiens come from?
Éric Goulet: Well again, it was the only name I found where nobody was against it. When you say Les Chiens, there is a silence. In fact, the story is a little bit more elaborate.
Éric Goulet: It's just that when we decided that the group Possession Simple was well dead and buried, there was still Olivier who had been there since '86, Nico who had been there since '90, and me who was there from the beginnings too. We still had the same rhythmic core if you will, but we didn't have songs.
Hugo Lachance: OK.
Éric Goulet: We had ideas. At first, we had tried to pursue with certain songs from Possession Simple that lent themselves to the trio formula without the saxes. And pretty quickly, we realized that it was more or less relevant. It was our manager at the time, Claude Larivée, who suggested that we should maybe reinvent ourselves completely. Personally, it had been 10 years with Olivier that we carried this group. Possession Simple, it's like we felt we had reached the end of the adventure.
Éric Goulet: We had half the songs that we didn't find really relevant anymore, that didn't adapt to what we felt like saying at that moment. So the idea of making a clean slate imposed itself. We started over like at the beginning, in the sense that we still had our good discipline of three nights a week, but we didn't have songs, for instance. It was more about improvising and finding ideas.
Hugo Lachance: And what were the guidelines to reinvent Les Chiens?
Éric Goulet: It was definitely a more rock approach. It was truly more rock. Whereas in Possession Simple, there was a strong slant towards funk a bit style Red Hot Chili Peppers, which was very popular in those years. After that, I think paradoxically, it's after seeing a band called Morphine.
Hugo Lachance: Yes.
Éric Goulet: Morphine, who themselves were the epitome of what we were trying to do. It was truly a dark band. There wasn't even a guitar, it was a two-string bass with a slide, a baritone sax, drums. It was super minimalist, very atmospheric. I told myself that that was more the path to follow, but without the saxes. So we started from that kind of thing. We had seen Morphine at the time of Possession Simple and we told ourselves that that was truly something else. There was a seed planted and there was a song we had done on Cru called "Lundi."
Hugo Lachance: OK.
Éric Goulet: Which was a very dark, very atmospheric song. I told myself that it was more towards there we should go rather than towards loud tracks with big beats and big solos. From there was born the new musical direction of Les Chiens. One of the first songs we developed ended up being called "Fido."
Hugo Lachance: Yes. Yes.
Éric Goulet: And it told the story of a guy who thought he was a dog or a dog who thought he was a guy. It wasn't clear in the story. But since it was the first signature song, we told ourselves: "What could fit as a name?" The name Les Chiens kind of came out. There was like the appearance of a plan.
Éric Goulet: The current lineup is Marc Chartrain on drums, Nicolas Jouannaut on bass, Éric Goulet on vocals, guitar, keyboards, and programming. Former members: Olivier Renaldin on drums, and Roger Miron, a permanent honorary member.
Éric Goulet: When we did the first shows with Les Chiens between '98 and 2000, we were still a trio. At one point, we put out a record called La Nuit dérobée where I completely forgot the idea that we were a trio. We made a very cool record, I let loose completely with synthesizers, a Moog, I had a ton of gear.
Hugo Lachance: I think there's a very good episode of L'Album Podcast on it, go check that out in the comments, the link is there.
Éric Goulet: From there, when we started the shows, we felt like something was missing. Roger had already played with us in Possession Simple, we invited him as a second guitarist, so we knew each other for a long time. I had worked with the French B too, which he was a part of. Quiet naturally, he became the guy who plays the additional lines live.
Hugo Lachance: OK. Roger played for what, 10 years easily?
Nicolas Jouannaut: Roger, we knew him back in the time of Possession. We had the same manager, François, and we often did shows together. That's where we met.
Nicolas Jouannaut: That's where the collaborations started quietly. The family grew.
Hugo Lachance: OK. Sylvain Cormier wrote a superb article in Le Devoir about the album. I'll come back to it. Éric, I'll quote you: "There aren't many people I've rubbed shoulders with over such a long and recurring period as Marc and Nico. That's part of the solution, community. In this ultra-materialistic era, our only defense is to be together, stay close to your loved ones and hope that it's gonna inspire people." Is the chemistry still good in the band?
Éric Goulet: Well yes, clearly we're still here, we feel like being here. There may have been moments over the last 10 years where motivation was less there because we felt like we were fighting against windmills, and on my end in parallel I started doing other things. We always go with the current project.
Éric Goulet: But it was never a question of saying that the band is done. Time passes, we tell ourselves it's been a long time since we saw each other, but this text by Cormier is magnificent. It feels good to hear that. I find the unity that still exists in the band cool.
Hugo Lachance: We're gonna do the same thing: the Wikipedia test for Les Chiens this time. OK, the group is founded in '97 by Éric Goulet, Nicolas Jouannaut, and Olivier Renaldin, three former members of Possession Simple. After the release of their first self-titled album in June '98, they perform notably at the Francofolies de Montréal and the Festival d'été de Québec.
Nicolas Jouannaut: La Nuit dérobée, that was a big album.
Éric Goulet: That came after the first album. The self-titled album is the first. The second arrived two years later.
Hugo Lachance: OK. But you guys were still propelled into festivals.
Éric Goulet: Yes, we had a beautiful run. Our management company was La Tribu. We had the chance to do many prestigious opening acts. We played opening for Noir Désir, for Pagliaro, we did fun shows.
Hugo Lachance: OK.
Éric Goulet: It was modest compared to what we had known with Possession, but it was still a good start.
Hugo Lachance: The album La Nuit dérobée comes out in June 2000 and receives the following year the Félix for alternative album of the year. That helped you guys.
Éric Goulet: It's an important album for us, yeah.
Hugo Lachance: The group represents Quebec during the 6th Jeux de la Francophonie held in Ottawa and Gatineau.
Éric Goulet: And yes.
Hugo Lachance: I wondered if that wasn't an error. What's the context?
Éric Goulet: It was epic. It feels like the two don't fit together.
Éric Goulet: We were truly like dogs among bowling pins. At the Jeux de la Francophonie, there are Olympic disciplines but also a cultural component, including a music component. Someone from our entourage had submitted our application and we were chosen to represent Quebec in song. It was in July 2001, not long before September 11th.
Hugo Lachance: It went well?
Éric Goulet: Not really no, but it was fascinating. An experience.
Hugo Lachance: But you guys played?
Éric Goulet: It was like a competition, we played one after the other. There were people from all kinds of countries of the Francophonie.
Hugo Lachance: Were there bands from other countries?
Éric Goulet: There weren't that many bands. There was a Belgian band, I think... It was a lot of singers.
Hugo Lachance: You guys were a bit alternative, but the rest wasn't.
Éric Goulet: Finally, it's a singer from Vanuatu who won. We were still very rock. At the end of the performance, I don't remember the song, but I threw my guitar.
Hugo Lachance: Oh yeah!
Éric Goulet: It totally shocked the judges. It disqualified us automatically. I should have never thrown my guitar! Who knows, we might have won a medal. We were housed in the Olympic village, it was absurd. We were in a dorm, there was a cafeteria, there were a lot of constraints.
Éric Goulet: It was total absurdity. We didn't have the right to drink wine while eating in the cafeteria.
Hugo Lachance: OK.
Éric Goulet: We could drink wine outside but we couldn't take food outside. It was absurd. Why couldn't we eat outside in peace?
Hugo Lachance: You guys were rockers in a hyper-disciplined world, it had no connection.
Éric Goulet: There were athletes with tight lifestyles, and we arrived very late. It’s truly the best image of the Gauls landing at the Olympic village! For a week, we felt like we were in prison.We stayed there for almost a week. IIt was impressive to see people taking ice baths before a competition, and we walked around in the middle of it. We were told we could practice, my plan was to take advantage of it to play.
Hugo Lachance: Like a residency?
Éric Goulet: Sort of!
Éric Goulet: We thought about making new tracks. But it was super complicated to get access to a rehearsal studio because everything was extremely regimented.
Éric Goulet: It was impossible. We would have had to take a shuttle at 8am, it was a logistical nightmare. Finally we did nothing. Fortunately, the Quebec delegation found us small side gigs.
Hugo Lachance: So as not to play just on the day of the competition.
Éric Goulet: We had an occasion that ended in a fight because we played in a park and we got yelled at because our truck was parked near the stage.
Hugo Lachance: Oh yeah!
Éric Goulet: There was a huge storm and we had nowhere to put the instruments. The park representative told us we didn't have the right. In short, situations like that.
Hugo Lachance: OK. Well at least that clears up the point about Les Chiens as Olympic artists. Very good anecdote. The new studio album titled Debout is released in April 2003. In 2004, the track "Le risque de l'habitude" wins the SOCAN song of the year award.
Nicolas Jouannaut: Cool all the same. Yes.
Hugo Lachance: Drummer Olivier Renaldin leaves Les Chiens before the release of the Rostoff album in 2005 and is replaced by Marc Chartrain. How did the transition go? Where does Marc come from?
Éric Goulet: Olivier quit because he had been there since '86, it had been a really long time.
Éric Goulet: When we put out Debout, we did a few shows, but not that many. He had started working as a computer programmer, he made a good living and had just had a child. He no longer had the motivation to continue, which is understandable. Around the same time, I was working on the album of a guy named Jean-François Fortier.
Hugo Lachance: OK.
Éric Goulet: And the drummer hired for that session was Marc. I met him there. What attracted me was that in the studio it was very hard with Olivier because he didn't want to play with a click. It was super complicated. Live it was impeccable, but in recording it was often a headache.
Éric Goulet: With Marc, I realized that in the studio it could be easy and that we could have fun. We auditioned a few drummers, even Simon Bossé.
Hugo Lachance: Oh yes, OK.
Éric Goulet: We love him, he would have been a very good candidate, but Marc's more polished side tipped the scale. He was very happy to join us.
Hugo Lachance: You guys made a good choice. Yes.
Chapter 11: Discographie: Les Chiens
Hugo Lachance: The discography: '98 Les Chiens, the album I had forgotten. 2000 La Nuit dérobée, 2001 musical double CD. After that, 2003 Debout, 2005 Rösk. We talked about those albums. Rösk, what was that adventure like? If say you had to summarize the Rösk adventure, what would it be?
Éric Goulet: Rösk was the first record after Olivier with Marc. It's an album we made relatively live in studio. It was pretty much that.
Nicolas Jouannaut: Well it was an experience. Exactly, since Marc was joining us, Éric had the idea that we should really compose the album as a group.
Éric Goulet: The experience of that was that we're gonna try to make an album in like a month and a half. From start to finish. We set up at Marc's cabin in Trois-Pistoles for a couple of days. We set up in a room with gear to record ourselves and we spent three days there just playing. Someone would start a beat, a bass riff, a guitar riff, whatever.
Hugo Lachance: There was nothing at all at the start?
Éric Goulet: There was nothing at all. As soon as we had something we found fun, we recorded it. We archived it. Often, what we tried to do was have at least two parts. We'd tell ourselves: "OK, this would be like the verse, where can we go with this? OK, the chorus is gonna be this." And then, as soon as we had those two ideas recorded, we moved on to another thing. We gathered about twenty ideas like that over a 48-hour period.
Éric Goulet: After that, I went back home, I shook that up in my computer and then I started re-listening to all of it. Doing a bit of collage. I tried to think of texts, what certain musics could inspire. Out of the 30 ideas we had, I reduced that to maybe 12 or 15 and then I started writing texts. Once I wrote the texts, I went back to the demos we had made and then I pasted them like a photo cut to make it like a song.
Éric Goulet: Then we saw each other again, we played the songs like real songs to appropriate them and we recorded them in the studio again in about two days. At Studio Piccolo with Ghyslain-Luc.
Hugo Lachance: I had asked you a question about fifteen years ago and I found your anecdote really fun. The story of the title, where does Rösk come from?
Éric Goulet: Marc wasn't happy with that decision! I had at my place at the time a little Chinese keyboard with built-in beats and there was one, instead of being written "rock," it was written "Rösk."
Hugo Lachance: I really liked that story about the Chinese keyboard.
Éric Goulet: When we finished recording all the music, we were satisfied with it. We threw a party, we did a barbecue, we invited our friends, our girlfriends to the studio, we ate, we drank wine. And then after that, in about 1h30, I set up in a booth with a bottle of wine and I sang all the tracks one after the other. Those are the takes that are on the album. After that, Ghyslain mixed in 5 or 6 days.
Éric Goulet: From the moment we have no songs until the end of the process where the album is mixed, it was about a month and a half. It was truly an exercise in spontaneity compared to what we had done before with Debout or La Nuit dérobée which were productions over a long period. It's an album that could have been called Cru basically. We really wanted to make something "in your face."
Éric Goulet: There was a whole strategy around it: release the album then do a tour of Quebec bars. Finally, unfortunately, the record company C4 at the time didn't deliver the goods at all. We wound up with a powerful album, very rock-oriented, that we practically didn't play. It's our greatest catastrophe. Not artistically, but in terms of marketing. It's dreadful what happened with that record.
Hugo Lachance: We continue with Le long sentier. Is it an anthology?
Éric Goulet: Yes. There is the 2017 self-titled, those are the EPs. We released an EP in 2016 and another in 2017. Those two records were united into a full album the same year in 2017. The front is a work by Sophie d'Alè. But it's also again another album that was supposed to be supported by a tour that didn't really take place.
Hugo Lachance: I'm running through your discography Éric to paint a quick portrait. You have three country solo albums, a project Les Dévadés with Luc de la Rochellière, Monsieur Mono (three albums including the excellent Le grand nulle part for which I did the music video right here at La Salle des Tortues). ou are a producer too: three albums for WD-40, including two classics albums., Vincent Vallières' Le repère tranquille, Yan Perreau's Un nucléaire, Alexandre Belliard's Des fantômes des étoiles, Amélie Veille's Mon cœur pour te garder, Michel Rivard's Roi de rien, Tom Chicoine's Divertir, Pierre Flynn's Sur la terre...
Éric Goulet: With Philippe Brault too.
Hugo Lachance: We'll move on to the album presentation segment. Sylvain Cormier wrote on April 18, 2026 for Le Devoir: "Les Chiens have been barking, growling, and protecting crowds of humans since '97." It's a beautiful phrase. "When it bombs outside, they rally to the kennel, remake their good noise, come back out invigorated to the attack." Éric says it well: playing with Les Chiens is a catharsis. The snowball effect is always just as strong: I write two or three songs, I play them with the boys, and that brings others. It doesn't take long before we have an album. It's being able to express oneself intensely. Nico has key phrases that always open the door. We are in the news as much as possible. We don't try to please just to please.
Hugo Lachance: What is the writing context for this album? What is your approach for Éloge de la chute?
Éric Goulet: I wrote the texts a lot in reaction to what has been happening in the world for a couple of years. It's the result of being not saturated, but not far from it, by the ambient absurdity over the last 2 or 3 years. It's fascinating. I am someone who can't help but read the newspaper first thing in the morning. It's an old habit. You can't help but be struck by everything that's going on. It's a self-defense process to try to synthesize all that to have a survival reflex.
Hugo Lachance: That carries over a lot into the composition. Ghyslain Lagacé wrote for Pulsation Webzine on April 17, 2026: "A record that captures an era where the sun seems to go out with all the intensity and melancholy that characterizes their music." Éloge de la chute consists of nine tracks that navigate between alternative rock, galactic atmospheres, electroneuralgic post-punk, and synth-wave pop. They cite Kid A-era Radiohead, Depeche Mode, The Cure, or Wilco. If we had to put labels to guide listeners, what would they be? Nicolas?
Nicolas Jouannaut: You're putting me in a tough spot. I can't answer you.
Hugo Lachance: There are still some good clues. You guys brought a synth-wave and post-punk side. We really feel the '80s in certain places.
Éric Goulet: Those are all bands that marked us. We reach a point where our influences end up being totally digested and owned. Maybe before I would have taken a particular guitar sound and said: "Ah, that sounds too much like The Cure, we won't do it." Now, I say: "Hey, it's cool, it sounds like The Cure." We have more of a letting go. Maybe it means that some influences that were, let’s say, kept on a leash are more fully assumed now.
Hugo Lachance: It's so well integrated. Is there a concept surrounding this album?
Éric Goulet: I tried to think of it a bit as a concept album. Hence the nod to Pink Floyd. Once we finished recording the drums and bass, it was clear that the album started with "L'automne au cœur." The band appears in layers: the drums, the vocals, the guitar, the bass. It was a good introduction.
Éric Goulet: "Éloge de la chute" is a song about the place we leave for technology in our lives. "Tu venais vers moi" is a poetic rumination on the human bond. "Les heures brunes," we are more in the morning routine of a person. "Le blues des lendemains" is a song I wrote the day after the American elections when I was discouraged. It also coincided with the period when Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois had resigned from his post; I felt a weariness from people who get involved in causes.
Éric Goulet: "Mauvais sens" is a song that had already been released as a single a few years ago. Nico or Marc suggested adding it to the album. "Mauvais sang" is the portrait of a guy who might go commit a mass shooting. Someone who feels neglected, forgotten and who wants to show the world he exists in the worst possible way. Fortunately, in the chorus, something happens and it stays open.
Éric Goulet: "Cet homme, tu vois" is a collage experiment. During the pandemic, I had created a musical track with piano and a guitar solo. I wanted to do a thing a bit like a concerto for electric guitar. At one point, I crossed a guy on the street who was all messed up; he didn't hit me physically but he impressed me. I thought of a time in my life where things weren't great and where I could have been that man. I thought of a time in my life where things weren't great—it didn't last long, fortunately, because I was lucky to have people around me who helped. And the reflection was: I could have been that man. It could have been me. I developed the idea around that situation. I came back with that text and I had no music. Then I remembered the guitar concerto .I wanted to do a narration at the start, but it placed itself like a melody and it became a song.
Hugo Lachance: We'll move on to the album credits. Title: Éloge de la chute (2026). Record company: Les disques de la cordonnerie. Production: Éric Goulet with the assistance of André Papanicolaou. Musicians: Éric (vocals, guitar, keyboards, programming), Nicolas (bass), Marc (drums). We also have Roger Miron (guitar), André (guitar, EBow), Mario Légaré (Chapman Stick and double bass), Vincent Carré (hi-hat).
Éric Goulet: On "Les heures brunes," it was a very mechanical drum beat. I had thought of Peter Gabriel's song "Red Rain" where Stewart Copeland plays nothing but hi-hat on the whole track. I had the flash to have someone do a hi-hat track on it and it's Vincent who did it.
Hugo Lachance: We also have Pierre Flynn (Hammond B3), Marc-Antoine Sévigny (sound engineering), Ghyslain-Luc (mixing), Le Lab (mastering). Recorded in the winter of 2025. 9 tracks, 38 minutes. The cover now. It's a magnificent cover that is a pastiche of Pink Floyd's Animals. On Animals, there's a track called "Dogs." Everything is connected.
Éric Goulet: It's an idea I've been carrying around since the existence of Les Chiens. Every time I passed in front of the Carrières incinerator in Montreal, it made me think of Pink Floyd; it was the Montreal equivalent of what the Battersea power station was in London. I told myself it would be funny to have an inflatable dog floating instead of a pig.
Éric Goulet: I talked about it with my friend Alexandre Chartrand, a filmmaker. He had already done a photographic project on this incinerator. We looked for inflatable dogs, but Alexandre came up with the idea of taking a small plastic dog and pasting it on the photo so that it looked more like "DIY." He took a photo of the incinerator—you can see a ramp that has since been destroyed, so we are already in the realm of the "Artifact"—he made a very large print of it. Then, he pasted the dog with a piece of dental floss to represent the wire, and he retook a photo of the artwork. It's a photo of a retouched photo.
Hugo Lachance: A few questions from the public. Anthony Goulet asks if there is any Minimoog on it?
Éric Goulet: Anthony is my cousin. He graciously lent me his Minimoog a few years ago and I must admit that I use it as often as possible.
Hugo Lachance: Fanny Lussier asks: how do you determine if a song is for yourself, for Les Chiens, for Monsieur Mono, or for someone else?
Éric Goulet: It's always a bit of a coin toss. If it's very emotional, intimate, confessional, it's gonna be Monsieur Mono. If it's more rhythmic and driving, it's gonna be for Les Chiens. Sometimes, I have very simple ideas that lean towards country for my solo albums. It's rare that I write for others, except for commissions like for Daniel Boucher's girlfriend recently. She's going to make an album and she approached me to write a song for her. The Jupiter 4 has been there since Debout, I always use the same old instruments for 20 years or more that come back through projects that I recycle, that I reuse.
Hugo Lachance: An anonymous question: did you favor the garage side of your beginnings or integrate new sonic experiments?
Éric Goulet: There are a lot of textures because I have a keyboard rack permanently hooked up at my place. Sometimes, while going to do a load of laundry, I press two notes and it gives an idea, like the Jupiter-4 arpeggiator for "Éloge de la chute." There are more synthetic textures, but it's been a signature since La Nuit dérobée.
Hugo Lachance: We finish with the Salut à toi segment. I salute the podcast La prescription du docteur Fred Lambert. Fred hosts artists in a very pleasant philosophical atmosphere. Go check that out. Fred Lambert, salute to you.
Chapter 2: SEGMENT: One Song After Another
Hugo Lachance: We're gonna move on to the "one song after another" segment. The goal is to listen to a short excerpt then afterwards I invite you to comment to know all the secrets behind the songs. So we start with "L'automne au cœur."
Chapter 3: L'automne au cœur
Hugo Lachance: "De désastre en désastre je passe pour un vainqueur. Comme un chien dans un jeu vidéo, un agent perturbateur. Les désordres sont clairs, j'ai tout misé sur moi." Well, unfortunately, we have to stop there. But what a track! When I heard that, I went: "Wow!" I truly digged it. Something really fun is happening with Les Chiens. Everything is perfect as you were explaining earlier. Each instrument arrives one after the other in layers, with the beat then the guitar riff.
Éric Goulet: Yeah, that was André Papanicolaou who came up with that idea. Talking about this song is too crazy. I think initially it was a bit of an experiment like many other songs where sometimes I have like cravings. Say I go to a bar or to someone's house and I hear a track playing in the background, but I only hear the beat. And it seems like it inspires me. It seems to me it would be cool to have a track a bit like that. And sometimes I go back home and then I start messing around with loops or things like that. And then I caught onto something fun.
Éric Goulet: From there, I develop. Sometimes I do a bit of the same thing with the lyrics too because I have notebooks or what I call pads where I gather phrases from when I have a flash, like "de désastre en désastre, je passe pour un vainqueur." I write that down, I have no idea what it means. But I tell myself it's cool. I have a ton like that of stuff. From time to time when I tell myself I'm gonna try to make a song with that, well I pull out my things and then I find this phrase, and I keep going.
Éric Goulet: I gather like a bunch of phrases together and after that I go back over them and sometimes I'll change a word, change a thing so that it looks more like a real sentence. It's truly a collage work. I don't always use this approach, but sometimes I find it fun. Inspired a bit by—I had seen this in an interview with David Bowie that he often worked like that. He literally deconstructed sentences to have surprising images, not to always go where you think you're gonna go, it takes you elsewhere.
Éric Goulet: I try to use these techniques, whether in music or in lyrics. It works. I had the phrase "j'ai l'automne au cœur, un mal haut en couleur." I had that phrase. I found it was a beautiful image. It's truly a whole assembly work of trying things. At the level of the texts, it's more image-driven, this one. It's truly a cut-up exercise basically.
Hugo Lachance: And the core of this track, how did you guys start with this one?
Éric Goulet: Well, it's really the beat. There was this beat.
Hugo Lachance: Is it a beat from Marc?
Éric Goulet: No. I'm the one who found that in GarageBand.
Hugo Lachance: Oh yeah? Haha!
Éric Goulet: I'm the one who found that in GarageBand. And I thought it was cool. It had a little side a bit style New Orleans or a kind of marching band, something like that. I found it original. I told myself we don't really have a song that looks like that. And after that the structure built itself, the chorus arrived, I added chords. But initially it was almost like a rap. It was truly just one chord the whole time. But I find it's a beautiful way to set the table for the album.
Hugo Lachance: Absolutely. And how did you see the bass in it? Because it rings out, the bass, the sound, the texture, your playing is really fun.
Nicolas Jouannaut: Well as I said earlier, Éric often arrives with the demos but by dint of playing, at one point the picture locks. And with Marc too, because throughout the album the bass is really good. We did it in the studio, the basses were done pretty quickly. With Marc, he's a super solid drummer who always plays a little bit on the backbeat, a little bit behind, so it forces you to breathe through your nose when you play with him. It's cool. And playing heavy is thinking heavy all the time. Everything is in its place. I try not to put too much, and what I put, it has to be good all the time.
Hugo Lachance: It's like that all throughout the album. I find you guys managed the bass very well. Every instrument is in its place. It's super important. Anything else to add? No? OK, here we go with "Éloge de la chute."
Chapter 4: Éloge de la chute
Hugo Lachance: "J'ai le cœur en plein brouillard mais j'ai les idées claires. J'ai les deux pieds sur terre mes mains tâtent dans le noir. J'en ai croisé bien d'autres, j'ai cru qu'ils étaient des miens. Ils ne cherchaient que des apôtres et j'ai coupé les liens. Toi qui m'as mis au monde pour guider ton destin. Tu ne connais rien des ombres que je regarde dans mon sein. Et je fonce sans même savoir où je vais et je tombe sans même savoir d'où je viens." Super beautiful. Thank you. There are good texts on it. It's a beautiful song too with a beautiful melody. What are the secrets of this song?
Éric Goulet: Well, this is a song that starts precisely with a sort of arpeggiator I had found by chance. So it was really about starting a bit from that kind of atmosphere that was a bit mechanical. When the text manifested itself pretty quickly, I like thought a bit about artificial intelligence, software, everything we use to supposedly make our lives easier but which perhaps has a dark side we can't suspect. It's a bit in the spirit of that.
Hugo Lachance: Personally I think artificial intelligence is a tool a bit like any other. You just have to be careful. Like all tools, you can't let your hammer manage your life.
Éric Goulet: No, clearly. But at the same time, you see those who use artificial intelligence very well, you don't realize it. I also make a distinction between the use of artificial intelligence for artistic creation and what I find even more worrying: the use to manage corporations, wars, or whatever. That's where we enter Skynet a bit. That's what I find concerning. I think we still need to have small safeguards in there.
Hugo Lachance: Totally. We need to have the debate on that, for sure. Another super beautiful track. Why make it the title of the album?
Éric Goulet: I thought it was a great title. I liked the title of the song a lot. And we already had two self-titled albums, so it wasn't really an option. I found it evocative. We don't really know what it means but those are often the phrases that please me most. You read the phrase, you listen to it and it looks like it wants to say something but you have no idea what it is. It's fun, this distance, when you leave room for interpretation.
Éric Goulet: I realized that it's been a few years now that I've been writing lyrics, and at the beginning I always told myself that people were gonna know too much what I think, I felt like I was too exposed. Only to realize finally that for one, people don't listen all that much to the lyrics and that for two, those who listen to them, they understand what they want to understand anyway. From that moment on, I said: "Look, I'm gonna do this thinking what I think it means, but the rest doesn't belong to me."
Hugo Lachance: That's completely fine. Sometimes when I do the podcast, I listen to the albums at least five times and I have an interpretation of a track, and then after discussing it, it's really not what I thought. It's a work like a painting in a museum.
Éric Goulet: To you it means that, and to another person something completely else. That's the beauty of art exactly. Total freedom.
Hugo Lachance: We move on to "Tu venais vers moi"?
Chapter 5: Tu venais vers moi
Hugo Lachance: "Si je ne te connaissais pas entre les rêves et le réveil, tant de choses qu'on oubliera. Mais la terre tourne autour du soleil. Tu as vu faire tes premiers pas et tu venais vers moi." Lovely text. Note that Pierre Flynn is on it on the Hammond. I want to thank Pierre Flynn, I had so much fun with him during his episode. So, "Tu venais vers moi"?
Éric Goulet: Initially, I already had a few songs done and at one point I was on my bed with my guitar. Often on our albums we have instrumental songs. I told myself it would be cool to have a song like that on the record. I had developed that idea. I went down to my basement to make a demo, I looked for beats and that groove appeared. The more I listened to it, the more I told myself it called for more than just an instrumental.
Éric Goulet: So then, I got an idea for a very slow, very floating melody, but I didn't really have words. I had to rack my brain, pull out the dictionaries. I dove into the grease of pure creation. I came up with a quantity of phrases, I made a selection to have a meaning. This is your second single.
Hugo Lachance: I like how you guys managed to make a track that sounds pop but of quality.
Éric Goulet: Thank you. We aren't against pop per se, we like something that is attractive. Those are songs that are fun to play. After that, it's about having a text that isn't too sappy. For me the margin is always thin because I often use a vocabulary that's perhaps too sophisticated for nothing, but most of the time fairly simple with images. I want us not to feel the effort.
Éric Goulet: It has to look easy. If you tell yourself: "Oh my god, he really racked his brain over those lyrics," I think it's a bit of a failure. I try to have simple terms, simple images. When you write rock songs, you just need the words not to be in the way. The music and the groove need to be at the forefront. Since these are very long and slow phrases, someone listening to it in a show for the first time wouldn't understand anything. They're just gonna hear beautiful images passing by.
Éric Goulet: In rock, unless it's folk, you lose the meaning pretty quickly if you don't have the text in front of you. The song starts, the beat kicks in, the singer begins, you catch the first two or three phrases and then at one point, the bass does a thing, the guitarist does a thing. There, you're completely checked out and the voice becomes like an instrument. That's fine.
Hugo Lachance: Super good track. Now, the track "Les heures brunes."
Chapter 6: Les heures brunes
Hugo Lachance: "Avant le jour en guise de soleil, le monde sans amour." It's not a marathon song but it's like a long journey on the same riff the whole time for 5 minutes. I highlight that Mario Légaré is on the Chapman Stick on it. There's also Vincent Carré and his hi-hat solo, and André Papanicolaou on guitar. What's the idea behind "Les heures brunes"?
Éric Goulet: Well it's another experiment in messing around with beats and riffs. Sometimes it starts from a phrase like "un matin qui bégaye" (a morning that stutters), set on my morning routine put into verse. The idea was to do a track style Talking Heads. I listened to Remain in Light or Fear of Music a lot. I liked the idea of a throbbing, repetitive track, which is just a groove and an atmosphere.
Hugo Lachance: How did you integrate Mario Légaré with the Chapman Stick?
Éric Goulet: I had made a base that he played. Mario had come to my place to do a track for Les Dévadés' album. I asked him to bring his Stick. We were on the song "Trou noir" and I told him I had perhaps another setup where he could have some fun. He played that and it was done.
Nicolas Jouannaut: The three double bass lines, that's him too?
Éric Goulet: Yes, it's him.
Hugo Lachance: I would have loved to see you arrive on stage with that! Like Tony Levin.
Nicolas Jouannaut: I adapted, it's a big adaptation. The three double bass lines, that's him too. He had come to play for Sandra's album and he had his double bass.
Éric Goulet: For "L'automne au cœur," I wanted a theatrical cabaret part where the band disappears and where there's only piano. I imagined a cameo with just a spotlight on the singer at the piano and Mario on the double bass in the back.
Hugo Lachance: That means we're gonna see Nicolas on the Chapman Stick in shows?
Nicolas Jouannaut: I adapted, it's a big adaptation!
Hugo Lachance: We continue with "Le blues du lendemain."
Chapter 7: Le blues du lendemain
Hugo Lachance: "Toute ma vie j'ai lutté contre les ombres qui s'étiraient. J'ai traversé d'un désert à un autre et je brûlais. Pas de mirage, le but est indéniable. Je le voyais à ma portée tout près, tout comme un fruit qu'on cueillerait. J'ai donné toute ma vie pour moins que rien et je n'ai que le blues du lendemain. Je boirai la coupe jusqu'à la lie jusqu'à ce qu'ils aient compris." It's the most "Chien" track of the album and the most "song-like" too.
Éric Goulet: It's the one that had a traditional creation. It's not a beat-search exercise, it's a lyric-driven song that started from the text.
Éric Goulet: I try to be both specific and non-specific. As long as it looks like it makes sense to the people I work with, it's fine. We aren't in realistic songwriting style Georges Brassens where each phrase is a philosophy thesis. We are in pop and rock. The important thing is what happens in the song.
Chapter 8: Interlude
Hugo Lachance: There is perhaps a little connection with Pink Floyd a bit there. Barely, barely. It's a full listen or a good interlude, it's always interesting. Personally I quite like it. So what is it, I discovered the link with Pink Floyd?
Éric Goulet: Yes well yes, I think it's important to have... I like putting little nods in things. And there was also the fact that the song that follows, not "Éloge de la chute" but "Mauvais sang," is of another vintage a bit. It has a slightly more electronic tone. So it's as if I felt, on my end, a bit of a need to have a transition between the two songs. I found the gap was a little bit harsh in my opinion, but I insisted on those two songs following each other. So that's where I got the idea to put a little thing between the two just to... On the vinyl, it flips sides, I have the impression. The tone is there.
Éric Goulet: "Le blues du lendemain" starts the second side, so it begins like that, and it's the side that is a bit more, almost more organized finally. It's like a sequence a bit: we talk about disillusionment, after that anger with "Mauvais sang," then the total fall with "Cet homme," and finally redemption through cynicism with...
Hugo Lachance: Separation is perfect! I like... when an album tells a story. Yeah, there's a bit of that all the same. Here we go, well, we continue with "Mauvais sang."
Chapter 9: Mauvais sang
Hugo Lachance: "Je dors with my weapons near me. Girl in a basement under your steps." So "Mauvais sang": "Je dors avec mes armes près de moi. Je vis dans une cave sous tes pas. Je bois le vin amer qui coule là. Et pas un jour ne passe sans que mon âme ne se casse, sans que ton malheur ne croise le mien. Le moment vient." I dipped into your lyrics, but excellent. Everything can be heard there, the rock side a bit '80s I'd say all the same, at the beginning there.
Éric Goulet: Ah yes yes, the textures sometimes can...
Hugo Lachance: Yeah yeah yeah but what a good track! Thank you. You were saying earlier that it's a track you guys salvaged?
Éric Goulet: Yes, it had already appeared as a single a few years back, but with not much impact anyway. And it's a song we've played live since then. You know, it's like a strong song of the show, I imagine. So I find it truly had its place there and that the topic fit too. There were other pieces we had considered re-using, but I find the song's subject had less to do with it. There is still a sort of guideline there that traced itself.
Hugo Lachance: But it's good, it's expressing anger like you were saying, it's really, really cool. A very good moment in the album.
Éric Goulet: Thank you.
Hugo Lachance: We pursue with, well to me what is the centerpiece a bit of this album, huh. It's fun because it brings us something new too. So, "Cet homme."
Chapter 10: Cet homme
Hugo Lachance: "Il vit dans son manteau. Qu'il fasse laid, qu'il fasse beau." It's a long excerpt because it's so beautiful how... But it's so beautiful how it sets itself up and the piano melody. Wow, magnificent. I return to Sylvain Cormier's article. I know you talked about it a bit but I find it's so well written. The whole album says it in fact. Upon listening, the song that hits hardest in the gut is titled "Cet homme." It could have been written this very moment, a raw account.
Hugo Lachance: Description of one of the homeless people crossed: "Il vit dans son manteau. Qu'il fasse laid, qu'il fasse beau. Il fonce sur le trottoir comme porté sur les eaux. Il écoute un discours qui ne compte que deux mots. Son délire est immense. Son monde est terrifiant." The main line of the chorus is the most terrifying: "J'aurais pu être cet homme," illustrates Éric Goulet with his timbre both magnificent and worn. It's beautiful. No but seriously, it's...
Éric Goulet: Yes, we are spoiled.
Hugo Lachance: Ah yeah, absolutely. I find he put art into the way of writing an article and he writes very well, Sylvain, anyway. When there is a meeting between the appreciation he made of your record and he gives all his talent to talk about it, you're like oh my god wow. That must have really pleased you. We salute him, we cite him often on the podcast by the way. So, talk to me about this song with Pierre Flynn and then Roger and André in fact, the two make layers of texture in this song.
Éric Goulet: There, it's almost too much, but I did a cleanup anyway. A cleanup that was fortunately made. Initially it was truly... There's an atmosphere with the Jupiter 4, after that there are Moog atmospheres that enter. Next, there are string loops from GarageBand that enter. And then after that, there's a piano riff I brought in and which slips in there with his B3 filling up.
Éric Goulet: It was there. You know, that's it, I think the piano riff reminds of Radiohead a bit, huh? A bit style riff or Nils Frahm. I like instrumental music a lot but it's beautiful I find. But it intended to be instrumental, this song, starting out. So I put... But you know, it's all simple little ideas I think that end up giving something complex.
Hugo Lachance: This track, personally I listened to the album about 5 times and it's always this song at first it's like "yeah," and then at one point it's a song that climbs quietly into the charts of my favorites. I find no it's... we were blessed with this song. Ah yeah, it's a very beautiful experience. And we finish there, we change register all at once. "Comment savourer la vie"?
Chapter 11: Comment savourer la vie
Hugo Lachance: "Je regarde brûler le monde et je contemple les hécatombes. Je me berce au doux chant des bombes dans le confort des catacombes. Moi qui avais peur des lendemains, aujourd'hui le cœur serein car j'ai compris." So: "Je regarde brûler le monde, je contemple les hécatombes. Je me berce au doux chant des bombes dans le confort des catacombes. Moi qui avais peur des lendemains aujourd'hui, j'ai l'esprit serein car j'ai appris comment savourer la vie. Il faut aimer le côté sombre. Je n'ai plus peur des lendemains." Ah well, so everything is fine all at once there?
Éric Goulet: Well yeah, I admit it was a bit hard to put this song to finish the album but anyway. I'm gonna get rocks thrown at me or it's gonna be... But I found it was... Sometimes I make myself laugh. Sometimes I'm my own best audience. Yes, I understand that and I found it very funny to conclude an album so dark all the same, called Éloge de la chute, with a song that is very The Cure at its most pop, you know.
Éric Goulet: But with completely dreadful lyrics. In fact what it says is to say: "Ah now everything is disgusting but I find it super." And let go because you say well, the hit in the second verse basically is the recipe. In the end, you have to love the dark side, appreciate the fact that we are deceived, appreciate oneself, etc. Well like, you have to ignore the song of the doves and laugh at those who mope. You become like now a being without feelings and cruel and detached, well then you can savor life.
Hugo Lachance: Ah yeah. So that's it because when it appeared in my car, I was like "Ah, OK." No, it's the last one. But it's beautiful because the irony in the text is truly fun.
Éric Goulet: It's important. Just the music as such is cute, but with other lyrics it would repeat truly anything. But yeah I liked the contrast a lot.
Hugo Lachance: Should we expect a reggae album from Les Chiens for the next one, since you guys started out in joy and all that?
Éric Goulet: Yes that's it. I wouldn't think so. No no.
Hugo Lachance: We went through the album guys. Yes! Last little segment to complete the interview: Lightning Round segment.
Chapter 12: SEGMENT: Rafales
Hugo Lachance: Your top 3 from the album, what would it be?
Nicolas Jouannaut: Well for me it's "Cet homme" first. Next "Éloge à la chute." And then "Tu venais vers moi," there is plenty of bass in this track.
Hugo Lachance: Yeah, that's it. We understand why. Is that it, Éric?
Éric Goulet: Well yeah, I think "Cet homme" for me wasn't clear at the beginning when we integrated it into the thing. And I realize that finally it's perhaps the most beautiful success despite myself in fact of the album. So I'm gonna go with the team. I like "L'automne au cœur" a lot. I find it's truly a classic song of Les Chiens, instantaneous. New vintage, but I find it has become a live must now, this song. And maybe "Savorer la vie" all the same, again there I find it too funny.
Hugo Lachance: Excellent. Well me, you see, "Cet homme" just climbed again in my charts. In third I had "Mauvais sang," but in second "Cet homme" and the first is "L'automne au cœur" because I was truly seduced by that. So if you had to have someone listen to one song that represents the album, which would it be?
Nicolas Jouannaut: "Cet homme."
Éric Goulet: "L'automne au cœur." It enters a bit softly and I find it does a bit what the whole album does.
Hugo Lachance: Exact, a bit of everything there is on the album. The best song of the album live?
Éric Goulet: Live we've played it just once. But in my opinion "Cet homme" is one to follow. It's not obvious, but it's gonna have a moment quite something live when we've truly locked it down.
Hugo Lachance: And then what makes you happy in this album?
Nicolas Jouannaut: To still make an album today.
Éric Goulet: Well me too to still be here and especially to know that it's well received. I'm truly flattered and touched because every single time we make an album, we are our best audience, we are very happy. But after that you can throw that into the world and it can fall straight into oblivion, but it doesn't look like it's headed for that.
Hugo Lachance: Cruel question now: if you had to remove one song on the album (and the interlude doesn't count)?
Nicolas Jouannaut: Oh damn! That's not a question. That commits to nothing there. Oh no, I don't answer that.
Éric Goulet: Oh well... maybe "Mauvais sang." Just because it's an older song that already existed. It's like the eldest of the family who has experience, he's gonna make his way anyway.
Hugo Lachance: You guys got out of it very well. Éric Goulet, Nicolas Jouannaut, that's all.
Chapter 13: Conclusion
Hugo Lachance: Thank you very much for your participation. Thank you everyone. See you for another episode. But before, I want to thank Véro from La Salle des Tortues.
Nicolas Jouannaut: Thanks Véro.
Hugo Lachance: Thanks a lot, as a tradition, to Microbrasserie Hopera who sponsored the episode. If you are interested in supporting me in my work, well there is a link in the description or you head to www.lalbumpodcast.ca. And then we find each other for a next episode of L'Album Podcast.