SP: The idea that St-Cyrille-de-Wendover and Youri [on Grand Champion international de course, 2004] are related because there’s someone sledding and getting a plaque on the head in both songs, it’s a conceptual thing that was never understood. Often, when I wrote with Olivier [Benoit, second singer until 2009], we said to ourselves “It’s going to be stupid” and no one understood. We had a very cerebral conception of what we were doing.
CD: From the album Dans mon corps [2009], Simon had to explain the text to Gus [van Go, director] all the time, and since French is not his first language, it required a greater clarity.
CD: Coming up with a song like The Doctor’s Office [2009], where the distance between the text and the emotion is so small, it definitely changed people’s view, but also the view you could have of latitude we had creatively.
SP: I remember playing it at Olivier and not being sure it was a Trois Accords song, because even though we had touched on more emotional elements with Mégaphotocopie [2004], there was always an absurd dimension.
CD: During the promo for In My Body, we started being more honest about the fact that we were working on the songs. Before, we always joked in interviews saying that we did everything on the corner of the table and we realized that people believed us.
SP: Piece of Meat [2004]. Explaining why it’s a really good idea to call your child Piece of Meat gives me a lot of pleasure.
CD: When we were recording Dans mon corps, I was already looking forward to being at a trucker festival in Abitibi and seeing them sing the song. And Dans mon corps also has something that borders on touching. Because there are also 15, 16 year old girls who completely identify with it.
SP: But maybe truckers also identify with the subject. Maybe they’ve felt that before in life. We all go through changes in our bodies. We all go through it.
CD: Chinese pie [2022], it’s a song that has spanked hard. In the studio, Simon was not able to play it for us. I remember just trying to explain to my girlfriend what the tune is about and not succeeding, because I was too emotional.
SP: The first time we did Woodstock in Beauce, we had been hired before it lifted and we had been scheduled in the Découvertes tent, then Hawaiian had taken off in the meantime. The tent was full, and there were people as far as the eye could see on all sides. It was hot, there was mud and we had the feeling that everything had just exploded.
CD: For months, Alex [Alexandre Parr] had put together a sickening solo for Dans mon corps, which he was super proud of. Once in the studio, he plays it for Gus, who replies on the talkback, “Can you just dub the vocal melody, please?” Alex was in criss, but he tried it, and Gus just said, “That’s perfect, we’ll keep that.” It was a good lesson for Alex, PL [Pierre-Luc Boisvert, bass] and me: the goal, when we play, is not to flatter our ego and end up in Guitar World magazine or Modern Drummer. The goal is to serve the tune.
CD: [In Dolphins and Unicorns, 2015] “That if narwhales and horses together/made unicorns by mating/we could always do something beautiful/with the different loves. The idea of doing something beautiful with something different is kind of the credo of the band.
SP: We would put “different loves” in the feminine. Love, in the plural, is feminine. This is a rookie mistake.
SP: Last year, Dumas filmed two guys aged 15-16 at a festival, one on the piano, the other on bass, playing Corinne. That’s my favorite cover.
SP: We often get asked if we’re tired of playing Hawaiian, but no. She still gives me the same feeling of doing something irreverent as when we started. It always satisfies me to sing “I wish you were Hawaiian”. I just can’t believe the joke.
