Ne l’attends pas, elle rentrera trop tard
ferme les yeux, rassure-toi
tu la reverras
Même de loin, elle te suit pas à pas
tu manqueras de rien
tu sais bien, elle est toute à toi
Fil de soie (Marie-Pierre Arthur, 2012)
MONTREAL - Having a baby concentrates the mind.
Coeur de Pirate, the 22-year-old Montreal singer born Béatrice Martin, will know the truth of that soon enough; her performance Friday at the FrancoFolies is being billed as her last before becoming a mom (her daughter's due in late August).
Marie-Pierre Arthur, a 33-year-old singer and bassist from the Gaspé, knows what it’s like already. Her baby, Léopold, was born almost two years ago, and she’s still trying to schedule around him.
“For now, at least as far as my creativity goes, motherhood’s something I like a lot – it gives me a sense of urgency I didn’t have before,” said Arthur, who plays Metropolis on Wednesday.
“I count every moment. Whatever time I have for myself, I don’t have for long,” said Arthur, who had her boy with Karkwa keyboardist François Lafontaine, the producer and co-composer of her albums.
“I spend less time daydreaming now; it’s true that I miss that a bit. But (motherhood) has also made me much more assiduous, much more understanding, too, of what other people are going through.”
And it’s starting to pay off.
Tuesday, Arthur beat out nine other nominees to win the FrancoFolies’ $2,500 Félix Leclerc Prize for best young Quebec singer-songwriter of 2012.
Before going solo in 2009, Arthur sang and played for major francophone artists like Karkwa, Galaxie, Ariane Moffatt, Stefie Shock, Michel Faubert and before that Nanette Workman and Édith Butler.
Now she’s touring her second album, Aux alentours, a 35-minute collection of rock, folk and soul originals released in February that channels a ’70s vibe in its arrangements and lyrics.
“I like to dissect the psychology of people, how people react to things that happen in their lives – my songs are always about that,” she said, giving the example of All Right, off the new album.
“It’s about someone close to me who needed to get out of the milieu they were in because it was just getting too heavy,” said Arthur, who co-signs many of her texts with French-born singer-songwriter Gäele Tavernier.
“When I’m close to someone I feel really empathetic and I think long and hard about what that person is saying,” Arthur continued.
“That always comes out in my lyrics.”
These days, Arthur is inspired by the student demonstrations that have spread to the general populace, to citizens like her who are now “forced to make choices to decide who we want to become.
“I’m trying to define in my head what Quebec should become. Even if all this movement is inspiring, it’s all little bit too hazy right now for me. Our demands are vast but not too clear.
“What’s great is the feeling that everyone wants to feel they’re part of a community. It’s like, ‘Wow, it’s been such a long time since we’ve really been all together.’
“We’re not too sure what it is, but we want to be together on this thing.”
Back home in the Gaspé, her folks follow news of the manifs on TV, but that gives them a distorted view of events, Arthur said, as if the crisis is limited to “les bébés gâtés” – the spoiled brats in school.
She herself worked hard to be where she is, and when she goes home to Grande Vallée she thinks people recognize that. Little wonder: singer-songwriters are part of the village’s daily bread.
The neighbouring village to the east, Petite-Vallée, is home to a summer song festival that’s now celebrating its 30th anniversary and attracts the creme of Quebec artists. (Arthur plays there June 26.)
Her parents are amateur musicians; they played in a post-yéyé cover band in the 1960s and later opened a music store, with dad selling insurance to pay the bills.
Arthur learned to play the bass pretty young, “because in my village all the boys wanted to play guitar; no-one wanted to sacrifice himself to play bass, so that left the girls to do it.”
With their mom as their “sound-girl,” Arthur and her siblings ended up gigging. Two brothers eventually went pro like her: keyboardist Jean-Sebastien Fournier and soundman Stéphane Fournier.
(Her surname is Fournier, too, but she uses Arthur, her father’s given name, professionally. “In my village, everyone’s known as the child of the father – I’m Marie-Pierre à Arthur,” she explained).
She left the Gaspé to study music in Montreal at age 16, and now lives in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve. Touring is a big part of the job, especially now, with a new album.
Her show at Club Soda is all-new: 10 musicians on stage, including a couple of backup singers, a mix of loud, upfront rock ’n’ roll and quieter acoustic music, deepening the groove in her tone.
And always, that same warm, ethereal Feist-like voice over the top (with her big eyes and cropped bangs Arthur even bears a passing resemblance to the Canadian superstar). Besides touring around Canada, Arthur has performed in France, Belgium and Switzerland.
She was in France for a week, before the Francos, promoting the record and will return for a longer stay this fall.
“I don’t know how I’m going to like being away a lot,” she said.
“I’ve been living this lifestyle for quite a while now. With the little one,” she said, referring to her son, who’s often in daycare or with a babysitter, “I’m going to have to bring that more under control.”
Does she have any role models – examples of successful singer-songwriters who pulled off the tricky task of having children and continuing to do their music?
“There have been some cases where the results were good – I know lots in my entourage,” she replied, adding with a laugh: “But by successful, I mean the child – he should be the success.
“That’s what I get stressed about. I want to get my priorities straight so that everyone’s comfortable, not just me.”
She says as much on stage every night, counting the precious minutes before she gets home to her little Léopold, singing to him in the third-person this last verse of Fil de soie:
Hors de ces murs
elle s’ennuie déjà
elle s’élance
au bout d’un fil de soie
la nuit qui avance
te la ramènera
Marie-Pierre Arthur performs Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Club Soda, 1225 St. Laurent Blvd; opening act is French singer Claire Denamur; tickets $36 in advance, $39 the day of the show. The 24th annual FrancoFolies de Montréal continues through June 16. Details: francofolies.com.
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