Catherine-Audrey Lachapelle and Léandre Joly-Pelletier form the duo bluegrass Veranda.
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June 5, 2020
Updated June 8, 2020 to 4h17
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Veranda : The joy of yodel!
Geneviève Bouchard
The Sun
“I have the blue, but when I yodle I can’t maintain my air of beu…,” sings Catherine-Audrey Lachapelle, the duo Veranda in the title piece of his recent minialbum, Yodel blue. This refrain could be summed up the spirit of this cool project bluegrass shared with the accomplice Léandre Joly-Pelletier, and which is being deployed now in French.
To borrow his own description, a Veranda is similar in music to “a remote place, a bucolic cabin in the woods in front of which they delude quietly, Dolly Parton, Ralph Stanley and Emmylou Harris.” The couple in music as in life, had written a first chapter of music in the language of these idols English last year. At the time of resuming the pen, the duo has instead opted to rely on his own words.
“It came in quite naturally after the release of the EP in English, tells the story of Catherine-Audrey Lachapelle. We sat together and were asked where we wanted to go with this project and how we would evolve. The French imposed. To me, this is something that I was missing a little. Write in French or English, this is not the same thing. This is not the same rhythm of the language, this is not the same poetry, this is not the same type of images.”
Léandre Joly-Pelletier saw his side a lot of potential, but also a kind of bet. “Of bluegrass music in French, it has not been done very often, it is not so common,” he observes. We wanted to give the challenge of translating what we were doing in English and that is very rooted in the american tradition, but in our words, with our write to us, in our quebec French.”
The musician evokes these themes prevalent in the culture of bluegrass and Veranda wanted to continue to operate. “There are songs of death, songs that speak of loneliness, cabin fever… Someone who turns crazy all alone in the woods, it happens frequently in the tunes, bluegrass…,” he said.
“Of course, we will also in the sentence of love, which is a recurrent theme in the country. We can speak of the death, and it is correct”, adds Catherine-Audrey Lachapelle, highlighting the contrast that often prevails between the subjects of the songs and the in festive fashion with which they unfold musically.
“At its core, it is a music of the people which served as an outlet to tell those stories that are dark, but in the words of the people. It is a bit like that they are trying to do”, she notes about these tunes carried by the guitar, the violin and the mandolin.
“There are several facets to this music that I find fascinating,
resumes Léandre Joly-Pelletier.
These are all acoustic instruments, there is something to clean in there. But at the same time, each instrument has its place and it really creates a wall of sound. When I listen to bluegrass, and it is the same feeling as if I was listening to a band of rock. Each thing is in its place. And these are melodies that are strong. There is an energy, a texture. I think that when you fall in love with this music, we do not look back. Nobody said to me : “I listened to bluegrass music during a summer, and I’ve won…””
Since childhood
Also an actress — she embodies in particular the character of Virginia in District 31 —, Catherine-Audrey Lachapelle has seen his plans doubly turned upside down by the pandemic COVID-19, which caused the cancellation of shows and the closing of the trays.
“Filming is like for the music. It is sad for a week, and then we try to be resilient. We remain on the lookout, because we don’t know when it will start again. It is expected to have a new more clear on the part of the production.”
As the character of the room Yodel blue, Lachapelle said, found his pleasure in music… And in yodelant, the ” art “a bit weird” that he came rather naturally.
“I’ve never taken the time to study the technique,” she says. This is something that has always fascinated me and I really enjoy the idea, somewhere. My grandmother listened to the yodel switzerland in his tank when I was a child. I did not understand what it was, but I thought it was so hot! My grand-father also had in his vinyl of cowboy yodelers. So I was listening to without realizing it when I was really young and as an adult, I revived there. It fascinated me even as much as when I was a kid.”
From there the idea of diving in turn. “It’s funny, because this is not something that you do half, rigole-t-it. When you decide to try it, it should go to 100% because it is a vocal technique that really requires a lot of freedom. So you go back there, the neighbors hate you, but it brings you so much joy!”
