by Léna & Toma
During a fall beginning Sunday, MEMOZ met Gabriel and Pete from the band Our Book and the Authors. To discover their world, which made the Memozians dance during the September’s party at Quai des Brumes, you have to read it chapter after chapter…
CHAPTER 1 – At the beginning of the project, a singer-songwriter-composer, Gabriel, who plays music and writes songs since he is a child…
Gabriel d’Amour spent his childhood in Ontario, brought up with Shania Twain thanks to his mother and with Phil Collins by his father, “this is where I learnt my English”. The oldest song of Our Book and the Authors (OBA) album, Watch me, made his father cry when he heard his sixteen years old son’s peculiar and melodic voice. OBA project saw the light of day when Gabriel moved in Montreal in 2007.
Our Book and the Authors
“I was playing gigs alone, it was total shit, I brought my computer tower, I didn’t have a laptop, it was ridiculous!”, remembers Gabriel. He played his first show at Zoobizarre, where he met Jean-Christian, who would play with him for the second concert, “it didn’t go well at all.” For the third gig, Pete, Gabriel’s neighbor, joined the band, “it started to have a good aspect.” Eventually, Julien, who was part of the audience this evening, came to the band to play the bass on Gabriel’s songs. “That is what OBA is composed with!”
CHAPTER 3 – Gabriel’s friends pressed him into making an album with the songs he accumulated for years.
“It’s good and you have plenty of tunes, make something!”, told Pete to Gabriel before joining the band. The content was ready because the artist stored songs for more than four years. Encouraged by his friends, he threw himself into the venture. “Since that, I created a new file in my computer “ALBUM”!”
CHAPTER 4 – It lead, in May, to a minimalist and eclectic first album…
One piano, one voice and one tambourine are enough to create a good musical vibe, like we can hear in Kids or the wonderful Killing Flies. The texts of this independent album are minimalist too, reminiscent of ephemeral atmospheres. “It was the first day of fall and Gabriel exclaimed: “Fuck, it’s cold outside” and made the song Kids”, remembers Pete. “Gabriel likes to sing the everyday life.”
“Especially Sundays!”, answers Gabriel.
An eclectic and mind-blowing album, with a specific musical inspiration for each song, wandering with pop (Monday), R’n’B (The Fire) or romantic song (Watch me). “Gabriel listens to everything”, notices Pete, calling to witness the record collection standing in front of him: “Spoon, Radiohead, Moby, Mogwai…! The tone is different in each song, even if the album keeps the same voice all the time.”
CHAPTER 5 - …But energetic shows! “Studio and live are both different things”, analyses the drummer. If you don’t like wiggling around, alone in your room, come and listen to the band during a show for an energetic version of their album. “I like to think we are minimalist, even if we lose it on stage with the musicians, but it shakes more!”, explains Gabriel.
EPILOGUE
Our Book and the Authors is a “sound book” with a rainbow binding, writing line after line its story within the musical scene of Montreal…
