Hg7 — Bernice: Bonjourno My Friends
ARCHIVE | “Toronto is a difficult city to love”
WORDS BY ISABELLA ELIAS
Adored for their experimental and eclectic sound, “weirdo-pop” and “freak-pop” are just a few terms shrouded by the Toronto-based indie pop band Bernice. Since its inception over a decade ago, the band has released four studio albums with another one in the works. In 2018, their album Puff LP: In the Air Without a Shape was nominated for the esteemed Polaris Music Prize, followed by another nomination in 2021 for their highly acclaimed album Eau de Bonjourno. Their latest album, Bonjourno My Friends, is a follow-up to Eau de Bonjourno, featuring seven remixes of songs crafted through the lens of various distinctive artists. The band is composed of lead singer/songwriter Robin Dann, keyboardist and guitarist Thom Gill, bassist Dan Fortin, vocalist Felicity Williams, and percussionist Phil Melanson. Dann opens up about the inspiration behind the creations, the challenges of being independent musicians, and the landscape of the Canadian music industry.
CAN | Bonjourno My Friends is your second album in as many years. Would you say there’s a lot of pent-up creative energy from the pandemic?
RD ── I think it's totally dependent on the person. I've definitely talked to people who have lost their desire to produce any artistic output, and other folks got into it in a major way and are now sitting on massive amounts of music that they're ready to release. I feel like I'm in the middle of those two. I did generate a certain amount of new stuff, and we're working on a new record right now, but my relationship to work is complex. It’s complicated. It’s hard. I find it really hard to get myself in the shed, as they say.
CAN | How has your sound evolved over the years, and where would you say it is now, with Eau de Bonjourno?
RD ── As a songwriter, I used to be very concerned with symmetrical form. I was pleased by songs having a very clear verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus kind of thing. I will probably write songs in that form for the rest of my life. As we have made music together, we’ve opened up to experimenting with form, creating songs that don’t have a clear chorus or are more circular. Now [Phil] seems to have landed on this incredible instrument called the HandSonic, which is super organic to play. He’s just obsessed with it, and it really defines our sound right now. Whatever current instrumental obsessions our band members have, play directly into what the band sounds like. I say that because it’s not like we’re trying to create the Bernice sound. We’re all separate musicians doing a bunch of different stuff, and whatever’s exciting us when we come together as Bernice ends up being what the band sounds like.
CAN | Eau De Bonjourno is an already fairly experimental album, and you’ve followed it up by experimenting with collaborations with other artists. So how did this project start, and who are your friends on Bonjourno My Friends?
RD ── Well, that credit goes to Jon Schouten, our label manager at Telephone Explosion. He floated the idea to me, almost like a logical continuation on how to keep creating music in between albums. It’s a remix EP, so we basically made a list of our favourite people and our favourite musicians and then asked a whole bunch of them, some reaching a little further than our community. Who we landed on are just like a bunch of people who I absolutely adore their music, and I can speak for the rest of the band too. We have Yves Jarvis, Phil’s brother [Julsie], who is a really incredible musician, Sam Gendel who is a great friend from L.A, Anja Lauvdal, who’s an incredible musician from Scandinavia, Kalmia and Angelica from the band Kalbells, Kieran Adams (goes by Vibrant Matter as a producer), and New Chance, both close pals from Toronto who are just unbelievable. Last Christmas, we asked them to create gifts for us with our music. We gave them the choice to choose whichever tune they wanted from the record, and they all did something radically different from each other. It ended up producing a super eclectic listen, a listen that actually works really well when you just put it on and let it go.
CAN | That album cover is one for the ages, what’s the story behind it?
RD ── It’s two photos that I took of my nephew Augie’s hand. He’s wearing a ring that he made. I was over there with him one day, and we were beading necklaces. I took that picture of his hand because I just thought that he had such a beautiful hand, and I was like, “ooh, that’s going to work nicely.”
CAN | While there’s a healthy list of solo acts in Canadian alt-pop and alt-folk, many of the projects over the last decade often have an ensemble feel. You’ll often see the same names of instrumentalists on different albums. How tight-knit would you say the community is here in Toronto and across Canada?
RD ── It’s so tight-knit that when I tried to move away after university, I couldn’t do it. [Toronto] is a difficult city to love. Even though I love it deeply and eternally, it doesn’t love me back in a lot of ways. The people are what truly make it the best. My mom is a classical harpist, and she’s always said that music is our church. Because we play music, we have that community, and we have that spirit of taking care of each other that’s the life force.
CAN | What would you like to see more of on an industry level,
RD ── Shows don’t pay super well often, especially when you’re starting out and opening for people and playing small venues. When we started releasing albums, we were just past the point where artists were still experiencing financial support from labels and merch and album sales when they would tour, which would really drive their income. Streaming started right when we were coming in, so I’ve lived in this world of scarcity. Having lived in Europe, though, in a dream world, we would have a system that was a little more similar to countries like France, Finland, and Scandinavia where art and culture is folded into the fabric of life. There’s just a built-in cultural subsidy that happens over there, which I would love to see happen in a sustainable way in Canada. We do have this wonderful grant system, and I don’t take that for granted. The point is that you can’t rely on it. You never know when it’s going to come through, as opposed to other systems in which there’s a little bit more security.
CAN | What’s next for Bernice?
RD ── I’m really excited about the next six to 12 months because we’ll put out our next record. We’re going to be working with Telephone Explosion Records, which I think is one of the great labels in Canada right now. Hopefully, we’ll play some fun shows and just keep doing our thing.
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