On stage with Green Day sur les Plaines: “I found my reason for making music” – Alicia Deschenes

Would singing with Billie Joe Armstrong in front of 80,000 Green Day fans at the Plains of Abraham change the world? A little bit, anyway, says Alicia Deschenes.

• Read also: On stage with Billie Joe Armstrong at Summerfest: Alicia made her dream come true

• Read also: A touching testimony from a fan: “Green Day saved me”

“It allowed me to rediscover why I made this decision in life,” says the 27-year-old singer-songwriter from Quebec, who is releasing her third album. Release the stormThis Friday.

It will have been nearly two months since this moment. After years of living on hope, Alicia Deschenes is finally invited by her idol to take to the stage. For two minutes, this Green Day fan shadowed the man who saved her life with his music when she was being bullied in high school.

“The last few years, especially due to the pandemic, have been tough on morale. Finding myself with the person who is the source of my desire to make music, made me reconsider my identity when I was learning my first chords, when I started writing, when I recorded my first EP Downstairs in [son producteur] Daran. Sometimes it’s easy to just see what’s wrong, but I’ve come a long way since I was an embarrassed little girl listening to Green Day in her bedroom.

Full of messages

She adds that this coup also gave her a media exposure that she never dared to dream of.

“I kind of underestimated the impact it could have,” she says with a smile, who increased the number of interviews the day after the show, in addition to managing her sudden popularity on social media.

“In the first week, I think I responded to 1,000 messages. I only did this for five days. He was stupid. There were people I didn’t know who wrote me that I made them cry. He left a mark on a lot of people.”

She hopes this will make all these beautiful people want to listen to her new songs.

Femicide

For those who discovered Alicia Deschene in her early days, Release the storm She continues the shift towards a more pop and less pop sound that she and her musical partner began since her early days, Darran. Bad tonguesin 2021.

Over tunes that are sometimes reminiscent of ’80s pop (she’s also a fan of Depeche Mode), Alicia Deschênes tackles serious topics like femicide, Bad dayBy putting herself in the place of her neighbor who did not dare to intervene before the irreparable happened.

“At one point I was living in an apartment building and I was hearing things. It shocked me and I wondered if I should intervene. The song was released in 15 minutes,” the singer says.

She adds: “Despite Daran’s bright arrangements, it is the darkest song on the album. When I finished, I realized I had bumped into something. “It’s rare for this to happen to me, but I told myself that I wrote the song that I’m most proud of.”

positive

Despite the seriousness of the topics, all is not dark Release the storm. Even Alicia Deschenes advocates a certain balance. To the story of a toxic relationship in At your mercyShe compares songs that highlight positive love Elijah And Love againone of the first two excerpts from the disc.

“True, you may have been through the worst, but then there is still hope. I know this because I experienced it firsthand. Sometimes we don’t see the light,” she explains.

“In a way, if my songs can help a woman in this kind of relationship tell herself she’s better than that… I say this without pretension, but music has helped me a lot in my life. If my songs can help just one person, it will be My mission is accomplished.

Release the stormBy Alicia Deschênes, available September 8.

The launch will be held at the Old Post Office in Lévis on November 8.