Sébastien Lefebvre no longer ‘just a kid’
From Simple Plan to a simple band, Sébastien Lefebvre, lead guitarist of the five piece act from Montreal, may be releasing a solo album, but he says he’s not planning on leaving his fellow bandmates any time soon. Au contraire, at the same time his new album You Are Here/Vous Êtes Ici is dropping, the band is in the midst of writing songs for an upcoming album. As for his solo project, Lefebvre casually says that the reasoning behind the album is that “[he] had a lot of songs and [he] just wanted to put them out there.”
You Are Here/Vous Êtes Ici is a seven-song EP about subjects that everyone can relate to: friends, relationships and, of course, heartbreak.
“ ‘You are here’ is a phrase that I have been certainly struggling with for so many years. I always thought it had so many meanings. I just took it from the emergency exit map in the building here where I live. I feel like it is about where you are in that moment. It was just me and my guitar — that is where I was at the time when I was recording this album,” Lefebvre explains.
After shedding his musical training wheels, Lefebvre is now ready to take on the world and some tougher subjects, but he’s still taking baby steps.
“I’m still hiding behind the guitar, so I’m happy about that,” Lefebvre shares, sounding reassured when asked how he’s handling the new spotlight.
Despite the new album’s release, he has no plans to play any live solo shows yet, as Simple Plan is taking up most of his time. In turn, Lefebvre came up with a new blog concept, which he likes to call a “mlog.”
“A mlog is a music video blog of me performing my songs. It is for the fans who wouldn’t get to see me perform otherwise,” Lefebvre reassures his fans.
Contrary to what one might expect from You are Here, it sounds nothing like Simple Plan, although simple catchy choruses are still present. Lefebvre describes his EP as “just a guy and a guitar, telling stories about things that people go through. It is just laid back, chill music.”
He also stresses the point that there was no big production involved in this project.
“Being a nerd, I had a good time figuring out a piano part, some percussions, and other different instruments here and there, but nothing too fancy,” he explains. “When I played the songs, I just played them acoustically with the guitar and it turned out really well.”
His musical prowess is evident in that he plays every instrument for the album and recorded it in its entirety. This autonomy is demonstrated in the mlogs he posted on his MySpace where he is juxtaposed on the video playing piano and guitar.
Although this is more like “take out your lighter and wave it in the air” kind of music, Lefebvre does not seem too worried about the album’s fan base, with already more than 11,000 plays on his MySpace and thousands of friends as well.
“Some people like really high-energy music and are going to think [the album is] really boring, but some people like a chiller record from time to time, and I think they’re going to like it.”
Julianna Damer, Arts & Entertainment Writer, The Gateway
http://www.gateway.ualberta.ca
