The idea of inner-struggle and personal development is carried over into the title of the EP, J’Orage. From French to English, J’Orage translates to “I Storm”, a title chosen to de- scribe how Lepage feels life works. “Things are going good for a while, then things start tensioning up, then suddenly everything feels like it is wrong, destroyed. Eventually, you know, the sun comes up, the storm dissipates, and it all goes back. But it is always in the clouds, and it’s going to happen again.”
The theme of “storming against the struggle” continues lyrically and thematically throughout the record. As some bands may discuss struggle in a political, historical, or ideological manner, Ponteix focuses inwards, exploring the ongoing, personal struggles that occupy people’s time, the small victories or major losses. As Lepage puts it, “The songs all have this willingness to live and explore how life really works, how we interact with everyday things and how it af- fects us, that everyday area of our lives.”
Ponteix has been careful with their branding, having the look of their live videos and website have a similar aesthetic while retaining an independent creative style. “I think it’s very important to have a cohesive proposition, that the emotion that you get while looking at the art is the same emotion or feeling you get while listening to the music,” Lepage says. “I’m very much about collaborating,” Lepage continues, “seeing how other people interpret a piece of art that is already made in another discipline. Whether it be mu- sic, or video, or visual, they can all explain the same emotion in different ways.”
Demo recording for a new full length album begun in 42 SASKMUSIC THE SESSION - FEBRUARY 2017, VOL 30.1
December, with all new songs being written during the winter. Songwriting will be a combination of in-studio and prepared writing, using sounds and ideas created in the studio and placed on appropriate songs. The song list will be dependent on the decision to print a vinyl release or stick with digital formats.
From there, however, the band is open to releasing the album as the sounds lead them, whether it be one album, or many, allowing the organic process of writing and recording help dictate the final outcome of the album’s presentation. “I’m debating releasing something totally different than an album, like releasing three EPs in the span of a year to get more dialogue about what we are doing,” says Lepage. “It really depends how the songs pan out. If it feels more (like) an album start to finish, we’re not going to break that. But if ‘these four songs’ could be put into compartments and released as a concept EP…we will go with the flow and see what happens.”
The same organic mindset is used in songwriting as well, with Lepage writing in either English or French. At the moment, the songs are approximately 70% Francophone and 30% Anglophone. Lyrically, the songwriting process does not start with a preconceived notion of language one way or another, the gestation period where everything is forming between conception and birth developing as it will, becoming the being it was meant to be.
Future touring dates include a trip out to Montreal in Febru- ary, with extended summer tour plans in the works. The next step is to begin European performances, with a focus on France. “I’ve been to France a few times with another
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