LiY – Five Questions With

Jenna Melanson·March 16, 2024

LiY Unveils Debut Album, Songs for Telescope

An emerging new project on the Quebec alternative scene, LiY unveiled its debut album, Songs for Telescope on March 15, accompanied by the first single entitled “Never Wanted”, which will be available from March 1, 2024. This trio, with its unique creative process, skilfully blends electro-pop influences, reflections on a world on the brink of breakdown, and explorations of the astral universe.

In the midst of the global pandemic, an unlikely virtual encounter laid the foundations for this extraordinary artistic collaboration. Despite geographical borders (Quebec/Bas du Fleuve, Montreal, and London) and a background in theater: Christian Lapointe, Laurence Dauphinais, and Simon Stephens gave birth to LiY. The idea of forming a musical group arose from a simple conversation tinged with humor. When Simon, having met Laurence virtually, shared with Christian that she exuded the energy of a true rock star, the spark of creativity ignited the project.

LiY’s creative process is as unique as its members. Christian Lapointe, based in Québec/Bas du Fleuve, takes the lead in creating the instrumental at home. Once completed, he passes this musical base on to London-based Simon Stephens, who then composes the lyrics. Finally, the whole thing is passed on to Laurence Dauphinais in Montreal, the band’s singer, to bring the vocal melody to life.

LiY defines itself as epistolary music. Their collaborative and rigorous approach results in a unique fusion of musical composition, poetic lyrics, and vocal performance. The band draws its influences from a wide range of genres, from trip hop to electroclash, drawing on references such as Portishead, Austra, The Knife, Spiritualized, Brutal Truth, PJ Harvey, and Björk.

The first single, “Never Wanted” explores the theme of emotional security and our inverted desires. Through powerful lyrics, LiY invites us to reflect on our collective regrets and need for reparation. The single captures a high level of lucidity in relationship dynamics and offers an invitation to dance on the ashes of the world.

Care to introduce yourself to our readers?

Simon Stephens — I am a 53-year-old British playwright who after twenty-five years of writing plays seems to have got himself in a band.

Laurence Dauphinais — We’re an improbable group of people that decided to follow an instinct and to embark of a very unorthodox creation process that ended up being profoundly joyful and freeing for each individual.

Christian Lapointe — We are all about our creative process. We don’t discuss the content of our songs between members of the band. We do a relay process and respect 100% the steps of our artistic game.

LD —Christian composes an instrumental track and sends it to Simon. Simon writes lyrics to goes with the music and sends it to me and then I compose and sing the singing melody tracks. Simon gives me the freedom to skip lyrics or repeat them if I want.

CL — And at the end, when it comes back to my ears I have to admit: it feels like receiving a huge unbelievable gift and that’s true for every song.

LD — We are based in Montreal, London UK, and Quebec City. The lyrics are in English because Simon is from the UK and always writes in his mother tongue.

Tell us a bit about your music and writing style.

CL — To give a bold idea I would maybe describe it as post trip-hop electro-clash.

SS — The lyrics I write are romantic fragments from the cusp of the apocalypse.

LD — We’re releasing an album with an apocalyptic feel, but it’s not fatalistic, cynical or sad. It’s dark and bright. It’s ritualistic yet sexy. The characters in our songs walk a worrisome world but have adjusted to it. The songs are sometimes meant to dance, sometimes meant to heal, sometimes a call to action.

Do you have any upcoming shows? For someone who has yet to see you live, how would you explain your live performance?

CL — We’ll be doing the first series of shows in Montreal during the fall of 2025. It will, of course, because of our background, be somehow flirting with performance art but bonified with more texts from Simon. It will embrace a certain vision of storytelling through this idea that love and the quest for it might be our last reason to dance on the ashes of the world in order to give sense to our lives and keep going on this planet.

LD — We’ve launched the video of our first single Never Wanted on March 1st and our album on March 15th.

If you were asked to suggest only one of your songs for someone to hear, which would it be?

SS — I love the whole album and listen to it with a sense of awe for my collaborators. They are distressingly talented. Never Wanted has quite a nice bit at the end I find.

CL — That’s a tough one. Of course our Single ‘Never Wanted’ feels catchy and sort of a song that stays in mind but I feel the fourth one, ‘Round and round’ on our album called ‘Songs for telescope’ feels to me like a good one to maybe make love, danse at the club or drive at night.

Looking back on your musical career, is there a particular moment or accomplishment that you consider a turning point or a highlight?

LD — This project, definitely.

SS — I was in another band in the 90s. The Country Teasers. Nobody liked us apart from other more successful guitar bands like Franz Ferdinand and Pavement but this venture is altogether different. This feels like working with artists.