Paul Cargnello Rages Against Silence on ‘Combat Blues’ — A Battle Cry for the Apathetic Age
“What happened to the protest singer?” asks Paul Cargnello on the searing opening single of his new album, and it’s not rhetorical. With his 20th album, Combat Blues’, out now on Quartier General, the Montreal-based singer-songwriter and producer is back with a defiant, groove-laced, politically charged collection that refuses to look away. Think The Clash filtered through Curtis Mayfield with a jolt of Gil Scott-Heron. This is protest music for people who aren’t done fighting.
Combat Blues isn’t here to make you comfortable. It’s here to shake you awake.
“This record is about speaking truth when it’s easier to whisper,” explains Cargnello. “We’re watching the world burn through our screens, and we’ve forgotten how to yell. This is me yelling.”
Opening track “Protest Song,” written, composed, and produced by Cargnello, is a funk-punk anthem aimed squarely at the armchair activists and a gut-punch to the music industry’s obsession with apolitical vibes. “Can you imagine a world where you would take it to the streets / instead of hashing it out with a handful of memes?” he sneers, harmonica blazing and drums pounding like a clenched fist on the table. The video, shot in Parc Frédéric-Back in Montreal by longtime collaborator Nik Brovkin, features Cargnello and the Combat Blues band in full revolutionary mode.
Then there’s “Fascists In Our Midst,” a no-holds-barred reggae-rock detonation featuring Tuff Gong’s own Jonathan Emile, who co-wrote the lyrics with Cargnello and delivers a scathing verse in patois that takes aim at white supremacy, political manipulation, and spineless centrism. “Be careful who you break di bread wit,” Emile warns. “When you play politricks just rememba who you are.” Co-written musically by Cargnello, James Challenger, and Frantz Calestin Jr., the track showcases the full sonic power of the band—raw, urgent, and righteous
Recorded and mixed by Cargnello at Upper China Studios, and mastered by Grammy-winner Adam Ayan (Bruce Springsteen, Lana Del Rey), ‘Combat Blues’ also features: James Challenger on backup vocals and bass, Frantz Calestin Jr. on drums, Jasmine Beile on backup vocals, and Jonathan Emile as featured vocalist. Every note is steeped in resistance. Every lyric is a call to act.
Paul Cargnello has never played by the rules. From his 90s political punk days with The Vendettas to Top 10 francophone hits and his celebrated NDG Arts Week, he’s spent the last two decades defying industry trends and forging community through sound. Whether writing theme songs for the Montreal Fringe Festival, collaborating with KRS-One and Maxi Priest, or penning verses for Dawson’s Creek, Paul’s motto remains the same: Lyrics matter. And so does showing up.
The man is a machine—20 albums deep, with an additional 3 Vendettas albums, 3 Skinny Bros records, 7 EPs, and more than 50 total projects under his belt. As ‘Le Devoir’ put it: “Et bon Dieu que ça groove!”
Shout it loud. Turn it up. Take it to the streets.
Hi, Paul! Good to meet you! Care to introduce yourself to the readers for those not familiar with your music?
I’m a Montreal singer-songwriter and producer, I’ve been doing what I do for almost thirty years at this point. I started writing songs, recording albums, and touring when I was a teenager, so I got a bit of a jump on the average artist. I’m very fortunate to have had a career that’s seen critical and commercial success, with music in both English and French. I now own my own recording studio called “Upper China” in the borough of NDG in Montreal, where I produce my records and other artists/groups as well. This year I released my twentieth solo album “Combat Blues”.
You open the album by asking, “What happened to the protest singer?”—when did you first feel that question burning inside you, and why now is the moment to release this record?
I was trying to write that perfect line, think Bruce Cockburns “kick into darkness”, it’s beautiful, it’s poetic, thought provoking, simply iconic. I don’t think I got close. I’ve always been a politically charged artist. Revolutionary politics and music, for me, go hand in hand. As I got older I learned to express myself with a certain acuity, but sometimes that meant being too clever for my own good. I don’t think my politics was slipping by any measure, but I wasn’t being as obvious in some of my writing. When I was younger I wasn’t trying to be clever, so before going into the studio for “Combat Blues” I imagined my younger self having a conversation with my current self. At least that’s what inspired the line, and the question “What happened to… tell me where it all went wrong” etc. But when I expanded on the lyrics, I felt like it turned into an indictment of the music industry in general. We’re currently living through a cruel, jingoistic, nationalistic era. I’m extra disappointed when I see my own industry clam-up when facing a fascist downpour, and making safe a-political choices in a vain effort to weather the storm. There you go, maybe it’s a critique of my own career, or maybe a critique of the artists all around me, or maybe the music industry, maybe all of the aforementioned. All I know is that the song is introspective, and sometimes a little self-criticism is required.
You’ve said “this is me yelling.” What do you think has muted people’s voices today, and how can music reignite the urgency to speak out?
Fear and stupidity have silenced people. The people who are informed and aware of the existential threats posed by unchecked capitalism, or the interests of billionaires, genocidal war-mongers, and nepo-baby-real-estate man babies… are perhaps justifiably afraid of what they see happening, and in times of crisis it’s better to hang low and stay cautious, maybe talk a little quieter when you don’t know who’s around you. The vapid are taking up so much space in government offices, on social media, they’re fucking everywhere, and they’re the one’s who are loud as hell. Reactionary idiots like that bald MMA misogynist, Peterson, and Bock-Coté have made it almost impossible to speak up because they have throngs of uninformed believers convinced of their own intellectual prowess. I don’t really know how music does it, but a good song with an apt message has always been able to fill me with the confidence I need to kick against the pricks. I always hope my music could do the same for someone else.
You’ve collaborated with everyone from KRS-One to Maxi Priest. What does collaboration bring to protest music that solo work can’t always capture?
Collaborating on a creative project means being able to compromise. It means learning to share. And when you’re surrounded by other creative people you’ll always come away having learned something. Maybe it’ll be a new approach to recording, or writing lyrics, or playing the drums, whatever it may be. Nothing improves without a collective effort, no matter how singular an individual feels about their own talent or work. I’ve been so fortunate to have worked with many amazing artists. Every single time I’ve learned something valuable that I was able to carry forward into my own work. Socialism in the creative sphere, it’s a cool thing.
If listeners walk away from this album remembering just one lyric or one idea, what do you hope it will be—and why?
“Combat Blues” is my contribution to the anti-fascist groundswell that needs to pick up, and fast. I’m not so naive to believe that a collection of songs will change the world or anything like that, but it may put a boot into my little corner of the music industry filled with ideologically apathetic influencers trying to spin the positives while gazing at their own navels, or cowardly intermediary agents/labels unwilling to associate with lambastic artists. Fascism isn’t “on the rise”, it’s here and it’s taking root. There need to be songs singing against it, I’m very grateful to friends and fans who join in the chorus.
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