Dominique Fils-Aimé, healing through music
Dominique Fils-Aimé.
For five years, singer-songwriter Dominique Fils-Aimé has been on a real roll, which earned her the Gilles-Vigneault prize on Tuesday evening at the gala of the Professional Society of Authors and Composers of Quebec Foundation (SPACQ) awarded to an artist whose career is on the move. A year after the release of her last album, she is already in the studio recording a new healing project.
After her participation in The Voicein 2015, where she made it to the semi-finals in Pierre Lapointe's team, eliminated by Matt Holubowski, Dominique Fils-Aimé made a name for herself above all with her album trilogy: Nameless< /em> in 2018, Stay Tuned! in 2019 and Three Little Words in 2021.
The artist who has never studied music now sees the Gilles-Vigneault Prize as an encouragement to pursue his art. “I have always received this kind of moment as confirmation that I am on the right road and that I am doing what I am supposed to do”, indicates the one who is one of the striking artistic revelations of recent years. < /p>
But when we learn that she is the only winner of the SPACQ Foundation gala to come from cultural minorities, Dominique Fils-Aimé does not hide her surprise.
“There's a lot of good music made by people from different walks of life, but not enough representation. It echoes, in my opinion, a larger problem, a larger societal reality. It's as if it were a mirror of this reality that we are trying to change gradually, ”she analyzes in an interview with Métro.
However, the singer with committed lyrics says she is happy to be the one who paves the way for others, especially considering the few role models she had growing up in Quebec. “The next step is going to be to highlight people who deserve it as much, if not more, than me,” thinks the Quebecer of Haitian descent.
Music as a tool of healing
Currently in the studio, Dominique Fils-Aimé is working on a brand new album which, according to her, is different from what she has presented us so far with her trilogy.
If the three previous projects were more rooted in history and the past, this new project should take root in modernity, she says without revealing too much.
“I take the liberty of d to be a little more vulnerable, to be more in relation to my emotions and my feelings. Once we have done all the past, I anchor myself well in the present, in my own present. I can't wait to present that side, even if it's always scary when you get more naked, “explains the one who found herself on the short list of the Polaris Prize in 2021 for Three Little Words< /em>.
Writing the songs for this upcoming album was therapeutic for Dominique Fils-Aimé, who got into it while suffering from a back injury that forced the cancellation of several shows on her last European tour.  ;
“I found myself in bed with nothing I could do. It was the first time that I really experienced long-term pain. As soon as I could move a bit, it seemed like all I wanted to do was write. The album came out on its own,” she recalls.
In this sense, the artist sees this work as his “healing tool” that allowed him to “deposit [his] pain”, but also to connect with it.
“I often thought of music as a tool for mental healing, but there is also this side where, physically, it did me good to finally be seated in front of a microphone and to be able to take out all that had macerated in me during this month and a half when I could not move”, she specifies.
The one who was in the field of psychology before embarking on a career as a singer thinks that her music can also benefit others.
I just want to create with what comes from my heart and what comes from my soul. All that matters is that someone feels what I'm trying to make them feel, feels that I'm talking to them heart to heart.
Dominique Fils-Aimé, singer-songwriter and winner of the Gilles-Vigneault prize from the SPACQ Foundation
A jazz and extraordinary artist
Each of the three opuses of her trilogy is associated, respectively, with the blues, jazz and soul genres.
Questioned to Knowing what flavor her next record will have, Dominique Fils-Aimé replies that she realized, through the creation of the trilogy, that she was profoundly a jazz artist.
“Because jazz represents the freedom to create as you want. It's as much about mixing styles as taking avenues that, for some, are not done. For me, when you say it can't be done and you do it, it's jazz,” she says.
The one who is used to give the instruction not to applaud before the very end of his shows enjoys defying the codes.
It must be said that Dominique Fils-Aimé is often considered an extraordinary artist. And she says she agrees with that statement, especially considering the fact that she has no musical training. to create without something you don't know, she thinks. At first, I felt like I was missing information, because I hadn't studied. But now, I'm really the opposite: I don't want to know anything”.
On May 16 and 17, Dominique Fils-Aimé will present the Symphonic Trilogy, a concert in collaboration with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.
