NO STOPPING THIS PARTY
Radio Radio returns with new album
Even though the language has changed, Radio Radio’s message of partying remains the same.
The new album Light the Sky is the Montreal group’s first to be recorded entirely in English. The switch from its usual Chiac mashup of English and French was prompted by another seismic shift for the Acadian rappers: the loss of producer Alexandre Bilodeau.
“We had one less guy in the group, so we thought, ‘Why not take this in a completely different direction?’ ” said MC Jacques Alphonse Doucet. “We had been talking about making an English album for a while and the timing felt right to do it now.”
Although Bilodeau contributed to 2014’s Ej Feel Zoo, upon its release it was already decided that it would be his last with the group.
Radio Radio are no strangers to band-member-up-heaval—Doucet’s original MC partner Timo departed after the first record — but the loss of the group’s beatmaker and sonic architect could have proved too great to overcome.
Light the Sky pushes the now duo into more electronic dance territory, although it doesn’t veer too far from previous works. They brought in a mix of young and experienced Montreal producers to replace Bilodeau: DJ Champion, Shash’u, and Alex McMahon of Plaster with J.u.D.
“We were used to having our beats done in-house. Alex would work in the morning, we’d work with him in the afternoon and by the end of the day we’d have some songs. We had to run around a bit more for this one, but it gave us more time to play around with the songs,” said Doucet.
Synth funk DJ Shash’u was the main collaborator, with six tracks on the album.
“We had a meeting at his manager’s apartment,” Doucet explained. “Shash’u asked us what kind of vibe we wanted. We said ‘party,’ and he started going through a folder on his computer called ‘party’ with beats that he had already made. We flagged the ones we liked and he sent them to us using We Transfer. We took those down to New York and
worked on them for two weeks.”
With the team of “poppy” McMahon and “raw” J.u.D., Doucet and bandmate Gabriel L.B. Malenfant were a bit more specific about the music they wanted.
“With the song Then Came the Music, we already had the opening lyrics, so we built the song on that. With Sweater Weather, the beat was already pretty good.”
Longtime friend DJ Champion was eager to help — he showed them 90 prospective beats — but in the end appears on only one track. Ottawa trio A Tribe Called Red was also called upon, although their busy schedules prevented any songs from being completed.
Once it was time to record their raps, Doucet was surprised by how easy it was to come up with words in English, even though it’s not his first language. He was even more shocked at how unusual it sounded at first, given there had always been English words and pronunciations sprinkled throughout their songs.
“You know how rappers have a certain tone? Like how Eminem or 50 Cent will always sound a certain way?” Doucet asked. “When I started recording in English, it felt like I didn’t sound like myself. There was a learning curve to get back my French sound with the English songs.”
The subject matter — mostly about trying to keep the party going as mid-30s responsibilities beckon — shouldn’t catch longtime fans off-guard.
Doucet anticipates some critics and listeners will yearn for the Radio Radio of old while listening to Light the Sky. Rest assured, this is only a temporary break from their signature Chiac rhymes. But with regard to the current album, they’re motivated to prove the skeptics, and perhaps even the departed Bilodeau, wrong.
“It was a kick in the ass to make a better album,” admitted Doucet. “We’re still friends with Alexandre. We talked last week. But as far as the band goes, that’s another thing. If his leaving, or us kicking him out or whatever you want to call his departure, has him like, ‘I can do better without you,’ well then, we were like, ‘F--- it, let’s do the best album we can and prove him wrong.’”