SONGWRITER KEEPS PROMISES, AS HE FIGHTS THE GOOD FIGHT
Rock-reggae revolutionary Cargnello has a new album to promote, his 15th
Could it really be 20 years?
Apparently. It’s been just over that long I’ve been at the Montreal Gazette, and that Paul Cargnello has been preaching the gospel of rock ’n’ roll.
“It’s hard to believe it,” said the ever-enthused and engaged singer-songwriter. “I remember you coming to my apartment in the McGill ghetto.”
That would have been for the launch of his old band the Vendettas’s 2000 debut It’s Happening to You, following a few EPs. At the time, Cargnello was preaching his rabble-rousing refrain of “rock-reggae-revolution.”
He was 21.
“When the Vendettas started out, I wanted to distinguish us,” he said. “We were white guys doing reggae. I remembered (the Bob Marley song) Roots, Rock, Reggae, so we did rock-reggae-revolution. It was possibly the most cohesive descriptor of my career. But I haven’t changed much — those are my three go-tos.”
That fresh-faced, The Clash-loving kid I interviewed all those years ago will turn 40 this year. Though he’s all grown up, Cargnello isn’t that different from the young guy who was out to change the world.
In November 2017, he launched Intense Cité, an album made in collaboration with homeless people-run magazine L’itinéraire, with all proceeds going to the publication. Last spring, he released an album celebrating the Montreal soul scene.
Last summer, in the face of rising social unrest in Quebec and seemingly everywhere else, Cargnello organized Montreal vs. Racism, a concert against discrimination, in Notre-Damede-Grâce Park.
“I had heard about neo-Nazis coming back to Montreal last year, and it started to get very upsetting,” he said. “I wanted to do something family-friendly in the park, to get people to admit it’s not radical left politics to say we’re against racism.”
He is co-founder of NDG Arts Week, which celebrates its 11th edition this June.
And now, as he has had for three out of every four years for the past two decades, Cargnello has a new album to promote, his 15th.
Off the top of my head, I can’t think of another Quebec singer-songwriter who has been putting out music so consistently for the past 20 years, in both official languages — five in French, 10 in English, garnering fans on both sides of the linguistic divide.
Which begs the question: is Cargnello Quebec’s most prolific songwriter? He’s certainly one of them.
Rumour is he will be part of the free outdoor concert lineup at this year’s Montreal International Jazz Festival. It would be a fitting tribute to his two decades of genre-defying indie music-activism.
Cargnello continues to fight the good fight, even when he’s not in fight mode.
He describes his new album, Promises, as his most personal release yet. Inspired by the death of his father-in-law, as well as three recently-deceased music giants, it was three years in the making.
“In 2016, David Bowie, Prince and Phife Dawg of A Tribe Called Quest died,” Cargnello said. “I thought back to how important those three figures were to me at 13 or 14, but I had never let those influences into my music. I was always trying to be (The Clash’s) Joe Strummer.”
Infused with funky basslines, wah-wah guitars, ’80s synths and the odd glam-rock nod, the song set also includes dips into dub reggae and head-bobbing hip-hop.
Cargnello recorded everything in his home studio, playing all instruments himself, and invited a varied roster of local rappers and reggae vocalists to contribute.
“I think one of my favourite songs on the album is (the soulful groove) Don’t Let Me Down,” he said. “It reminds me of Midnight Marauders, 1993 hip-hop and Tribe, but it’s me. I don’t think I’ve ever pulled that off.”
While some of the stylistic experiments are new, Cargnello’s innate sense of melody remains; the guy knows his way around a hook, which makes it surprising that he didn’t find any label to support him this time out. And not for lack of trying.
“I shopped it to everybody,” he said. “Everybody said no. Either it’s proof that I’m completely nuts or they are. Time will tell.”
True to form, Cargnello didn’t let that stop him, and he has already been rewarded: the vogue-dancing, genre-bending video for the title track has been viewed over 37,000 times on YouTube since February, plus another 57,000 times on Facebook.
“Wow,” he said. “The thing popped. People want to see this, and hear this song. It’s hard to get something to go viral. I’m really happy to see the results.
“And I’ve got a lot of calls and messages from other artists, saying I’ve done something special.”