‘We were half-drunk’: Patrick Watson on Covid hit and Spotify record-breaker Je te laisserai des mots | Culture

Patrick Watson, singer, songwriter, pianoI’d been commissioned to do the rating for a French movie, Mères et Filles [released with the English title The Hidden Diary, 2009], starring Catherine Deneuve. I’ve carried out fairly a number of scores and normally you discuss to the director, then it’s your job to assist the storyline do what it must. There’s a scene on the finish of the movie the place the principle character leaves a letter underneath the door, which to me instructed the title Je te laisserai des mots, that means: “I’ll go away you some phrases.”In my studio in Montreal, I got here up with what I assumed was a pleasant little melody. I’m from Quebec, so though I’m an English-speaking particular person, I’ve at all times been surrounded by French. At any time when I’ve the chance to sing or write in French, I do. Though I like singing in French, it’s a really tough language to sing in due to the vowel construction. There aren’t many phrases in Je te laisserai des mots and the primary verse is solely wordless. I didn’t suppose it wanted any extra phrases so I simply made vocal sounds. Additionally I most likely imagined the music beginning to play on the finish of the movie whereas there may be nonetheless dialogue, so didn’t need phrases to conflict. We had been type of half-drunk once we did the strings association. It was a very enjoyable night time – however exterior the movie, I didn’t suppose anybody would ever take heed to the music.I is perhaps renting skis they usually’ll see my identify and go: “Oh, you will have the identical identify because the singer.” I say: “It’s me!”It initially appeared as a bonus monitor on my debut album. Then it out of the blue took off within the pandemic. As a result of I couldn’t tour, I used to be doing a lot of reside Instagrams, which prompted somebody to ship me a video they’d product of Je te laisserai des mots. It had one million views and as soon as these algorithms get going, you may’t cease them. Typically sure feelings hit at a sure time and a music can turn out to be the soundtrack of that second. Earlier than I knew it, folks everywhere in the world had been making their very own lockdown movies that includes Je te laisserai des mots.Once I first got here into the music enterprise, execs didn’t take me significantly as a result of I didn’t have “radio songs”, however the creation of syncs after which streaming have made a brand new type of hit attainable. The music’s now had one thing like 200,000 TikTok movies that includes it, greater than 60bn TikTok performs and it’s the primary French language music to hit greater than a billion streams on Spotify. I discover such enormous numbers arduous to digest however the music is rather more well-known than I’m. I is perhaps renting skis or one thing they usually’ll see the identify and go: “Oh, you will have the identical identify because the singer.” I’m like: “It’s me!” And so they don’t imagine me.Mélanie Vaugeois, violinOur string quartet performed with Patrick for 15 years and we’re nonetheless shut. After we began touring with him, our children had been fairly younger so Patrick named us Mommies on the Run. We had been his first experiment with a string quartet however after some time on tour we had been wilder than him. We’d shout: “No youngsters!”It was such an ideal journey and all of us spent plenty of time collectively. We’d go to Patrick’s place, there could be issues in all places and also you’d put your violin case on the ping-pong desk. Patrick would play on the piano and we’d improvise round that. One night time Patrick mentioned: “I’ve a French music. What do you consider my accent?” He speaks French very nicely however had by no means sung in it and there have been plenty of errors within the pronunciation, however they had been a part of the appeal so he saved them in.It was a enjoyable session and at one level we had some Jameson whiskey. We tried for a very long time to search out the proper notes and received somewhat drunk. All the things was beginning to slide when out of the blue all of it simply fell into place. There’s virtually no rhythm to Je te laisserai des mots, which once more is a part of the appeal. It’s a phenomenal music that makes your coronary heart soften, and throughout the pandemic, once we had been all very lonely, it touched lots of people’s hearts. I first grew to become conscious that it was taking off when my youngsters had been on TikTok and I heard the music. I went: “That’s my quartet!” They couldn’t imagine it. They instructed me: “That music’s in all places.”Though Patrick isn’t obliged to present us songwriting royalties, yearly he offers us a symbolic quantity to point out his gratitude, which is very nice and reveals that he respects the truth that folks pulling collectively in that second created one thing particular. Patrick Watson’s new album, Uh Oh, is launched within the UK on 26 September. He performs the Troxy, London, on 7 November