Sébastien Lefebvre Goes Solo… At Least for a Little While

Montrealer and self-described “shy guy” Sébastien Lefebvre is best known for his role as rhythm guitarist in pop-punk band Simple Plan – but October 20th saw the release of his first solo EP, the bilingual You Are Here. The record is a concise collection of songs that departs from several Simple Plan traditions, including the showcase of Lefebvre’s previously unheard folksy side.

After speaking with Lefebvre in a phone interview, it’s pretty clear that while You Are Here may not be what Simple Plan fans expect, the record will be well worth a listen.

YT: One thing I wanted to ask you was, I know you’ve been playing music since you were a kid – but why did you first start writing music? And why?
S: It’s sort of funny… my brother always played piano, and my dad had a guitar, my mom played piano as well, so music was always there. But then I saw, uh, I was watching Much Music probably, and I saw an Offspring concert, and a Green Day concert, and then I was just like, “Alright, I gotta start playing, I gotta join a band” or whatever, so a bunch of different crappy bands, obviously, and then I eventually found Simple Plan. Going to shows was something I always enjoyed and I always want to be onstage, so I’m assuming that’s why I play music.

YT: I know that you’ve approached this EP differently in a lot of ways, obviously, than you would with a Simple Plan album. One of those differences is this kind of folksy, relaxed style. What kind of musical influences shaped that sound?
S: I think just a lot of those bands, or a lot of those artists, that are like “a guy and a guitar” kind of thing, are a little bit timeless, you know? It’s like, a lot of those songs are always gonna be good, and you’re never gonna get tired of them. Artists like Jack Johnson or Johnny Cash or Damien Rice – those kinds of artists that just grab an acoustic guitar and start playing, and manage to get through all their emotions. That’s something I very much love listening to. So that’s what I was going for. And that is also a side of me – it’s not just the electric guitars and the jumping around… so it’s just a different side of me, and that’s where it came from.

YT: There is such a contrast between Simple Plan’s kind of punk rock and the stuff that I’ve heard off of You Are Here. Was the songwriting process different than it would be for Simple Plan music?
S: Well, it’s funny… I sit down and I just write a song. That’s what I love to do. So I just sit down and start writing, starting by even saying, “Oh, I heard something that sounded like this once” or, “maybe I’ll try something that’s different,” – and sometimes it sounds like a Simple Plan song and you just bring it to the band and you start working on it, and turn it into a rock song. And sometimes it doesn’t sound at all like that and it just, it can still be pretty cool. So those are the songs that ended up on this record, ya know? I write a song and I’m like “Oh, cool! But it’s not a rock song – it just would feel better on a guitar, like this.” So that’s how it ended up.

YT: I know that you’ve been working on these songs for quite a while. What encouraged you to finally record some of them?
S: I just had a lot of them (laughs). Like, “Wow, I could almost make an album, now!” It’s not just like, “Oh, I have these two songs that are pretty cool, ya know? I had a bunch of songs. And that’s pretty much how it happened. Like, the first one is like Comatose and I Fall for You, are songs that I’ve written, I think, like three years ago. The rest of them are a little bit more recent, but that’s when I started writing for the latest Simple Plan record – that’s when the rest of them came out.

YT: And another thing I was wondering about was, what was behind the decision to go with an EP instead of an album?
S: Yeah, I don’t know. I think, just trying something new. You know, with all the downloads and everything, like I guess the music industry really changed, ya know? And to have a full album, with one single, or maybe two singles on it, it feels like eight or nine of those songs are never gonna get heard even, ya know? So I felt like, I didn’t just want to put out three songs or whatever, so with an EP it’s sort of like half a record; it’s just enough to be getting the vibe of the artist, and I think it’s gonna allow me to put it out more often, as well – because writing 12 songs obviously takes longer than writing six songs. So I think as soon as I have enough songs again, I’m just gonna put something out. So I think that was the idea behind it – to be able to give something to the fans more often.

YT: I know that another way you’ve approached this differently is the choice of label. So are you still happy with the decision to go with the smaller label as opposed to the bigger label thing you did with Simple Plan?
S: Yeah, absolutely. And this label, like, is the label of our managing company for the band, so it’s like, it’s still in the family, we’re still going through Warner, so basically working with all the same people, but the people that are close to me on the project are the people who really understand what I was going for and agree with what I want to do, and like, everybody’s on the same page and it’s like a small family. And it just feels really, really good.

YT: What are the major differences you’ve found working with Coalition Entertainment Records versus the major-label thing you’ve done with Simple Plan?
S: Well, I think for this project, working with the big label, I don’t think it would have made sense… the big label, obviously, deals a little bit more in numbers, and they look a little bit more at money than a smaller label. And this project is not about playing on every radio station and making an intrinsic video, and going to tour the world with the record. This project is about my love for writing and recording music. So I don’t think a major label would have agreed with the way I would like to do things, you know? And, obviously, as soon as we get in the studio again and start touring with Simple Plan, then I won’t have much time to work on this stuff or promote it. So that’s something that a small label really understood and really agreed on.

YT: Another thing I think is interesting about You Are Here is that it’s written in both English and French. How important was it to you to produce bilingual music?
S: I think it was pretty important. I didn’t plan on it when I started working on this. But then I did try to write a song in French, and I thought it came out pretty good. So I figured, since there’s both, I’m gonna incorporate it in the title. And obviously I stole it from a Fire Emergency Safety map here in my building – ha ha!

YT: (laughs) That’s awesome!
S: Yeah, that’s a sentence that’s been in my head for a while, and it just – when I see it on a, well at the mall, for instance. I always say, well, “I’m not here, I’m here,” ya know? I’m not there on the map, I’m here, and I just started joking around with that, started realizing that there’s so many different meanings to just saying “you are here,” ya know? But I thought it fit well with my music and the personal experiences I talk about in the lyrics.

YT: Nice. And I was just wondering… is it ever a concern to you that English listeners won’t receive the French music as well or vice versa?
S: Well, yeah, I guess if they want to skip that song and go the next one, they can do it, ya know? If they want to try to learn French or sing with the chords, it’s cool. Obviously I’m from Quebec and I think that there are a lot of fans from here – and it’s gonna mean a lot more to them to have a song in French than it’s gonna piss off fans and the English people that won’t understand it, ya know?

YT: One of the things that really stood out to me about Simple Plan is that you guys usually try to stay close to your Canadian roots, to roots in Quebec. Is that a priority for you as a solo artist as well?
S: Of course, of course! I think that wasn’t a band decision; I think that’s just the people that we are, you know? We’re from here, we speak French and we speak English also… and I think that we’re always telling people how wonderful Montreal is, and how great the Canadian culture is, and how nice the people are here, and [how] beautiful the ladies [are] and everything. So like, whenever we travel the world, we never try to hide or pretend we’re from somewhere else. We actually make a point to talk about it even. And I think that’s just very important – and we are very close to our fans, everywhere in the world, but I think that with our Canadian fans and our Quebec fans, there’s just a little something, something more, I think. And that’s something we appreciate very much.

YT: Well, this must feel like such a personal record to you then.
S: Absolutely, and every single song, I can pinpoint the exact moments of how I felt when I wrote it, and what it’s about and all that.

YT: So then what kind of personal experiences do you draw from in your songwriting?
S: Sometimes it’s just talking to friends about things I’m going through and they’re going through. I usually base a song around one line or one feeling in particular and I just circle that around and turn it into a song. I think that it very therapeutic to write songs and it’s our way, for us shy guys, to get it all out in the open.

YT: Yeah, for sure. So what’s the next step for you, as a solo artist – maybe another EP not too long from now?
S: Yeah, I guess that is one of the steps ahead of me. First of all, I’m gonna start just talking about this one, try to get people aware that I’ve got something going on. Unfortunately for this project, but fortunately in general, I’m gonna start touring again with Simple Plan. So I do have some more songs written, so there will be another EP in the near future… it’s just sort of hard to plan exactly when right now.

YT: So how are you kind of planning to juggle your solo aspirations with your Simple Plan band duties. How will you prioritize?
S: See, it’s sort of easy – I don’t really plan to juggle them. When we’re on tour with Simple Plan, we’re extremely busy; I don’t even have time to think about anything else. So that’ll be that. And obviously I’m still gonna be active, as I always am, as we always are, with the band. So if I do have some random songs to put up, I’ll put ‘em up [on MySpace] once in a while, but when we’re on tour with Simple Plan, that’s what we do, and that’s what we love.

YT: What advice would you give to a high-school student who is aspiring to be a musician?
S: Play, play, play. And write, write, write. You know, the first songs you’re gonna write are always gonna suck, that’s normal. And picking up your guitar for the first time, for the first couple of years, you’re gonna suck, and that’s normal. You have to keep at it, keep improving, get some shows, get a band together, write some songs and just go out there. You know, that’s the only way to do it… You can’t expect to have it off the bat, you know? It’s impossible… So, like the first song that you ever write is not gonna be that great. And you’ll just have to write some more.