Premiere: Laurent Bourque Reveals Lightning Mood

Laurent Bourque returns with the video for his new single Lightning Mood which premieres right here on RockShot Mag.

The track, which follows recent singles Matador and Thinking of You, is also taken from his forthcoming new album Blue Hour, due on 31st January 2020.

Musically, Lightning Mood sits somewhere between Sufjan Stevens, Radiohead, and Frank Ocean. It was was written in Paris by Bourque and French DJ/producer Nicolas Gueguen, who mostly works in the electronic world and has collaborated with greats like Talib Kweli.

“Lightning Mood is a song about morality in love. About the individual desires that co-exist between two people and how we can struggle to align them,” explains the Canadian indie-pop singer-songwriter.

“The end goal is the same for everyone, we all want to make it through and see things to the end. This is what the chorus is about. The hope for everyone is that the day feels truly and authentically ours. Like it’s going to end in a magical way.”

After touring his 2014 debut album, Pieces of Your Past, which won him Canada’s Stingray Rising Star Award, Bourque decided to put the brakes on and rethink his approach to songwriting. During a lengthy creative ennui, he was introduced to the idea of co-writing.

Collaboration would be the creative key to the material in Blue Hour.

“When you write with other people, you can bounce things off each other and the best idea always wins,” he says. “Which always makes for better art.”

In 2018 after surpassing a personal goal to write 100 new songs, Bourque teamed up with producer Dan Ledwell (Jenn Grant, Fortunate Ones) and longtime collaborator and drummer Jamie Kronick to record an album rich in shining piano melodies, sweeping synthesisers, and blissful orchestral arrangements.

The resulting 11 songs are variously described as “twilight’s shining moment of natural, unwrinkled radiance”, “a mellow and vibrant hue that casts itself atop of landscapes, skylines and people going about their lives”, and “an uninhibited reminder to stop and take in what’s beautiful as it happens”.

In short, Blue Hour is an exploration of loss and new beginnings through pensive, chic piano-driven pop.

Photo credit: Rebecca Chan

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