Bon Enfant’s been breaking the glass ceiling since their inception. Led by Daphné Brissette (Canailles) and Guillaume Chiasson (Solids, Ponctuation), along with Étienne Côté (Canailles, Lumière), Mélissa Fortin (Canailles) and Alex Burger (himself), this ragtag team of superheroes land with brilliance wherever they go. Their music is phantasmagoric, best enjoyed with a flower in your hair and a sword in hand.
Bon Enfant exploded onto the Quebec scene in the fall 2019 with their first LP – celebrated as one of the best francophone records of the year by multiple media outlets. Bon Enfant (the self-titled record) was an amalgam of groovy “Québécois” pop, covered in tie-dye, with disco, desert rock and some nancysinatra-ish influences. Songs co-written by Brissette and Chiasson, in French, but in a raw French – think Molière with a beard.
Their second enchantment, Diorama, hypnotized the public in 2021 invoking a new synergy and a broader sonic palette. The range of their mutated influences moved from the early 70’s to the late 70’s/early 80’s: Diverse and filled with a fantastical imagery, with naive disco and borrowing from hard and glam rock, Japanese pop and psych folk, while always dodging mimicry to put together their own brand of fluid and open “Québécois rock” or as it is known here, “rock québ”. The writing, big and labored over, goes one way; the arrangements, idem, go elsewhere: a clash that opens countless doors.
Bon Enfant still has a lot of dioramas to explore, accumulating 4 nominations at this year’s ADISQ gala (Quebec’s Grammys), including best rock record (which they won) and best band. They continue to feed the enchanted forest in which they attract the lost souls with their intoxicating musical ravings.