About half a year after the CD release of “Bonjour Tristesse”, it was late July 2011, and I was desperately looking for new record labels to work with and release either upcoming material by Soufferance or re-issue the older material on new formats. I had been wanting to do this since 2007. My goal was that for each album, there would be a different artwork and a different album mix for each different format it was released in (digital, cd, tape, vinyl). Well with CD ripping and torrents, that original goal failed when “Travels Into Several Remote Nations of the Mind” came out. The digital version spread around was the same as the album, though I did make a different cut for the Bandcamp download. Not only that, but 2009 was especially bad for cassette tapes, and a lot of labels stopped making them. My dream was fading.
But in late July 2011, I spent a whole night emailing 77 record labels about releasing Soufferance material. The next day I had quite a few offers already. The first label I decided to go for was Salamander Lane Productions. A great little tape label that was apparently on hiatus (and had turned me down because of that about six months earlier) but was now going to abandon the hiatus only to work with my band! I was super happy to hear that, and right away I got to working on a new layout for the artwork. The original offer was to release both “Forthcoming Travels” and “Travels Into Several Remote Nations of the Mind” at the same time, but after deciding to wait a little more, for a co-release with a second record label, we decided to start with “Bonjour Tristesse” only. So I fixed up a new layout and sent it to Justin that same night. The next day he got back to me, all excited, saying that Victory by Fire Records had offered to co-release this tape with him, because they liked my music so much, and that they wanted to press the high quality covers, while Salamander Lane would dub the tapes. Everything was set, and we almost had a release date.
Front cover of the first version designed by myself
Back cover of the first version designed by myself
I started doing promotion for this album, when I was struck down by a low blow from the Quartier23 posse. They had been scouting my Soufferrance account for some time I suppose, because as soon as I started publicly announcing that this was coming out, they sent threats to the two labels saying that they would bring them to court if they released this album. Quartier23 was not distributing my album, and was denying having ever released it, yet they wouldn’t allow anyone else to release it either, claiming legal rights on their part! I tried and tried for two days to convince the new labels that this was not true, and that Quartier23 were simply talking shit about me because of the whole Immundus incident, but Salamander Lane and Victory by Fire decided to drop my band, and also publicly announce the fact that I had been dropped due to legal reasons! I felt completely betrayed and as if they were trying to kiss ass to Q23. At that same time, Laura left me, after having spent one year, two months and seventeen days together in a wonderful relationship. And I was still jobless. My world was fading quite fast.
Marc Hoyland tried to convince to to change the band name, which I seriously considered for about a week. The name that I had picked out was “Errance de Souvenirs”, which literally translates to “longing memories”. But there was a word play in the new band name: “ERRANCE de SOUvenirs”, which if combined and switched make “SOU ERRANCE”, sort of an anagram on “Soufferance”. Marc liked the name and thought it was a good idea but I decided that I would keep using Soufferance. It was one of those moments where I thought “I don’t care how hard it is and how long it takes me to get out of this rut, I’m the injured party here, not the wrong doer, if I change my band name it’s admitting defeat”. Looking back on that period, I don’t think I ever recovered from the blow Q23 gave Soufferance and I never found other labels that would seriously consider working with me again.
Somehow the fact that so many other record labels had offered to work with Soufferance kept my torch burning. Finally I went for Depressive Illusions Records, as they had a pretty big catalog and also because they had released I Am Esper, which was Justin Palmieri’s band (the owner of Salamander Lane). It was a little inside joke for me. I kept this release secret until the very day it was released. The artwork had to be condensed down to a single side however, so the information was a little bit messy compared to the first version.
Second version of the artwork designed by myself, as submitted
Second version of the artwork designed by myself, as altered and pressed by the label
Two days after submitting the artwork, the label told me it was out! That was super fast work, and I was happy. But I was leaving for a week on that day to go fishing in the Laurentians. So I didn’t do promotion right away. I was mostly waiting to see how the actual release turned out before telling my fans to buy it. It took me two months to receive the package from the label with my fifteen copies. When I opened it I was slapped in the face. The label was printing the covers on photo paper. Not home printer photo paper, but actual rectangular photo paper from Kodak. The front had the artwork completely unreadable due to the amount of gloss and how much the label had shrunk the image, and the back actually had Kodak printed on it. It was the most ghetto piece of shit release I had ever seen in my life! Not only that but when I tried to fit in in a cassette case, it was too small on every end to properly fit! I decided right there that I would not be promoting this release at all because I felt that no one should pay 7.50 Euros for such a piece of shit! I didn’t say anything to the label for the reason that I didn’t want to start more drama. But “Bonjour Tristesse” is going down in history as the most problematic release of my career.
- Dementia Præcox
artwork by Niels Geybels at Depraved Designs with additional work by Alexandre Julien
layout by Alexandre Julien
recorded September 7th, 8th, 9th and 30th (music), December 27th (vocals), 2010 at Mortified Studios (MTL4)
released by Depressive Illusions Records (CUT340)
released on August 31st 2011