Lucill

23 ans de l'Esco

Bar L'Escogriffe

4461 rue Saint-Denis, Montréal, QC, Canada

About

The Lucill musical project was born of a desire to see if anything is possible. Singer-songwriter Raphaël Bussières, first discovered as bassist with alt-rock band Heat in the early 2010s, wanted to take control of his own musical path.

Influenced by the punk-rock of the 2000s, he took part in a number of projects in which he long presented himself as a bassist. Self-taught, he learned to play a number of instruments at his own school after studying theater production. However, this background led him to understand the inner workings of the stage on which he would eventually perform.

A back injury prevented him from working, so he set up shop with a guitar and a sound card to validate his ability to compose solo. In a band, Raphaël was often confronted with the need for consensus. Galvanized by the idea of having full control over his project, he is caught up in the desire for freedom, which allows him to do triple and quadruple duty if he wants to.

His EP Wou under the name Kapsalona was released without making any waves in 2016. The English-language shoegaze project removes the "anxiety" aspect of music, because, on his own, it's the first time he's not "afraid it's going to shit". Three years touring with Heat have generated a passion that's impossible to suppress. Composing a song, taking the time to bring it to its full potential, then delivering it on stage... It was with this perfectionist mentality that Lucill eventually wrote his first song in French.

Lucill's first EP, co-produced with Emmanuel Ethier, was released in 2018 and generated enough buzz to give her the French song bug. The singles La chute and Fougue du soir (in duet with Thierry Larose) were released the following year, before Bunny, her debut album, received much praise, but didn't see the tour, given its release in September 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, it was at this time that Raphaël developed a marked complicity with former Malajube drummer Francis Mineau, who has been developing his project with him ever since.

In February 2022, with the possibilities finally lighting up like lights at the end of the tunnel, his second album Snake Eyes was released, followed by a series of concerts, notably at festivals, where the energy of the crowds only served to reiterate the main idea of the project: give it your all. The Francos de Montréal and the FME in Abitibi showed him a convinced public, enabling him to strengthen his bond with his own songs.

Following the release of the single Seul au monde in February 2023, he returned a few months later with Si j'étais toi, a duet and artistic collaboration with Thaïs. In October of the same year, Lucill released his own version of Alain Souchon's Presque, a sensitive reworking of the French-Swiss musician's arrangements of the song.