With the release of the second single off their upcoming album, Boîte aux lettres, Les Hay Babies have dropped a new music video that launches viewers back to the mid 1960s. Also functioning as the album’s namesake, this song pays tribute to every Acadian mother whose daughter has moved away from home.
The trio are basing their upcoming album on the story of a woman named Jackie, whose letters to her mother sent during that decade were recovered years later.
The story goes that in 1965, Jackie packed her bags and left New Brunsick in search of bigger things in the grand city of Montreal, but still wrote home often to her mother in Moncton. With the second half of the story left untold, Les Hay Babies decided to express — with permission — their take on what Jackie’s mother’s responses may have sounded like in the track “Same Old, Same Old.”
Envisioning the Acadian mother, the band builds her persona into the type who gives plenty of advice we don’t want to hear, asks endless questions we don’t want to answer and frankly just worries way too much. But she reassures that everything back home is good, as always, setting up the refrain “icitte c’est same old, same old.”
At the end of the track, we hear a repeated refrain: “La boucle est bouclée, la cire est prête, le bras est levé sur la boîte aux lettres.” This evokes the image of Jackie’s mother preparing and sending letter after letter to her beloved daughter in Montreal.
With its faded pink hues, grainy film quality and family-portrait-style shots (complete with matching retro outfits), the video exudes the 1960s. And the song does, too. ’60s-style psychedelic rock riffs play alongside a slow and steady drumbeat and slightly reverberated vocals.
Clips of footage made to look like home video show viewers glimpses of memories and moments of stillness. They provide a view of simple sights that would seem insignificant when viewed individually, but they add up to a feeling of comfort and a sense of home: Jackie’s home.
“Listening to the song for the first time,” says the video’s director Annie France Noël, “I immediately thought of time passing, longing for news of a loved one, the beauty of mundane everyday things and moments…. And I thought of little snippets, in the Super 8 vibe of home movies, off focus, wobbly camera work, fingers in lens, where technique is not so important as the capture of feelings and memories.”
Noël paired the footage of the band and winter scenery with images of travel and clips filmed by a couple of Les Hay Babies themselves, including some from Montreal, to tie in with the story behind the track. In effect, the video became something of a genuine mélange of home-style video.
While Les Hay Babies are bringing us back in time by nearly 60 decades, they maintain their signature Acadian sound; the track’s lyrics are peppered with Chiac. The retro tone also lends itself well to the band’s style and doesn’t stray far from what we are used to hearing from them.
Boîte aux lettres has been crafted to give listeners a glimpse into daily life during the mid to late sixties and an idea of who this mysterious Jackie is, anyway. The album will be dropping February 28th and will have two release parties: one in Montreal at the Lion D’or on February 25th and one in Moncton at the Centre Culturel Aberdeen on February 27th.
Tour Dates:
01.23.20 – New Orleans, LA @ Folk Alliance International
01.24.20 – New Orleans, LA @ Folk Alliance International
01.25.20 – New Orleans, LA @ Folk Alliance International
01.26.20 – New Orleans, LA @ Folk Alliance International
01.02.20 – Fredericton, NB @ Shivering Songs
21.02.20 – St-Bruno, QC @ Centre Marcel-Dulude
25.02.20 – Montréal, QC @ Lion d’Or
27.02.20 – Moncton, NB @ Centre Culturel Aberdeen
12.03.20 – Trois-Rivières, QC @ Salle Anaïs-Allard-Rousseau
13.03.20 – Québec, QC @ Le D’Auteuil
14.03.20 – Jonquière, QC @ Côté-Cour
28.03.20 – Sherbrooke, QC @ La Petite Boîte Noire
03.04.20 – La Sarre, QC @ Théâtre de Poche
04.04.20 – Val-d’Or, QC @ Salle Félix-Leclerc
09.04.20 – Lavaltrie, QC @ Centre culturel de la Chasse-Galerie
10.04.20 – Gatineau, QC @ Le Minotaure
11.04.20 – St-Hyacinthe, QC @ Le Zaricot
15.05.20 – Chibougamau, QC @ Bar Maxi M’Hom
23.05.20 – Rimouski, QC @ Coop Paradis
24.05.20 – Baie-Comeau, QC @ Espace Alcoa
17.06.20 – Montréal, QC @ Les FrancoFolies de Montréal (Club Soda)