On one of those perfect sunny September days in Montreal, where fall feels like spring, I met with Dominique Fils Aimé to talk about her new album “Our Roots Run Deep,” which will be released on September 22nd (EnSoul Records). After listening to my advanced copy, I had so many questions.
I found this to be her most intimate and personal record, full of conviction and celebration. There’s a deep stillness on the surface, as lyrics appear slow and sparse. Yet underneath, they hold weight and space, cradled in a rich soil of ancestral wisdom. Words are repeated and looped as Dominique’s vocals intensify, creating a heightened state of auditory bliss.
I found her sitting outside a St Laurent café, surrounded by lush, colourful plants, sipping on an iced coffee and lovingly admiring her new royal blue suede moccasins. (A gift from a local indigenous creator.)
With a generous smile and warm hug, she immediately put “My Mind At Ease” which is also the name of one of my favourite tracks. At exactly 11:11, I pressed record and we began.
This album is very in touch with nature, I find, more than the others.
“Absolutely! It’s the centrepiece of it all. When you look at a forest, you see trees, one next to the other but really, they’re all connected underground. And I think we’re the same as humans. We seem to be all separate and one little entity moving around but really, we are all connected. And I can tell that I am being fed by my ancestors, that they are the profound, bigger trees and deeper roots that did all this work for us to get the sunlight, to get the nutrients that we need to blossom properly.”
I was talking about your music with a friend of mine recently and I said Dominique is the kind of person that seems like she’s not just in touch with her ancestors but she’s carrying them with her all of the time and is deeply aware of them. It’s in the style of your music, it’s all your voices looped over and over, multi-layered. As I was listening to the album, I realized oh, it’s not just her voice, but the voice of her ancestors. Is that what you were going for?
“Yes! 100%. They’re with me, they’re with you it’s your voice, it’s their voice.”
I listened with headphones on, and I really felt you in my ear. You talk a lot about voices in your head.
“I do I think it’s a mix between all the voices of the ancestors and the lessons that they’ve taught me combined with all the voices that we have in our own heads, the different people living and not. There’s a thing called the internal family system, and it’s a notion of what if all of the people in your head are like a family, and the goal is for the family to be functional. Amongst all these people, you have a little kid, you have the anxious part of you, you have so many people talking but amongst all these people, there is a core self, and that core self is the one that’s connected and it’s all connected to the ancestors, to everything around you and this is where I try to make my music from. To give room to the ancestors as much as possible, and if I may say, channelling them as much as I can by acknowledging their teachings, practising gratitude for everything that they have allowed me to be today because I wouldn’t be here today without everything they’ve built. I wouldn’t be here even without my mom, my grandma, my great grandma, and it goes further on until the end of times.”
Did you know your great-grandmother?
“I did not, but I feel like I do through the stories that I was taught, and that’s where the collective memory and the family memory feels like something I really want to cultivate. I want to make sure that we can keep as much as we can, by asking questions and asking my mom, how was it, how was your grandma, what did you get from her and that felt really enriching to see how some things are just in the DNA in a way, even the spiritual DNA and it’s definitely present.”
I noticed a lot on this album, where the tracks start off very slow with no instrumentation and then suddenly there’s blaring horns. Like in New Beginnings and a few others.
“Yeah.”
I don’t think you’ve done that in your other albums, have you?
“No. That was a way to show, be more authentic and honest about how I build my songs, actually. And the fact that as we go, things build. That notion of building something, of moving forward and trying to elevate.”
Yeah, you love to take your time. There’s always a slow build, like a deep understanding of nature. It’s like you said, taking your time, like the way nature takes its time, right? The way a plant will grow or a tree will grow or, nine months for a child to be born… nature takes its time, but we don’t.
“And I want to take my time.”
Yes, you’re hyper-aware of that. I saw you at the Jazz Fest and you don’t just come on belting it out. There’s always a very gradual building up.
“Yeah.” (laughing softly)
That’s hard to do though. Everyone just wants to come out and belt it all out. Right?
“Yeah, yeah. Well, to me, luckily, it’s pretty easy and it feels natural to take my time. I feel like nature and I are in sync in a way. I appreciate its rhythm and feel connected to that rhythm way more than the rhythm of the city, for example.”
Okay, but how did you get there? Because I don’t know, honestly, a lot of people that are like that. Were you always like that?
“I always felt connected to nature. I know that people judge, but I’ll admit it. I loved hugging trees because it felt, I felt just, oh, you are so huge. And I felt so little next to it. And seeing how tall some trees can be, way bigger than any house we built around. There’s something strong about that. And meditation in my life has definitely been something that put me in sync with myself and with my surroundings and to just take the time. You know, I’m lucky that I’ve always been pretty patient because I know things come when they have to. And that has helped me not feel anxious so much about what’s happening or just trusting. And being patient has brought me a lot in my life.”
You’re the epitome of trust in the universe, the deep understanding of nature, water, earth, air, fire, all the elements. I am a tree; I’m a plant. You’re so in touch with all of this and the seasons. Did you make this album during COVID/ lockdown?
“I did it after… it was my personal lockdown because I got a back problem that locked me in my bed for about a month. We had to cancel shows… So that felt like life also saying, calm down, you know? You are so excited, like, yay, pandemic is over but don’t rush. That was a pretty big shock at first, but it forced me to acknowledge my body more because I was very aware of my mind, my spirit. I spent a lot of time on it and I felt like it was stronger than anything else. Body didn’t matter because if the mind is strong, it will heal anything. That’s not true…well, for me, it’s not.”
We disconnect sometimes because we’re so focused on something else that we neglect our physical health. There are people that go exercising every day… but they feel like crap.
“Yeah…I meditated every day, I’m in sync, but my body feels like crap. Why is that? Because I didn’t connect the both of them and I really neglected the importance of physical health.”
It’s finding the balance. So, you were stuck on your back?
“Stuck, hurting, and then it became a challenge to find gratitude through it all. And being able to do that also helped me reconnect my mind and my body together because it was, okay, you’re grateful for all the work you’ve done, you’re grateful for your ancestors, for the privileges of your life, but did you take the time to be grateful for this body that you’re in, for the fact that it takes you places, it allows you to walk for hours. I took it for granted. The same way I took a lot of things for granted during the pandemic. So, taking nothing for granted really brought me back.”
I think women especially are so hard on our bodies in so many ways.
“Because society taught us this way for sure. And advertisements did not help, and Photoshop did not help…”
Let’s get into My Mind at Ease because we all have those voices of self-doubt and negativity… I love this song because you’re telling bad thoughts to get away but how do you do that really?
“I do, but it’s a process that I’ve learned to develop, you know? I think a lot of these voices are here to speak about our fears. The pain that we might have, the hurt that might still be there. So, I realize that the best way to calm them down is by acknowledging them. Because if we compare them to people, nobody wants to be ignored and shunned. You know, it’s, “Okay, you have a message. You’re hurting or you’re stressed or you’re scared. Come, I’m going to listen to you for a minute.” And then the self that is doing great is going to be able to say, “Okay, now I’ve heard you. Maybe you had a message for me of something that needs to change in my life. Or maybe you were… just going off fear. And I’m now going to let you be with that. And I’m going to move along with my day.” One of the homework that I had with my life coach that I love is, “Who am I without this thought? What would I be doing?” So, I always take a moment to sit with the thought, see what it has to say exactly. What do you want from me? Do you want something or are you just distracting me? And then I notice, “Okay, you’re stressing out because you didn’t prepare enough for the show. So, who am I without this thought? I am a creator who loves her job. What would I be doing?” Well, I’d be working on that show so that I stop stressing about the fact that I didn’t work. And then it puts me into action. So, moving towards the action that might be needed to calm down that thought…I’m feeling stressed. Maybe I need a walk. Maybe I need to paint. What do I need to do right now to feel better and reconnect with a part of me that is not being, exploited to its fullest potential? You know, the core has so much to do, has so much to say, has so much light and energy. So, it’s about stepping back into yourself and stepping away, leaving that part of you that is stressed out. Sitting on that chair, you can chill here for a minute. I’m going to work. Maybe we’ll round back in a bit and you’ll be like, “Oh, wow, that felt great. Thank you…So, treating them like different people helped me a lot.”
Yeah, that’s harder than it sounds.
“Yes, absolutely.”
The album goes a lot of different places. It’s not just nature and trees. I was questioning the song about the fire, Let it Burn.
“It’s an interlude”
Yeah…. So, what was it about the fire?
“I feel like everything that has to do with nature, the metaphors that have to do with nature, if I’m able to twist something into a metaphor that’s connected to nature, then to me, it means that it makes sense.”
It applies to you.
“Yeah, exactly. It applies. And when it comes to fire, for example, on the red album, in “Stay Tuned,” there was definitely this notion of lava. The idea of fire burning but the kind of fire that burns everything on its path and leaves a ground that is more fertile than before. So, to me, that’s what revolution is. Sometimes we do have to burn some things to the ground or question old notions and just say, “Hey, you know what? The world of the future doesn’t need that anymore, so you’re out.”
So now you’re going to start touring the album very soon… here in Montreal…and then off to Europe. They love you in Europe.
“I’m so excited. I’m so lucky. They are amazing with me. They have welcomed us so well every time … It’s very warm and welcoming. People had warned me, you know, they’re a very difficult public. Don’t be too fazed. That was not my experience at all. People have been very open to the concept, to the notion of no clapping between songs.”
Oh, really?
“Super respectful, yeah.”
Do you ask for no clapping in between songs?
“I do.”
I didn’t know that.
“Yes. Well, I encourage… I inform them that there will be very little room for applause for a few reasons. But the main one being that I do wish for people to be in a bubble with us. I want people to just sit down, take it in. This is a gift that I want to give you and you cannot thank me every four minutes. You know what I mean?”
Oh, it interrupts the flow.
“It does. And that’s why the music never stops. So, all the songs are meshed together in a way that is one long entity from beginning to end, the same way the three albums are connected and the same way I want us all to be connected throughout this moment. So, to me, the no applause request is definitely an important one to get in the zone when I’m singing and to make sure that the energy I’m trying to share through the show is uninterrupted.”
Do you find this album more emotional than your other albums?
“Absolutely. More emotional, more personal. More vulnerable and…it is a challenge being vulnerable and open and just putting yourself out there. It’s like showing up as a naked soul in public. Like being naked in public… but I want to have more courage. I want to be more honest and open.”
The best, best songs, the songs that make us cry.
“Yeah, and I know that’s the kind of song that really helped me when I was younger. You know, when I built my true connection to music, it was really teenage years, thinking the world makes no sense. I feel so alone, I feel so off and then hearing something that resonates. Suddenly you’re like, oh, someone else felt the same. Someone else went through this.”
So, what were you listening to in your dark teen years?
“What wasn’t I listening to? Everything from opera to System of a Down, their harmonies, my God, they’re amazing. The power in those songs, B.B. King with Lucille telling me the story of his guitar and Aretha Franklin’s I Never Loved a Man. Like, I had never been in love, but I felt like I knew heartache.
I was like, oh, I feel you. Yeah, that’s painful. I’ve never kissed a boy, but here I am feeling it.”
Yeah, we’re drawn to the emotion. You said it’s so hard to be vulnerable, but I personally believe what we’re truly drawn to is the emotional aspects of the song. That’s what just hits us. That feeling of when you hear a song and you have to stop, right?
“It takes me, it draws me in… And that’s where I understood that this is what music means to me. It doesn’t mean that I need to learn exactly… Because I didn’t study music, so there was this feeling… of imposter for a minute, and then I realized, no. Neither did my ancestors, and they made music. Music was there before the school that made it into a book and an explanation. So, I do feel like as an artist, part of my personal responsibility or quest is to create without these boundaries that school puts and allow myself to create freely because it’s by creating freely that you might create what will be analyzed and put in a book later. So, we have to be in the forefront of that rather than I want to be, at least, rather than being told by school what is right, what is wrong, because everything is right if it comes from the heart.”
The boundaries limit us to fully expressing. How crazy is it that you, Little Miss Imposter Syndrome with no music schooling or degree from the conservatory…is closing the jazz fest with like 50,000 people? Does that blow your mind?
“It’s amazing. It does. It really does. But it also makes me feel that I’m right to believe…in the thought that music matters more than the academia. The feeling matters more than the academia. That’s a validation.”
Yeah… If you don’t believe in something, you can’t sell it and no one else is going to believe you.
“That is very true…But I believe that music is emotions and that the voice is the frequency that carries it the purest possible way because it comes from your body. It’s actually your own voice. So, there’s something magical to me in that notion.”
Why do humans and birds sing and wolves howl?
“That’s a good question. But I do think that we come out of the womb singing… Any sound can be music if we choose.”
Why do mothers sing to their babies?
“Because it’s so soothing. There is something in these frequencies.”
Yeah. We all want someone to soothe us somehow.
“And the world is made of frequencies in all forms, from thoughts to colours. And when you look at the spectrum of frequencies and then you look on that at the visible part, it’s a little tiny slice that are the colours. Everything else we don’t see, we feel though. And that’s what I’m always wondering what’s hidden in there. Is it emotion also?”
Do you have synesthesia?
“I do.”
So you see colours?
“I do see every music I hear. I see the colour. And when I create as well, I see what colour I’m going for. And I try to put it in. And I actually paint every album before I sing it or create it.”
You’re also visual.
“Yeah.”
I noticed that in all your releases of singles and albums, there’s a color theme. When you released New Beginnings, it was green… And…I wondered what’s the message here?
“As long as it’s there to me, that’s what matters.”
It means something to you, but it’s open to interpretation. Like, art is always open to interpretation.
“100%”
“The less I care, the more I smoke.” I love that line.
“Love Will Grow Back”
It starts off with the bass…it’s very jazzy but it’s not a very long song…some of your songs are not too long (on this album).
“Yeah. In the shows, we expand on them a lot… One of the things I picked up from the jazz album, the red one, (Stay Tuned), was the song will be as long as I want it to be. If it’s 10 seconds, it’s 10 seconds.”
Okay. It’s done when you say it’s done.
“Exactly. It doesn’t have to be chorus verse chorus, bridge. You know, that’s part of the… brainwash and the formatting that I want to be free from. It’s freedom.”
But that’s what music does. Especially some music, it really brings out emotions. It’s therapeutic. It’s healing. It’s inspiring. (New Beginnings is like a mantra.) What else can you hope for?
“That’s what I’m hoping people take out of it for sure. And the fact that it was all looped, a lot of looping, a lot of repetition. That was the goal. For it to be a form of meditation for me and creation of mantras, hopefully these will sink in and allow people who… If you go through a phase where your mind is running around, if you can listen to a song that takes you in, draws you in a way that you get in that rhythm and loop and that it’s a form of brainwashing you with love. That’s what I hope for.”
I just look at it as; for your skin you put an ointment, or for your throat, you’ll drink a tea. But for your emotions or your brain…
“You listen to a song.”
You want to hear a song.
“That is so nice. You are a writer. It’s very poetic.”
Girrrl.
“I love it. I always knew that my goal and my mission felt like helping and helping people feel better, wanting people to feel better, because that’s what felt right. And I felt like we have such a deep impact on each other that I probably had ways I could find to do that. But it turns out that the grown-up version of that job is not for me, but the musical version that is way more connected to the kid in me as well is the right place, at least for now, for me to do that.”
“Our Roots Run Deep,” will be released on September 22nd on EnSoul Records.
Annette Aghazarian
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