Something is fitting about a singer-songwriter building his own studio in the quiet of Lac-Saint-Jean, far from the urban sprawl where he once cut his teeth. Gab Bouchard announced today that his third album, Encore encore, will arrive January 30, 2026, alongside a new single that charts that very impulse to leave it all behind. “Demain je pars” (Tomorrow I’m Leaving) is out now, a warm, blues-tinged folk track that continues the introspective trajectory he’s carved out over two acclaimed records.
The song finds Bouchard wrestling with restlessness and renewal. “Love is perhaps an excess of blues that evaporates,” he sings, a line that doubles as both lyric and aesthetic descriptor. Built around rhythm guitar, Wurlitzer, and Victor Tremblay-Desrosiers’ steady drums, the track blends folk, indie-rock, and a dash of soul into something emotionally direct but never overwrought. It’s a portrait of wanting out, of imagining what waits beyond the noise and routine of your twenties, a theme that runs through the entire album.
Encore encore marks a clear shift from Bouchard’s earlier work. Where 2020’s Triste pareil dealt with heartbreak and 2022’s Grafignes explored various forms of grief, this third effort turns outward, surveying the world around him while documenting a return to his roots in Saint-Prime. He recorded the album at Àcause Studio, the space he built himself in recent years, co-producing with Olivier Langevin and Mathieu Quenneville. The result, if “Demain je pars” is any indication, feels lived-in and unvarnished.
Bouchard’s trajectory has been steady but striking. His 2023 track “Ton shift est pas fini” won the SOCAN Song Award for its unflinching take on depression, while “Dépotoir” earned the Prix collégial for Song of the Year. Last month, he took home the 2025 André-Dédé-Fortin award from SPACQ, recognizing emerging Francophone songwriters. A spring tour follows the album’s release, including an April 24 stop at MTelus in Montreal, his second headliner there after selling out the venue in November 2023. Two shows at L’Impérial in Quebec City on April 9 and 16 round out the run, with the first date already sold out.
Photo credit: villedepluie
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