French-Canadian duo Ghostly Kisses, comprised of Margaux Sauvé and Louis-Étienne Santais, has exploded internationally, captivating a devoted overseas following.
Riding high after their debut album, “Heaven, Wait,” and tours supporting acclaimed acts like Ry X, Men I Trust, Lord Huron, and Pomme, the band launched “Box of Secrets,” an initiative offering fans an anonymous platform to share their deepest thoughts.
What emerged was a poignant portrait of a global post-pandemic, postmodern world – a profound and unsettling loneliness echoing across the globe. Sauvé and Santais channelled these anonymous confessions into the mesmerizing “Darkroom,” a record that compels us to confront our inner voice. Here, tears fall on the dance floor, but amidst the darkest electronic echoes, a mystical connection is forged.
Montreal Rocks caught up with Margaux Sauvé to talk about the new record and what to expect from Ghostly Kisses’ upcoming Montreal show at Church of the Gesu on May 23.
Hi Margaux. Are you home in Quebec City now?
Yes.
So, I’m originally from the UK. You just got back from there. How was your trip?
It was great. We played in London and sold out shows, so we were very happy about that. And then for the first time, we went to Manchester and Glasgow. And a few shows in Europe and a few sold out shows as well. Mainly in the bigger cities. So, Berlin, Paris, London, Dublin, Amsterdam, and Vienna were sold out. So, we were very, very happy about that.
You just released your album, Darkroom, this week. Most artists would get the album out first and then go on tour so that people know the songs. How come you decided to do the tour before the music’s out?
We were supposed to release the album before. But this fall, we had new opportunities in Asia. And so, we decided to go to Asia and so it pushed back the completing of the album. So, we decided to still do the tour, even though it was not necessarily ideal before releasing the album. But thankfully, our fans were, even though there were a few new songs that we were playing live from Darkroom, they were still very engaged, and we were able to have people out of our shows. So, yeah. But we would have done things differently from the start. But I’m happy to say that it didn’t affect the sales too much. So, that’s great.
How was that for you when you were playing these new songs to people who haven’t heard them before? Is it interesting for you to watch the reaction?
Yeah, 100%, because it gives feedback in real-time. So, we would see how people would feel the song and if they felt the energy. And the new songs that we played are our most energetic ones. And it was really nice because we could see some people dancing and screaming the new songs. And when we start the show, we tell them, “You guys are the first to listen to these. Please tell us what you think.” We tried to engage them, and most of them took part in this exercise, and they felt it. So, that’s really a good sign.
So, the album came out on May 17th. Darkroom, it’s a perfect title. Do you remember when you came up with that title?
Yes, so I was with Louis-Étienne in London, and we were having dinner with our manager and his girlfriend. And the idea of the album was already settled that we wanted to base it on stories of our fans and stories of our community that were shared on the Box of Secrets. But then we were looking for an image of how do we present this visually. Because I think there were many ways that we could have done this as a sort of a mirror to the process of the writing of the album. And at some point, we just talked about how you develop a picture, how you develop an idea or a moment in time into art or to a visual. And I just thought it was a great image of what we did in the process, taking stories of people and putting them into music, into a song. There was something to make a link there, so we took it.
Like I said, it’s a perfect title for your sound as well. There are definitely dark elements to your sound. But on this album, even though there’s still the melancholy that you’ve always had, some of it sounds fun.
Yeah, it’s interesting because we evolved as people, as artists. And I think one goal that Louis and I share is that we always want to evolve with our music and not repeat the same thing over again. And I think with Darkroom, we kind of put into music stories of people, but also where we are at in life and where we are at as artists. I think this album is a bit more affirmative and maybe a bit more confident. And I feel that’s also how we feel in our life in general. And also, it’s just, we wanted to bring this energetic part and more house or UK garage inspirations. Because so far our music has been felt mainly for our introvert fans, but we wanted them to also feel it in their body and be able to move with the music. That was kind of a goal with that.
You mentioned the Box of Secrets. Could you tell me a bit more about the idea behind it?
So, about two years ago, after touring our first album, Heaven Wait, we had the idea of opening the Box of Secrets. Just a place for people to drop messages, testimonies, stories about their lives, anything that they wanted. Just as a place for them to anonymously express something. Because something that we’ve noticed while touring is that people would share with us after the shows many things, or how they were feeling when they were listening to the music, or what they went through while they were listening to Ghostly Kisses, and how the music helped them, things like that. And after a show, we’re always rushed, and we don’t have that much time, so I felt like this was a place for them to actually express, and I could actually read them, and without having to say anything in return, just to be there to listen to them.
I wanted to do it to actually know a bit more about our fans, because our fans are mainly from countries like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey, China, Iran. And it’s quite mysterious for me, what they do in a day, like how is life growing up in Saudi Arabia, and as a woman, and there were many, many things that I felt like I didn’t know much about them. And somehow they are connecting with our music, so I felt like I needed to know more. So the Box of Secrets was also a way for me to know them a bit better, and procuring them a safe space to express themselves when sometimes they didn’t really have the liberty to do it for many, many reasons. And so we decided to open the Box of Secrets, and then the reaction was great. A lot of people wrote on the Box of Secrets, and we still receive messages every week. So the purpose kind of worked, and we’re very happy that people still use it if they need to.
And at the time, we told them that this would be our inspiration for the new songs. So Darkroom is completely based on the stories of the Box of Secrets. And well, obviously, in the stories that were shared, there are some topics or situations that were more difficult than others. Some messages were longer than others. And so I tried to kind of grasp the main topics and the main themes that were recurrent and based on this, to write the songs.
What did you learn about your fans in these countries that you didn’t know before?
One thing that was very present is not being able to love someone, the person that you want. For example, a lot of people were writing their love stories or their breakups with someone that was the same sex as them. But they wouldn’t mention, like, clearly, “I’m a girl, I’m in love with another girl.” It was always kind of subtle, and I kind of had to guess, or there were little signs that would make me understand. So I realized that even in an anonymous mailbox like that, they still have difficulty expressing it and they’re still kind of hiding their true feelings. And I thought this was very interesting because, for example, here we’re quite free. We can do what we want, we can love who we want, and there were a lot of messages like that. So these restraints are quite important, so for me, it was really important to read this and to understand this a bit better.
After you get these kinds of messages, how do you take those stories and turn them into a fully fledged song?
I kind of extracted some themes that were either striking or just that I thought were more important or that were inspiring. And in every song, nothing is literal, like it’s just mainly inspiration that it gave me. And then, Louis and I, how we write usually is that we kind of write separately in two different rooms or work on different things. And once we are kind of happy with something, we send it to each other and then we start working together on a song. And so some sounds or some songs he was sending to me sometimes were just clearly about that kind of subject, independence, unrequited love or a breakup. So it became quite easy to say, “Okay, this sound is going to be associated with this theme,” and we built it from there.
I know you studied psychology. How does that help with your songwriting, if at all?
I studied psychology because I was aiming to help people or to listen because I’ve always had a sensitivity to understanding human interactions and the human mind. And I think that it’s such an interest to me, so it reflects in the way I write because it reflects how I think, how I see a situation, or the questions I can ask myself. So I think it just influenced me generally in my way of expressing things. But also I think that for the Box of Secrets exercise, it’s been helping me to not take in the difficult situations or the difficult testimonies I was reading. It helped me to read, understand, and have empathy, but I mean, I cannot help every person. I think it’s a difficult question to answer, but it just influenced me in general in the way I write.
Could you reply to the Box of Secrets messages?
No, on the Box of Secrets, I just received a message, and there’s no name, no email. I don’t know where they are. If they tell me, I’ll know, but otherwise, I don’t, and I cannot answer. And usually on socials, I don’t really answer as well because it just becomes a bit too much. I cannot directly help anyone technically. I can only bring kind of a musical support. So I try to stay not too personal with people, but Box of Secrets was also a way for me to do something and not just be not responding.
I think you definitely help with the music and just the fact that you care enough to ask a question in the first place. I think that counts for a lot.
When was Darkroom finished for you?
I think the writing was last October and then the producing with Oli Bayston, we finished it end of October, and then mixing started and the mastering was done in January. With that, we had a few tours, so it was intense. So end of January, it was completely finished.
When’s the last time you listened to it in full?
Good question. Well, we’ve played some of the new songs live, so there are some of the songs that I’ve listened to a lot these last few weeks. But I haven’t listened to the album since February, I think, the whole thing. And yeah, I took a bit of a break.
So, the first time you listened to it when it was complete, how did it feel? And how does it feel once it’s out to the public? How are those two things different?
It’s a very good question. When we finished it completely, we listened to it a lot and we kind of did our own celebration together of listening to it and feeling it. And I also sent it to my brother, who is my kind of musical confidant. I always send him stuff unreleased. And this was kind of our personal moment with it. But once the music is out, usually there’s a bit of a grief—not a grief, but like separation from it. Because once it’s out, it’s really weird, but it doesn’t feel like mine anymore. It’s like you send your kid to school, like, good luck. It kind of took another dimension. And now it’s everybody’s interpretation, and it’s everybody’s song. And as soon as there are comments or I see people listening to it, for example, on YouTube, I feel like there’s really a split. But sometimes it comes back eventually. For example, a few years after a song is released, I sometimes listen to it again and relive what I felt when we wrote it. But it usually takes some time.
Let’s talk about the show you’ve got it coming up. You’ve obviously done the European tour, but now you’re going to be in Montreal on the 23rd. You’re going to be playing at Church of the Gesu. Have you ever played a venue like that before?
We’ve played the Gesu as an opening act. And we’ve played seated shows.
So, what can you tell us about what you have planned for Montreal?
Well, we’ll be presenting the Darkroom show, which is kind of a mix of maybe half the songs off the new album and also the favourite songs that we’ve released so far. And I think this new show is a bit more constructed than what we used to present. We have a decor. The new songs are much more upbeat and you can dance to it for some of the songs. And I think there’s a bit more of a contrast during the show and a bit more of a storytelling. And with the lights and everything, it’s a bit more immersive.
Usually, people are quite focused and attentive to what’s happening. It’s not a social event. It’s kind of a focused kind of show. That’s what we’ve seen so far. So, yeah, in Montreal, that’s what we’ll present. It could have been a standing show, but I think a seated show really gives people kind of a bubble so they can really listen and be focused and they’re not distracted by someone walking through or someone going to the bar. You can feel it 100%. So that’s gonna be a good thing, I think.
Watch the full interview below:
