Bon Enfant is a quintet as plural as its members and musical horizons, for whom rock is a passion as much as a way of life – a fiery engine that propels them forward. Formed at the end of the previous decade by Daphné Brissette and Guillaume Chiasson to break new ground outside their previous practices, the group was soon joined by Etienne Côté (LUMIÈRE), Melissa Fortin and Alex Burger – and soon delivered a homonymous debut album, celebrated as the best Franco of 2019 by Le Devoir journal and awarded the Lucien for Rock Album of the following year at GAMIQ.

From the outset, the band’s groovy pop sound borrowed notably from folk-rock and psych, and two years later they came back with Diorama, an even broader palette, incorporating aspects of image music, disco, hard rock and glam rock – a convincing combination that earned them the Félix for Rock Album of the Year at the 2022 ADISQ gala.

It wasn’t long before the band was touring Quebec, Europe and the U.K. – the beginning of a global craze that discredited the territorial issue of language in favor of good tunes. Shaping a permeable, open-minded rock that always avoids pastiche, the band persists in adapting popular resonances while making new musical niches their own.

With its cherished themes of self-affirmation, love of music and just plain love, and stamped with Bon Enfant’s trademark brightly colored sounds, Demande spéciale is a feel-good, full-length album that’s a pleasure to listen to – and will be released this fall by Duprince Records, ahead of tours everywhere, all the time.

Continuing their permeable rock adventure, Bon Enfant return from an enviable run of local and international tours to present Demande spéciale, their 3rd album. A charming title – we agree – as much as it is evocative and ad hoc: a special request is a pleasure that makes us forget our worries to immerse ourselves in the moment; it comes from oneself, an extraordinary demonstration of one’s tastes, desires and personality. It also refers to the musical diversity of this album – where a lot of nostalgic and new references are absorbed by the band’s plural personality to generate something that is at once singular, contemporary, coherent and inviting. It’s about the work of the artist, the ability to permute the negative into the positive through creation, city life, the love of music and love itself. Recorded by Samuel Gemme, Warren C. Spicer and Guillaume Chiasson, mixed by the latter and produced by Emmanuel Éthier, Demande spéciale also benefits from contributions from Jean-Étienne Collin-Marcoux, Jérôme Dupuis-Cloutier and Naomie Delorimier. It’s an album that feels good, that sounds resolutely like Bon Enfant (idem) – and listening to it is like granting yourself a special request.

The very essence of a rock show is that it’s not clean-cut per se: it’s that rawness that makes you feel emotions that are just as raw – and that’s something Bon Enfant knows and applies to great effect. No costumes, no staging – just real people telling you their real stories. It’s also about the unexpected, the danger, the novelty: with them, you’ll never get the same setlist twice, just as it will be drawn differently each night from a catalog of 3 celebrated albums to build something unique – something of which the audience is a part. Strong personalities intertwine rather than clash, bass lines, guitar riffs, cymbal stabs and keyboard platters reach for the sky, all led by the warm voice of Daphné Brissette. Fiery moments to share, from which you’ll come away feeling better, and wanting more.