Delusion Rain 10 years already ( Part 2)

The New Band

For Delusion Rain, the main idea was to include the live musicians for a real band recording.  A recording that represented what we were all about on stage.  We were returning from a European mini tour, Sylvain Moineau could not do the Tour so Drummer Jean-Sebastien Goyette suggested that we ask a young guy he knew named Antoine Michaud to learn all of Sylvain’s parts in about 2 weeks and joined the band on guitar for the European tour.   

The World is a Game was the best-selling album of all time for MYSTERY and with the departure of Benoit David, I did not know how the new album would be received. But I was sure that I wanted to include everyone on the album.

One thing was sure the Live feel  was cool.  Jean Pageau, the news singer was changing our stage presence and we had a lot of fun all together on stage. But how would that translate in the studio.

Here’s my memories on how I received their recordings for the album, from what I remember. 

Jean-Sebastien Goyette:  JS joined the band a little after the release of The World is a Game,  He did a bunch of shows with Mystery before recording his first track for the new album.      I am not sure it was the first song he sent the drums for, but I mostly remember when he sent Wall Street King,  I loaded the tracks and it was like Wow,  it sounded so cool, I knew the drums would be cool, and it was also very nice to hear him play his own parts. He had also suggested a part for The Willow Tree that did not make it to the final mix not because it was not good, but because recording an album is also about making choices, however today, I think this part should have been included on the album.  And one funny thing, as I was mixing the album, we had this long New Age style intro for Delusion Rain and it was cool but very long and not so interesting, one day I called JS and said, you know the 3 minutes intro on Delusion Rain, can you make something on the toms for that,  and a day or 2 later he sent me the Toms opening and it fitted like a glove,    JS is very self conscious of his playing.  I am not sure he is completely satisfied with his performance on this album as I am. This was his first recordings for Mystery and I feel he nailed it. 

Francois Fournier:   Francois has been part of the live band for many years although he did record a few parts here and there for One Among the living, Delusion Rain was the first album on which he recorded all the bass tacks, and Taurus,  He also contributed to a few Keyboards parts as well.   Being part of the Live bands. The Mystery music was no mystery for Francois and his contribution to the album is as solid and passionate as the gentle man he is.

Sylvain Moineau:  Sylvain has been around Mystery for a very long time, Friend with Keyboardist Benoit Dupuis, he was making the keyboard charts for Benoit to learn the parts he did not play in the studio for the live shows. Benoit was always telling me, if ever you need a guitar player Sylvain knows all the songs.  Sylvain would officially join Mystery a few weeks before the album launch concert for The World is a Game, replacing guitarist Dean Baldwin in 2012.    Sylvain’s contributed on a few songs on Delusion Rain, including the whole middle section of A Song for you, where he created these Guitars that are driving on top of the Keyboard riff. And of course, the whole Guitar duel in The Willow Tree.  Sylvain is a super cool Guy, and a solid musician on stage and in the Studio.

Benoit Dupuis. Benoit has been in and out of Mystery since the very beginning, a good friend and dedicated musician. For some reasons, Benoit did not seem too thrilled about the direction the music was taking and although taking the Keyboardist spot in the credits, he practically did not contribute to the album, in the end, most of the Keyboard tracks were mine , with some from Jean Pageau and Francois Fournier.  I had always liked the Piano feel of HUIS’s Sylvain Descoteaux and he accepted to play most of the Piano tracks on the albums.  And also a lot of the Ambient pads you hear on the albums are Antoine Michaud on guitars giving the album lush and atmospheric depth. Benoit Dupuis would eventually quit the band in 2016 and would be replaced by Antoine Michaud in 2017.

Jean Pageau:   Most of the Demos I had recorded with Jean found their way on the album,  If I remember well, the first song he recorded for Delusion Rain was “If you See her”   The song sounded really good but it was when he recorded the first verse of Delusion Rain with the line “ You look out by the Window, Still

the rain keeps falling down “ that I knew we had found the perfect singer.  While the other members recorded their tracks in their own studio, Jean was recording the vocals with, he would arrive at the studio with no idea what the song would be, we would sit together and I would play acoustic guitar and sing the song to him and he would learn a few lines and we would record a few versions of each verses and choruses.  The whole recording went really smooth, and his voice is a perfect fit for the music of Mystery.

And this is how this new Mystery line up recorded Delusion Rain, this line up is still together 10 years later  

Michel St-Pere