After many years spent embodying Mario Goyette in the band Les frères Goyette, Simon Laganière has peeled off his fake moustache to make his solo debut. Previously, the singer-songwriter released four albums with Les frères Goyette, including Rencontre du troisième âge, which was nominated by the ADISQ for Best Country Album in 2011. Combining comedy, songs, and performance, Les frères Goyette served as a school and laboratory for Simon Laganière. Through the band’s fictional characters, the artist learned his craft as a filmmaker.

A native of Champlain, Laganière mostly made his mark with his short films, many of which have enjoyed a strong presence at festivals. His latest work, Suivre la piste du renard (2014), was nominated for Best Live Action Short Drama at the Canadian Screen Awards and at the Jutra Awards. But Simon Laganière’s desire to tell stories doesn’t only translate into films; songwriting is also his medium of choice to create images and tell tales.

And it’s this constant desire to tell stories that led him to create the album Samedi soir de semaine. Like scenes of a film, each song involves ordinary people placed in unusual situations—fighting grizzly bears with pool cues, for instance. Drawing his musical inspiration from artists such as Feist, Jean Leloup, and Jeff Buckley, Simon Laganière turned to Matthieu Beaumont (Tricot Machine, Catherine Leduc) to produce the record.