Post-Punk Artist Daniel Ouellette Brings Life To A Haunted House With New Album
Post-Punk artist Daniel Ouellette has just unveiled his new full-length LP, El Salon (A Happy Home Is A Haunted Home).
El Salon is a post-punk, synth-pop, new wave concept album that sings of the pleasures and difficulties of life within the setting of a haunted house. The album is also multi-lingual. Daniel will sing to you in Spanish about a werewolf, in English about a Ouija board, in Portuguese about a haunted house and in French about bats at Christmas time.
The title of the album, El Salón has multiple meanings. In Spanish it can reference a classroom, an art studio, a living room and of course, a salon. Daniel Ouellette says, "The best place I have learned to speak is in living rooms with loved ones who speak Spanish and this the title is in honor of my mates, my loved ones to whom I speak Spanish."
The album's subtitle pulls the concept of the album together. Should our protagonist buy a house that may be haunted? Each song tells a tale of joy or horror; what a home can be. Maybe some of us never want to leave our homes and others need to run. Or should we dance around our living room perhaps like a specter?
About the style and process of the album...
"The musical style that I wanted was a bit of a soft, warm synthpop approach. The first song comes in lyrically and musically right at you, but from there I was wanting to entice with softer tones and warmer singing than perhaps in some past recordings.
Almost of these songs were written by recording the percussion patterns and vocals and then adding the synth/keyboard parts after. This is a very back to haunted home for me because I had been working with musical instruments like strings, guitar, bass, accordion, etc. I wanted the beauty of simplicity."
- Daniel Ouellette
