À demi-mot come from Troyes, tucked somewhere between pop instincts and emo’s restless heart, writing songs because, as Lucas says, they came from “a desire for melodies and a bout of depression.” All five tracks on “Mauvais tirage” were written when the world shut down, and those quiet hours pushed every half-formed worry to the surface. The band call the EP a way “to conclude all the half-hearted confessions” they never managed to say out loud.
They’re putting it everywhere listeners actually feel good about — so all streaming platforms except Spotify, “whose values we don’t share” — and there’s a digipack coming too, with a little illustrated booklet to hold in your hands instead of scrolling past.
“À trop parler” opens the story in a family living room where everything is fine but nothing gets named. Lucas grew up supported, loved even, but says, “We spent a lot of time together talking about everything and nothing, but never addressing the real issues.” Smiles, dinners, small talk — and the quiet suspicion that something’s off under the surface.
The title track “Mauvais tirage” looks at luck like a rigged card game. Lucas mentions a double meaning: on the cover the book “were a draft or a printing error,” and in the lyrics, “as if fate were playing a trick on you.”
“Moins que rien” was the first song they finished — quick, direct, a confession of feeling smaller than the person you admire. Lucas talks about “the fear of pushing the person you admire (and feel inferior to) out of your life,” before reminding himself and the rest of us that “we’re usually the last ones to realize it.” Still, he refuses to leave it on the losing end: “I wanted to bring a little positivity and make it clear that it’s all in our heads, that we’re all good people.”
Then comes “À l’envers,” the one already tied to a music video coming out on October 31. It’s about choosing the wrong life because it seemed like what you were supposed to do, and waiting too long to admit the truth. “It speaks to a lot of young adults who don’t want to find themselves stuck in a life they don’t want,” Lucas says — no drama, just a slow wake-up call.
“Cendres froides” ends the record with a kind of loud sadness. “You’re either emo or you’re not,” Lucas half-jokes, but the song cuts at a real wound: somebody who once made you “feel invincible” simply slipping away. No closure. Just a relationship fading from warm to cold without a word.
Live, À Demi-Mot try to make space for what most people bury. They talk about “relationships with oneself and others with hope and kindness,” keeping punk’s bones but letting the feelings take their own shape. No reinvention, no grand statements — just songs about what happens when you finally look at what scares you.
“Mauvais tirage” holds that moment where you’re negotiating with fate, deciding what’s actually yours and what you’ve only been pretending to want. They call it sad pop. Sounds more like something you’d put on at the very end of a long, warm day — when you’re not ready to fall asleep yet, and honesty feels easier in the dark.
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