Montréal-based indie rock outfit Frais Dispo — Élie Raymond (guitar, vocals), Antoine Lévesque-Roy (bass), Thomas Bruneau Faubert (trombone, synths), Charles Primeau (guitar) and Antoine Gallois (drums) — is simultaneously a rebrand and a markedly radical direction for its members, who first gained attention across both Quebec and Canada as Foreign Diplomats: Frais Dispo sees the Montréal-based band adopting a much more collaborative songwriting approach than previously. Lyrics are written and sung completely in French.
2023’s Teinte, the newly rebranded band’s full-length debut and last year’s Les teints du ciel n’ont aucun sens found the Montréal-based outfit firmly establishing a markedly new sonic direction with their sound drawing much more from alt-country, folk and indie rock.
Building upon the attention that Teinte and Les tients du ciel n’int aucun sens received in the Francophone world, the Montréal-based outfit’s highly-anticipated sophomore album is slated for a 2026 release through Audiogram. Along with that announcement, the band shared their first single of 2025, “Dire je t’aime au téléphone.”
Anchored around an ethereal and gorgeous arrangement of strummed guitar, shimmering pedal steel, “Dire je t’aime au téléphone” has a dreamy, psych country-meets-Laurel Canyon-inspired vibe. Featuring a stream-of-conscious lyrical approach, the new single features motifs that are dear to the band’s Élie Raymond and frequently appear in their work: having the wind blow through your hair, April skies in Québec, the sense of time flying by before your eyes . . . And much like their previously released work, the new single is rooted in a yearning nostalgia that’s familiar and deeply bittersweet.
The song also sees the band adopting a more laid-back, spontaneous songwriting approach throughout the entire album’s creative process. The album’s tracks were recorded live to make the songs live and breathe — and to create a much more organic sound. As “Dire je t’aime au téléphone” ends, you hear a bit of murmured voices, laughter, and a brief sigh and a phone ringing, which gives the listener a sense of being in the studio with the band — and a real warm, imperfect, human element. By working this way, the band wanted to focus more on the emotions at the core of the material rather than the technique, all while capturing the buzzy euphoria of the first studio recordings.
“Dire je t’aime au téléphone,” much like most of the forthcoming sophomore album’s material can trace its origins back to lengthy jams and jam sessions, which they shortened. “We started playing, and when I felt we had something interesting, I started recording. I played the drums one-handed to start recording on my iPhone, sometimes 10 minutes after I started jamming!” The band’s Antoine Gallois, who also served as the album’s sound engineer explains.
