On his new album, Berger, Aswell brings the end back to the beginning. At the end of his shows, when the final notes burst and the lights come up, an old Québécois refrain rings out: “Vous m’avez monté un beau grand bateau.” For years, he walked offstage to Gerry Boulet. On Berger, his second album, it’s no longer a goodbye: Bateauis where everything begins.
“We used to end all our shows with that one. It was the moment for the bows, the moment when the ship really set sail. I always told myself that one day, we had to make it ours,” explains Aswell. Holed up at a chalet with producer Charles Madore, a.k.a. Worry, and musicians Alexandre Boivin and Shawn De Leemans, the idea begins to take shape. They set up the mics, sampled the record and sought the right energy. “I wanted it to come from a special place,” he says. The lyrics were written late in the process, and the usage rights were cleared at the eleventh hour. Bateau opens the album and it will break the ice live at MTelus on April 10, 2026, performed in full-band formation.
That sense of togetherness captures the shift between the first album and the second. Banlieue was a starting point. “In rap, you have to say where you’re from. You can’t deny that. I’m from Saint-Bruno. I had to own it,” the rapper explains. It was the story of beginnings, of momentum, of building a name. Berger lives somewhere else. “The storm has passed,” he says with a breath. “I’m at that stage where you feel like you’ve made it. That place I wanted to get to—I’m there. The first one was about where I come from. The second is about where I am.”
But where is he, exactly? Not quite in any box. “I’m independent. Incorporated with myself. I’m not part of the Montréal clique. I’ve always told myself that I didn’t need a record label in this province,” Aswell recalls. Labels offer connections, advance money and coordinate teams. “But if you know the right people, if you hire the right publicists and collaborators, you can do the same thing. I know every deal I’ve signed.” That independence comes at a cost, but with freedom as well. Nominated in the Popular Success category at ADISQ, after not even landing a Breakthrough nomination the year before, he sees it as the natural progression of things. “That’s what comes with being independent,” he adds, self-assured.
Musically, Berger widens the scope. “We come from the school of beats: we make beats and rap over them. This time around, I wanted to bring a live element into the album,” explains the artist, who makes room for a strong new folk current. A writing retreat at a chalet sparks a flood of demos, sometimes built around simple loops, sometimes played as a group. Other musicians are brought in later, piano is layered in, textures grow thicker. “There are a lot of guitars and a lot of pianos,” he says. “It’s richer, musically, than the first one.”
Click the image to view the video for “Pour Up”
Rap remains central, but it now shares the space. On Last Name, Ce gars-là, and Hochelaga, the folk influence is fully embraced. “I listen to a ton of folk. Even country. I grew up on Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Cat Stevens. And artists like Paul Piché, Beau Dommage—I know that stuff by heart. A songwriter. One guy, one guitar. The melody of the words. The stories. That’s always grabbed me more than anything else,” he recalls.
That blurring of genres is central and deliberate. Aswell believes people’s attention spans are limited, hence the collaborations, which serve as bridges. On Zendaya, he brings in Lost. “He’s huge right now. I love his melodies. Artists from different worlds need to do features together. Otherwise, the industry doesn’t move forward,” he says. On Backstage, Loud steps in. “I listened to him my whole youth, back when he was in Loud Lary Ajust. He was kind of my idol. I sent him the beat in November and he said yes right away. It’s a full-circle moment for me.”
But the heart of Berger isn’t in the numbers, even if the streams are counted in the millions, nor in the features. It’s in the image of the chalet, the dogs and the friends gathered around. At the end of the recording process, Aswell brought his whole crew into the studio. They captured the room’s energy, the voices blending together. You can hear those voices, that group, that presence, sprinkled throughout the album. “When you get to the top and realize you’ve made it, part of that comes with individualism. Me, I always speak in the ‘we,’ even if it’s my project. It’s cool to have made it, but it doesn’t mean anything if you’re up there alone.” That’s the spirit in which Berger was conceived—and the philosophy from which its stories draw their strength.
The title Berger came into focus during a second retreat. “What matters most to me is bringing my people together,” says Aswell. “I’ve always done that. The shepherd guides, gathers and protects. We’re in this together—and I’m leading us somewhere.”