Anne Bisson on Guilty Pleasures, Deep Listening, and Putting Emotion Before Audiophile Sound

Anne Bisson’s latest album brings Pink Floyd, Elvis Presley, Neil Young, and the Rolling Stones into the same deeply personal musical world. But as she explained during our recent conversation, Guilty Pleasures is about more than transforming familiar songs. It is about taking risks, preserving emotion, and giving listeners a reason to stop everything else and simply listen.

The term “guilty pleasure” suggests there should be some embarrassment attached to the things we love.

Anne Bisson does not see it that way.

For her latest album, Guilty Pleasures, the Canadian singer, pianist, and songwriter selected music that has remained with her since childhood. The resulting collection is deliberately eclectic, moving between songs associated with Pink Floyd, Elvis Presley, Neil Young, Peter Gabriel, and the Rolling Stones.

These are not songs that would ordinarily be grouped together. That is precisely what makes the album feel so revealing.

“I really thought that people would discover me through the songs,” Bisson told Vinyl Latte.

Rather than choosing material according to genre, era, or commercial expectations, she began with a more personal question:

“What really do I want?”

Songs That Became Part of Her DNA

Bisson’s relationship with recorded music began early. She remembers owning two dramatically different records as a child: an Elvis Presley greatest hits collection and Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s Trilogy.

That contrast helps explain the musical range found on Guilty Pleasures.

The album includes interpretations of “Harvest Moon,” “Wild Horses,” “In Your Eyes,” “In the Ghetto,” and “Comfortably Numb,” along with standards such as “Autumn Leaves” and “The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress.” Two original Bisson compositions, “I’m Leaving You” and “Music and Travels,” complete the collection.

Released as her eighth album, Guilty Pleasures was recorded and mixed at Studio Opus with longtime collaborator Jacques Roy. The limited One Step vinyl edition was mastered by Bernie Grundman, pressed at RTI, and limited to 3,000 numbered copies.

Despite the album’s broad range of material, Bisson never wanted the selections to feel like a collection of unrelated covers.

The common thread is not genre. It is her connection to each song.

How Do You Reinterpret “Comfortably Numb”?

Taking on a song as iconic as Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb” carries obvious risk.

Listeners do not arrive without expectations. They already know the original arrangement, its dynamics, its guitar solos, and even the precise moments they anticipate hearing.

Bisson knew she could not simply recreate Pink Floyd.

“The melody and the lyrics, it is the story. It’s the core of the song. And then I need to make it mine.”

Her approach begins by stripping the composition back to its underlying structure. With “Comfortably Numb,” she heard a chord progression that could support a very different interpretation. She removed much of what listeners associate with the original production and rebuilt the song around piano, Rhodes, guitar, and voice.

The goal was not to outperform or replace Pink Floyd’s recording. It was to find another emotional route into the song.

“I respect Pink Floyd. Of course, Pink Floyd is the best version, but I tried to make something else that will still touch people.”

Not every experiment worked.

Bisson also considered recording Genesis’ “The Carpet Crawlers,” but its recognizable piano figure proved too foundational to the song. She could not find enough room inside the arrangement to make it distinctly her own, so she abandoned it.

That willingness to walk away is just as important as the willingness to reinterpret a classic.

“When you take songs that people know, it’s a challenge and you take risks. But it’s about being an artist, because if you don’t take risks, to me, it’s not interesting.”

When the Simplest Arrangement Becomes the Right One

Her version of Elvis Presley’s “In the Ghetto” followed an entirely different path.

Bisson initially attempted to record the song with a trio, but the arrangement did not work. She considered removing it from the album altogether.

Then, one evening, she sat alone at the piano in her home studio and approached the song again.

This time, she thought about her son.

She recorded the song with only piano and voice and immediately recognized that the performance needed nothing more.

“That’s it. Nothing else.”

The finished recording preserves that intimacy. It also demonstrates something frequently forgotten in discussions of audiophile production: adding more detail does not necessarily create a more powerful listening experience.

Sometimes the greatest fidelity comes from removing everything standing between the listener and the song.

The Stories She Could Only Tell Herself

Although Guilty Pleasures is built primarily around familiar material, Bisson believed it was important to include some of her own writing.

“I’m Leaving You” emerged directly from an argument with her former husband. Frustrated, she picked up her guitar and turned the experience into a song.

“Music and Travels” reflects a very different part of her life: the opportunity to build a career around music while traveling internationally and connecting with listeners.

Those songs provide a glimpse of Bisson that even her most carefully chosen interpretations cannot fully reveal.

She has been writing since childhood and says she already has material in mind for future recordings. In fact, she is considering two possible creative directions.

One would continue exploring more contemporary and pop-oriented material at Studio Opus. The other could become an all-analog, direct-to-disc jazz project featuring a trio and perhaps her son, Samuel Jacques, on piano.

“I have two more albums in my mind. I’m not retiring yet.”

A Musical Connection Between Mother and Son

Samuel Jacques appears on Guilty Pleasures, playing piano on “Once Upon a Summertime / How Insensitive” and the bilingual “Autumn Leaves / Les feuilles mortes.”

Bisson describes performing with her son as almost instinctive.

They have played together for several years, including performances at the Montreal International Jazz Festival and AXPONA. She recalled how, during one of their earliest appearances, Samuel initially played too rigidly, concentrating on counting rather than following the natural breathing of the singer.

After she explained what she needed, everything changed.

By the next performance, he was watching her, breathing with her, and responding to the movement of her voice.

“We are so connected. It’s like he’s walking in my shoes.”

That sensitivity is especially important on a recording designed around intimacy. Technical ability matters, but the musicians must also listen to one another closely enough to allow the performance to move naturally.

Capturing an Audiophile Recording Without Losing the Performance

Bisson’s recordings have earned a strong following within the audiophile community, but she is careful not to confuse technical perfection with musical value.

Creating a high-quality recording begins long before the musicians enter the studio. Bisson completes extensive preproduction at home, recording demos and refining arrangements so everyone is prepared when the microphones are turned on.

Once inside the studio, however, she does not want to repeat a performance until its emotion disappears.

Her version of “In the Ghetto” was captured on the first take. “The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress,” featuring cellist Julie Trudeau, required only two.

“You need to be ready. You need to have all the microphones and all the people really focused. Then, when you say record, you’re ready. You don’t do it over and over.”

That preparation allows spontaneity to survive.

It also explains why even the most technically advanced equipment cannot guarantee an emotionally convincing record. The studio, engineer, musicians, arrangement, and timing all have to work together.

Bisson has experienced sessions where that connection was absent. Recording individual pieces over an extended period disrupted the emotional continuity, despite involving talented people and quality equipment.

The lesson was clear: a recording can be technically polished and still fail to feel alive.

When Audiophiles Forget the Music

Perhaps the most revealing moment in our conversation came when Bisson discussed her relationship with the audiophile community.

She appreciates that high-quality recordings have allowed her music to reach listeners around the world. Audiophilia may be a niche, but it is an international one, connecting people through shows, record labels, listening rooms, and shared enthusiasm for sound.

She also offered an important criticism.

“Some audiophiles take so much care of the technique that they forget about the singer or the music.”

Bisson is an audiophile herself. When purchasing her first car, she insisted on hearing its stereo before signing the paperwork. She brought one of her own CDs to evaluate it and made clear that she would not buy the car if the system failed the test.

Yet she does not need an expensive system to recognize a meaningful song.

She listens in the car, through streaming, on vinyl, and on CD. A revealing system can deepen the experience, but it cannot manufacture emotion that was never present in the performance.

“If the emotion is not there, to me, you need to have both to get it cooking.”

This is an important distinction for anyone pursuing better sound.

The purpose of a great audio system should not be to turn music into a technical demonstration. It should bring us closer to the people creating it.

Imaging, texture, dynamics, and realism matter because they can make a recorded performance feel more immediate. But if we become so preoccupied with evaluating those qualities that we stop responding to the song, we may have missed the reason for building the system in the first place.

Vinyl as an Invitation to Stop

Guilty Pleasures feels especially relevant during a period when music is increasingly consumed as background entertainment.

Songs compete for attention with notifications, social media, television, and countless other distractions. Listeners may decide within seconds whether to continue, often moving on before a performance has been given the opportunity to develop.

Bisson worries about what is lost when no one takes time to stop.

“People don’t stop to do nothing. People are so busy.”

For her, vinyl offers a partial answer.

A record asks the listener to make a small commitment. You select the album, remove it from the sleeve, place it on the turntable, lower the stylus, and remain close enough to turn it over.

That ritual creates an environment where listening can become the activity rather than the soundtrack to another activity.

“I think it’s even more relevant today to press records, because you cannot do anything else than listen.”

Her point is not that vinyl is the only meaningful way to experience music. It is that music deserves moments of undivided attention.

Bisson now lives near a lake in the woods. Even there, she has to remind herself to slow down, sit quietly, and enjoy what surrounds her.

She hopes her recordings can offer listeners a similar feeling.

“People need to be cuddled. They need love. And I think that’s what I’m sending, hopefully.”

Going Deeper

Bisson considers Guilty Pleasures her strongest album to date.

She is proud of its song choices, performances, and sound, but she does not describe it as perfect. Nor does she believe perfection should be the goal.

What matters is whether the recording feels human.

As she begins imagining her next project, Bisson wants to go even deeper into both emotion and sound. She is considering new collaborators, different instrumentation, and material that may push her slightly outside the musical territory her audience expects.

Her goal is not to abandon what listeners recognize. It is to give them something familiar enough to enter, followed by something they did not anticipate.

“They need to have a hook, something to grab their attention. Then you can go a little bit further and surprise them.”

That may also be the best description of Guilty Pleasures.

The familiar songs open the door. What listeners discover inside is unmistakably Anne Bisson.

Watch the complete Vinyl Latte interview with Anne Bisson to hear more about the making of Guilty Pleasures, her approach to audiophile recording, performing alongside her son, and where her music may take her next.

Guilty Pleasures is available on limited One Step vinyl, UHQCD, high-resolution USB, and reel-to-reel tape through Anne Bisson’s official website.