Dominique Fils-Aimé thinks in trilogies.

The Juno-winning musician’s previous three-album cycle—2018’s Nameless, 2019’s Stay Tuned!, and 2021’s Three Little Words—explored and contextualized the history of African-American music by deftly combining soul, blues, and jazz. And by writing them as connected albums, she found herself exploring creative depths that felt rare to reach.

“I’ve discovered it's a way of allowing myself the time to dive deeper into a thought and a process that is wider than just one song or one album,” she says, of trilogies, from her home in Montréal. “It's a way to encourage people to take the time to also dive deeper into the artistic world of an artist—really invite them on a journey that will be long term.”

Her next three-album project is already underway. Our Roots Run Deep, released this past fall, is a meditative, playful album about personal resilience and inward growth. It started in a time of inertia for Fils-Aimé: when she was bedridden, a few years ago, with a back injury.

“It took quite a few months to get over it, and be able to walk and do everything normal again,” she says. “I've never experienced physical pain like that before: proper pain that brings you to desperation. … Discovering this other aspect, and realizing that I’d underestimated my body, brought me to so many different thought processes, like DNA, resilience—how resilience is something that is transferred from generation [to generation], is a part of my culture, and my core, my education—it just unravelled into a wider reflection.”

She noticed parallels, too, between her own growth and that of the “millions of plants at my house.” All that time at home found Fils-Aimé considering both personal trajectories and those of her surrounding greenery: “I wanted to share the parallels that I saw during that time and the emotions that it made me go through,” she says

The result is an album that’s more inward-focused than her last trilogy, but one she notes that’s already been resonating with audiences who are looking for music that reaches a little deeper, especially in an era of algorithm-generated playlists.

“I feel like we crave in general, deeper connection, whether it be in real life or in art,” she explains. “It's very easy to listen to one song and then just move on. But I think there's something to sort of spending time with an artist and spending time with a body of work that really gives a sense of depth to the music. … I'm not alone craving those connections."

Article Written by: Paul Blinov

Dominique Fils-Aimé performs at the Arden Theatre on February 14th.

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