Montreal all-female rock trio Les Shirley are back with Hail Mary, their third full-length album and a record that finds the band louder, bolder and with plenty to say. The 12-song album tackles everything from patriarchy, women’s rights and queer identity to toxic relationships, economic pressure, fear, love, anger and lust—all wrapped up in big guitars, sharp hooks and the kind of choruses that have always been at the heart of Les Shirley’s sound.
Formed in Montreal in 2018, Raphaëlle Chouinard, Lisandre Bourdages and Sarah Dion have spent the years since taking that sound well beyond their home province of Quebec. Six European tours and countless shows have seen them share stages with Foo Fighters, Jimmy Eat World, Weezer, Green Day, The Offspring, NOFX, The Beaches, Billy Talent and Avril Lavigne, building a career that has increasingly taken the trio onto bigger stages and in front of new audiences.
Leading the new album is its title track, “Hail Mary,” a loud, unapologetic middle finger to patriarchy, power and anyone who expects women to stay quiet, play nice or “know their place.” With biting humour, deliberately provocative lyrics and a new video to match, the song sets the tone for an album that has Les Shirley questioning the rules, pushing back against expectations and having a hell of a lot of fun doing it.
Congratulations on your new album “Hail Mary”. You’ve said this is album where you finally found the sound you’d been searching for. What were you searching for—and how did you know when you’d finally found it?
We’ve always been proud of our previous releases, but I think we can all agree that we felt we could still go up a notch in terms of sonority, songwriting, and performance. The first time we knew it was going in that direction was when we sat down and chose the 12 demos that would make the cut and get recorded in the studio in Toronto. We wrote around 25 songs in the writing process and the 12 that stood out really felt like we had mature. We spent months in our Montreal studio writing and writing, day after day, 5 days a week, 9 to 5. We had time to experience and try stuff to finally arrive to what is on Hail Mary. Obviously, a big part of the final sound came when Graham Walsh (producer and engineer) started to geek out and do his magic during the recording of the final tracks in Toronto back in August 2025.
There’s a real sense throughout this record that you’ve given yourselves permission to say exactly what’s on your minds. Was there a moment when you consciously stopped filtering yourselves, or did that confidence come gradually?
I would say it came very naturally. Knowing that we could write as many demos as we wanted before hitting the studio gave us a sense of freedom. It gave us the opportunity to really explore lyrics and music without feeling too committed to it. Every time we were writing something maybe more aggressive or direct or weird we would say ”haaa anyway that’s probably not going make the album”. Turns out a lot of those did!
The title track is funny, angry, provocative, and unapologetic in what it has to say about patriarchy and power. How much fun was it to write “Hail Mary”—and were there any lines where you thought, “Are we really going to say that?” And were there any lyrics that didn’t make the final cut?
Hail Mary is one of the rare songs on this album that we wrote while jamming in the big room. Usually someone comes up with a riff and a couple chords and we start building over it. For Hail Mary I remember coming in the studio that morning and Lisandre said ”I think we’re missing a song with a stupid easy riff”, so we went in the jam space and Raph played the 2 notes opening riff, I put the bass riff over it, and it all kind of built from there. The instrumental for the verse and chorus came very easily as we jammed it. I think all the demos lyrics are pretty the ones that ended up on the album. I remember we added the screamy verse parts ”I’m not just a piece of furniture” and ”Nobody puts me in the corner” afterwards because we felt the song needed even more angriness and sassiness.
We actually had second thoughts on the opening lyrics (which also opens the album) ”Kill you babies, kill your wives”. We thought, well… you know, a lot of people don’t really listen to a whole song anymore. They’ll just listen for 5 seconds without trying to understand the 2nd degree or knowing the artist. They’ll go o a rampage of how saying things like that is unacceptable and be offended. But we just went ”fuck it”. It is a horrible thing to do, so of course we’re going to sing about it.
The “Hail Mary” music video looks like there was almost as much fun happening behind the scenes as there is on screen. What was the shoot like, and did anything unexpected or completely ridiculous happen along the way?
The shoot went extremely well ! And that’s a rare thing for those who are used to shooting movies and videos. Amy Thibault was the Director and Art Director. We had Milène Bourdages as DOP, Ariel Lemercier for extra footage, the dancers and actresses Britney Canda, Sydney Nantel, Molly Geoffroy, and Marjorie Hansen-Geoffroy as first AD. It was a blast really, just a couple gals shredding guitars and breaking stuff in a sand pit, drinking beers in the sun. Honestly, it was so well organized by Amy that nothing unexpected happened. We got there, got the job done and went back home. Great day.
There’s plenty of anger on Hail Mary, but the album itself doesn’t feel angry or defeated—it feels incredibly alive and, at times, joyful. How important was it to turn those heavier emotions into something people could scream, dance, and have fun to? What do you hope listeners will take away from listening to the album?
I don’t think we even realized how heavy the themes were while being in the writing process. We would get in the studio in the morning, have breakfast together, talk about the news, what was going on in our lives and then write about it. It came naturally to translate all these emotions into something fun and anthem-y. I guess we did it for us. We needed a vessel to turn all this negativity into something better. We hope people can feel it too. Yes, the themes may be heavy at moments, but the goal was to have a feeling of hope through it all. As cheesy as it sounds…
You’ve shared stages with some enormous bands, including Foo Fighters, Green Day, The Offspring, Weezer and Jimmy Eat World. Was there a particular show, tour or experience along the way that changed your perception of what Les Shirley could become?
It still feels surreal that we had so may crazy opportunities. Every big show we play gives us a stamp of approval, I guess. When you stack them all, take a step back and think about it, it gives a sense of ”Ok, we must be doing something right”. Cause when it’s your band, your songs, your vision, your words, it can sometimes be overwhelming ”Am I doing too much? am I saying too much? not enough? is this wacky?”.
The Foo Fighters show was an enormous pat in the back from living legends, the industry, and the Montreal crowd. It didn’t change our perception of our band but surely gave us the means to go even further.
The album is finally out in the world, and the hard work starts now. What does the rest of 2026 and all of 2027 look like for you?
We’ll do album launches around Quebec and Ontario this fall, a couple shows here and there. But 2027 will be the big year where we start really touring this album. We’ll do Canada of course, go back to Europe and legend has it we wanna start touring Mexico…
It’s time to pay it forward – what Canadian band or artist (any genre) do you think deserves some attention right now and why? (One pick per member)
(Sarah) Hawa B. is a Montreal artist people need to pay attention to. She’s so talented, with a punk attitude without making punk music which is so cool. The live show is insane!
(Raphaëlle) Jashim! He’s an upcoming artist of the Montreal scene blending reggaeton and electronic music, it’s really tasty and unique.
(Lisandre) Pataugeoire! She’s been a longtime friend of the band, and her music is just pure and real. She does everything herself, and she’s honestly one of the best musicians I know.
