KEYBOARDS, HAMMOND B3 ORGAN, FENDER RHODES, BACK VOCALS, SHAOLIN DRUNKEN KEYBOARD MASTER & PORTABLE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PROGRESSIVE ROCK

Biography

If my memory doesn’t fail me, I must have been 4 when, for the first time, I became interested in music. An upright piano, belonging to my grandmother, stood in my living-room and that instrument fascinated me. I often saw my mother playing songs on that instrument and I was trying to do as much. I can admit it, the results were naïve at best. One day she asked me if I wanted to learn how to play it, to which I replied yes and that is the way I started taking piano lessons at the age of 5.

As of my first year of courses, I caused a reaction during one exam/concert at my music school. A lady, who was listening to me, started crying. When she found out that it was a 6 years old kid playing, she couldn’t believe that such a young child could play with as much emotion. I was also enrolled at the conservatory where I took classical piano lessons up till the age of 12.

In the meantime, I was soon immersed in other styles of music besides classical. My mother being a music lover transmitted to me her “sickness”. She made me discover, among others, more sophisticated pop (like The Police/Sting, Genesis/Phil Collin etc.), some blues and mostly Jazz music.

When I was 8, she took me to the Montreal international Jazz festival, which was a great revelation to me. Right away I wanted to learn to play these rhythms which seemed to me to come from another world, since I was mostly surrounded by classical music. It is following my discovery of Jazz music that I learned that my music teacher at my school was the pianist François Marcaurelle, a well respected Montreal based Jazz pianist. It was only at the age of 15 that I had the occasion to study with François Marcaurelle and to further my understanding of Jazz music.

I was also initiated to the rock universe at a very young age by one of my friend’s father who used to make us listen to Led Zeppelin, CCR, Black Sabbath, etc. Moreover the first album (on tape of course!) that I bought is the Guns’n’Roses album “Appetite for destruction”! It became with the passing years, at least to my ears, a classic!

At 14, I was part of my high school’s “big band”. Having ceased my study of music two years before, I had to start practicing again, mostly because I had a lot to learn about pop and Jazz music! It is also during that time that I discovered progressive rock with many of my school friends. I was also part of a small rock/punk band named “The Unknown” and I played in a drums and keyboard band with Martin Savard (excellent drummer!). I took part in a few shows and these were great experiences.

Two years later I registered in a Cegep for their music program. This is were I perfected my knowledge in music history, Jazz harmony and the music business. It is also during that time That I discovered Fusion Jazz, another domain that I had the pleasure to explore. I was also playing in an instrumental group called Nemesis. We had our own sound which was leaning toward Progressive/Fusion and we had given ourselves the objectives of changing atmosphere, amalgamate styles and incorporate the hardest changes that we could. Which we did very well, if I rely on the critics we received! It is during my time with this formation that I started to compose. Toward the end of my Cegep, I was also part of a Jazz quartet (Le Dernièrement minute Jazz Quartet) which gave me the chance to explore music’s improvisation side. The musical experiences, the contacts and the discussion with some teachers help me learn a lot more than the academic teaching I received there.

In March of 2005 chance smiled upon me, at least with regards to my musical career. Firstly I received a phone call from the bassist named Denis Labrosse (a musician who benefits from a good reputation in Québec) who offered me to join his Ozzy Osborne tribute band. The fact that I will play with Denis Labrosse will open many doors in the business, but that wasn’t all! I was invited to meet Hamadryad’s members (a group that I already knew a year before having listened to their first album so many times) upon Francis Doucet’s recommendation who had to leave the band and had seen me played a month before with a band from which he knew the female bassist. I went to their studio where we talked a lot and listened to the musical pieces who were going to be on their second album. Jean-François gave me, on that very night, a challenge. I had to compose the keyboard part for Polaroid Vendetta and to come up with the arrangements for that song. One week later I was in studio recording that famous part. It is then that Hamadryad gave me an second and even bigger challenge, I had to learn all the songs from the second album in a month and an half so I could take part in the record launch. The guys and the public gave me a very warm welcome.

I consider myself very fortunate that at the age of only 20 I am part of a band like Hamadryad. The complicity between us came very rapidly and, musically, we complete each other very well. Very happy to be part of the Hamadryan family and to have contributed to the arrangement of one piece of the second album, I nevertheless can wait to bring all I have learned over the years to the new musical composition from the group.