Posted at 6:00 am
Dominic Tardif The Press
Why was Claude Bégin convinced that this shy boy was destined for the highest peaks? He thinks about it for a moment and then offers this simple answer. “There are people, you can see that immediately. He was better than everyone else. He was a real melodist. A real poet. A true poet whose life and music he will be celebrating on Sunday night at Bye Bye Bye Karim: The Friends Vigil, alongside Sarahmée (his sister), Ariane Moffatt, Valaire, Hubert Lenoir, Alaclair Together, Fanny Bloom and La Bronze.
They met at 1036 Avenue Cartier, “somewhere near Accrophone’s first album”, so around 2005. Many others, in this mixture of after-party, youth center and studio. »
Photo Bernard Brault, La presse archive
Karim Ouellet in Francos, June 2014
Back in 1036, the building on the corner of Fraser Street in Upper Town, where Bégin had lived with his family since he was 14, became the melting pot of a generation of Quebec artists who shared hip-hop roots but ambitions that transcended the go beyond the strict boundaries of the genre.
As soon as a neighbor moved in, I managed to get a friend into the empty apartment until we had the four apartments to ourselves. Everyone was at everyone’s home all the time, no one knocked.
Claude Beginning
There he and Karim created and recorded Plume (2011), Fox (2012) and Trente (2016), the three albums that make up the bulk of Ouellet’s work. Their collaboration took shape naturally after the release of Dendrophile (2009), the only album by the Movèzerbe collective. Claude Bégin, who held controls of the console and laptop, retains his post. With the autonomy that he has developed through the self-sufficient design of the Accrophone albums, he manages to create all the necessary sounds with few resources.
“In the studio, we owned infinity. Together they will contribute, combining the fox’s irrefutable melodies with elements of rap, soul and reggae, so that FM radio waves in Quebec are finally anchored with the sounds of the pop planet. The smash hit of L’amour in 2013 propelled Karim to appear on all stages, as well as Claude’s directing career. “It took a long time to really get to know Karim,” he recalls. Even after he became my best friend, he kept his famous shell. I never managed to break it. »
How do you explain that the two got along so well? “First of all, we’re two Sagittarius, totally rational,” emphasizes Claude with a big smile, but a remnant of sadness in his eyes. “Sagittarius love each other very much. Karim and I called it the Sagittarium. We liked each other’s ideas, which made it super quick. He really liked me, I really liked him. Mutual admiration is the best ingredient. »
Exceptional community
Like many of Karim Ouellet’s close associates, Claude Bégin was no longer in contact with his friend at the time of his death. His explanation will be modest. “We started seeing less of each other for many reasons. The goal wasn’t to stop seeing each other. We took the means to force things, but there was nothing to be done. »
Photo Ulysse Lemerise, LA PRESSE archive
Claude Bégin and Karim Ouellet at the opening show of Pride Montreal in 2017
The director, visibly still shaken, says he was able to quickly experience his grief, thanks in particular to an intimate ceremony organized by his sister Élise Bégin at his home in the country after the funeral. “We had some kind of communion with candles, music. We sang, observed minutes of silence, all held hands. It was exceptional. »
In anticipation of Sunday’s show, Claude Bégin listened to the songs created with Karim over the past few weeks to learn half the lyrics he doesn’t know at the touch of a button: “because I only do backing vocals on stage did on the other half,” he laughs. And inevitably he was disturbed by the large, almost unsettling, place death occupies in these texts.
Of course, the lyrics took on a different, darker meaning. There’s so much pain in there, but when we recorded it, it was like I didn’t see it. It sometimes gives the impression that he knew what to expect.
Claude Beginning
A voice like an organ
Aside from the mystery he cultivated, although he was probably a bit of a prisoner of it, Karim Ouellet never seemed to reveal himself as much as through his voice, with a richness that suddenly made it possible to believe in something bigger than himself, as if his soul was stuck in his vocal cords. “There are people who see more through their eyes. With Karim, there was more going on with the voice,” observes Bégin, who long thought it was enough to have a voice just to have an interesting voice.
“But in the end I realized that there are people with stronger voices. We have vocal crushes and Karim is one of those guys that the public has had a crush on. Wind went through his vocal cords and when we dubbed his voice in the studio it became like an organ. »
Karim is gone, but perhaps never more present in the heart of Claude Bégin than on his right arm, which has had a tattoo of his face for a few months. A few times during this interview, Bégin will speak of his musical brother in the present and not in the past. “Yes, it’s true, I didn’t realize that. It has also happened that Karim visits Claude in a dream.
Photo Anne Gauthier, LA PRESSE archive
Karim Ouellet (here with Laurent Saulnier) won the 2013 Félix Leclerc Prize
“Dreams are for doing business. I had to remember the old Karim, the real one. On one of those most memorable visits, Karim asked Claude what to take home for the evening. A great wine? A good bottle of rum? “It was like he wanted us to have the perfect relaxation! It was super emotional because I said to him, “Well no, Karim, we can’t see each other.” But in essence, perhaps he was preparing the cool-down we can experience when we find ourselves at the end of it all. »
Does Claude really believe in possible reunions in another world? “Ever since I saw Interstellar, I’ve felt like everything is happening at the same time. To meet? We may not have lost our way. »
Bye Bye Bye Karim: the friends’ vigil, June 12 at the Bell stage of the Place des Festivals.