The 1970s, the great era of Quebec music? That’s a myth, says Paul Piché. In his opinion, the French-language song from here has never been in such good artistic condition as it is now.
“I would even say that we live in an age of glory,” ignites, sitting in a restaurant in Old Quebec, the man who gave us great songs like L’escalaire and albums of the caliber of On the way to fires.
The problem is the distribution. As expressed in the same journal Richard Séguin last autumn, Paul Piché is concerned about the future of francophone singing in Quebec. He points his finger at the Internet, which leaves little room for our musicians.
“We’ll have to adapt,” he says, throwing the ball into the politicians’ field.
That doesn’t stop him from casting an admiring gaze at what he considers the best talent Quebec has ever seen.
“Good in Tabarouette! »
“Something is happening in the current Quebec song. There have never been so many and for every taste. It’s a whole generation expressing themselves. […] It works well as a tabarouette,” says Paul Piché.
While they struggle to get heard on streaming platforms, he doesn’t think Quebec artists are shunned by the public. The 69-year-old singer-songwriter thinks it’s even better than in the good old days.
“Before my gang in the 1970s, Gilles Vigneault and Félix Leclerc sang in little squares, in song boxes. Really big companies like Place des Arts didn’t have access to it. They paved the way for my gang, and now we’re at the Videotron Center and the Bell Center. »
Artists who are still sovereignists
Proud separatist Paul Piché believes that most younger generation artists dream of making Quebec a country, though few say so openly.
“Artists are the voice of our emotions, our realities, our contradictions, our concerns. You cannot be the mouthpiece of something [la souveraineté] what is not there,” he emphasizes.
On the other hand: “If the deep contradiction of Canada, which wants to make us disappear, reappears and will reappear, things will move. You’ll see, the whole gang will be there. »
- The 35th Anniversary Album Tour On the way to the fires will stop at the Théâtre Outremont in Montreal on February 17th and the Palais Montcalm on May 12th. All other dates on paulpiche.net.
The only Felix of his career ended up in the garbage
Incredible as it may seem, Paul Piché only won one Félix in his entire career in 1985. Equally unbelievable is the fate he has reserved for him.
“Where is this Felix? When Paul Piché hears this completely banal question from the representative of the Journal, his face tightens. “Are you saying it or am I not saying it? I never said…”
After a few seconds of thought, he agrees to the answer: “I threw it down a garbage chute one night while I was drunk. »
“I had a bit of a drinking problem, he continues, and I squeaked everything out the window, gold tickets and gold records. For the Felix, I still had the intelligence to realize that I could have killed someone and I threw them in the garbage chute. »
Does he have any regrets? “Not so much because I didn’t deserve it,” he says, recalling winning the Félix for rock album of the year for a record, Nouvelles d’Europe, that wasn’t all rock.
“Normally I would have been in the pop category. »
However, his team had judged that he had a better chance of winning in the rock category.
polarizing
Therefore, even if he received several quotes, Paul Piché never won the slightest Félix for his major albums Who Owns the Good Weather?, The Staircase and Towards the Fires.
He’s not overly offended, but finds it “curious”.
“I didn’t even win Discovery of the Year when I was bestseller (it was Fabienne Thibeault who beat him in 1979). »
Good player, he says that he understands and respects ADISQ’s decisions. “As a politically engaged singer, that polarizes. At some point I understood that I wasn’t an artist who would win over Félix. »