Photo by Fany Ducharme

Decision-Makers: Emmanuelle Girard

Story by Claude Côté | Tuesday June 16th, 2020

“I can only manage artists who truly touch my soul,” says the website of Comme C’est Beau, the small cultural business that Emmanuelle Girard started in March of 2019.

Shortly after showing up for our interview, at her favourite café in Montreal’s Little Italy, Emmanuelle Girard makes one thing clear. “I know my limitations as a human being,” she says. “And right now, with these three women, I’m maxed out. I believe in the art of polishing gemstones.”

She adds, “I know I’m an intense person, and I give everything my best shot, like I did back in the days when I was still an athlete. I’m not a music lover, I’m not that keen on going to see shows. I listen to Chilly Gonzales over and over, to some jazz and blues music in the evening, that’s it.”

Emmanuelle Girard, Alexandra StreliskiThat was before the pandemic. She was planning her trip to Saskatoon, where Alexandra Stréliski was to take part in the 2020 JUNO Awards, thanks to her Secret City Records Inscape release. Three nominations, a live duo with Dallas Green (City and Color) – things were really looking up for this neo-classical pianist, who’s already won three Felix Awards.

“We recently reviewed our situation,” says Girard. “The more creative people are the ones who are going to make it through, [but] you have to be flexible. I haven’t had any dates cancelled so far, but I’m working as hard as ever, and you always have to take the artist’s well-being into account. But I freaked out at first. We’d been in town [Saskatoon] for a few days already, to set up Alex’s performance. We’d chosen her red carpet outfit together, her stage outfit… The greatest asset of someone working in music is the ability to adapt.

“Once the artist becomes successful, you then have to manage demand. In Alex’s case, we’re getting a lot of requests for free music licences from foundations, schools, or young people who are making YouTube videos, and want to use her music. We’re giving out a lot of those.

“As for Beyries, we were planning to release her second album this spring, but she wasn’t ready, and we postponed the whole thing.” But international development is well underway with both Stréliski and Beyries.

Emmanuelle Girard, Maude Audet“Beyries’ song The Pursuit of Happiness [licensed online by Montreal’s Bonsound] reached more than 12 million views on Spotify, and was a hit in Turkey, where it was played in Istanbul in front of an audience of 150 people who knew the lyrics by heart and sang along,” says Girard. And what about the synch rights, that are so essential to music publishers? “That’s what put her on the map!” she says. “Her 2016 cover of Paul Daraîche’s “Je pars à l’autre bout du monde” ended up on the Unité 9 TV series!”

According to Girard, Maude Audet, who released her Tu ne mourras pas album on Grosse Boîte in February, has a very “1970s France, Françoise Hardy-like” musical sound. “My work is very different with her, it’s an all-Francophone project. We have meetings, and afterwards she sends me recaps of our conversations!”

Before launching Beyries’ career in 2015, Girard had been working for the Montreal Canadiens hockey team, among others, before landing a job with the prestigious Cossette advertising agency. “Serving as a management consultant between the client and the creative staff is precisely what I’m doing right now,” she says.

Emmanuelle Girard, BeyriesA former professional handball player with the Canadian team, Girard, now 40, ended her elite athletic career at the age of 28. Taken under her wing by Sonia Cesaratto (who was handling press relations for Universal France at the time) and later by Anacrouse’s Brigitte Matte (who was managing musicians Yann Perrau, Michel Rivard, and Catherine Major), she learned her trade at two excellent schools if life, with two experienced women.

Girard even sought producer Jacques Primeau as a mentor. In spite of his myriad professional commitments (RBO group, the Tout le monde en parle talk show, Quartier des spectacles, artist manager, and now General Manager of L’Équipe Spectra), Primeau immediately saw Girard’s potential, and they began a partnership in the fall of 2019.

“Thanks to him,” Girard explains, “we can apply to SODEC together, since my business is still too young to be eligible for some grants. He helps me find money. But we’re not business partners – I’m my company’s sole shareholder. Les Productions Jacques K. Primeau are providing me with access to his assistant, with whom I speak regularly. Jacques is helping me structure and grow.

“My business model is this: travelling with my artists, seeing what’s happening on the ground, meeting people, getting a better understanding of the music business. I’m a St-Lambert-de-Lévis girl, I come from a modest family, and I’m a proud self-made woman.”

Photo by Jonathan Weiner

The Glorious Sons: Topping the rock charts with heartfelt songs

Story by Meredith Dault | Wednesday June 17th, 2020

In 2011, Brett Emmons was in Halifax, trying to make it on his own as a musician, when his older brother Jay suggested he head home to Kingston, Ontario, to join his new band. When he did, Emmons was impressed by what he heard. “They’d only been jamming for a year,” he recalls with a laugh, “and there was room for improvement, but I knew they had a certain thing.”

In the years since, The Glorious Sons have seen their songs top the rock charts in both Canada and the United States. They’ve amassed an ardent fan base, and have played massive shows, including opening for The Rolling Stones and Twenty-One Pilots as part of a U.S. tour with The Struts. Their second studio album, Young Beauties and Fools, won the JUNO for Rock Album of the Year in 2018, and their third, 2019’s A War On Everything, was named one of Classic Rock UK’s Albums of the Year. The band celebrated the release of that album with a two-and-a-half-hour-long stadium show for a hometown crowd of 14,000 fans.

For many, it’s Brett Emmons’s raw, heartfelt lyrics that really resonate. “I try not to write about anything that I don’t know,” he explains. “We’re all connected as human beings, and whether you’re living in a mansion on a hill, or in a neighbourhood that might not be as safe and happy – it all ripples out. I don’t think anyone is safe from the things I [write] about – things like drug addiction, anxiety, depression, or money problems.”

Though he was drawn to songwriting at a young age, Emmons says it was artists like Jackson Browne, Bruce Springsteen, and The Killers, among others, who showed him the power of telling stories with song. “I was about 15 or 16 years old,” he says, “and my whole world got blown open to what rock ‘n’ roll could actually be. I realized it didn’t have to be Led Zeppelin or AC/DC. It wasn’t all power chords or aggressive songs. It could also be emotive stories with an acoustic guitar.”

“We have five writers in our band” – Brett Emmons of Glorious Sons

He then began experimenting with writing his own melodies, inverting the chords he learned from his guitar teacher and turning them into original songs. “It was a gigantic cerebral phase in my life that I think… basically hasn’t stopped.”

As the band’s dynamic and performative frontman, Emmons handles the bulk of the initial songwriting by coming up with lyrics, chords, or verses, and then takes that material back to his bandmates, Chris Koster, Adam Paquette, Chris Huot and his brother Jay, for their feedback.

Sons’ Singles: No. 1s and 2s at Canadian Rock Radio

  • “Kingdom in my Heart”
  • “Panic Attack”
  • “S.O.S. (Sawed Off Shotgun)”
  • “Josie”
  • “Everything Is Alright”

“Because we have five writers in our band,” Emmons adds, without hesitating. “A lot of the time I might come up with the theme and the melody, but one little tweak [from someone else] blows it wide open.” He stresses that nobody is limited to writing parts for their own instruments. “The people in the band are much more than the instruments they play,” he says. “For our band, it’s a very important factor when it comes to songwriting.”

When the band’s 80-day North American tour was cancelled due to COVID-19, Emmons saw an opportunity to take a break and focus on rest and writing. “I love to sit in one place and play guitar, drink beer, drink coffee, and write songs,” he laughs.

Emmons feels confident that he already has an album’s worth of material written, and anticipates that he may well have more by the time The Glorious Sons are allowed to fill stadiums again. For now, he’s grateful to get to make music for a living, and for the chances it provides for him to connect with people.

“Looking out and seeing the whole crowd singing your song,” he says, “that’ll make the hair stand up on your arms, for sure.”

Steven Lee Olsen co-writes No. 1 hits for Keith Urban, Kip Moore

Story by Kerry Doole | Monday June 15th, 2020

Steven Lee Olsen is clearly a glass-half-full type. Rather than wallowing in disappointment over the coronavirus cancellations of Canadian summer festival dates that would have helped promote his new material (four songs released in March, on his own SLO Circus imprint), he’s donned his other hat, that of a much in-demand songwriter for major country acts.

On the phone from Nashville, Olsen says self-isolation has been a real boost for his songwriting. “All my co-writing of late has been over Zoom, and I’ve been working towards more writing by myself,” he says. “With most of the cuts I’ve been getting recently, I’ve gone further than before, writing full choruses, and basically building the track in my studio. So instead of just presenting a title, or an idea, I can present the whole chorus, or a skeleton of it – ‘Here’s a demonstration of what it could be.’ Artists appreciate that.”

Olsen moved to Music City from Newmarket, Ontario, in 2004, but 2017 was the year he finally broke into the top echelon of Nashville songwriters. He co-wrote Kip Moore’s No. 1 hit “More Girls Like You,” but the tune that most accelerated Olsen’s career trajectory was Keith Urban’s double-platinum hit “Blue Ain’t Your Color.” In 2017, it was named the NSAI Song of the Year, crowned Single of the Year at the CMAs, and earned two Grammy nominations. Not to mention 274 million YouTube views for Urban’s video of the song.

“The title of ‘Blue’ came to me in the middle of the night,” Olsen recalls. “I woke up for about 30 seconds, it popped into my head, and I wrote it down. When creativity calls you have to answer it. I feel I have a 20-minute window with an idea, a concept, a drum-beat, a guitar riff, or a lyric idea to really grab it. If you don’t ride the wave, you’re gonna miss it.”

That life-changing song was scheduled to be on Olsen’s major label album debut. Columbia Nashville signed him in 2014, but label changes nixed the album he worked on for a year. “‘Blue’ was probably going to be my next single,” says Olsen. “That was a heartbreaking time, but it turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me, as I ended up pitching that song to Keith. Everyone knew it was so strong, but it was a hard decision to let it go.”

“If you don’t ride the wave, you’re gonna miss it”

The resulting NSAI award means a great deal to Olsen. “As a songwriter, to get that one from your peers is as good as it gets,” he says.

As well as those two U.S. chart-toppers, Olsen has co-written Dallas Smith’s platinum hit “Drop,” and cuts for Garth Brooks, Billy Currington, Rascal Flatts, The Judds, Emerson Drive, Craig Morgan, Melissa Lawson, and more.

Olsen’s naturally optimistic outlook encouraged him to move to Nashville to pursue his musical dreams at just 19. “All my friends were off to college but I had my heart set on this,” he remembers. “I was so young, I didn’t know I couldn’t do it, and it seemed like an exciting adventure. I never had a plan B.”

Steven and SOCAN

SOCAN No. 1 Song Awards
* “Drop” – performed by Dallas Smith – Nielsen BDS Country chart – Aug. 8, 2019
* “Blue Ain’t Your Colour” – performed by Keith Urban – Nielsen BDS Country & Billboard Hot Country Songs chart – Nov. 28, 2016 & Nov. 19, 2016
* “Raised by a Good Time” – performed by Steven Lee Olsen – CMT Canada Countdown chart – April 3, 2015

SOCAN/CCMAs Song Camp
2020 SOCAN/CCMAs Song Camp, Jan 19-24, 2020
Says Olsen: “I was there as an artist. We’d all write a song in the day, then get together at night in this one big log cabin, play these songs, and have drinks. I was great to see everybody in their zone, and I formed some great friendships.”

SOCAN Country Music Awards
* “Raised by a Good Time” – 2016
* “Make Hay While The Sun Shines” – 2011

He secured a publishing deal right away, a co-venture with then-manager Ron Kitchener (of RGK Entertainment Group), and ole, but he wasn’t living on easy street. “I wasn’t even making enough money to pay my car insurance, and I’d sneak into ole after hours to grab toilet paper and snacks,” Olsen admits. “I didn’t have any success for years and years but I genuinely loved doing it. I wrote 1,000 crappy songs before writing a good one,” he laughs.

“Before any royalty cheques were coming in,” he continues, “SOCAN was crucial with its advance program to keep me afloat here. It’s a wonderful lifeline for artists and writers, and I’m proud for SOCAN to be my performing rights organization.” (See sidebar)

As a solo artist, Olsen debuted with his 2009 EP Introducing Steven Lee Olsen. Two singles, “Now” and “Make Hay While the Sun Shines,” charted in Canada, with the latter earning a 2011 SOCAN Award. Further success eluded him until his 2014 single, “Raised by a Good Time,” went gold in Canada. In 2018, he inked a new publishing deal, with Rhythm House. “That company is a co-venture of Jay-Z’s Roc Nation and Warner/Chappell Music,” he explains. “That appealed to me because of the diversity of my writing. I love writing Top 40, pop, and rap.”

After one close miss, Olsen has yet to meet Jay-Z, but he laughingly says, “I figure if you make anybody enough money, that’ll happen!”

Olsen can’t go on the record with names yet, but some major country stars have already cut or put holds on many more of his co-writes.  Expect the money-making to continue, with a Jay-Z meeting in Olsen’s future.