Video Interview: Artist and Professional Songwriter Chris Kirby
Story by Howard Druckman | Thursday October 24th, 2019
East Coast artist and professional songwriter Chris Kirby has more than two million Spotify streams of songs that he’s co-written. He’s the touring keyboardist for Matt Andersen (and co-wrote “An Honest Man” with him), and has earned multiple East Coast Music Award nominations, including several for Producer of the Year. Recent producing and co-writing credits include Quote the Raven and Chris Ryan, and Kirby has participated in numerous song camps, sponsored by SOCAN, the Canadian Music Publishers Association (CMPA), and the Songwriters Association of Canada (SAC).
In an exclusive video interview with SOCAN on the release of his first album in seven years, What Goes Around, Kirby talks about what he’s learned from song camps; how he came up with some of the album’s most striking lyrical lines; and more seriously, how he and Damhnait Doyle co-wrote “Unreasonable Doubt” – the moving story of a sexual assault trial destined for an unhappy end, told from the perspective of the judge.
Photo by Marie-Michèle Bouchard
ADISQ 2019: Hubert Lenoir wins award for Artist with Highest International Profile
Story by Eric Parazelli | Thursday October 24th, 2019
The deluge of 2019 Félix trophies began to rain down on Oct. 23 with the Premier Gala de l’ADISQ, as well as the Industry Gala, in Montréal, with a total of 43 trophies presented.
Among the SOCAN members who stood out during the galas were Vincent Roberge, aka Les Louanges, who won three of them, for Best Arrangement, Best Album – Alternative, and Best Album – Critic’s Choice. This year, SOCAN partnered with ADISQ to present the award for the Artist with the Highest International Profile, which went to the flamboyant Hubert Lenoir. We met with him in the press room for a video interview just after he accepted his honour (see left).
Among the evening’s other winners were:
Jesse Mac Cormack: Album of the Year – Anglophone, for Now
Elisapie: Album of the Year – Other Languages, for The Ballad of the Runaway Girl
Paul Daraîche: Album of the Year – Country, for Ma maison favorite
Alexandra Stréliski: Album of the Year – Instrumental, for INSCAPE
Dominique Fils-Aimé: Album of the Year – Jazz, for Stay Tuned!
Ginette Reno: Album of the Year – Best-Seller, for À jamais
Millimetrik: Album of the Year – Electronic Music, for Make It Last Forever
Wesli: Album of the Year – World Music, for Rapadou Kreyol
Éric Lapointe: Album of the Year – Rock, for Délivrance
Le Vent du Nord & De Temps Antan: Album of the Year – Roots, for Notre album solo
Milk & Bone: Show of the Year – Anglophone, for Deception Bay
Alaclair Ensemble: Video of the Year, for “La famille”
Several SOCAN members offered outstanding performances during the Premier Gala de l’ADISQ (hosted by Pierre Lapointe), including Alaclair Ensemble, Dominique Fils-Aimé, Éric Lapointe, Florent Vollant, Jérôme50, Lou-Adriane Cassidy, Pierre Lapointe himself, Safia Nolin, and Voivod.
The show will be available online on Oct. 24, 2019, and will be aired again on Oct. 27, at 5:00 p.m. ET, on Télé-Québec. This 41st annual celebration of the Québec music industry will conclude on Oct. 27 with the televised Gala, that will once again be hosted by comedian Louis-José Houde, and broadcast on ICI Radio-Canada Télé, live from the Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier of Place des Arts.
For a complete list of the Premier Gala and Industry gala winners, visit the ADISQ website.
Photo by Marie-Michèle Bouchard
Gala Country Awards: Where’s the Country Scene at in 2019?
Story by Eric Parazelli | Wednesday October 23rd, 2019
The seventh edition of the Gala Country Awards was held at Salle André Mathieu, in Laval, on Oct. 19, 2019, and it was the ideal time and place to take the pulse of the Québec country music scene in 2019. Is there a renaissance of the genre, with the increasing popularity of so-called “new country”? Is commercial radio more open to the genre nowadays? Is there a schism between the veterans and the upstarts in Québec? We asked Paul Daraîche (Show of the Year), Mack & Ro (Group of the Year), Annie Blanchard (Covers Album of the Year), and Matt Lang (Breakout Artist, Anglophone Album and Male Entertainer of the Year) for their takes on all of that.