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BIOGRAPHY Date of birth: December 22, 1974. Age: 29 Spoken language: French and English. Studies: BA in English Studies (UQTR). Origin: St-Alphonse Rodriguez, Lanaudičre, Quebec. Guitar experience: Since January 1990. Diploma in Music at the Cégep Joliette De-Lanaudičre (Pop Jazz). Six hours of practice per day from the age of 15 to 23 (even more on weekends). Biggest show given: In front of 20 000 people. Favourite kinds of music: Progressive Metal, Symphonic Metal, Heavy Metal and Hard rock. Albums which changed my life: Extreme: Pornographitti, Queensr˙che: Operation: Mindcrime, Megadeth: Rust in Peace, Dream Theater: Awake, Dream Theater: Scenes from a Memory, Rhapsody: Legendary Tales, Nightwish: From Wishes to Eternity. 5 best albums of all time:
1- Dream Theater, Scenes from a Memory. Shows which changed my life: Dream Theater/Queensr˙che : Out of the studio (2003), Dream Theater : Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence Tour (2002), Dream Theater : Metropolis 2000, Scenes from New York (2000), Megadeth : Cryptic Writings (1998) and Extreme : Waiting for the Punchline (1994). First rock album I listened to in my life: Van Halen I (at the age of 5!) Principal musical influences on guitar: John Petrucci (Dream Theater), Nuno Bettencourt (Extreme), Dave Mustaine (Megadeth), Marty Friedman (Megadeth, Cacophony), Chris DeGarmo (Queensr˙che) and Michael Wilton (Queensr˙che). Principal musical influences: Dream Theater, Extreme, Nightwish, Rhapsody, Queensr˙che, Megadeth, Liquid Tension Experiment, Shadow Gallery, Ayreon, Spiral Architect and Lord of the Rings (soundtrack).
MUSIC HISTORICAL Childhood and adolescence period: Since I first listened to Van Halen I (at the age of 5) and mainly because of the song "Eruption", I always wanted to play the electric guitar. The sound of the distortion always fascinated me. I must thank my big brothers of initiating me to good music. While growing older, my taste for music grew with AC/DC, Iron Maiden and Dio. After that, I got into Metallica, Megadeth and Anthrax at the age of 12. At adolescence, my influences grew again passing from Whitesnake to Rainbow and to Yngwie Malmsteen. One day, I discovered the band that was going to really change my life and get me into the guitar: Extreme. Adolescence and collegial studies period: It was the beginning, but before, I had to find something by myself on the guitar. There was no way I was going to take courses without having found at least a small tune or something on the guitar. I discovered a C scale and 6 months later, I began courses and intensive practice. I played until my fingers bleed. Thereafter, music courses at Cegep level. But I don’t really like that because we have over 20 hours of courses and only one is devoted to the guitar. With the frustration of a 20 years old young man, I finished my diploma in Languages and I dropped the diploma in music. During this period in Cegep, I met guys like Daniel Boucher, Richard Pellan and I made friends with the guys who were going to become Yello Mollo. Higher education period: At university, it’s were I really discovered Queensr˙che and that I discovered true metal, like Testament and Death. These new influences changed my vision of music and my compositions became more technical and more intense. I learned much with my buddy Éric, with whom I formed a duet of technical guitars. We formed a monster axemen duet on guitar! Since then, I am practically unable to play professionally with another guitarist because I didn’t find this chemistry with another player, when each knows what the other wants. I taught guitar in several music schools in order to help me pay my studies, which also gave me experience. After that period, I stagnated on guitar until I discovered Dream Theater. Since that time, I want to be the perfect balance between technique and emotion. I became much more critical about music and I have lots of opinions against pop and alternative rock. I think they are an empty musical shell and that they do not exploit the true talents of the musicians, even if sometimes they are not true accomplished musicians. I am not afraid of my musical opinions, because (in Quebec) we show a delay of 20 years on what occurs elsewhere in the world (espescially in Europe). Many radiophonic monopolies prevent us from evolving. A large part of the disc industry is also responsible for that and they will probably never be ready to endorse a product of Quebec like Dream Theater. My goal in music: My dream has always been to play music professionaly, but with time, I see that I am not ready to succeed at all costs, but only on my conditions.I preffer not to become a professional artist and to be happy with the music I make than make my manager happy… Projects carried out: Whatever: Timefactor (1998), Whatever: Special Edition (1999), Awake (demo, 2000) and soon Talion: The Keeper (solo album).
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