October 16, 2015 - Montréal, Québec
Conducted by Ashlee R. Estep and filmed by Lauren Priest
B: Hi, everybody! My name is Bruno!
USBF: Really!
B: What’s the first question?
USBF: Okay, so, first of all, thank you so much for doing this. We really appreciate it.
B: It’s a pleasure.
USBF: So our first question is: you’ve already performed in the U.S. back in 2009 in Los Angeles at the House of Blues. Would you be willing to perform in the U.S. again if the opportunity arose, whether for a single show or multiple shows?
B: I would like to. I would love to. I would love to play in the U.S. again. But, you know, I know that it’s difficult to… you have to be invited by someone: a producer, or an orchestra… People have to invite me if I want to go to play in the U.S. I can’t decide by myself: “Okay, I will go to play in the U.S.!” First things first, there’s not enough crowd for me over there. I have fans, but they are everywhere in the U.S. Excuse my bad English! They are everywhere in the U.S., so it’s difficult for me to decide to do a tour in the U.S. But I would love to go back. Yeah, for sure.
USBF: First, your English is fabulous, just so you know.
B: “Fabulous,” it’s maybe a little bit too much, but thank you.
USBF: How did your performance at the House of Blues happen? What brought that on?
B: It’s a friend of mine who was working there in L.A. at the time, and they have a community of Quebecers… French Canadians… and they wanted to… they wanted to celebrate la St-Jean-Baptiste, which is… it’s a day really important in Quebec. So all the community wanted to celebrate la St-Jean-Baptiste, the 23rd, 24th of June, and they invited me to play for that.
USBF: We know that when you did your performance in Los Angeles, you spoke a mix of French and English. If you were to perform in the U.S. again, do you think you would appeal to more of a francophone audience or would you appeal to more of an audience that doesn’t necessarily speak French?
B: I don’t care if I have to… If the people don’t understand French, I don’t… I think that the kind of songs that I play, that I sing, have enough emotion, have enough… theatricals?
USBF: Theatrics?
B: I don’t know how to say that in English. But they are… in the “theater way” enough strong to be played in front of people even if they don’t understand French. But I have a lot of songs in English, too, so I could manage, I think.
USBF: Fairly recently, the new album of Josh Groban’s was released—
B: Yeah.
USBF: —featuring a cover of Le temps des cathédrales.
B: Yeah.
USBF: Since then, he has appeared numerous times on Québécois T.V. and radio, specifically mentioning you and saying that you are “one of [his] favorite singers of all time.”
B: And we both… I admire him a lot, too.
USBF: What was your reaction to, not only his comments, but also to his cover of Le temps des cathédrales?
B: I was pleased, because the fact is you have to be happy for the author, Luc Plamondon, for the writer, Richard Cocciante, and for the interpreter, the singer who creates the song: me. So the three of us are involved in that song. I think it’s a gift. It’s like a gift. When me, I guess when I decide to do a cover of a song and I do my own version, it’s a gift, it’s like celebrating the original in a way. So I was very happy and that’s why I wrote to Josh Groban. Even if I don’t know him very well, I know him as an artist, and I admire his voice a lot. He’s a great singer, so I was very, very pleased, and I wrote to him, “Thanks,” and that I was, that it was an honor that a guy like him could decide to sing Le temps des cathédrales.
USBF: Do you think some sort of performance with the two of you could ever happen in the future?
B: Maybe! You never know! I remember when I was in France a lot, he was there on T.V. shows, and at that time, we didn’t have the chance to sing together. But I know that he knows me, and I know him very well as an artist, and I think that we could manage something one day.
USBF: That would make many people very happy!
B: Oh!
USBF: For almost the entirety of the Musique et cinéma tour, you’ve taken a few minutes to Skype with various fans all over the world so they can, in a way, participate in the concert while you sing Calling You. How did this come about and is it something you think you might continue on future tours?
B: Maybe. It’s really easy to organize, because with Madeleine, who’s a webmaster that I salute—hey, Madeleine! She takes care of everything and she contacts people all over the world, the fans that are already in contact with us. And we try to manage people for each show, and it always depends on the technical support, if the Internet connection is good. But it’s an idea of my friend, my good friend André-Roch Fortin, who is my photographer, too, with whom I have worked a lot my mise en scène for a lot of my shows in the past. And he arrived with that idea when was working on the mise en scène for Musique et cinéma. And I told him, “It’s a great idea. I don’t know if it’s going to be easy to manage.” And we tried it and people loved it, and Madeleine said to me, “You know, it’s not difficult to have people for each show, so let’s do it!”
USBF: For a lot of people, your music has led them to discover, not only francophone music in general, but Québec as a whole. How do you feel when you learn that your music has inspired so many people to learn about Québec, its history, and its culture and, in some cases, to learn French for the first time?
B: I’m very honored and very flattered about that because here in Quebec, I’m just a regular guy who sings songs and I don’t know if… I don’t know to be… J’sais pas comment dire ça… le porte étendard [I don’t know how to say that… the flag bearer]. I’m just very proud of my country, to be a Quebec singer, to make know… faire connaître?
USBF: To make known.
B: Make known to the people all across the world, songs from—my songs, but songs from people really important in Quebec like Georges Dor, Michel Rivard, and others. So I’m very proud of that, and I’m always flattered that people want to learn French because they like my songs. I’m sorry, I’m so bad! But you know, I don’t speak enough in English, so when I try to speak, it’s…
USBF: Awesome! Anyway, better than my French!
USBF: Musique et cinéma debuted over a year ago and the tour is still going strong. Do you have any other projects in mind or in the works?
B: Yeah, I begin to work on other stuff. I have a project with a French rock band in Bretagne, and la sortie, the launch of the record, they proposed to do that maybe at the end of 2015 or the beginning 2016. And I’m a guest on that band. I sing 7 songs on 11. And it’s really rock. So it’s a project, it’s like a side-project for the beginning of 2016. And at the same time I’m working on new songs now, because I would like to do another album for Spring or maybe Fall 2016 and have another tour.
USBF: Do you think you’ll ever return to the stage, whether an actor and singer, or something more involved like what you did with Dracula as the creative director?
B: As a creator, I don’t—as a producer, I don’t think so. As an actor, singer, yes, probably. I received a couple invitations, but I was not too hot. You know, it has to be something that really talked to me, and very exciting, and if it’s something that I have the feeling that it’s like what I did before, I don’t wanna do that. So I’m still searching for new things.
USBF: You have inspired people, not only to learn French, but also to perform acts of kindness that help others, especially through La Fondation québécoise du cancer, whether it be in events to raise money for La Fondation, or through knitting and crocheting blankets for those who need them. How does it feel knowing you directly inspired acts such as these?
B: I don’t see me as a guy who inspired those people, I think they have something in them, something in there that just needs to be opened and the opportunity to do something for others. So sometimes just à travers moi—
USBF: Through you.
B: Through me. I’m just, it’s like I pass things. Me, I decide to do something for la Fondation, but that feeling that I share with people about, we have to help those people, it touches some of them. And they decide to do something. It’s because they’re already ready for that. They have their own generosity that has to be stimulated. So I think I’m just a passeur.
USBF: Do you ever come to the U.S. for leisure or vacations? If so, what has been your favorite place that you’ve visited or your favorite thing you’ve done while in the U.S.?
B: Yes, very often. Not dernièrement. Pas dernierement. [Not recently.] But I did a lot traveling to go to shows in Broadway, and I love the West Coast, too. California, I went there two times to do the West Coast. I’ve been to Philadelphia, New Jersey, New York, for sure, Florida.
USBF: Thank you very much for doing this with us. We really appreciate it.
B: Thank you. And just say “Hi,” just wanna say hi to all the fans over there. Bye!
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