I live to create and discover music that excites me. It must feel real! It should travel directly from your ears to your soul. Music has always been an escape for me; somewhere I can go to forget, or to lash out on whatever demons are torturing me. I need to feel that behind music, there is truth, whether it’s about love, sadness, rage, hate, comedy or anything else. I’m a firm believer that people could feel when something is fake, or soulless. I strive to keep my writing honest, and it’s not always easy. What I have to offer is the truth in me, and I hope it can reach people.  

            It all started at my grandmother’s house, that place was a huge inspiration. At any time, you’d either see my grandmother singing and playing piano, or my uncle Jacques walking around singing and playing flute.  He actually also played piano and guitar beautifully. I guess you could say he got me started since I was scratching away at his guitars by the ripe old age of 3.

            My older brother Stephane introduced me to The Beatles when I was 7. That changed my life dramatically. I was determined from that point on to be a guitarist and songwriter.On my tenth birthday, I bought my first guitar for $100. I was coasting along without much urgency till my 12th birthday when my sister Joanne bought me a Jimi Hendrix cassette. I was blown away, things got serious from that point on

I started playing bar gigs when I was 13. My uncle Robert would sneak me into blues bars and have me play with the house bands. The bars had escape routes planned for me should the cops walk in. From age 13 to 20 I joined all sorts of bands: blues, cover bands, reggae, punk and bands I wrote for. Basically anybody that asked me to play would get yes for an answer. 

            I started writing music when I was 14, and shortly thereafter met Billy Anthopoulos. Meeting Billy changed the way I thought about music. At the time I was convinced that the faster a guitarist was, the better. Bill had no patience for that kind of wankery. We would jam and write in his basement for hours, that was the closest thing to schooling I ever had in music.   

             Leaping ahead to Feb 2004: George (The Dears’ drummer (who at the time was drumming in my band as well)) asked me to try out for The Dears. I had just dropped out of school to focus on music so the timing was perfect.  I was asked to do a 5-week tour; I’m still on that 5-week tour!

            In the fall of 2005 a 2-year run of extensive touring with The Dears came to an end. We set out to make a record and take a year off. During that year, I focused on getting my writing together, I had written about 30 songs in the 2 years of touring. I formed a band called Lesley Lane and we made a record.
During the making of Lesley Lane’s record I had written 10 new songs. They were all pretty mellow, and I was dying to record them. I had about 1 week to track them before The Dears would start touring again.  I knew that it would be impossible to get a band tight on ten songs in a week, so I tracked it myself. It was the first time I ever played drums on a recording. It was also my first time singing. The experience was without a doubt the most ambitious move I’ve ever made. I’m pretty happy with it though so it was worth the risk. I Made a 7 song EP (“Take It Or Leave”) of the 10 songs, I feel it’s a good way to introduce myself, short and to the point.

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