The second disc of the discreet singer-songwriter Cédrik St-Onge, entitled Osoyoos like the British-Columbian city, is certainly one of the little-known pearls of 2023. The good news is that the musician, also a member of the band Vendôme, will bring his slow, full and textured rock songs to life on a free Francos stage Friday. The bad news is that, if you miss it, St-Onge is rather rare on the boards.
The versatile musician, who describes himself as “a studio freak”, doesn’t break down doors and is visibly not fueled by a devouring ambition for success – if only if we trust his anemic use of social networks. He advances to the rhythm of his pieces, in small steps, but with confidence and grace.
“When it goes fast, sometimes it goes down quickly too,” analyzes Cédrik St-Onge. Then I find it cool to do things where it goes slowly, but where it also stays. It’s a kind of slow burn », slow combustion as Ariane Moffatt once sang. And the Gaspésie is convinced that the public needs time for the music to take root in them and for opportunities to then be created.
The songs ofOsoyoos haven’t experienced much on stage since its launch last November, and the summer doesn’t bring a flood of dates either. “I’m not someone who’s going to try to do a billion shows,” explains St-Onge. I see them a bit like a party in honor of the album. Let’s say, ideally, I would do like five to eight shows this year, but shows which is worth going to see. »
The great Quebec tour, life in a truck eating miles and drinking bad coffee, Cédrik St-Onge is not fundamentally against it. “But if I do it, I prefer to do it with my band Vendôme. In mode drummerwhere I don’t have a million things to think about, where I’m just chilling back [de la scène] banging on drums! »
And for his solo project, which will appeal to fans of Mat Vezio, Andy Shauf and Timber Timbre, the young musician wants to put on great shows. Which does not mean that it multiplies the surprises or the toga effects. To the Francos, for example, he wants to do “just a good job”. show”, with lots of fun and friends to play music with. That’s what makes me want to do this! »
Colleagues are an important part of his pleasure on stage. And there will be many of them, all musicians with solo projects, but who have crossed the personal and professional path of Cédrik St-Onge. ” With this gang– there, I really have fun, and that’s why it can be a party, I think. Because, I’m just happy to be here, in the present moment,” he says.
To pay tribute to Osoyooshe will therefore surround himself with Jeanne Côté, Jérémie Essiambre (La Faune), Alexis Leroy-Pleshoyano (Mada Mada), Marc-Antoine Beaudoin (Marco Ema), Marie Claudel, Bruno St-Laurent (Bobo Laurent) and Flavie Melançon.
Together, they will put together “a kind of somewhat fiery version of the album, as if I were weighing down on a peak [qui active] a mode where everything goes a little bit from all sides, but in the right direction. It becomes alive, illustrates St-Onge. It’s not faster, but it’s more rock, that’s for sure.”
One of the distinct textures ofOsoyoos is the strings, which are used intelligently, present but sparingly. On stage at the Francos, there will be no orchestra on stage — even if Cédrik St-Onge would dream of a concert full of strings. “I still have two backing singers who dedicate themselves completely to singing on all the tunes, so, sometimes, it’s the voices that will play this role, sometimes it’ll be a guitar line, often it’s keyboards. »
The rest of the story has already begun for St-Onge, who is at the drawing board for his next album. The fact of having brought to life Osoyoos, which earned him lots of love from his fans, energized him. “Because I often forget that there are people,” he said. You know, the market is so saturated that sometimes you feel like you’re a little alone. But I had a boost of inspiration, it’s still insistent. But it’s going to take a while longer, because I like it to take my time. Then it applies to the tunes, but it also applies to the entire design. »
And the musician will have to find time to leave the metropolis, where he has lived for seven years. Because the native of Caplan cannot create in the hubbub of Montreal. “I use the city to fill my brain with lots of business, lots of experiences, lots of people. I experience so much business here, it’s so intense and I accumulate it, he explains. But I can’t vent it here, I can’t have enough peace to put this on a page. But when I go to Gaspésie, when I go there alone, when I return to my sources, we will say, there it can transform into tunes. »