The great honcho of the Francos and the Festival international de jazz de Mont-réal, Laurent Saulnier, will bow out next September, after 23 years that will have been marked by the decline of the record industry and a pandemic that will have undermined the entertainment industry. But this staple of the Quebec music scene continues to display unfailing optimism.
“I’m not at all nostalgic,” says Laurent Saulnier straight away in an interview with To have to when you give him a list of everything that should worry him, especially after two horrific anni. The closing of record stores, the post-pandemic uncertainty, the drop in music radio ratings… Nothing helped: on the eve of his sixtieth birthday, this inveterate music lover has too much experience to panic.
“You have to look forward. Twenty years ago, hardly anyone could make records from home. Today, anyone can make an album on his laptop. There are still wonderful things with the world today. Me, when I was 20, I had to take the bus to go to the record store hoping that there might be the vinyl I wanted left. Today, my daughter has access to all the music in the world from her cell phone. There is still something good to be learned from the times we live in, ”says the one who leaves with peace of mind.
After careful consideration, Laurent Saulnier has decided to focus his energies on the career of singer Pierre Lapointe, of whom he has been the manager for several years. He will remain a strategic advisor within the Spectra team, acquired in 2013 by Groupe CH and the Molson family, with whom he claims to be on very good terms.
“I was lucky. I’ve always had bosses who let me do pretty much what I wanted,” emphasizes Laurent Saulnier.
The Franco makeover
He also needed this leeway to renew the public of the Francos.
At the end of the 1990s, this festival – which was still called the Francofolies at the time – was struggling to attract the youngest. Especially its great outdoor shows, then confined to the big stars of the old French variety. It is in this context that Alain Simard, the founder of Spectra, approached a music critic from the very trendy and niche newspaper See — a certain Laurent Saulnier — to rejuvenate the brand.
Under his leadership as programmer, then as vice-president, the average age of festival-goers will drop by more than 10 years: it is now around 30 years old. It is also Laurent Saulnier who had the instinct to open the Francos to rap, in vogue in the United States and France, but long shunned by the bonzes of the Quebec radio industry.
“We no longer live in the world of 20 years ago. The way of programming festivals has changed a lot. Before, it was quite easy: we just had to look at album sales. Now, there are all kinds of numbers: some that matter, and others much less, in my opinion”, notes this music enthusiast, who continues to keep abreast of new trends from here and everywhere. in the world.
The former journalist also hopes that by slowing down the pace a little, he will have a little more time to attend shows, he who already saw them in spades before the pandemic.
However, according to the latest figures drawn from listening habits on online platforms, today’s young people seem much less eager than him to discover new French-speaking Quebec artists. Barely 6% of the songs listened to here on these platforms are from Quebec and in French.
But here again, Laurent Saulnier wants to be reassuring. “It is sure that if we rely on the statistics, it can be worrying. But when I see how we managed to rejuvenate the public of the Francos, I say to myself that French-speaking music can always attract young people. Afterwards, you also have to offer young people the music they want to listen to, ”he drops as a message to the attention of an industry which has long shunned certain styles, such as hip-hop.
Regarding hip-hop, Laurent Saulnier could not have hoped for a better gift for his last year than the arrival at the Francos of the father of French rap, MC Solaar, nearly 25 years after his last show in the metropolis.
The Francos will begin on June 10. The International Jazz Festival, headlined by The Roots, will take over from June 30.
Then, at the end of the festival season, the current programming director of Spectra, Maurin Auxéméry, will succeed the resigning.