For a short time, somewhere in Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean, the four members of the vigorous Quebec Redneck Bluegrass Project — QRBP for short — began to ask themselves questions. Should we tour this summer without a new album? Would it be desirable to adapt to a growing audience? Would being seen more in the media be an option? But quickly, the group of party brushed aside his uncertainties and decided to move straight ahead.
QRBP is a community way of doing things, in a good-natured, semi-punk, semi-beatnik way. It’s folk and bluegrass music perfect for practicing, but not without poetry. A poetry sung with a thick accent by ball carrier JP “Le Pad” Tremblay, and energized by his accomplices Madeleine Bouchard, François Gaudreault and Nicolas Laflamme. Together, with their five albums, they have been making a silent majority of music lovers dance for more than ten years, who revere them like brothers, far from the noise of cable companies.
“When in doubt, take the gas,” sings QRBP on his piece Pantera Arctic Cat Triple 800. That’s a bit of what the group is doing these weeks, over the course of a summer tour of nearly 20 dates which will take them to the Place des Festivals, opening for the Francos de Montréal on June 14.
“We never asked ourselves questions about the musical line, the line of remarks, about our image or our attitude… then, we started to say to ourselves: “hey, is that correct?”, explains Nicolas Laflamme, in a rare interview given by QRBP. Finally we stopped and said to ourselves that the fact that we never asked ourselves these questions surely has something to do with the fact that we got to where we are now. Our recipe must be good, so let’s continue with it. »
Laflamme, who met his sidekick JP Tremblay in China around twenty years ago, assures that the group is not “rigid to change” and that its musical and poetic touch has evolved. Among other things because the four members no longer make as many wanderings in Asia. Still, “it’s about an extraordinary life journey, because we are still four non-conformist marginals in QRBP,” notes Laflamme.
This is one of the dilemmas that the training briefly had. Her music attracts a wider range of spectators than when she played “at the Escogriffe in front of 200 people”. It is not uncommon for parents to drag the kids to outdoor concerts, in particular. “If they come to see us as a family, it is with full knowledge of the facts,” says Laflamme, “particularly a mandolinist and accordionist. And the band can bring something else too. Maybe the setbacks and then the abuse that we refer to in the lyrics won’t be what the family will look for, but rather the positive of seeing us on stage. I’m not throwing flowers at us, but we are people who hear a laugh! We dance – we call it our double-headed choreographies – it’s a bit nonsense, it’s funny. »
Word of mouth
Generous is a weak word to describe a QRBP show. But off stage, the band keeps a lower profile, usually playing only a few weeks in the summer and declining most interview requests. Which can lead to a craze due to scarcity, but it is far from being “premeditated”, says Nicolas Laflamme. “It’s always been our way of life. Ultimately, we’re really researching and creating during the winter. We have parallel projects, interconnected projects, whether musical or family. »
And Quebec Redneck Bluegrass Project’s relationship with the wonderful world of media is not one of dependence, or at least it is not the vector by which the group’s fan base was created.
“Don’t go saying that we don’t like the media,” worries Laflamme, himself a subscriber to Duty, whose morning paper copy fuels “lovely conversations with the family”. But, he notes, “each his own avenue, each his own road, each his own way. We, in general, got to where we are in a very autonomous, very community way, let’s say, through sharing, word of mouth, homemade. And our recipe works. I mean, there are groups that do music competitions or are constantly seeking notoriety with the media. Then it’s not a judgment! There are people who crack nuts with a hammer, there are people who crack nuts with a nutcracker, but the result is that we eat nuts. The idea is that everyone has their own recipe. »
The recipe, in this case, causes the sauce (peanuts?) to take and create a “complicity” between the public and QRBP. “People who love bandthey love THE band ! It’s not an empty echo chamber of an artist who is extremely present in the media but for whom tickets don’t sell. »
The quartet’s current summer tour will take them to Gatineau, Quebec, Sherbrooke, Alma, Val-d’Or and to the Festif! of Baie-Saint-Paul. As usual, QRBP named its show segment, which this time bears the title “Boom Bar Panthère”. And why ? “We have a new song that is really coolwhere we say “boom”, like Batman-style onomatopoeia. And in the stage, we’re going to have a bar where we can go and sit, do our solos, have a drink when we have time during the show. » The panther is the Pantera brand snowmobile which inspired the popular song already mentioned and which accompanies the group on stage. “It’s like the mascot of the band », emptied of its engine.
This is probably the last time that the group drags their car with them, a symbol of pleasure but also of oil consumption. A citizen reflection more than an activist, explains Laflamme. But still. “QRBP, it’s not a committed band, it’s not Rage Against the Machine, but I think that music is also part of the solution […], but differently than organizing a demonstration, a petition, a movement. » It places the issues that are not going well in a favorable context, believes the musician. “By facing things in a positive way, ideas will always be clearer, and then it will always move forward. » Straight ahead.