Forty years after the release of its first album, The Box returns to the Festival d’été de Québec (FEQ) to remind festival-goers how much its hits marked the 1980s, and with what joy its leader, Jean-Marc Pisapia, plays them again. “My life is a procession of happy moments!” exclaims the veteran. “And besides, today is my 36e wedding anniversary. Do I have a special night planned? Not even: I have to leave at six in the morning tomorrow [vendredi] to go and give my concert at the FEQ!”
Happy in love, and happy in music: this The Box version 2.0, brought back to life by Jean-Marc Pisapia in 2005 with new collaborators, plays for the simple pleasure of meeting old fans again. “I’m still just as happy to get back on the road with this new version, because this group absolutely does not have the same attitude. At the time, we gave concerts because we had to, and that’s what killed us, by the way”, two years after the release, in 1990, of the fourth album, The Pleasure and the Pain.
“We were dead tired, playing 250 shows a year.” After returning from a series of shows in California, three members of the original group then slammed the door, says Pisapia. “Now, we’re doing it for the funand it shows. In concert, we play all the hits from the 1980s, the audience gets on board, it’s absolutely brilliant.”
Pisapia had first tasted pop stardom in 1981 as a keyboardist on tour with Men Without Hats, the band of his old high school friend Ivan Doroschuk. Founded that same year, The Box released its first album in 1984, but would capture the imagination the following year with the album All The Time, All The Time, All The Time and his song The Dumoutier affair (Say To Me)a sort of musical version of a detective novel — The Box won the Félix for group of the year in 1985.
Gold Album
Then, two years later, the gold album: Closer Togetherwhereby The Box’s sound shed new wave influences to embrace straightforward, catchy pop rock. The epic Crying Out Loud For Love opening, the intense ballad Ordinary People and, of course, the title song, which, Pisapia tells us, was in fact a commissioned work, on which Martine St-Clair also sings.
“I met Martine at the Stanley Cup celebration party that the Montreal Canadiens won in 1986,” says the musician. “We were invited to play a few songs, with Martine, Céline [Dion] was there too, and then we invited Martine to sing on this song that Leucan had commissioned from us, as part of their fundraising campaign around the theme of team spirit. They needed a theme song, so we came up with Closer Together in 24 hours. »
“And that created a lot of confusion because we had to shoot the video in the winter, so we went to the Dominican Republic — except Martine couldn’t come with us. So, in the video, Sass Jordan plays the role of backing singer!” The Montrealer, who also accompanied the group Bündock, sang on several songs on the album before launching her own solo career in 1988 with her first album, Tell Someone.
Before collapsing under the pressure of touring, The Box had managed to headline at the Montreal Forum… only to return a few months later, on August 18, 1990, this time as the opening act for a young Sinéad O’Connor, who had become a global pop star overnight thanks to her cover of Nothing Compares 2 Utaken from the album I Don’t Want What I Haven’t Gotpublished a few months earlier.
The experience did not leave Jean-Marc with a happy memory: “Sinéad O’Connor arrived in the portrait with only one hitwhile The Box had been on the scene for a few years already. Now, our record company had gotten it into their heads that it was a good idea to open for them at the Forum, where we had just headlined! It made no sense! But since, within the group, we made decisions democratically, the guys accepted. I didn’t understand that one – in fact, I should have sincerely opposed it. So, I have to admit that this memory of having trod the boards of the Forum is unpleasant for me.
And that is precisely why Pisapia and his The Box 2.0 continue to give concerts: to create more beautiful memories.
The Box will perform Friday at 7:10 p.m. at Parc de la Francophonie, with Solipsisme and Kansas, on the FEQ bill.