We couldn’t do otherwise. The meeting place given to Marie-Josée Gauvin for this interview was self-evident: corner of De Bleury and Sainte-Catherine Ouest, in Montreal, of course. Where for years, MusiquePlus VJs have performed live. Where the young Marie-Josée Gauvin dreamed of working one day.
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Fate will have decided otherwise. The one that can be heard on weekday mornings on Rouge FM will never have held the microphone of the defunct TV station. MusiquePlus will still have marked the life of the host to such an extent that she has chosen to title her first novel in honor of the channel.
“Are people going to expect this to be a documentary? », worried Marie-Josée Gauvin when it came time to choose the title, We were listening to MusiquePlus.
Because no, the book does not take place in the glass studios that have welcomed all the artists of the hour for more than two decades. Rather, it transports the reader to Lac-Saint-Jean in the early 2000s, and follows four music-loving teenage girls who spend most of their time listening to MusiquePlus – you guessed it.
Without being autobiographical, the novel is inspired by the life of the host and three childhood friends she has known since kindergarten.
Basically, the reason for this book is really to pay tribute to these three girls, to our friendship.
Marie-Josee Gauvin
Like many teenage girls who went to high school when Britney Spears was at the top of the charts, the quartet exchanged very creatively folded letters between classes. Nostalgic in the soul, Marie-Josée Gauvin had kept them all. Unfortunately, they burned down in a fire a few years ago.
“As a birthday present, my friend Jade had all the ones I had written to her printed. She said to me: “It may not be the same, but it’s a bit our story that’s in there,” says the 30-year-old.
“Reading them again, I realized, ‘There’s something there.’ »
pop-culture
This “something” metamorphosed into the first volume of a trilogy full of nods to pop culture at the turn of the millennium. Think of Brad Pitt in Fall Legendsto Jennifer Love Hewitt in Tonight everything is allowedat P.S. Tenderness on the airwaves of Rock Détente, with studded belts, with tribal tattoos: if you are 30 to 40 years old, memories will follow one another after reading this novel.
Did all of these examples from the past require exhaustive research? On the contrary. “This culture was so important to my friends and me,” replies Marie-Josée Gauvin. Even today, she frequently refers to elements of the 1990s and 2000s in her daily discussions, which sometimes discourages her radio colleagues, she reveals.
To immerse herself in her past, Marie-Josée Gauvin let herself be carried away by the songs of the time.
There are some for whom smells bring back a lot of memories. Me, it’s really the music. […] The musical memory is very clear to me. I am able to say how I was dressed the first time I listened to a piece or how I felt.
Marie-Josee Gauvin
Each chapter ofWe were listening to MusiquePlus is also associated with a song. Of Killing in the Name from Rage Against the Machine to ironic from Alanis Morissette, via I miss you from La Chicane or life is ugly by Jean Leloup, the playlist is varied (and available on Spotify for those interested).
Even if nostalgia for the 2000s is very present in the novel, Marie-Josée Gauvin does not believe that it is necessary to have lived this decade to identify with her quartet of friends, quite the contrary. “No matter the era, the emotions in adolescence remain the same”, thinks the one who is currently working on the second volume of the trilogy.
We were listening to MusiquePlus
Marie-Josee Gauvin
Editions du Parc opposite
300 pages
Lana, star dog
Marie-Josée Gauvin admits, she draws a lot of inspiration from those around her to write. If her friends are featured in We were listening to MusiquePlus, in the Lananouille children’s albums, it is rather his family and his dog who are at the heart of the story. “It’s a family project. With Joséphine, my daughter, we brainstorm. […] It’s almost a canine autofiction because Lana does all these things for real, ”explains the author about this funny series which features a clumsy animal, the second title of which was published last summer.
Lananouille 2 – The dog who did not see himself as a dog
Text by Marie-Josée Gauvin, illustrations by Agathe Bray-Bourret
Les Malins Editions
From 3 years old