Six students from École secondaire Sieur-de-Coulonge (ESSC) punched their ticket to a provincial talent show later this spring after their band’s performance on Tuesday in Gatineau earned top marks from the judges.
The students, all between Secondaire 1 and Secondaire 4, were competing in the regional championships of Secondaire en spectacle (SES), the province-wide talent show held every year for Quebec schools. After being chosen as one of the top acts at their home school, they faced off against dozens of other acts from across the Outaouais for a chance at the provincial nod.
The band, called Les Carcajous du Nord (Wolverines of the North), is made up of students Raphaël Fleury (guitar and lead vocals), Ulysse Riopel (bass), Donovan Dubeau (acoustic guitar), Riley Dumouchel (acoustic guitar), Mavrick Vaillancourt (drums) and Addam Romain (fiddle).
Fleury said the group started less than a year ago when he was trying to recruit bandmates, and saw 12-year-old Romain playing fiddle at the Festival Country de Fort-Coulonge/Mansfield last summer. Fleury said they started to jam together, and the band just continued to grow from there.
“I went after [Romain], and we practiced me and him, and after that we met Mavrick, our drummer, and after that we started jamming,” said Fleury.
The group performed Salebarbes’ song Les haricots sont pas salés (The beans aren’t salty), a song they chose for its catchy and identifiable melody. Band members wore jeans, cowboy boots and hats to complete the country look.
After the show, all performers gathered together on stage to hear which three acts the judges had chosen to advance to the provincial competition. After two acts were announced, the band said they were nervous their name might not get called.
But when judge Kimya announced that the final qualifying act came from Fort-Coulonge, all that nervousness went away.
“I think it was a favourite of the judges. We chose them for their complicity and their demonstration of the power of a group,” said Kimya during the awards ceremony.
Romain said the boys couldn’t contain their excitement at the news. He said they worked hard on their performance.
“We started jumping in the air. We started jumping in everybody’s arms,” said Romain.
Now, the boys will advance to the provincial competition in Sept-Îles at the end of May. Along with eight other acts from the Outaouais, they will join talent from across Quebec for three days of competition.
“We’re really excited to go meet new people. There will be people from God knows where,” said Fleury of the opportunity.
Romain and Riopel said they are hoping to use the opportunity to get better at their instruments.
Romain said he idolizes fiddle players the likes of Louis Schryer, and wants to play like him someday. As for Riopel, he said his musical goals include continuing to get better at his own instrument – the bass.
Riopel said it would be nice to win, but he said they are there to enjoy the experience of playing music and visiting a new place.
ESSC leisure coordinator Jérémy Labine said the competition will take place over three days and will feature a packed schedule. He said there will be networking opportunities for the students to get music industry connections, as well as workshops with professional musicians.
“In the morning they have courses with different people, some for entertainment, some musicians, some comedians [and] the courses are to help them grow as an artist. And after lunch they have rehearsals for their show at night,” he said.
Three other ESSC students, Élizabeth Lepack, Olivia Draper and Ève Labonté performed in the regional competition but did not qualify for provincials.
