Six young musicians from École secondaire Sieur-de-Coulonge got their moment in the spotlight last week in Sept-Îles at the provincial final of the Secondaire en spectacle talent show.
The band, called Les Carcajous du Nord, is made up of students Raphaël Fleury (guitar and lead vocals), Ulysse Riopel (bass), Donovan Dubeau (acoustic guitar), Riley Dumouchel (acoustic guitar), Mavrick Lavigne (drums) and Addam Romain (fiddle).
The group, which formed earlier this year, plays a mixture of country and rock. They advanced through their school’s Secondaire en spectacle competition in February, and then in March were one of a handful of acts chosen at the regional competition to represent the Outaouais in Sept-Îles.
“We started jumping in the air. We started jumping in everybody’s arms,” said Romain of their reaction at the time.
On May 27, after over a month of rehearsals, the band joined the rest of the Outaouais delegation to hit the road for the provincial final. School teacher Jérémy Labine, who accompanied the kids on the 11-hour bus journey, said it was worth the trip as there were plenty of activities and workshops for the kids.
On the first night, there was an opening ceremony where each region got to fly their region’s flag. From Abitibi-Témiscamingue to Montreal to Sept-Îles, over 1,000 students participated at the provincial finals.
The next day, Labine said the boys got to participate in a songwriting and artistry workshop with two-time Juno award-winning singer-songwriter Louis-Jean Cormier.
“He talked about how to be creative,” he said. “Sometimes it’s not important to write something super complicated and super crazy to impact people.”
Then, on Friday the boys got their turn on stage. They were the last act to play in the arena before that evening’s party was due to start, so the crowd was rocking.
“The crowd was crazy and they all went in front of the stage and they were cheering for them,” he said, adding that the band got a standing ovation for their performance.
“They were so nervous at the beginning, and when they got on stage the nervousness just went away and was replaced with energy,” said Labine. “You can’t describe it. They were having so much fun.”
Labine said the boys spent a lot of time connecting with fellow performers from across the province, widening their networks and exchanging ideas. He said they also got interviewed by Radio-Canada for an online interview that he expects should be out sometime this week.
Labine said he was proud of the boys for how far they have come and for all the work they have put in toward learning their craft.
“They felt like they were rock stars. They felt like they were seen for their art. Afterwards people were still talking about the show, they knew them by name, and they were doing high fives outside and stuff like that.”
