pascalepicard.com

June 28

karl@pascalepicard.com (Pascale Picard) — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 23:41:20 -0400

Hello to all!

A French friend reminded us on our website it was exactly 2 years ago we were playing our first concert in France. A lot has been going on since then… At this moment that I’m writing to you, it’s been 6 months since we’ve been on stage. We’ve been working on our new album since we got back from France in November.

News has been rare as we don’t have that much to talk about … We can resume by saying that everyone is in top shape and the song writing is going great. We don’t have a release date at the moment to announce. Things have been rolling so quickly since the release of ‘’Me, Myself & Us’’ - it’s been really strange to be away so long, and we can’t wait for people to listen to our new stuff… Especially after 3 beautiful years of touring with you (Me, Myself & Us was released in April 2007). For the moment the only concert planned is an appearance at FME (Festival de Musique Émergente) in Rouyn-Noranda, QC in September.

We’ll keep you posted as soon as we have some new dates. Thanks to everyone who has been sending us supporting words, we’re thinking of you, too!

‘Bonne fête de la musique’’ and enjoy the summer, talk to you soon I hope,

Pascale

October 23

karl@pascalepicard.com (Pascale Picard) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 11:41:41 -0400

Brussels!! We just arrived in Belgium. It’s been 2 weeks now since we’ve been in France and we haven’t had much time to rest… not even enough time to give you a news update ;) As usual we’ve had warm welcomes as much from the fans as the people at each venue… We eat and drink well… On other hand I feel obligated to share one recurrent subject on the bus: when we are far away from home sometimes we attach ourselves to strange things… I know it’s hard to have a craving for cheese whiz and Quik (one of us has a crush on powdered Quik…) when we have access to all the great food in Europe, especially when we wouldn’t eat these things at home. The heart has its reasons that cannot be reasoned… In short, if anyone knows where we can find these products please let us know! We have managed to find a poutine restaurant in Paris so far… thanks for listening and please don’t judge us too much J haha

Pascale

October 1st

karl@pascalepicard.com (Pascale Picard) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 16:13:05 -0400

We’re packing, almost done and ready to fly out for France next Wednesday. That being said I don’t have that much interesting stuff to tell you this week. (Far from saying that our news is always pertinent…)

I can say that I’m very happy to let you know that we’ve been very productive during September. I can even go as far as to say that we have 10 almost complete songs and that it looks like a second album!!! Yeah!!! We can’t wait to be back on the tour bus and to be on French, Belgium and Swiss stages. Hoping to see you soon.

Pascale

September 22

karl@pascalepicard.com (Pascale Picard) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 14:56:09 -0400

September 16th

Hello again to all!

We’ve been through a lot since our last update in June so I’ll try my best to be clear and effective to summarize everything today… All summer we traveled the road in France, Belgium and Switzerland. We even found time to stop by Amsterdam just for fun! We’ve been to more countries in 2 months then in our entire lives. Our address books are full of very nice people now and in fact, at the end of this year, we will have been in Europe for 6 months.

On October 7th we’ll be flying back to France to end the tour for “Me, Myself and Us”. For the ‘followers’ you already know that we’re writing a second album. The Morin Heights studio is booked for January, February and March. All the residents in the area can likely find us on occasion around the SAQ for those months (free translation: Where we buy French wine for half the cost…)
If everything goes as planned we should be able to release the new album before next summer.

In the mean time, before going back on tour we’ll be stopping at Jonquière en Musique September 26th to celebrate their 20th Anniversary - for those who might be interested!!

Take care for now!

Talk to you soon,

Pascale

June 22nd / June 30th

karl@pascalepicard.com (Pascale Picard) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:23:48 -0400

June 22nd

Yesterday was Music Day. There were groups of musicians all over Paris and people everywhere that made a little more traffic in the city. We walked all day to enjoy the energy and ended up in a very popular little bar called "Les Pères Populaires". They set up a little stage in the street and the band that was supposed to play never came. To keep the thirty people there happy two employees of the bar went on stage and then they gave us the guitar... In short, Math and I took the opportunity, ended up playing for Music day, and we had a wonderful evening...

And then... June 30th...

Last week we managed to cross France in 2 days!! Everything started with a tour at Décibulles in Neuve-Église en Alsace. (after being lost 20 times and checked by policemen, we made it to the site only one hour before going on stage) to leave the next day for Tullins and the next next day to Pas-de-Calais.

The bad news is that instead of visiting the places that we were playing we reserved our time at rest stops, and instead of enjoying every outdoor site we were trying to catch up on some sleep...

The good news is that the 3 shows went really well and that we are off until our next show on July 4th in Cergy. The band is dispersed all over France to be tourists... Congratulations!!!

So see you soon!!

Pascale

June 10

karl@pascalepicard.com (Pascale Picard) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:21:47 -0400

We just finished our sound check for the midnight show in Mans tonight. It is 5:15PM and it just stopped raining to our delight. Since most festival shows are outside we are more and more interested by temperature!! In fact, now that the sun is back we have time to look at the racecars on the track. Here is what most of our days look like: lots of road and waiting to play an hour and a half of show. What is good about that is we get to use our imagination to kill time. Besides talking about temperature with the entire festival crew (because we’re not the only ones concerned by temperature) Philippe (not Morissette but the gentleman who drives us around France) worked on a backdrop that we’ll put on stage tonight. Right now, from near and far all jokes are about little Karl’s wiener dog (named “saucisson-sur-pattes”). Which isn’t really that funny, but we’ll have a very nice wiener dog on stage with us tonight and that makes us really happy!!

(I hope that you can follow me even if I use parentheses a lot…)

Last week I had the chance to discover 2 excellent bands on the same festivals as us. Ebony Bones and tryö (I’m a bit late I know…). We’re very lucky to share a stage with good bands. We also saw people Body surfing on ‘’smilin’’’ and a team of 5 firemen came to help me when I hit my foot running around like an idiot without looking… The French are taking really good care of us!!

So that’s it! Fingers crossed to have some courage to go in the mud tonight and we’ll keep you posted…

Pascale

… P.S: we get a lot of emails about the music for our songs… A songbook has been released in France and we are trying to make it happen in Canada… and ideally free on our website soon… In fact, we read all emails and we appreciate your comments!! Thanks for giving us news about you too J

May 29

karl@pascalepicard.com (Pascale Picard) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 10:46:26 -0400

May 29th

… In the TGV that will bring us to our first French concert…

Tonight we’ll play in Cholet in front of 20,000 people… starting our French tour off big!!!

Last week we played 2 shows in Quebec… An intense day at the Musique Plus studios (interviews, soundchecks and show at night) and a show in Gaspé (to make up for a show we had to cancel on the last tour). As soon as we got out of the car from Gaspé we had to pack to leave for France… After flying a thousand hours there’s nothing better than waiting 4 extra hours in the hotel lobby in Paris!! There were nine of us -almost dead (ah… jetlag…) all over the lobby… Nice show for the hotel’s guests!!! But we are still young and alive so nothing to argue about… A good night sleep and we are all like new!! That’s it for now!!

See you soon!

Pascale

May 11

karl@pascalepicard.com (Pascale Picard) — Wed, 13 May 2009 14:58:29 -0400

May 11^th

We arrived in Morin Heights last week. We’re lost in the forest without internet so we have to play music… haha… Getting into Frères Grand recording studio is like being home. I jump on the piano (and believe me it’s not because I’m good at all) and I start to play ‘‘La Lambada’’ while the others are trying to follow my rhythm on the accordion, double bass, African Harp, claves and others! I don’t think we’ll keep this for the album but damn we had fun! Aside from jamming we found some time to work on ‘‘If I Miss My Shot’’. Even if it’s already on YouTube we’re trying to find a new way to make it sound better than what people recorded with their cell phones (or laptop depending on the country…) So that’s where we are for now. It’s a bit sad that we only have couple days in the studio left, but we enjoy ourselves thinking about spending the summer in Europe playing festivals…

Also we’ll play live at Musique Plus on May 21^st. So for those who would be interested I think it’s open for everyone to come and there are some spots left… For those who can’t take the plane to come to Montreal keep in mind that we’ll be in town very soon and we can’t wait!!

See you soon!

Pascale

Quebec City

karl@pascalepicard.com (Pascale Picard) — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 17:12:54 -0400

April 23^rd 2009

We just came home 2 days ago. I think I can speak for everyone if I say it looks like we never left. The past two months went so fast. Our first France-Belgium tour is over already and our 27 days away went so well we didn’t even notice that time passed by. We were given warm welcomes in every venue we played at. A lot of them we “sold out” and for those that weren’t they made up for in energy!! I saw people drawing boat anchors on their arms. (haha) We received a lot of gifts from people who came to the concerts. We finished our big tour at “festival de Jazz Carthage” in Tunisia. We didn’t really know what to expect there since our album is not released in Africa yet. We really appreciated that not only was the venue almost full but that people knew the songs! Which made us realize downloading music from the internet isn’t all bad… haha …

At the beginning of the tour Mathieu bought a little classic guitar with the idea of putting stickers on it from the cities we visited. He made it with the help from people in each of the cities so thanks to everyone for your cooperation!!

As for the ‘Tour Bus’ living we had more fear than we really should have. We were scared to have 10 people living in that little space for two months without any privacy. And I’m not even talking about lovers who came during the tour… Finally I think that everyone was heart broken to say goodbye to Manfred our bus driver. Aside from a few different opinions around the poker table, I would say that the European tour was like summer camp without the strange meals.

So for the next 10 days we’ll take it easy with our families and friends before going back to Morin Heights to officially start recording our second album… yeah!!!!!!!! Well, we only have 2 weeks but there is a beginning for everything…. We’ll keep you posted!!!!

Thanks to everyone for supporting us in our adventures!!

See you

Pascale

P.S. We’ll make the Olympia of Paris on November 2^nd… crazy huh?!

March 6

karl@pascalepicard.com (Mathieu Cantin) — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 16:42:18 -0400

We landed in Europe 2 days ago and I think that most of us have conquered the jetlag…

It’s 8:30 PM in Alençon in Basse-Normandie and in about 1 hour we will perform our first show on the French tour.

We just met Selah Sue a young Belgium girl who will be the opening act on 20 shows of this tour and she will be in our tour bus tonight after the concert.

This lady is really brave because even if we are all nice… We are 11 Quebecois who are really close to each other and she speaks Flemish and we speak French… so at this point everybody is practicing their English and we understand each other J …

… A couple of hours later …

The show went pretty good and Selah played poker in the bus with the guys until early morning J I think I made a « mother hen » of myself because she already gets along with everybody!! We just arrived in Rennes which seems to be really nice and busy on this Saturday morning… We’re going to walk so talk to you later!!

Pascale

feb 27

karl@pascalepicard.com (Pascale Picard) — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:24:24 -0500

February 27

Tonight we’re playing at the Imperial in Quebec. It’s a show that was originally part of our November/December tour, but had to move due to a schedule conflict with our record label in France. It was a difficult decision to move the show because every time the question of rescheduling comes up we’re worried about all the people who have marked the date on their calendar and all the problems it will cause… a few people had to be reimbursed for their tickets so it’s in our best interest to be good if we don’t want to get booed and have tomatoes thrown at us! Especially since we live in Quebec, which is a small town where everyone knows each other… I would prefer not to have to wear a paper bag on my head tomorrow morning ;) haha

And for the DJ set we did last week… I was worried for nothing, as usual… We knew everyone in the bar and after a few drinks and discussions, people more or less paid attention to the music… And like I said to Math during the day: “Anyway when you’re in a bar it’s pretty rare that you are completely outraged by the music” … with some exceptions of course, but I prefer not to elaborate too much.

So, we fly to France next Tuesday, for a month and a half; for 5 shows/week, with 11 people in a tour bus. No risk of being bored! And I risk going on too long… So, if you want to know what Phil keeps in his bag and Serge’s favourite colour, keep reading our page for updates…

A toute! (To be pronounced with a French accent please)

Feb 20

karl@pascalepicard.com (Pascale Picard) — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 10:11:24 -0500

February 20th

Tomorrow night Math and I have agreed to be DJs at MO Tavern for one set…. The snowboard competition “Jamboree” is in the corner and one of our friends is co-owner of the place so we thought it would be fun: listening to good music and partying for the last time with our friends before we leave for Europe. The problem is that in January I thought it sounded really interesting, but now I feel like when I was in high school and I didn’t prepare anything for a speech the next day telling to myself I would improvise. Those who came to school with me know that never worked out.

Anyways the death rate is pretty low and we will be with all of our friends. I guess I didn’t write a very good “speech” for the event, but for those who live in Quebec City and are interested in coming to party with us, please know that you are all very welcome and if it becomes too chaotic then we’ll listen to the radio J

Chachow!!

Feb 17

karl@pascalepicard.com (Pascale Picard) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 12:47:40 -0500

February 17^th 2009

…it’s been such a long time since I wrote on this wall I don’t know where to start… like when you decide to keep a personal diary and you realize that months and months later all the pages are still white…. Ha-ha!! Okay, let’s begin…

Last Saturday we did a show in Vancouver. We were invited by an organization for the one year anniversary to the beginning of the Olympic Games. Since our last show was on December 21^stwe were a bit rusty, but we were really excited to play and we gave all our energy and our hearts into the show. The crowd seemed to have as much fun as us and I think that’s what is the most important. We hope to be invited again next year to see the Olympic atmosphere.

We seem to be on vacation (as I told you our last show was about 2 months ago), but in fact since the beginning of January we have been working on our new songs in the studio on top of Imperial Theater. On February 27^th we’ll be playing our last show on Quebec ground before the tour in France. We’ll just have to take all the material down to the first floor J. Like my father used to say: “Laziness and intelligence are the father and mother of efficiency” (and also because it looks good to end a text by a citation…)

December 19th

karl@pascalepicard.com (Pascale Picard) — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 11:00:07 -0500

It doesn't look like this but time as past and the Quebec City tour is almost done. Everything went well and the new songs were warmly welcomed. We also had the chance to do a show in New York on December 15th. This showcase was organized for us to play in front of many Directors from label companies to be able to release � me, myself and us � in the United-States. We didn't have that much time to visit but we did a good show and we were proud of us at the end. All is not in our hands now but we'll keep you posted. Thank you all for reading us, following us and to encourage us during 2008. At this point we wish you Happy Holidays and hope to see you in 2009!! Pascale xxxxxxxxxx

October 30

karl@pascalepicard.com (Pascale Picard) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 19:09:30 -0400

October 30^th

After thousands and thousands of hours in planes we landed yesterday on Canadian ground. Our stay in France went really well and the last 10 days went so fast that we had trouble remembering everything we did.

Of course there were two concerts in France. The first one at La Cigale in Paris and the second show in Havre/Normandie gave us a nice view of what is going to happen for us in March and April 2009. We can’t wait to come back. The warm Welcomes of the French crowd reminds us the one we’ve only had in Quebec City until now.

We had the chance to participate in a show that was on the radio in Orleans. One of the differences from TV Shows in France and Quebec is the technical side of the musical performance. We were really surprised to see that the “Playback” (mostly called “lip-sync” in Quebec) is a big thing for our French friends. In the beginning we found it a bit weird when they asked Louis Musique (our gear king) to fake playing piano with us on “Gate 22”. We laughed a lot at the scene … and since then we realized this is how it works there, but in Orleans last week the track didn’t work well (I never thought this would be possible with a CD??!!!!!) and we kept laughing on stage… I’m from the Milli Vanilli generation !!

We took some time to practice our new show for the Quebec tour. In fact from November 1^st 2 new songs will be added on the set list and we changed a bit the order of the songs to make it looks different to us because it’s been 3 years that we mostly do the same show. It will be special for us in the beginning. We can’t wait to face the challenge !!! J

Chachow!

Pascale

October 23 - La Cigale, Paris

karl@pascalepicard.com (Karl-Emmanuel Picard) — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 09:14:41 -0400

October 15

karl@pascalepicard.com (Pascale Picard) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 09:31:54 -0400

Last night we recorded a live performance at « M pour Musique » that will be on TV October 22^nd on Radio-Canada. While we were in Montreal we did a couple of interviews.

Next weekend we’ll be in Toronto for a show at the Mod Club on the 18^th. From there we fly to France for our first concert J

For the snowboard fans: I gave an old snowboard to an auction for Julie Boileau’s foundation… All profits from the snowboard will go to Montreal’s Children’s Hospital. You have until October 15^th to bid.

http://www.encherescelebres.com/fr/enchere/article-detail.php?id_article=19

Cheers

Pascale

October 5

karl@pascalepicard.com (Pascale Picard) — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 10:35:31 -0400

Jetlag started to affect the band but most of all the diligence of the news editor… hehehe, sorry!

We just came back to Quebec City after an eventful stay in Europe. We did an FNAC tour (little showcases in record stores) and participated in the French Community Party @ Brussels in Belgium. We had a lot of interviews on the radios and with the French newspapers. Thanks to everyone for coming to support the band in the FNAC and sorry for those who were not able to get in at the door… The concert at La Cigale is already sold out (THANKS!!) but there are still tickets available for the 2 added shows at the Bataclan in March. There are still little details to finalize and then we’ll be able to put all the dates of our French tour for March and April 2009 on our website. J

Right now, everything is looking very well for our first trip in Europe since the release of the album!!

Now we are continuing to work on new songs and I think that I can confirm we’ll be able to present 2 new songs at our shows for November and December all across Quebec City. We can’t wait to see and hear your reactions about our new stuff… I never thought I’d hear myself say this, but “Long live the Quebec winter!!”

See you soon (I’ll get back to you before a month this time, promise!!)

Pascale

Bruxelles

karl@pascalepicard.com (Karl-Emmanuel Picard) — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 10:38:47 -0400

Back in Quebec City tomorrow !

September 27th @ Grande Place of Bruxelles

September 5

karl@pascalepicard.com (Pascale Picard) — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 14:46:03 -0400

I just found a good reason to not help transporting our stock J … While I’m writing this news for the website, Phil, Mathieu and Serge are trying to build something resembling a recording studio. After this really busy summer we decided to rent a cottage near Quebec City to be alone and work on new songs. We would love to put some new stuff in the shows that are already booked in Quebec in November, but most of all because we have a lot of ideas for our second album and we can’t wait to jump into it. If everything goes well we should only leave the cottage for one week in September to play in France.We’ll keep you posted!Pascale