Interview with Chéli (Part 3)

Well, folk, here we have the third, and final, installment of my interview with Chéli Sauvé-Castonguay. For those joining the party in progress, you can find Part 1 right here. So without further ado...

***
AL B: One of the things that I was also wondering about: given your position in the public eye, does that put you in a different position, as far as doing projects I the community? Take Bono, for instance. He’s big on promoting causes and things like that.

Chéli: Right, right.

AL B: Considering your position in the community, is there anything that you do or that the station does as far as outreach programs?

Chéli: Yeah, for sure! Especially because of our demographic. I mean, it’s mostly kids that watch us. I would say the age group for Musique Plus, without including MusiMax, would be from like 7 to 18. We’re trying to get an older public, like to 24, but right now I would say that’s the biggest. Y’know, the mass. That’s where they are. That’s who’s listening to us. So definitely, we involve ourselves I everything and right now I’m with, most of the VJs actually, who aren’t smokers, are involved in what’s called «la gang allumée»…

***This is when I hear the telltale pop of my audio recorder, telling me that I’ve run out of tape on this side. We make a few joking comments about old school technology as I flip the cassette.***

AL B: Alright, flipped the tape.

Chéli: I love tapes. Okay, so yeah. La gang allumée. That’s a program to just entice kids to not smoke or stop smoking. It’s kind of scary how kids smoke at a very early age now. So we just basically go around now, it’s like a contest. They do a project and if their project is chosen, there’s a VJ that goes to see them at their school.

AL B: Oh, okay.

Chéli: And this is for the whole province of Québec. That’s one thing. The other thing that I love to do—it’s always kids. It’s always related to kids, education and all that. So another thing that I constantly do is go to schools and speak about the importance of bilingualism, because of my job and because I do both. Some of the hosts here do not speak English.

AL B: Really?

Chéli: Yeah, some of them don’t. Or if they do, very little. Not enough to be able to do it on air. That’s why the ones that are fully bilingual are always given the chance to travel, do interviews with major international artists, and also do those interviews live. So I can’t stress more how important it is to be bilingual nowadays. There is such thing as being proud of your language, but you have to have an open mind. We can’t hide the fact that English is the universal language. So that’s another thing. I always involve myself that way and I always go and talk to kids and tell them and explain to them how I got to this point.

AL B: Okay, now the music industry in Québec is pretty much self-sufficient from what I can tell and it’s pretty much also unknown in the rest of Canada. That being said, are there any sort of hidden musical treasures that you would recommend?

Chéli: That are French…?

AL B: La musique québécoise.

Chéli: La musique québécoise. Oh there’s SO many bands! I mean, because if you look at the Maritimes, they love that folkish kind of music, like Blue Rodeo. There’s so many bands that are from there that are big in the rest of Canada, but if you like that kind of music, you have that here à la bonne franquette au Québec! We’ve got les Cowboys Fringants that I think are known pretty well in Canada. Well, they’re not THAT known. That’s the thing.

Um, let’s see, let’s see, let’s see… I don’t know if people know Jean Leloup, but if they know Jean Leloup, a new one that resembles a lot and who’s worked with him, is Anik Jean. She’s a French singer. And then there’s more like, I don’t even know how to describe their type of music, but it’s part of la relève that we call here… Yann Perreau, Ariane Moffat, Pierre Lapointe, Stéphanie Lapointe, who’s nominated for a Juno. Actually Stéphanie Lapointe is nominated for a Juno, along with Anik Jean that I already mentioned.

In terms of the hiphop world, there’s great talent in the hiphop world., that’s French hiphop. Yesterday I went to this launch and his name is SemiBruce. He started this label called Bootleg and the beats, I tell you, the beats are awesome! It’s French rap, but I think it’s great. All these guys, instead of trying to go in through Canada, they have to go in France if they want to enlarge their careers. There’s SO much talent! It’s hard to… there’s also Les Respectables… there’s a bunch, there’s really a bunch to be proud of.

AL B: Okay, now in general, there is almost like an expiration date on the career of any VJ…

Chéli: Yes.

AL B: …because it’s…

Chéli: It’s TV!

AL B: Exactly, it’s TV. So what sort of aspirations do you have when you reach that “certain age?”

Chéli: Well I’m always frightful. I’m telling you, I never feel secure. From the moment I started here to now, I never felt secure. I think that’s, in one way, very important, because you never want to let it go to your head. Anybody can do this job, and that’s what they want. They want to show the public that anybody that watches us could say, “Y’know what? I could do this job.”

So I’d hopefully stay, if I do stay in TV, I want to keep going in this cultural [vein]. Anything that’s culture, basically: entertainment, film, music. Those are all the things that interest me. Because I’m franco-ontarienne, I’m constantly fearing that that I won’t be able to have a job at TQS, TVA, Radio-Canada or y’know, those big stations or big enterprises here because I don’t have a Québécois accent. Sometimes people watch me and think, “hmmph! Maudite anglophone! I don’t understand what she’s saying!” They don’t feel the link. So that’s always been something that gets me that I’ve always feared.

So if ever that doesn’t work out, another thing that always interested me was travel shows and National Geographic, so I might just fall into trying to become a videographer, a photographer or something like that. Y’know, keep my options open, because I think sometimes, especially nowadays, we tend to glamorize artists and people. People are famous for no reason nowadays and I find that very… frivolous. Sometimes I go home, although I love what I do, I love my job, I love music. I love this. It’s fantastic! I couldn’t ask for better stuff, but I go home and you watch Biography channel. You watch National Geographic and you’re just like, “Wow. What am I doing? What is the significance of what I’m doing?” It’s so little. It doesn’t represent anything. I’m not saying I want to go save the world, but I’m saying that sometimes I want to do something that has meaning. And I can actually bring information to people that will be more than just, “Hey! So you’ve made 5 million dollars and you have no talent. Excellent. Love it.” You know what I mean? Sometimes that’s what it is. I’m not degrading or berating what I’m doing because I know that culture and entertainment is a big part of our lives in our society. And people, after a hard day’s work, like to tune into that kind of stuff because it feels better. It’s something light and easy-going. But it’s just that when you’re always in it, sometimes you just get fed up with these people.

AL B (laughing): I totally understand. So my last little question is: do you have any suggestions for me, during my little “voyage of discovery” here, of things that I absolutely must, either see or experience, while I’m here in Québec?

Chéli: Okay. Right, right, right. Okay. It’s funny because I’ve been here 4 years, so I’ve also been discovering. I’m franco-ontarienne, so there’s so many things that I’ve discovered here… You HAVE to go to Québec City. You’ve probably done that, but if you go there in the winter time, during the Carnival, you have to have… what is it called? Caribou! Oh, no. Is it Caribou? Ugh! It’s like a type of alcohol.

AL B: It’s Caribou.

Chéli: Is it Caribou?

AL B (chuckles): Yes.

Chéli: Oh! So you’ve had it?

AL B: I haven’t had it, but I’ve heard of it.

Chéli: It’s not that good, but you still have to have it. And the way to do it is, when it’s the Carnival, you go to that strip of all the bars…

AL B: La Grande Allée.

Chéli: Yes. La Grande Allée. Then there’s a bar—an ice bar—and you go have it there.

AL B: Okay.

Chéli: So that’s cool. Another thing, but you’ve probably already done that, too, is la cabane à sucre. This is the time to do it. You go in the morning, you have your eggs with… okay, they’re like beans, so we call them des bines à mélasses. So you have that there at la cabane à sucre. There’s syrup, you have your bacon with your syrup… it’s really fun! You can go on a horse ride and go get your own maple syrup. There’s des cabanes à sucre everywhere around the region of Montreal, so that’s another thing… Assist to the Jazz Festival, which you probably already did, but…

AL B: I actually only got here in September, so…

Chéli: Oh! So it’s coming up this summer. Right here at the Complexe Desjardins there’s a bunch of different stages… oh then Francofolies, Festival du Jazz, these are all things that are going to happen this summer. This city, in the summer, is amazing. It’s fantastic! You’ll never want to leave Montreal. It’s a beautiful city. It never sleeps and people are so fun! Like I said, «la joie de vivre.» People are dancing in the streets. There’s stages, there’s music. It’s beautiful. So Jazzfest, Francofollies, these are definitely the 2 festivals to look out for this summer.

Hmmm. Le Festival du Film du Monde. That’s another one, but that’s more around Fall. That’s films that are from here, films that are from outside, everywhere à l’étranger. That, again, is fun. That’s another thing I love. We embrace different cultures here, more so, I believe than anywhere else in Canada, apart from Toronto, obviously. But stil, I think, here we embrace a lot of outside cultures.

What else? What else? What else? Go on the terrasses in the summer. Drink beer on the terrasses in Old Montreal and you’ll really feel it. I think that’s pretty much it. I can’t think of anything else that’s very “Québec”… If you go to the little bars in Old Montreal, they have little bands, every weekend, every Saturday night, that are very bonne franquette type of music. People are drinking beer, dancing. It’s really good! It’s really fun! So Old Montreal is definitely a place to go to.

AL B: Well, I appreciate your time.

Chéli: My pleasure, my pleasure.

AL B: Thank you very much.

Chéli: I appreciate your questions. They were good! I felt bad. I couldn’t find the words sometimes!

AL B: No, no! It’s alright! It’s okay!

***

So there you have it. Je voudrais remercier la belle Chéli. Elle est très sympathique et très charmante.

I hope you've all enjoyed the interview. Hopefully there will be more to come in the future.