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...

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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!

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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.

Interview with Chéli (Part 2)

Picking up where we left off in the last installment, Chéli and I had gotten the niceties out of the way, so it was time to move on to the heart of the interview: la culture québécoise. Since I do recommend that this be read in chronological order, please click here to find Part 1 of my interview with Chéli before continuing on.

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AL B: Now one of the things that I'm interested in is la culture québécoise...

Chéli (smiling): Yes!

AL B: And one of the things that I picked up when I got here was 101 mots pour comprendre le Québec...

Chéli: Le loi 101?

AL B: No, it was in l'Actualité...

Chéli: Oh! L'Actualité!

AL B: It was a special issue. It had a series of essays, well, more like mini-essays, on Québec.

Chéli: Okay.

AL B: It's obvious that there is a difference between Ontario and Québec in terms of just the feel of things and the culture out here, so in that sort of spirit, how would you describe Québec? Whether it be culturally or spiritually or whatever. I guess I'm interested in the soul of Québec, from your perspective.

Chéli: One of the main reasons I was driven to coming here in Montreal, I mean, if I wanted to do television, I could have easily tried it out in Toronto and do it in English, but I think what led me to Montreal is the language: French. I've always wanted to live in French and be able to go to restaurants and go to stores and always speak in French without having to, all of a sudden, speak English. What attracts me to this French culture is «la joie de vivre.» People here are, what I like to say, «bons vivants.» We love to live. I mean, there's a reason why the economy moved from here to Toronto. We take one hour lunches, two hour lunches... we're not driven by money and, y'know, that's why you don't see Americanism or anything like that. We don't grab any of that. We stick to our culture. We stick to the arts, the music--and we do it for the love of it. Everything that's economics or work and all of this, we're not driven for it. That's what I like about the people here. So the «joie de vivre,» I would say.

In terms of the culture, there's a tremendous sense of pride and I understand why: because you have to fight SO hard to keep it within the country, if you think about it. I know that a lot of Québécois don't refer to Canada as being their country, it's Québec that's their country, but I still like to say that Québec is part of Canada. I'm a franco-ontarienne and I'm so thankful that Québec is still linked to Canada because, if it wasn't for Québec, then people like me, who lived in Ottawa or in Winnipeg or all those French communities, would never have French schools or anything. I'm sure that the moment Québec leaves, forget about it! There's no more French in Canada! So that's what I love about Québec. I feel secure that I'll be able to live, forever, in French.

AL B: Okay, cool. Alright, so your sister station, MuchMusic...

Chéli: Yep.

AL B: ... has become more and more important in the entertainment landscape of English Canada.

Chéli: Yes.

AL B: So what sort of role do you think that Musique Plus plays in Québec?

Chéli: Well, it's definitely changed since its beginning when it started in '86. Because in '86, it was, like MuchMusic, there to catapult or to present new bands and new groups and underground groups. I mean, it was the first time you had a video for music. For Québec, most importantly, I think, it's that everything is local. I'm part of the Music Committee, the Video Music Committee, and it's always very important for us to add local content. Again, we're proud of our music. We're proud of the artists that we have here. We have a lot of talent here in Québec and that's the only way that they can actually have some air play. Nobody at MuchMusic is going to air Atach Tatuq or bands like les Cowboys Fringants or, you know what I mean, unless you're on like, French Kiss...

AL B: At like, 6:30 in the morning...

Chéli (laughs): Exactly! So I think that, first and foremost, that's what Musique Plus does for the local groups.

Now when I say it changed a lot, it's that now we're competing against stations like MuchMusic, MTV, VH1, all those stations, which would maybe explain why we also buy these TV reality shows. We also air clips like 50 Cent and all these guys-- all the American ones. At this point, it's a question of mass appeal. As much as we're proud of our local stuff, I think that even the people that live here in Québec hear 50 Cent on the radio and therefore, want to see the video. We know that they watch the Simple Life or they watch this and that, so we figure that, hey! Instead of having them watch it on MTV, let's get them to watch it here on Musique Plus! So that's kind of the reason why, I think, we've changed into a bit more of an Americanized [product]. But what I like about Musique Plus is that we haven't completely fallen towards that and I hope we never will, because of the local content and because we stay grounded that way.

AL B: Now what would you say would be the biggest difference between, say, MuchMusic and Musique Plus?

Chéli: I think the most obvious one is that, again, we're not Americanized. Like, our artists go in Europe, in France. If they want to go International, they go in France. Artists that live in Toronto, if they want to go International, they try to break the American market. Even the way we are, in front of the TV, the VJs... the people they choose, that each station chooses, and the way they direct these VJs is completely different. The mentality is completely different. Here, and I'm not saying that one station is better than the other, I'm just saying that it's evident. It's obvious by the way we do things...

AL B: Don't worry, I already said it for you. I did a little commentary on MuchMusic's VJ search versus the one from Musique Plus...

Chéli: Oh yes?

AL B: I've already given the thumbs up to Musique Plus.

Chéli: Aww! Thank you, that's sweet!

AL B (shrugs): So, y'know...

Chéli: Well, y'know, I have no shame. I'm proud of this station. I'm proud of what it represents and what I was saying, what I like about here is they pretty much give us carte blanche in terms of how we want to dress. We don't have little cue cards under the camera that we read when we're on air.

AL B: Right.

Chéli: If we're live, we're live. We prepare our stuff. We have somebody who's there to direct us and make sure we're not going out of line or whatever, but it's basically up to us. Whereas, I know how they operate at MuchMusic and it's not like that. They DO have cue cards under the cameras. You can see them. Sometimes they're actually reading!

AL B: Which is actually a big departure from the way they began.

Chéli: Of course! Moses Znaimer, what he wanted, when he first started CHUM Television and MuchMusic, was to have people without makeup. They wanted people without makeup, in front of a camera, a camera that moved, you know what I mean? THAT was reality TV! And now, it's like, all pre-taped, all flashy with all kinds of things. They're going much more toward that than we are, thank God! But even we've changed a bit. We're a lot more pre-tape now. There's much less live because it's probably less costly...

AL B: One of the things that always totally blew me away is when you guys do the interviews, particularly with the anglophone artists. I can understand what you're saying in both languages and it amazes me that you'll take the answers that they've given in English and pretty much translate them on the spot without missing anything at all. I'm watching that and shaking my head, thinking, how are they doing that??? So, um, well done!

Chéli (laughs): Well, thanks! That's cool! Thanks!

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Looks like I'm going to have to split this up into 3 parts. In the next installment, Chéli talks about community involvement, the hidden treasures of Québécois music and things that I've got to be sure to visit and experience now that I'm in Québec. Continue to part 3.

Interview with Chéli (Part 1)

I'll admit it: I'm a fan. I love television, movies, music--the whole 9 yards. I soak up pop culture and celebrity gossip like a sponge and now, thanks to this site, I've met my first bonafide Québécois celebrity! Technically she's franco-ontarienne, but I'm not going to quibble over details. Now given the fact that I haven't done an interview, face-to-face, in quite some time, I was pretty nervous. Remember how I said I could probably pull off doing the interview in French? Um, yeah. Forget I said that. It felt like my whole vocabulary left my head in the first 5 seconds. Heck, I couldn't even introduce myself properly. «Je suis Alan» is about as fifth grade as you can get. Nice to see that Minor in French paid off, eh?

Thankfully, Chéli is a sweetheart. As we went upstairs to find some place a bit more quiet, I stammered out something about how nervous I was and she just smiled, grabbed my arm and said, "Why be nervous? Let's go shoot the shit." That's when I realised everything would be just fine. We ended up sitting in what I guess would be the staff lunch room. It's definitely a shame that I didn't have more time (and more cassette tapes) because I would have loved to capture more of our conversation for posterity. Oh well. Live and learn, right?

Anyway, I gave her a brief overview of what I'm trying to do with this site and showed her the list of questions I had prepared. I wasn't sure how much she had been told prior to the interview, so I thought it would be a good gesture on my part. After all, she was taking time out of her schedule to talk to me. The least I could do is make sure my questions were clear. So after a quick test of my recorder, we got started. What follows is the transcript of my interview with Chéli, so get comfortable.

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AL B: So I'm here with Chéli de Musique Plus. Chéli, thank you very much for the interview.

Chéli: My pleasure.

AL B: I've got some questions, if you don't mind. Let's start off with some of the more general ones. My audience tends to be more anglophone than francophone, so chances are pretty good they don't pick up Musique Plus on their local cable.

Chéli: Sure.

AL B: Okay, so, um, where are you from?

Chéli: Originally, I'm from Ottawa. I'd lived there my whole life and when I was 21, after university, I moved to Montreal because I wanted to start a career in television. I studied journalism and I knew that TV was the medium for me. I had done radio and I had done written press at the university and that's when I found out that TV was what interested me the most.

AL B: Okay, so when did you start at Musique Plus?

Chéli: I started in September 2002, which would make me in my fourth year right now. I'm not saying that the school isn't good or that the program wasn't good, but let me tell you, I learned more in one year at Musique Plus than in 3 and a half years of university.

AL B: So how did you learn that you got the job as a VJ? Like, did somebody call you... ?

Chéli: Actually, it was really lucky. I mean, a lot of it has to do with contacts nowadays. That's why I'm always telling kids when they come and see me and ask me about it, I always tell them: don't be afraid of making contacts because that's the best way. Market yourself. A lot of it has to do with PR. There was a friend of mine who knew somebody who worked here as a videographer, so they gave me his phone number. I called him and he said, "Listen, send me your CV with a picture and, I won't guarantee anything, but we can try it out..." So that's what I did.

I sent my CV with a picture and then, maybe 3 weeks later, they called me. One of the producers, or at that time she was a producer, called me and said, "We're looking for on-air personalities." I was floored by this because I was ready to be a concierge here. I was ready to do anything here, just to be IN Musique Plus! So she said, "First we want to see if it's worth doing a screen test." So before even testing me out in front of a camera, they wanted to meet and see how I was. So we met for 15 minutes, then I did a screen test. They gave me a few things to prepare, so I did that, and then the last part of it was to meet the Vice-President of Musique Plus, Pierre Marchand, and then a month later they told me I had the job. I was pretty lucky.

AL B: Okay, so when you first found out you got it, like when you FIRST heard the news, what was the first thing you did?

Chéli: Oh God! Well, the way they did it was interesting because they wanted to film it. They wanted to show, on air, how some of us went through it, so they made me come in, along with another girl that has the job now (they hired about 5 of us at the same time), and when they called me I thought that this was it. I had the job. The way they were talking on the phone, it sounded pretty good. "Come in, we just need to finalize some things." So I get here and go to a conference room and I'm with the other girl who got the job and then about 5 other girls show up. I'm like, "Geez, I thought I had the job, but I guess not. It's still a competition." What I didn't know was that these other girls were just posing there. They were girls that already worked here. So they made us do this test and I mean it was a really hard written test with Claude Rajotte. I don't know if you know Claude Rajotte...

AL B: Um, not at this point, no...

Chéli: He's like a Musique Plus icon because he was here from the beginning on and he knows like, everything, about music, so it was kind of intimidating to have him ask us the questions. We had to write down [the answers] . All this was being filmed and as I'm writing the questions, I barely wrote any answers 'cause I didn't even know HALF the answers to these questions. In my head, I was going, "Well, at least they they still have the screen test..." To me, I didn't have the job, but they knew all along that I had it. So when they announced that, "Okay, you guys have the job," the first thing I did is, I immediately ran all the way from here, which is Bleury, to Crescent Street 'cause I worked at a place called New Town. I think I lost about 10 lbs running! So I just came in and went into the office and they knew right away 'cause the knew I was trying out. They were like, "Okay, so when are you quitting?" And I was like, "Next Monday! I have to be at work on Monday!" So they were very nice and the whole thing was a great experience.

AL B: Cool, cool. Now obviously you would have imagined what your daily life would be like as a VJ before you got the job...

Chéli: I did, but it wasn't the same.

AL B: So then, what is the biggest difference between what you imagined and what the reality is?

Chéli: Um, I would say that we easily do 60 hours a week here and you don't realise it. I had never done really practical work. It was all theoretical in university, so to actually do journalism, that's one part of my job. Not only do we prepare all the questions for the artists, we do the interview and then we're the ones who do the editing. So that, in itself, takes a lot of time. Then the thing with me is, because I'm a VJ, I also prepare my live stuff. So between editing and preparing live, you're all over the map. I think it's more the practical work of it all that I didn't expect. It's also, I mean 4 years later, it's the people recognizing you on the street or you're buying groceries and people are just talking to you. I always think I studied with them or something. They approach me right away and I'm always thinking, "Hey! Alright, do I know this person?" So that, too. I'm not used to that.

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Alright folks, now that we've got the introductions out of the way, I'm going to stop here. In the next installment, Chéli and I discuss Québécois culture, the differences between MuchMusic and Musique Plus and assorted other goodies. Continue to Part 2 Here.