Album review

The Cowboys Fringants

La Grand-messe

20/05/2005 - 

Both fun and serious, the Cowboys Fringants play an energetic, danceable music that is also strongly politically committed. Already stars in Quebec, the Cowboys are trying their luck on French market.

The gap between America and Europe, and consequently France and Quebec, is still with us in this age of globalisation. Talk about the Cowboys Fringants in Quebec and everyone will know who you're referring to. There, the Cowboys are at the height of their fame, playing to packed houses and involved in various political and social struggles. In France, they're practically unknown, although this evening they share the bill at the Zénith in Paris with their older compatriot Robert Charlebois. For the first time, one of their albums, La Grand-messe, has been released in France. "We put all our effort into Quebec," says Jean-François Pauzé, guitarist and founder of the group with Karl Tremblay, the group's singer. "But then we saw there were openings, because of the French fans who were emailing us." A year ago, the Cowboys Fringants crossed the Atlantic to play a gig at the Elysée Montmartre, a 1,000 seat Paris concert hall. About half the people who turned up were French. "We did a little poll. We got people to shout out to see how many were from Quebec. We were surprised at the result."

The first surprise, for the French, was the name of the group. "To begin with, Karl Tremblay and myself formed a duo to perform comic songs – parodies of songs from Westerns, of which there are many in Quebec, sung by unknown yet fascinating singers. We made a name for ourselves as the Cowboys Fringants (dashing cowboys). When we considered changing the name, we thought that it wasn't the name that would stop us doing what we wanted to do." And what did they want to do? They came up with a hugely danceable mix of chanson, rock and traditional Quebecois music that also comes with a political message:" We've got our serious side and our more fun side." The Cowboys are committed to Quebecois separatism and are opposed to rampant globalisation. After years of Quebecois variety music with absolutely no political content, this marks a certain return to political engagement. "The political, socially engaged song is making a strong comeback," says Jean-François Pauzé, "just as it made an impact in the 60s and 70s with Félix Leclerc, Robert Charlebois or Gilles Vigneault. In the 80s and 90s this type of song went out of fashion, as did political activism in Quebec in general, when people gave the politicians free rein. But right now, there is a new political dynamic in Quebec, with frequent demonstrations and people in the street; we're a part of that movement."

Winning over the public

The group was formed in Repentigny, a large suburb of around a hundred thousand people to the east of Montreal. Starting out at basement clubs and with self-produced cassettes, the group followed the conventional road to success. "It happened slowly. For the first albums we had our fan base, people who had seen us perform and then later people who had only heard us on record. With time, and through word of mouth, more people got interested and our shows became a bit like happenings." The power of their performance brought the Cowboys new fans with each concert. "When Break Syndical came out [in 2002], that was our first commercial success. The radio stations were sort of forced to play us, because so many of our fans asked for it. And we became commercial without really wanting to – a lot of people wonder about that in Quebec. And since then, the audience has just got bigger and bigger. Now, wherever we play in Quebec, it's always to a full house."

Just as their ascent was exemplary, so is the way they run the group. Is it a democracy? "Yes. We've been together for ten years. Obviously we have arguments from time to time, but basically we've been friends for a long time. When there's a problem we settle it quickly – and even more so today than before. We're all hitting our thirties and there are no clouds on the horizon. In Quebec, there are often ego struggles in groups near the end of their days. There's none of that with us. Even when there's no show, we still go out together."

In such circumstances, trying to crack the French market, as Louise Attaque have successfully done, and as Renaud did in the past, "it's a huge motivation. What we loved most at the beginning was to play to audiences who didn't know us, where the people came because they had a subscription to the concert hall, for instance. And we always ended up winning over the audience, and by the end everyone was dancing. We haven't done that for a long time in Quebec, because we've already won over the audience here. Now, we're going to try and do it all over again, we're going to try and win over France through touring and concerts."

Bertrand  Dicale

Translation : Hugo  Wilcken