Fred St-Gelais

Fred St-Gelais
Birth name Frederic St-Gelais
Born (1974-09-02) September 2, 1974
Chibougamau, Quebec, Canada
Origin Quebec, Canada
Genres pop, top 40, rock, blues
Occupation(s) Musician, conductor, producer, arranger, composer, singer, songwriter, instrumentalist, singer-songwriter
Instruments Guitar, bass, keyboard, vocals, drums
Years active 1980s  present
Labels Sony BMG, Musicor, Maple Music, Orange Record Label
Associated acts Marie-Mai, David Usher, Roch Voisine, Randy Bachman, Ryan Malcolm, Melissa O'Neil, Rex Goudie, Gabrielle Destroismaisons, Andrée Watters, Alain Dumas, Les Mecs Comiques, Annie Villeneuve, Lindsay Robins, Crampe en masse, Réal Béland, Martine St-Clair and Hépatite B
Website Official Fred St-Gelais Website

Fred St-Gelais (born Frederic St-Gelais on September 2, 1974 in Chibougamau, Quebec) is a Canadian songwriter, television music composer, record producer and multi-instrumentalist, currently living in Montreal, Quebec.

Biography

Early work

Fred St-Gelais has been immersed in the music industry since he was a teenager. After studying music for several years, both privately where he grew up in the Saguenay/Lac-St-Jean region of the Quebec province, and at the Lionel-Groulx College in the Montreal region, he began his career playing guitar, bass and keyboards, as well as singing in clubs around Quebec in the late 1980s and early 1990s with various local Top 40, rock and blues acts. He decided to build his own studio, where he could work on and fine-tune his production, arranging, and songwriting skills. During this time, he also produced independent albums with local artists, such as Damien Tremblay.[1][2] During the same time frame, St-Gelais began to receive more and more calls from various jingle and production music producers requesting his services as a studio musician, vocalist and programmer.[3]

Move to Montreal and later work

St-Gelais moved to Montreal in February 1999. Since then, he has worked with Marie-Mai, Celine Dion, David Usher, Roch Voisine, Randy Bachman, Melissa O'Neil, Rex Goudie, the Canadian Idol television series, Gabrielle Destroismaisons, Andrée Watters, Alain Dumas, Les Mecs Comiques, Annie Villeneuve, Lindsay Robins, Crampe en masse, Réal Béland, and the band Hépatite B, in which he is also the lead singer and guitarist.[4]

Music composed for television shows

In addition to his work with Canadian Idol, St-Gelais has composed music for the following TV shows:

Ramdam,[5] Kif-Kif, the interstitial program R-Force, Fan Club, Star Academie, Stan et ses Stars, Instant Star,[6][7] Le club des doigts croisés, Sam Chicotte,[8] and Degrassi: The Next Generation (Season 7, Episode 7 "We Got the Beat").[9]

Notable accomplishments, nominations and awards

He performed with Sheryl Crow, Sarah McLachlan and Jarah Jane, in addition to serving as Jarah Jane's musical director during the Detroit leg of the 1999 Lilith Fair.

He has twice been featured in Recording magazine.

The band, Hépatite B, in which St-Gelais is the lead singer and guitarist, had their self-titled album nominated for 2002 best rock album of the year at ADISQ.[10] Three of the album's songs became top 20 hits: "Ton Amour est trop lourd", "Mélanie est partie" and "Je sais, je sais".

St-Gelais, Lindsay Robins and Christopher Ward's song "Time Bomb," was named a finalist in the 2005 International Songwriting Competition (ISC). The ISC received nearly 15,000 entries for the competition, and fewer than 2% of the entries were selected as finalists. Their song was submitted in the "Rock" category.[11]

Along with Marie-Mai, St-Gelais was showcased at the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame 3rd Annual Gala, which was held February 5, 2006.[12][13]

At the ADISQ 30th Annual Gala in 2008, Marie-Mai won a best rock album of the year Felix Award for her album Dangereuse Attraction[14] (Dangerous Attraction in English), which launched in August 2007. St-Gelais cowrote and produced the album, which also became certified gold in August 2008, one year after it debuted.[15]

St-Gelais and Marie-Mai were featured on the cover[16] and in a feature article[17] in the spring 2009 issue of SOCAN's Paroles et Musique magazine. In addition to their music ties, the pair was engaged in 2006 and married in Hawaii in September 2011.[18]

He was nominated for a Juno in 2010 for "Record Producer Of The Year."[19]

See also

References

  1. https://web.archive.org/20110708222550/http://www.damientremblay.com/BIO_en.html. Archived from the original on July 8, 2011. Retrieved August 23, 2009. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  2. https://web.archive.org/20110708222607/http://www.damientremblay.com/DISCOGRAPHIE_en.html. Archived from the original on July 8, 2011. Retrieved August 23, 2009. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  3. "Alternate Menu". Quebecpop.com. Retrieved 2011-03-16.
  4. "Télé-Québec : Erreur générique". Telequebec.tv. Retrieved 2011-03-16.
  5. "Fred St-gelais - Filmography - Movies & TV - NYTimes.com". Movies.nytimes.com. January 18, 2007. Retrieved 2011-03-16.
  6. "Télé-Québec : Sam Chicotte – Infos de production". Telequebec.tv. Retrieved 2011-03-16.
  7. "Degrassi Season Seven: Music Credits". CTV.ca. April 20, 2009. Retrieved 2011-03-16.
  8. Archived November 18, 2008, at the Wayback Machine.
  9. "Canadian Songwriters Become Finalists in the International Songwriting Competition – Listen And Vote For Your Favorite Song :: Ejazznews.Com : The Number One Jazz News Resource on the Net :: Jazz News Daily". eJazzNews.com. Retrieved 2011-03-16.
  10. https://web.archive.org/20070626153446/http://www.cbc.ca:80/arts/story/2006/01/04/songwriters-gala.html. Archived from the original on June 26, 2007. Retrieved August 23, 2009. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  11. "The Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame Web Site". Cansong.ca. Retrieved 2011-03-16.
  12. Gazette, The (November 3, 2008). "ADISQ celebrates the big 3-0 in style". Canada.com. Retrieved 2011-03-16.
  13. "Site Officiel de Marie Mai" (in French). Mariemai.com. Retrieved 2011-03-16.
  14. "numéro hiver 2008, aperçu". Socan.ca. Retrieved 2011-03-16.
  15. "Marie-Mai et Fred St-Gelais à quatre mains". Socan.ca. Retrieved 2011-03-16.
  16. "JUNO Awards". Junoawards.ca. Retrieved 2011-03-16.
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