Tag Archives: La Presse

Chuck Comeau shares stories about his first cars and his current Tesla in a new interview

La Presse+ recently published a brand new article featuring Simple Plan’s Chuck Comeau, which took a bit of a different spin to regular interviews with this drummer. Instead of music, Chuck was asked about a car that marked his childhood, the very first car he owned, his worst car and also his dream car – which happens to be the car he currently owns, as he’s an owner of his dream Tesla.

If you’d like to know more about Chuck and cars, you can check out the English version of the interview below:

THE CAR THAT MARKED MY CHILDHOOD

“Doc Brown’s and Marty McFly’s DeLorean DMC-12 from the Back to the Future trilogy. Like many children at the time, I loved these movies and I was fascinated by this car, which not only looked extremely cool, but could also travel back in time and fly. I went to see all the movies with my parents, I watched them at home on VHS and every time they played on TV. The Doc’s character’s quote: “Where we’re going, we don’t need roads …” impressed me greatly and I really wanted to be Marty McFly, drive this car and have a hoverboard!”

MY FIRST CAR

“It’s a bit embarrassing to admit, but I did not get my driver’s license until I was 30 years old. I started my driving lessons when I was 16, but I gave up on touring Canada with my first band, Reset, at age 17. The first vehicle I bought, or rather was bought by the band, was an old motorized car in very bad condition that we paid something like $3,000 for at the time. It was a real public danger, but for us it was a luxury tourbus where we could sleep, cook and look like a professional band. We managed to make the round trip Montreal-Vancouver before it died during our second tour, in a snowbank between Winnipeg and Thunder Bay. Then, when Simple Plan started, our lead singer’s dad lent us an old recycled ambulance van, with the sirens and oxygen tanks still installed at the back, which allowed us to make our first shows and countless trips between Montreal and Toronto, where we recorded our first album, ‘No Pads, No Helmets … Just Balls’!”

MY WORST CAR

“I will always remember when the band rented a car during the recording sessions of our first record in Toronto. We knew that all the money that the record company was advancing us would be refundable, so we were extremely cautious with our expenses, not to mention very cheap, and that’s why we had chosen to rent a car from the business of Rent-A-Wreck Rental …. a 1995 Ford Taurus! On the phone, it was really the windfall of the century: only $50 a month! We quickly understood why when we got behind the wheel. It was literally the worst car in town! The brakes did not work, the bumper held in place with “duct tape” and the color was a mixture of yellow and indescribable brown. But even worse than that, it was the nauseating smell that came from inside the vehicle. It was as if there was a dead animal in the glove compartment. It made our heart ache so much that we took deep breaths before boarding and kept our noses stuffed all the way. We were so embarrassed when we arrived at our destination because we were convinced that our clothes smelled the same … it was absolutely horrible!”

MY DREAM CAR

“I am a big fan of Tesla and I consider myself extremely privileged to own my two dream cars, the Tesla Model S (sedan) and the Tesla Model X (SUV)! Tesla is an incredible builder that, I believe, will greatly accelerate humanity’s progress towards the rejection of fossil fuel dependence and the adoption of clean and renewable forms of energy, and I am very proud to have a small contribution in that all by being an owner. I’ve been driving a Tesla for more than four years and I still feel the same joy every time I get behind the wheel. We just bought the Model X and the falcon doors that open up are so practical with our two and a half year old boy. And the best part of all this is to never have to refuel at the gas station! It’s a game changer! It’s really a revolutionary car, with absolutely gorgeous design and hallucinating performance and, honestly, even if I won the lottery tomorrow morning, I don’t think I would want to drive another car.”

– Chuck Comeau –

La Presse names Pierre amongst ‘Artists who made Montreal shine’

The Canadian newspaper La Presse published an interesting article on their paid version “La Presse+” yesterday, which lists a number of Montreal-born artists, who carved their story into the history of their city or in other words (as the article states itself) “who made Montreal shine”.

Amongst names such as popular Canadian singers Leonard Cohen, Michel Rivard, Ginette Reno or La Bolduc, writer Saul Bellow, pianist Oscar Petterson, poet Émile Nelligan, painter Jean-Paul Riopelle or actor Marc Favreau, one special name – and quite possibly the youngest name on the list too – stands out from the list to us, Simple Plan fans, as the band’s lead singer Pierre Bouvier was also chosen as one of the most noteworthy Montreal artists – alongside his band.

Check out La Presse’s reasoning behind choosing Pierre amongst all these popular Montreal figures in English translation below [see the original French post here]:

Pierre Bouvier, lead singer of Simple Plan

The singer and musician of the pop-punk band Simple Plan was born in 1979 to an anglophone mother and a francophone father. Founded in 1999, Simple Plan celebrated international success and sold more than 10 million albums worldwide. Their first record, entitled No Pads, No Helmets… Just Balls, released in 2002, sold 3 million copies.

– La Presse (December 2017) –

Chuck and Jeff discuss declining record sales and David’s struggles in a new interview

Before Simple Plan headed on their North American No Pads tour two weeks ago, Jeff Stinco and Chuck Comeau met up with a reporter from La Presse [see the new accompanying photoshoot here]. In the just-released fittingly-titled La Presse piece “The biggest small band in the world”, the duo discussed a number of not-so-light issues, as in many other interviews, as the interviewer delved into topics such as record sales and the band’s dealing with their bass player’s struggles with depression.

The reporter was surprised to learn that in the 15 years since the release of their first album, Simple Plan have only sold 10 million records. This is what Jeff and Chuck had to say about the tough reality of the contemporary music business:

“Our sales are on the first two albums. Since then, the industry has completely changed. Physical sales virtually no longer exist. Not just for us. For everyone. Our figures are now on Spotify.”

– Jeff Stinco –
“We will not lie to you: we are not Metallica, nor U2. We don’t belong to the 1% of the artists who earn more than the 99% of the middle class bands. If I can use a hockey analogy: we will never be Sidney Crosby, but we will play in the NHL and we make a good living. And quite frankly, even though Simple Plan never made the cover of Rolling Stone, I’m not ashamed of our 10 million sales. I’m not disappointed either. We did what we wanted. Perhaps we have not accomplished everything we have dreamed of, but we are not stopping either. Who knows what tomorrow holds?”

– Chuck Comeau –

Another hard topic the reporter brought up was the issue of David’s absence on tour due to his continuous struggles with depression, which don’t allow him to tour with his band. Jeff pointed out that the fact that they decided to not replace David and keep him with them via pre-recorded tracks, works in their favor much better now than it would have in the past:

“In 2002, it might have been badly seen, but today, the vast majority of groups resort to recorded tracks on show. It’s also a way to keep David with us and not turn everything upside down.”

– Jeff Stinco –

Chuck on the other hand mentioned David’s uniqueness within the band and the difference of his priorities compared to the rest of the band, who are now all husbands and fathers, which may stand behind his struggles:

“David is a rock star and a complex character. He is also the only bachelor in the band. He does not have the same priorities and responsibilities as we do. Because of our families, we tend to organize our tours so that the shows are condensed so that we can return to our homes faster. David – he would like to have more time, more holidays. He has rock star tastes and we have those of blue-collar workers. He has been marginalized within the band and we understand that it is difficult for him. “

– Chuck Comeau –

New photos from the La Presse photoshoot

Besides the news about Simple Plan returning to song-writing without any break, the article from La Presse I posted about yesterday, also revealed some new pictures from the photoshoot Simple Plan that Alain Roberge from La Presse took this February.

Check out all the new pictures in the gallery:

RUMOR: Simple Plan to be back in studio in 2017?

In a recent interview for La Presse, Jeff Stinco once again discussed the band’s future plans regarding touring and making record no. 6. Once again, Jeff confirmed that the band plans on skipping their usual time off in between records and head over straight to works on their next album. In this La Presse interview though, Jeff also mentioned that their Taking One For The Team tour should come to close in May 2017, after which the article mentions the bands wants to go “back to studio” – still in 2017. Here’s an exact translation of an excerpt from the La Presse article:

Although the album Taking One For The Team was released in 2016, Simple Plan plan on going back to the studio next year. “The goal is not to take any break.”

Now, while this sounds very exciting, we should all be very cautious about this rumor. Judging by the fact that this information doesn’t come from a direct quote, but from the author’s article, this could very well just be a misunderstanding on La Presse’s part, as they might no know that Simple Plan never write their songs on tour and they always start the writing process after their time off. If Simple Plan were to stop touring in May 2017 and head straight to song-writing, chances are they will still continue writing in early 2018, which would make them enter the studio sometime that year. It is very unrealistic for Simple Plan to actually hit the recording studio next year, as that is almost the last part of the record making process, and the longest part is always the song-writing part. Not to mention, there is always the post-production, which could take another [at least] half a year.

What’s good news about this news is that we now have two confrmation from the band’s side already that they actually plan on working on their next album right after their tour ends. That could mean a much shorter time in between record five and six, which in today’s oh-so-quickly-changing music business is nothing but a very good plan.