I had the chance to take drum lessons from the very beginning. In grade 5 up to secondary 2, I joined a music program where I would go to school in the morning and learn music during the afternoon. We had tons of different classes; we had choir, theory classes, music history classes, I was also taught to play flute, we had composition classes and tons of other awesome courses. I learned different styles of drumming, from jazz to latin, blues and pop but really my hart was always for rock music.
At 14 years old, I left the music program because I wanted to focus more on drumming. That same year I also joined my first pro band. It was a blues and classic rock cover band. We played everything from Joe Cocker to ZZ Top. I learned A LOT with those guys. They were all amazing musicians and I was just the little kid coming in the group. They really took me under their wing and taught me everything I needed to know to become a professional musician. Still to this day, I turn to them for advices.
During my last 3 years of secondary school, I was involved in every single music projects at my school. I played drums in every school shows and for my graduation year my best friends and I put together the award show at the end of the year. It was so awesome. I loved being part of all the aspects of the production. We had to audition all the musicians and singers, to choose the songs, to write the texts, develop the decor and the concepts, etc. It was a blast.
Those 3 years were also very important because it’s pretty much when my professional career began. I played tons of shows with a few different cover bands and I also joined a percussion troop called Insolita. I played different types of gigs; corporate events, festivals including Ottawa’s Winterlude, Mont Tremblant’s International Blues Festival and Montreal’s Jazz Festival, I also played a few TV shows including TVA’s
On n’a pas toute la soirée and Vrak TV’s
Karv l’Anti-Gala and tons of cool club gigs.