More of this Feature • Michel Rivard: Part One • Michel Rivard: Part Two • Michel Rivard: Part Three • Michel Rivard: Part Four • Michel Rivard: Part Five     Related Resources • Quebec    Elsewhere on the Web • Michel Rivard (Disques Audiogram; with lyrics, bio, and sound clips) • Biographie Michel Rivard (MusiMax) • Michel Rivard (ADISQ)

Paula: Speaking of Beau Dommage, what do you feel is the experience that is the most valuable that you took away being a part of that band?

Michel: Oh, there are so many good experiences with Beau Dommage. First of all, I learned how to work with people; how to work in a group, how to function as part of the group in the kind of democracy that should be a group. Musically, it was a school. We were all learning: learning to sing in harmony, learning to arrange songs. Before Beau Dommage, I was playing alone with a guitar and trying to write songs, and playing along with records, but as soon as Beau Dommage got together we really learned a lot in a short period of time. I learned about showbiz, I discovered what I liked and what I didn't like about show business. It was a great school; it was really a great school for us and as far as friendship goes, it is great to still be friends with these guys. We don't see that much of each other, we don't have much time, but when we do it is always fun and we still love each other very much.

Paula: What does the future hold for Michel Rivard?

Michel: I'm going to continue the Spectacle Intime for a few months in the Spring. These are the last dates of the Autumn part of the tour, so I'm taking three months off with my family, and I am reorganizing my little home studio - which is not home, but it is a home studio [laughing] - and I think that I might be writing a few songs. I haven't written much in the last few years, so I have these little notebooks that just hang around me all the time and I've started to write down some little ideas, and trying new ideas on the guitar. I think after the tour -- I think I'll stop next May, and after that I don't know. I think I'll really take some time off to write, to be with my family, to write new songs, and to make demos of them, and hopefully when I am ready to go back on the road, my voice will be ready to go too. But I am sure of one thing - I had a few health problems in the last few years, so one thing I am really going to do is always take time. Everything is going to come in its own time. I don't want to rush things. I want to take as much free time as I work. If I go on tour for three months, I want to have three months off after that to really take time -- no rush, and not too much stress; I want to stay calm. Really, that tour has given me the desire to go back to playing live and to do it in that way, that very simple way.

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Photos © 2002 Paula E. Kirman
Photo of Paula & Michel © 2002 Alex Mahé