Entertainment Features

The Box Return!

BY DAVID DeROCCO

The years 1985 – 1995 were a heyday for Niagara fans of Canadian rock, as clubs like The Hideaway, Front 54, The Aquaduck and The Atlas regularly played host to recording acts whose music was dominating the Canadian charts. The Tragically Hip, Blue Rodeo, 54.40, the Northern Pikes, Barenaked Ladies and Sloan were just a few of the bands from English Canada that found their way onto local club stages during that time period. THE BOX were different. They were a Montreal-based band of Francophones who conquered the charts with quirky but catchy mainstream rock sung in English during a time of the Meech Lake Accord, referendums, Quebec nationalism and the rise of the Bloc Québécois.

Their province of origin didn’t stop founder Jean-Marc Pisapia and his bandmates from earning national acclaim – and even some notoriety. From 1984 through 1990, The Box recorded no less than four charting albums and 10 charting singles, including the hits “Closer Together,” “Crying Out Loud for Love,” “L’Affaire Dumotier (Say To Me)” and “Ordinary People” – which created a controversy by mashing the U.S. national anthem together with the Soviet national anthem during the instrumental break. Success in Canada lead to a U.S. deal with Capital/EMI, but it came too late: the band was burnt out from years of endless touring and instead broke up in 1992. In 2004, a new line-up of The Box emerged, releasing two albums of less chart-friendly prog rock, including Black Dog There and the all-French concept album, D’Apres Le Horla De Maupassant. Today Jean Marc and the new line-up of The Box continue to tour, including a May 12th appearance at the Seneca Queen Theatre in Niagara Falls. Jean-Marc took the time to chat with GoBeWeekly about The Box, Canada’s music scene in the 80s, the challenges of being a Francophone band singing in English and his favourite prog rock album.

GOBE: When I look back at the music Canada was producing in the 80s and early 90s, I truly look at it like a heyday, a real coming of age. There was such a variety of styles on rock radio back then. Did you get a sense that you were part of a renaissance in some way, as THE BOX maneuvered its way through that decade?

JM: Yes absolutely. And then we must add to that the record industry back then was a lot easier then what it is today. Back in the day you would take for granted that things would work. Today it’s the opposite.

GOBE: A lot of Canadian acts turned domestic success back then into a shot at the US market. Most artists had similar experiences to what happened with The Box, in that their American labels took these unique Canadian products and tried to change them rather than celebrating their uniqueness. What do you remember most during that time period and the release of 1990’s The Pleasure and The Pain in the U.S.

JM: The main thing that happened was that timing was really off. We started in 1981 and we got the deal with Capital/EMI in Los Angeles nine years later. By the time we got that deal the band had already been pressed like a lemon. We were exhausted. So it took only a few mishaps with the record company down there to cause the breakup of the band. If that had of happened a little bit earlier in our career we probably would have survived. By the time we got to Los Angeles we were already beat.

GOBE: I don’t think young bands today realize how prolific bands used to be and often had to be with their output. The Box put out four albums over the course of six or seven years which is quite a volume of music.

JM; Yes, but the thing that killed us was not the recording it was the road. We were always on the road constantly. And as you know Canada is a big country that’s not very populated. To go from one major city to the other you need to drive four, five six hours. That was our bread and butter, our everyday routine. We were always away from home, away from our loved ones. It was excruciating, you’re never in bed before 3am half drunk. That doesn’t help. However, we reunited The Box with a different line-up in 2004 and we have been together with that line-up for 14 years now.

GOBE: You’re in more control now, you can book tours in a more leisurely way. I would assume you can even target places where you go play so you can also play tourist.

JM: Absolutely, we do the shows we want to do. We hit the road because we had to back in the day, whereas now we hit the road because we want to. That’s night and day. We go where we want to because we want to have fun. And the set is a lot of fun too because we get to play a lot of old hits along with recent material so people are satisfied. It’s a lot of fun.

GOBE: Fans of bands love it when their favourite bands reunite. But there’s always that love/hate relationship with the new music. Some fans don’t want to hear it, and of course radio isn’t going to touch any new music from heritage Canadian rock artists. For you as an artist and creative person, you can’t simply stop being creative. Do you consider the market a little more now before you invest your time and money into writing and recording a new project.

JM: Not at all. It depends. Back in 2004 when I reformed the band I didn’t want to go back in the market with the same thing we did in the 80s. I didn’t want to reheat the sauce. So we hit it differently. We started doing progressive music. Indeed, in 2005 we released a progressive record called Black Dog There that was half progressive. In 2009 we went all out progressive with a concept album called D’Apres Le Horla De Maupassant. We expected that the market would completely forget about those two records because of the content. However, our last EP that we put out last month is back to the roots of what The Box used to be. So far, the love/hate relationship seems to be more love than hate!

GOBE: You’re back on the road again. What is the greatest source of satisfaction for you these days, or the best part of being Jean-Marc of The Box.

JM: It’s the fact that we are hitting the stage with no pressure at all. We just go there because we want to. And the crowd really sees that. People aren’t fooled these days. I remember a day back in 1990. We had been on the road so long. And one girl, she came to me in a club in Ontario and she told me ‘you know what, we see your neck ties more than we see your guitars.’ What she was saying was on stage we looked like people who were there for the money, period. She sensed that we were having no fun at all. I reflected on that later on and thought maybe she had a point. Maybe we’re not having any fun at all here. Today we hit the stage and we love it. That’s what it’s all about today.

GOBE: You were a bit radical in the day, a Quebec band releasing English only albums. Did you get a lot of flak for that at the time.

JM: In the beginning not very much, although there was also a fringe of the media that always protested that we were Francophones singing in English. Towards Meech Lake it came more regularly. Instead of being asked ‘why do you guys sing in English,’ we were asked ‘why don’t you guys sing French?’ See the nuance there? I never really cared. I thought some people use music to make a political statement. The fact that they sing in a particular language is probably part of a statement. We steered clear from politics. I wasn’t going to use music to wade into the politics in Quebec. Although I do follow domestic and international politics very closely and have always paid attention to ensure the band wasn’t alienated by affiliation. For example, back in Jean Chretien’s days we were approached to have “Closer Together” as their theme song and we said no.

GOBE: However, there was the politics of “Ordinary People” and the mash-up of the anthems.

JM: Yes, but that didn’t take sides. All we were saying is we’re ordinary people and it would be nice if you guys didn’t blow your firecrackers in our face. That’s all I’m saying. I’m not saying I’m pro this or that. That was as political as I got.

GOBE: I don’t know how ordinary you are. You’re living this wonderful life up in Mont-Tremblant as an artist. How often do you paint and produce new works.

JM: I must have done a couple hundred in the last five or six years. I’m part of two collectives here of artists who join up and we share the rent. One gallery in the centre of Mont-Tremblant, and the other is more on the outskirts. I do paint regularly. I just started a huge 60 by 40 painting, but that one’s for my house.

GOBE: Final questions. What’s your favourite prog rock album, and what can fans coming to see you in Niagara Falls expect from a show by The Box in 2018.

JM: Definitely YES Close to the Edge. And the first half of the show we’re going to do more recent material including the new EP and music from the progressive EP to get their attention. Then the second half of the show we do all the old hits. All of them. And since my first band before The Box was Men Without Hats, we even throw in “The Safety Dance” for fun. When the party catches, it doesn’t let go until the end!

The Box plays Seneca Queen Theatre on May 12. For information visit: http://senecaqueen.ca/.