Alfa Rococo - a duo onstage and off
Published Thursday June 25th, 2009
Concert Saturday's opening act at Magnetic Hill is big in Quebec
When Alfa Rococo was announced as one of the opening acts for this weekend's Bon Jovi show, the response from many music fans in New Brunswick was, "Alfa who?"
The Montreal-based French pop-rock duo won't be strangers after this weekend.
Alfa Rococo is the duo of Justine Laberge and David Bussières. A couple off-stage, they began making music together in 2004 and have released two albums to date, 2007's Lever l'ancre and a live album sold exclusively on iTunes that was released last year.
While the band may be new to some, Alfa Rococo is a huge hit in Quebec.
The band found success initially by landing a spot in the semi-finals of Les Francouvertes, a major Quebec music competition, and by later winning the even bigger Le plus beau Rythme du Quebec, hosted by a major radio station chain across the province.
The duo has played in New Brunswick twice, once in Caraquet and once in Moncton during Francofête in 2007, and Bussières hopes to earn more fans on this visit.
He acknowledges his English isn't very strong, but Bussières says that isn't much of a concern when Alfa Rococo hits the stage.
"We don't speak that much between songs," he says. "When we do shows, we really make a big place for the music because we reinvent a lot of our songs. We do live remixes and solos and open structures, you know.
"So we don't talk that much. So the fact that we play in front of French or English audiences doesn't matter that much at all."
Alfa Rococo will be the first act onstage Saturday, and the group has a 40-minute set planned. While Bussières and Laberge are the band's only real members, they bring other musicians on the road with them to achieve their sound.
"The show has a rock vibe more so than the album," Bussières says. "Live, the rock side of the music really comes out a lot.
"At outside shows, there's a lot of people; younger people, older people... and we always succeed, I think, in making everybody share the same vibe."
Performing in a duo with the person you are also in a relationship with outside the band can provide its challenges, but Bussières says he and Laberge have a great relationship and a good understanding of one another.
"Of course, sometimes we have tensions have stuff, but nothing really bad," he says.
"We have a really cool, cool symbiotic relationship, you know?
"At the time when I was a gigging musician (prior to starting Alfa Rococo), I had girlfriends who were not doing music. I think for a person that is not making music it's really hard for them to understand that you have to practise this thing, you have to compose songs until 4 in the morning, you have to go on tour for a week or two weeks.
"Now that we do the same job, we really understand each other and we leave place for each other's life."
After Magnetic Hill, Alfa Rococo has dozens of shows lined up in the coming months, including a tour of Europe where their album will soon be released.
Oh, and if you're still wondering about the name, even Bussières can't help you. He's not sure what Alfa Rococo means, other than it suits the duo's funky, electronic pop-rock sound.
"When you form a band, you have to look for a name," he says.
"We had a sheet full of name ideas, and I woke up one morning and I had this thing, Alfa Rococo, and I really, really don't know where it's coming from. I just woke up one morning and had this name in my head."
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