Interview with André Vanasse

Music and the feelings it gives rise to are universals for young people, whatever language they speak. To what extent does the story of Nexxtep’s genesis and challenges come out of your own experiences with music and teen bands?

To start with, I have to say that I have no musical training. So Millions for a Song doesn’t come from my own experience but instead from those of my son Alexandre. Just as in the novel, Alex created a band called The Nexxtep. That’s where their adventure began and ended since, other than rehearsals in their parents’ basements, The Nexxtep never played for an audience.

Better yet, when I first came up with the idea for the novel, I’d never even heard of U2! Like everyone else my age, during the sixties I listened to The Platters, Little Richard, Fats Domino, and that whole generation hundreds of times, but my favorite musicians were Quebec, French, and Belgian songwriters: Félix Leclerc, Georges Brassens, Gilles Vigneault, Jacques Brel, etc.

You have been a distinguished editor and mentor to many writers in French Canada. Why did you decide to write a novel for teenagers?

I look at writing as a challenge. I like to try my hand at all genres. I was a finalist in French CBC’s International Songwriting Competition with the famed musician André Gagnon. I was a finalist with my play Dialogue in French CBC’s radio play contest. “L’âcre parfum” is a one-page story of mine that was published in at least three textbooks for high school students. I’ve been writing editorials for twenty years in the magazine Lettres québécoises. I’ve also written columns about fiction-writing. I’ve published essays, anthologies, novels, etc.

When I wrote Millions for a Song, I began by reading over fifty young adult novels just to understand how others went about it. You have to read in order to learn how to write, contrary to what some think. I also wanted to see if anyone else had written on the same subject. I was greatly relieved to see that no one had.

As for the subject itself, it came to me spontaneously. “Why not start with Alex’s band and take them beyond their wildest dreams?”

Next, I had to give a vivid portrayal of my characters. In a novel, readers have to be able to recognize each character through their singular traits. Finally, I needed a dramatic situation without which the novel would fall flat. It was a natural for me to think of a copyright piracy issue since I was a founding member of the Public Lending Rights Program and involved as an editor in all national and international copyright issues. The authors with my publishing house XYZ were published in a dozen countries: English Canada of course, France, Spain, Italy, the Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, Romania, Brazil, Argentina, Russia, Romania, Mexico, Bulgaria, the Netherlands, and others that may have slipped my mind.

Your fictional band is writing its songs in English, in a society where French is the dominant and preferred language. Why did you decide to explore that path taken by Alexandre and his friends?

Once again, it was a natural choice. My son Alexandre decided to write his songs in English. I was a university professor of Quebec literature and my wife taught French in a college. Right off the bat, there was an obvious clash. A novel needs confrontation, whether language-related or otherwise.

Writing songs in English is, I would imagine, a political act in contemporary Quebec. Yet your characters really have nothing to say about politics, and their audiences thrive on their songs. Is that true to the reality of life in Quebec today?

In many countries, language is often a delicate matter. That’s the case in Canada, but in a dozen other countries as well. Just think of the Catalans who want to separate from Spain, or the Basques in France, the Flemish in Belgium . . .

Language, racial, and religious conflicts have led to the deaths of a horrifying number of innocent victims. Over a million Armenians were killed by the Turks. A genocide. In Africa, tribal and religious wars have decimated entire peoples. Not to mention the Jews and the Holocaust.

That being said, I didn’t want to write a novel about political quarrels, but about culture instead. Youth’s cultural models, as far as songwriting is concerned, are resolutely anglophone. There are instances of Swedes, Germans, and Asians choosing the English language as a vehicle for their songs. Music and English go together because it is such an international language.

In one way, we can say that Alex is following in Céline Dion’s footsteps. His group is also a sign of things to come, like the all-Québécois band Simple Plan. He is on the road to international fame. Of course, Alex’s parents are scandalized. But they accept their son’s choice anyway. There’s dissension between father and son, but no threats or arm-twisting.

You seem to understand a lot about the emotional and social dynamics that exist amongst intense young people—like Alexandre, Bruno, Jean-François, and Melanie. Where does that insight come from?

As I mentioned earlier, a novel calls for well-defined characters. The ones I’ve described in Millions for a Song are not the real-life teens. I created typical characters: Bruno is a person of extremes, Jean-Francois is calm. As for Alex and Mélanie, their troubled relationship is the focus. I’ve seen the ways in which young people sometimes differ from their parents. They can have a friendship without sex factoring into the equation. There again, I started with real life: my son had a friend, a very attractive girl. Yet their relationship was totally platonic. “She’s my friend, not my girlfriend,” he’d say. I thought they had a wonderful relationship; at the same time, I wanted to show that Mélanie and Alex were aware that the issues of desire and seduction were always in the background. Alex knows that Mélanie is continually flirting with him.

The band makes a deal with the predatory agent without having had any legal advice. Throughout the story, they handle their own affairs. Do you think this is typical of teenagers in Quebec and elsewhere?

I wouldn’t say that Nexxtep’s characters’ reactions are a reflection of young Quebecers. Life has shown me that the thirst for success is so strong that stupid mistakes can be made. Tom Paradis knows his stuff and has them wrapped around his finger from the outset. He has an answer to everything—above all, he guarantees them performances. He knows what buttons to push despite the members’ initial reluctance. Tom Paradis’ character lives up to his name: he offers them paradise. Unfortunately, paradise ends up looking more like hell.

In the end, Nexxtep’s members were taken in because of their lack of experience; quite simply they were manipulated.

What do you think about French language literature for young people being translated into English and thus being made available to a new audience? How many of your other works have been translated into English?

It’s always an enormous pleasure for an author to be translated into another language. Translation is a gateway to the world. In my case, it was even more exciting because Susan Ouriou and Christelle Morelli, did a remarkable job. I loved their translation so much that, reading it, I couldn’t help thinking what a great writer I was!

Millions for a Song, along with Gabrielle Roy: A Passion for Writing and The Encyclopedia of Wine Making, are the only books of mine that have been translated into English. Millions was also translated into Spanish and Catalan and published in French in Italy as a book to be used to teach high school students French. I was flattered to be held up as an “example!”

Of course, I would like to see my other novels translated into English as well. Especially, my novel La saga des Lagacé that was so well-received in Quebec.

What would be your advice to young writers today?

I have heard young writers say they don’t want to read fiction so they won’t be influenced by another author or subject. That’s just the opposite of what they should be doing. It’s essential to be reading all the time. Re-reading in fact two, three, four times the authors you most admire, trying to understand why their books speak to you. That means reading the passages that work best and trying to understand how they do it. By analyzing another writer’s work, you won’t learn to copy it—which would be wrong—but to imitate him or her, understand their approach. After that, any lessons can be applied to your own writing. It can take time to develop your own style. It’s possible. All it requires is patience ...

If I hadn’t admired Gabrielle Roy, the author of The Tin Flute, so much I might never have turned to writing. She convinced me that Montreal’s poor district Saint-Henri was as full of meaning as the seedy parts of Paris described by Émile Zola and made me understand that my city could be just as inspiring a setting as the cities described by the great authors of world literature, Fyodor Dostoyevsky first among them.

You have to find a role model who will act like a lighthouse in the night showing you the way when you have trouble writing. They’re there with us, telling us to keep on keeping on. They can hold our hand and be a source of strength . . .

Thank you, André.