Sylvain Cossette

Early Life and Education

Sylvain Cossette was born in Grand-Mère (now part of Shawinigan), in the Mauricie region of Quebec. He was the 11th of 12 children. His home life growing up was reportedly harmonious. His father, François, was a car dealer for American Motors. The family car dealership later became a Dodge Chrysler dealership, which Sylvain’s brother Jean-Pierre eventually took over.

In his youth, Sylvain Cossette said he was a “half rebel” because the more people wanted him to do something, the more he wanted to do the opposite. He credits sports and music with keeping him on a good path.

Music was very important in Cossette’s home growing up. He was surrounded by traditional folk songs and chanson à répondre, a style of folk singing with call-and-response features. Cossette described his musical education as “listening to The Beatles.” Their music was so different from what he was used to, he thought they were from another planet. The Beatles were a major influence on Cossette as a young musician and singer, and he has called Paul McCartney his idol.

Cossette never took singing or music lessons and is completely self-taught. The first band he played in, when we was about 14 years old, was called The Silver Beatles. The band performed at school functions.

Despite being interested in music, young Cossette was quite shy. One day, when Sylvain was 15 years old, he thought he was alone and started singing. To his surprise, his friends were delighted to hear him sing, and proposed he join their group. He agreed to sing at his high school’s year-end variety show, but stood at the far left of the stage with his back to the audience. His performance was still a success, and he suddenly became popular at his school. He also decided he would commit to being a singer, even if he felt apprehensive about whether that was a viable career option in Quebec.

Cossette also played hockey from a young age. In a 1989 interview, he said that it was only when he was 22 years old that he decided to give up his dreams of playing hockey and commit to singing.

Early Career

Sylvain Cossette spent the first 10 years of his career singing English-language cover songs in bars and clubs. He has said that having to sing as loudly as possible to get over the background noise in small, smoky venues was terrible on his vocal cords. This led to him having surgery twice. After the second time, he lost his voice for about a year.

Paradox

Sylvain Cossette formed the band Paradox in 1984. The band started playing covers before integrating original material in a radio-friendly, pop-rock style. They were discovered by Paul Lévesque in 1986. In 1988, the band received a FACTOR grant, which allowed them to produce demos. Alson that year, Cossette’s brother François joined as guitarist and the band attracted the attention of MCA Records. Paradox released their self-titled debut album in 1989, along with their first single, “Waterline.”

Cossette also received songwriting assistance from singer-songwriter Sass Jordan (later a judge on Canadian Idol), who shared the same producer, Pierre “Baz” Bazinet. Cossette said in a 1989 interview that Jordan was uniquely able to help him organize his thoughts and emotions and turn them into compelling songs. He also said that Jordan contributed about 85 per cent of the lyrics on Paradox’s debut album. Jordan and Cossette collaborated closely in writing the song “Another Day,” written in tribute to Cossette’s sister, who died of a heart attack shortly before the band entered the studio to record their first album.

Paradox issued two more singles and another album of original material (Obvious Puzzle, in 1991) before folding. The band opened for major Canadian acts of the era, but largely failed to generate much interest outside of Quebec. After Paradox disbanded in 1991, Cossette was a back-up vocalist for Julie Masse and Mario Pelchat.

Solo Career

Sylvain Cossette released his first solo album, Comme l’océan, in 1994. The song “Dis-moi” was dedicated to his brother and best friend, Florent, who died of HIV/AIDS. Cossette wrote the album’s lead single and his first single in French, “Tu reviendras,” in less than an hour. Cossette released two more albums in the 1990s before issuing Rendez-vous (2001), which won Cossette his first Félix Award. It also earned him Juno Award nominations for Best Male Artist and Francophone Album of the Year.

Cossette then released three albums of classic rock covers from the 1970s. These have been particularly successful. They have sold more than 400,000 copies since the first album was released in 2007 and led to several tours totalling more than 400 shows. The albums 70s and 70s Volume 2 won Félix Awards for Anglophone Album of the Year and Cover Album of the Year, respectively. 70s Volume 2 also received a Juno nomination for Album of the Year.

In 2010, Cossette founded S7 Productions to recover the rights to his albums produced by Les Disques Victoire. Cossette has also collaborated with his long-time romantic partner, Félix Award-winning singer Andrée Watters, notably on the albums Minuit (2008) and Country Rock (2011).

Awards

Félix Awards

• Popular Album of the Year (Rendez-vous) (2002)
• Male Performer of the Year (2003)
• Director of the Year (En solo, shared with Matt Laurent) (2006)
• Show Writer of the Year (En solo) (2006)
• Show Writer of the Year (Les 7, shared with André Ducharme) (2007)
• Anglophone Album of the Year (70s) (2008)
• Cover Album of the Year (70s Volume 2) (2009)

SOCAN Awards

• Pop/Rock Music (“Tu reviendras”) (1995)
• Pop/Rock Music (“Reviens-moi”) (1999)
• Pop/Rock Music (“Loin de nous”) (2000)
• Pop/Rock Music (“Tout de moi”) (2009)