Nicolas Maranda (born 15 November 1967 in
Auckland
Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about I ...
, New Zealand) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, composer, musician and record producer based in
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...
. His compositional style is eclectic, blending acoustic, electric and electronic elements into distinct soundscapes. His compositions have appeared on record, in television series and feature films. His productions have covered many styles of music, from
house music
House is a music genre characterized by a repetitive Four on the floor (music), four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 120 beats per minute. It was created by Disc jockey, DJs and music producers from Chicago metropolitan area, Chicago' ...
to
tango
Tango is a partner dance and social dance that originated in the 1880s along the Río de la Plata, the natural border between Argentina and Uruguay. The tango was born in the impoverished port areas of these countries as the result of a combina ...
and from rock to Arabic. His performances on record include various guitars, basses, keyboards, and percussion instruments, as well as more exotic instruments such as
oud and
didgeridoo
The didgeridoo (; also spelt didjeridu, among other variants) is a wind instrument, played with vibrating lips to produce a continuous Drone (music), drone while using a special breathing technique called circular breathing. The didgeridoo wa ...
. He has played hundreds of shows in Canada, the United States, Europe, The Middle East, Australia,
Haïti, and exotic locations such as the North Pole and the jungles of
East Timor
East Timor (), also known as Timor-Leste (), officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is an island country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the exclave of Oecusse on the island's north-w ...
.
Early years
Nicolas Maranda is the second son of
anthropologists
An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and ...
Pierre Maranda and
Elli Köngäs-Maranda. His first year was spent within the Rere tribe of Lau Lagoon in the
Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capit ...
, of which he is still considered a member. His family then spent a year in Paris and settled in
Vancouver
Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...
, BC, where he started playing the piano at age four. The family eventually moved to
Quebec City
Quebec City ( or ; french: Ville de Québec), officially Québec (), is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the Communauté métrop ...
, where he took up the guitar. Mostly self-taught, he eventually added other instruments to his repertoire.
These years were marked by numerous trips across the globe that would prove to be influential in his vision.
1980s–1990s
In Quebec City he founded the band BoYcuT which gained a local following. When Nicolas was 16, the band moved to Montreal. Nicolas concurrently took up studies in record production and sound engineering. The band made some noise, placing among the finalists at the "Empire des Futures Stars" band competition and gaining some radio airplay. They went on to tour in Canada and Europe.
Nicolas eventually started writing more and more on his own and left the band, which disbanded. After a stint in London, he returned to Quebec City to work with ex-DJ Daniel Coulombe in the studio. Together they produced various projects, including a remix of the song "Des Fleurs pour Salinger" by French band
Indochine, which became an international hit. The pair then co-produced Nicolas’ first album (in French), ''Deux'', released in 1991, which saw him move back to Montreal. It was the first release of independent label les
Disques Tacca. The record included several songs that charted in Quebec and France, including "Fleur du mal", "Blanche comme la nuit" and "Douce". It was on several critics’ lists of best album of the year, including
Claude Rajotte
Claude Rajotte (born July 3, 1955) is a well-known Canadian DJ/VJ/music critic from Montreal, Quebec.
Life
Rajotte was born in Drummondville, Quebec on July 3, 1955. His career started at the local radio station CHRD, in 1974. After short stints i ...
. Maranda and the album were nominated for awards at the 1992
ADISQ
ADISQ (french: Association québécoise de l'industrie du disque, du spectacle et de la video; eng, Québec Association for the Recording, Concert and Video Industries, link=yes) is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to support the indepen ...
Gala. The video for "Fleur du mal" won "Best Independent Video" at the 1992
MusiquePlus
Elle Fictions (stylized ELLE Fictions) is a Canadian French language specialty channel owned by Remstar Media Group. The channel broadcasts general entertainment programming targeting young adult women.
It was first established in 1986 as the mus ...
Video Gala. His other videos also made a considerable impact and were similarly nominated for awards. He performed on stage and television in Canada and France. However conflicts within the label put things at a standstill as to how to go ahead with the second album.
In parallel Maranda co-wrote with his then-partner, singer-songwriter Pascale Coulombe. They recorded an album that was originally planned to come out under her name, but since it was a collaboration they released it under the name "Coma" (a play of words on their last names).
The album was influential and the videos also stood out, with "Carmen" winning
Best French Video at the
1997 MuchMusic Video Awards.
["Moist, Lamond among Much winners". '']Halifax Daily News
''The Daily News'' was a tabloid newspaper in Halifax, Nova Scotia, that was published from 1974 until ceasing operations in February 2008.
History
''The Daily News'' owed its existence to David Bentley, who, along with his wife Diana and Patric ...
'', 19 September 1997. Their other videos also garnered nominations. Maranda and Coulombe eventually worked on concepts of videos by other artists including
Daniel Bélanger
Daniel Bélanger (born December 26, 1961) is a Canadian singer-songwriter. His music is eclectic, inspired by alternative rock, folk and electronic music, sometimes humorous, sometimes wistful.
Biography
In middle 1983, he founded the band Hu ...
.
In 1998 the pair spent some time in Los Angeles, where they co-wrote the song "Lost Between Las Vegas and Mars" with Guy Thomas. The song was featured in the award-winning documentary ''
Beyond The Mat
''Beyond the Mat'' is a 1999 American documentary film directed, written, produced and narrated by Barry W. Blaustein. The film focuses on the lives of professional wrestlers outside of the ring, primarily Mick Foley, Terry Funk, and Jake Rober ...
''. They returned to Canada to play a series of concerts for Canadian troops that led them to the North Pole.
Other similar tours followed in
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
, Israel, Australia and
East Timor
East Timor (), also known as Timor-Leste (), officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is an island country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the exclave of Oecusse on the island's north-w ...
. At the turn of the millennium they convened to each head on to separate projects.
2000s
Nicolas subsequently produced a string of albums, by
Richard Petit,
Lynda Thalie
Lynda Thalie (born in Oran, Algeria on 25 June 1978) is a Canadian singer-songwriter of Algerian origin. Her family immigrated to Canada and resided in Quebec province since 1994. She has released three albums and has also written her autobiogra ...
,
Andrée Watters and
Intakto. He also contributed songwriting and arranging to most of them. Andrée Watters (twice) and Intakto won "Best Record" in their respective categories at the ADISQ Gala. He also wrote music for video games, notably songs for ''
The Jungle Book Groove Party
''The Jungle Book Groove Party'' (''The Jungle Book Rhythm N'Groove'' in North America) is a music rhythm video game developed by Ubi Soft Montreal and Ubi Soft Shanghai and published by Ubi Soft for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation, and PlaySta ...
'' by Ubisoft/ Disney, which led him back to work in Los Angeles. In the early 2000s he also worked on a series of remixes with House group the Couch Potatoes for Petit, Thalie, Coulombe,
Dubmatique
Dubmatique is a French Canadian hip hop group formed in the 1990s in Montreal, Quebec. Groupmates Dj Choice, OTMC, and Jérôme-Philippe are the first French-language hip-hop group from Canada to have a number one hit single on the francophone po ...
and
Mitsou
Mitsou Annie Marie Gélinas (born September 1, 1970, in Loretteville, Quebec) is a Canadian pop singer, businesswoman, television and radio host, and actress. She is credited as Mitsou Gélinas when acting, but records simply as Mitsou (the Fre ...
. As a member of the live band he played at different
Cirque du Soleil
Cirque du Soleil (, ; "Circus of the Sun" or "Sun Circus") is a Canadian entertainment company and the largest contemporary circus producer in the world. Located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, it was founded in Baie-Saint-Paul on 16 Ju ...
premières in Canada and abroad. During this period he studied acting with
Warren Robertson
A warren is a network of wild rodent or lagomorph, typically rabbit burrows. Domestic warrens are artificial, enclosed establishment of animal husbandry dedicated to the raising of rabbits for meat and fur. The term evolved from the medieval Angl ...
.
From 2002 to 2007 he started writing extensively for TV series. He was awarded a
Gémeaux in 2007 for his work on the seminal series ''
Minuit, le soir
''Minuit, le soir'' (french: Midnight, in the evening) is a character-driven Quebec television show. Set and shot in Montreal, the 30-minute show revolves around the lives of three bouncers, both in private and at work. The show is notable for its ...
''. He also scored ''Au nom de la loi'' and ''Le Petit monde de Laura Cadieux''. He received Gémeaux nominations for each of his scores. He also conceived and directed the video for the song "La Valse des hypocrites" by Mathieu Gaudet (which he had produced).
In late 2007 he released the music from ''Minuit, Le Soir'' online and on a limited-edition double CD. CD 2 is remix album, including remixes by
Carl Bastien, Beno, Thomas Carbou, Daniel Coulombe, Robert De La Gauthier, Jonathan Eekkoo Doyon, Flow, Samuel Laflamme and Samuel Girardin, Monsieur Seb, Pasquipaz and Raycord.
2010s
In addition to collaborating with House Music collective Monitor, who released an album on Mile-End records, Maranda scored acclaimed TV drama ''
19–2''. He received two additional
Gémeaux awards for his work. The soundtrack album was released on
Audiogram
An audiogram is a graph that shows the audible threshold for standardized frequencies as measured by an audiometer. The Y axis represents intensity measured in decibels and the X axis represents frequency measured in hertz. The threshold of hea ...
records.
Maranda is currently writing and recording an
English-language
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...
album. Work began in Montreal and was continued in
Honduras
Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...
and South Africa before resuming in Montreal. In South Africa he recorded a seventeen-voice Xhosa choir, the St-Raphael Catholic Church Choir, for his song "We Are Free". In Montreal he recorded tracks with childhood idol
Tony Levin
Anthony Frederick Levin (born June 6, 1946) is an American musician and composer, specializing in electric bass, Chapman Stick and upright bass. He also sings and plays synthesizer. Levin is best known for his work with King Crimson (since 198 ...
and
Youssou N’dour
Youssou N'Dour (, wo, Yuusu Nduur; also known as Youssou Madjiguène Ndour; born 1 October 1959) is a Senegalese singer, songwriter, musician, composer, occasional actor, businessman, and politician. In 2004, ''Rolling Stone'' magazine describe ...
’s tama (talking Drum) player Assane Thiam.
Nicolas has been guest speaker in various schools and organizations. He is a multiple grant holder from le Conseil des arts et letters du Québec. He has also served as jury president for the Gémeaux awards and juror for
Musicaction.
Selected discography
(All titles refer to albums unless otherwise noted)
2011
Nicolas Maranda, ''19–2''
Composer, arranger, musician
(Double Gémeau Award-winning soundtrack)
2011
Monitor, ''Monitor''
Composer, songwriter, singer, arranger, producer, musician, mixer
2008
Nicolas Maranda, ''Minuit le soir – l'album double''
Composer, arranger, singer, musician
(Gémeau Award-winning soundtrack)
2006
Intakto "Todavia”
Co-producer, arranger, musician and mixer
(ADSIQ nominee, "Best World Music Album")
2006
Lynda Thalie
Lynda Thalie (born in Oran, Algeria on 25 June 1978) is a Canadian singer-songwriter of Algerian origin. Her family immigrated to Canada and resided in Quebec province since 1994. She has released three albums and has also written her autobiogra ...
, ''Lynda Thalie''
Producer, arranger, songwriter and musician
(ADSIQ nominee, "Best World Music Album")
2005
Arthur H, ''Adieu Tristesse''
Musician
2005
Andrée Watters, ''À Travers''
Producer, arranger, songwriter and musician
(ADSIQ winner, "Best Rock Album")
2004
Mathieu Gaudet, "Roadtrip”
Producer, arranger and musician
2003
Andrée Watters, ''AW''
Co-producer, arranger, songwriter musician and mixer
(ADSIQ winner, "Best Rock Album")
2002
Intakto, ''Intakto''
Producer, arranger, musician and mixer
(ADSIQ winner, "Best World Music Album")
(
JUNO
Juno commonly refers to:
*Juno (mythology), the Roman goddess of marriage and queen of the gods
*Juno (film), ''Juno'' (film), 2007
Juno may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media Fictional characters
*Juno, in the film ''Jenny, Juno''
*Ju ...
nominee, "Best World Music Album")
2002
Lynda Thalie, ''Sablier''
Producer, arranger, songwriter, musician and mixer
2001
Dubmatique, ''Ragga Dub'' (Remix)
Co-producer, arranger, musician and mixer
2000
Richard Petit, ''Kiss and Run''
Producer, arranger, songwriter, musician and mixer
1997
Coma, "Remix”
Songwriter, singer, arranger, producer, musician, mixer
1996
Coma, ''Coma''
Arranger, songwriter and musician
1991
Nicolas, ''Deux''
Composer, songwriter, singer, arranger, co-producer, musician and co-mixer
(ADSIQ nominee, "Best Rock Album", "Revelation Of The Year")
1990
Indochine, ''Des Fleurs pour Salinger'' (Remix)
Co-producer, arranger and musician
References
External links
*
Minuit, le soir soundtrack
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maranda, Nicolas
Canadian male singer-songwriters
Canadian singer-songwriters
New Zealand emigrants to Canada
1967 births
Living people
Canadian people of Finnish descent