YouTube - 96th Most Viewed - Canadian Director - September 2008
Professional Affiliations
None ! We are DIY amateurs !
PUNK EMPIRE / THE DIY CHANNEL's Interests
Movies
INTRODUCTION
PROPAGANDHI interview by Geneviève
NASHVILLE PUSSY interview by Sarah
ONLY CRIME interview by Andy
BELL ORCHESTRE interview by Sarah
THE REAL MCKENZIES interview by Adina
THE QUEERS interview by Sarah
STRUNG OUT interview by Andy
ELECTRIC PRUNES interview by Sarah
THE HANSON BROTHERS interview by Adina
NOAH AND THE WHALE interview by Sarah
PENNYWISE interview by Mat
AFI interview by Mat and Andy
BLINK 182 interview by Mat
About me:
Hello, my name is Jean-Francois Hayeur, from Montreal, Canada.
I was a record dealer for the past 12 years in Montreal, Canada, selling the best music at Rockweiler, C'DEMENT, SAM THE RECORD MAN, MUSIGO and BEATNICK. I also had the privilege to open up record stores in PARIS & LYON. I am a vinyl aficionado and a jazz record collector.
I recently graduated from HEC
business school and i just started a new career: i am now a music programmer for the world's largest DIGITAL JUKEBOXE company.
Back in 1991, i was 15 years old. What was happening musicaly back then, at least commercialy, was GUNS N ROSES and METALLICA. NIRVANA was about to take over the world but they weren't exactly what my high school friends and i we were looking for.
For us, the sound we liked came from the music we heard in skateboard videos from California. Like H-STREET's HOKUS POKUS (1989) and PLAN B's UNQUESTIONABLE VIDEO (1992).
We could not find those ''skateboard video songs'' anywhere. This was before ''Green Day's DOOKIE'' or ''Offspring's SMASH'', both released in 1994. At the time, the skate-punk scene was underground in Montreal and it felt really special to us. One band we liked from around here were ''The Doughboys''.
We soon discovered two excellent independent Montreal record shops: DUTCHIES (r.i.p.) and L'OBLIQUE. You simply could not buy this type of music at the mall in the early 90s. Neither did you want to. It wasn't commercial YET. We wanted to keep this great music to ourselves. Indie record shops were the way to go and still are to this day. Big record chains never seemed to know exactly what they were doing. They seemed to always copy the indie-stores unsuccessfuly. Big chains were not leading, they were following. There was no authenticity there. L'OBLIQUE, DUTCHIES, and later UNDERWORLD, BEATNICK, PRIMITIVE, C'DÉMENT, CD ESOTERIK, CHEAP THRILLS, DISQUIVEL, FREESON, L'ÉCHANGE, SOUNDCENTRAL, LE SUBALTERNE, ATOM HEART, LES ANGES VAGABONDS, STOMP, MOJO, PICK UP, SONIK, new and used indie shops, those were the places to shop for music in Montreal.
On JUNE 14th 1994, my High School friends from Polyvalente Deux-Montagnes ENOUGH and FOREGROUND from Terrebonne + Boisbriand, were the opening acts for the 1st original FAT WRECK CHORDS band to play Montreal: NO USE FOR A NAME (The DAILY GRIND TOUR '94). We could barely find any SO-CAL punk music back then and the next thing we know, after only their 3rd show, my high school friends are opening for the 1st FAT WRECK show in Montreal. I couldn't believe it. We couldn't believe it ! We walked up to bands like NO USE FOR A NAME and talked to them personnaly. This crushed my ROCKSTAR/FAN illusion and opened my eyes. You can actually talk to and connect with the bands in the punk scene ? Wow ! How mind-blowing is that for a kid ? All our "idols" were suddenly accessible to all of us. The early EPITAPH & FAT WRECK CHORDS bands felt like they belonged to us. The scene was fresh and new. A special bond was in the making. Even the clothing was new and different. Something was happening. California was coming to Quebec and we were part of the first wave to welcome it ! Finally, the 80s were over !!
I immediately started writting letters the old fashioned way (ink, paper, stamp, envelope) to my favorite punk bands and asked them if i could videotape their first shows in Montreal.
Most of them, unheard of at the time, wrote back personnaly and said "Sure Dude !''. This was before e-Mails ! (You can read these letters in my Pics section)
I eventually met more local friends in bands: MEN O STEEL, SUBB, SPRAINED ANKLE & ROACH who renamed themselves RESET and who would later become SIMPLE PLAN.
Between 1994-1998, the bands playing shows in Montreal received free tapes of my best footage and a copy of their own shows. This positive exchange landed me on countless guest-lists, with easy backstage access as the scene grew bigger and bands played bigger venues. Needless to say, it was alot of fun.
I met the promoters and the people involved directly in the scene which i became neighbor and roomate with:
The 2112 crew: Page (Greenland), Orion (Shades of Culture), PatWreck (Slaves on Dope), Curtis (SNFU, Trigger Happy), Clo, The MenOsteel guys (Matt, JF), Adrian (Reset), Rachel (August Elliot).
Since Page
and his agency, GREENLAND
booked the punk shows in Montreal, touring bands would stop by our bloc, bbq, skate Page & Orion's backyard ramp and have a few beers. This is also the house where the BAD BRAINS broke up in 1995 while on tour with the BEASTIE BOYS. Because of the great people at
GREENLAND, lets not forget NANCY's hard work and PAT HAMOU's great concert posters, Montreal became one of the favorite cities in Canada for skate-punk bands in the 90's.
PAGE also founded 2112 RECORDS, a punk label that promoted Montreal bands such as RESET
(known today as SIMPLE PLAN),
MEN O STEEL, Montreal Hip Hop godfathers: SHADES OF CULTURE, Montreal's dancehall king: Jah Cutta as well as STEALTH featuring Darryl Jennifer of BAD BRAINS and B.C.'s TEN DAYS LATE.
By 1997, i had accumulated alot of good footage but never bootlegged it. I didn't want to. This was my agreement with the bands. Trust was a key factor to get to film more shows. That was what it was all about: filming, meeting the bands, getting to hang out backstage with them, documenting the scene, being part of the scene. I was in it for the adventure, the experience. My way which was very low-key. I wasn't into bootlegging. Something told me that by staying honnest, by respecting myself and the bands, i could keep the fun alive for years to come. And i did just that.
That very same year, my footage was used for the FAT WRECK CHORDS"Peepshow" video.
After seeing my footage in a FAT WRECK video, it made me want to expose the rest of my work. But i only had live concert footage at this point. So i thought that if i could mix my live footage with some video interviews, do the editing on my own, have friends do the interviews for me, i thought that i could come up with an interesting concept. Totally DIY.
Punk Empire was born with the help of my new buddies Matt and Andy as an "unofficial / home made / Do It Yourself" video.
Matt was already part of the scene. A very loveable and funny guy. Outspoken and loud, he was just what i needed. Andy seemed like a new addition to the scene, solid, honest and trusthworthy. Andy was filming hardcore shows on his own and was also exactly what i was looking for. We interviewed together about a dozen bands. At the time, there was no YouTube so we made our videos on VHS and passed them around, usualy no more than 5$ bucks to cover the cost of the videocassette. However, we soon realized that buying alot of VHS tapes cost money and we never released a 2nd video. Andy went on producing his ''Bone in the throat'' hardcore video series and Matt, i believe, moved to Winnipeg.
PUNK EMPIRE would not have been possible without the amazing contribution from MATT
and ANDY. You guys are the stars of PUNK EMPIRE.
There has been a rebirth with Punk Empire in 2009. I have been working with Sarah, Adina, Geneviève and Thibault interviewing bands again. YouTube has helped us come back and allowed us to do this our way more than ever before.
We used to be called "Mumrik" that was looking for a singer and now we finally found a singer and the band name became STM since we are working together at a distance of 6000miles from Leeds, UK to Kyoto, Japan. We have uploaded 3 songs now. Check out how it works.
Merci JF, continues ton bon travail (même s'il s'agit en fait probablement d'un hobby!) Je montre encore tes vidéos live plusieurs fois par semaine à mes amis. Certains sont bouchés d'voir un sound test de Blink-182 avec Scott Raynor... aaaaah.... hahaha!
Hello,
How are you on this fine day? If you have time check out our new songs we just posted off our new demo "Marilyn Daisy" and "Addressed to Unimpress" Let us know what you think!
Thanks
Josh - EM
If you haven't checked out my new song, The Dream, I advise you to visit my page now! I guarantee you'll really enjoy what my music has to offer and you'll most likely become a fan! Let me know what you think!
Comé maltinha, prontos para mais um tema do nosso 1º EP "SEMENTES DA DESORDEM"?
Já podem escutar o revisitado tema "BAR DA GNR", tema nº 2 do EP e que precede às "GUITARRAS DE GUERRA". Este tema já com alguns anitos lavou a cara e foi gravado no inicio de 2009 com novos arranjos, mantendo no entanto todo o carisma que vez dele um dos hinos dos ERVAS DANINHAS. Durante 20 dias, mais ou menos, vão poder entrar no "BAR DA GNR" e buer uma cervejola e morfar uma entremeada e até mesmo apanhar uma carraspana sem ficarem de cana... Dêm gás no volume e acordem os vizinhos... pelo menos aqueles que dormem a sesta ao Domingo à tarde. O "BAR DA GNR" contou com a presença de dois convidados muito especiais, foram eles o Igor e o Arroja dos SHIVERS, que por entre copos de binho e assaltos à sacristia ainda tiveram tempo para uma ida à Sela... ops, desculpem o erro... uma ida à cela.
Um grande abraço para eles e um grande abraço para todos vocês!
Hey hope all is well your way! If you don't mind we'd like to tell you a little about ourselves.
We're a 'Street Rock n Roll' band based out of Dayton, OH. Since 2006 we've been combining Rock 'n Roll, Punk, Metal, and Glam to make our original sound. We just released a new record 'Shotgun Hero' on our own label, and toured the Mid-West and East Coast.
If you have a chance we'd really appreciate it if you could swing by our page and check out our tunes. If you like what you hear let us know!
HEMOS CAMBIADO DE NOMBRE A "RADIO REPUBLIKA" NUEVOS MIEMBROS,NUEVA MUSICA SIN PERDER LA ESCENCIA DEL PUNK ROCK GRACIAS POR EL APOYO A DRUNKEN POR 8 AÑOS PERO SEGUIMOS AQUI
RADIO REPUBLIKA
PRONTO NUEVAS CANCIONES
WE HAVE CHANGED THE NAME TO "RADIO REPUBLIKA" NEW MEMBERS, NEW MUSIC WITHOUT LOSING THE ESSCENCE OF PUNK ROCK THANKS FOR THE SUPPORT OF DRUNKEN FOR 8 YEARS BUT WE HERE
Mark your calendars! The new Vaughn & Co. album (Coming Home) is set to be released! The show will take place on Saturday October 24th at Play by Play in Silverton. We will be joined by The Rusty Van Band and Aaron Patrick from Oval Opus. This going to be a great night of original music at a great venue! Hope to see you there
Hello, my name is Jean-Francois Hayeur, from Montreal, Canada.
I was a record dealer for the past 12 years in Montreal, Canada, selling the best music at Rockweiler, 
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