What if…

We all come across a point in our lives where we want to change things, where we hadn’t done certain things and done some others, that we hadn’t taken risks, taken some other paths. There are always things we would like to change. But there are also times where we look at where we stand in the very moment, and wouldn’t change a thing. Not because it is perfect, as there is no such thing as perfection. But because we feel that this place where we stand is the very place where we should be. And with the new year that has just started, it seems to be a perfect time to do this, to start anew if we want to, or to keep walking the same path with even more passion…

This questioning, this doubt, the band members all had it too, a few years ago…

What if they weren’t part of Your Favorite Enemies? Who would they be? What would their lives be like??? But no matter what kind of wrong turns they did, no matter what choices they made, I guess they’re in the right direction!

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Tour Bus Confessional: France & Netherlands

Dream-like Germany was over… We left the country by night, once more, this time for a much longer ride than we had done in the last few days. But still, not so long. When you think about it, there’s around 5 hours between Cologne and Paris. You need to go across 2 countries. And a ride from Montreal to Toronto is 6 hours. We’re still in the same country, only a different province (and believe me, everything looks gorgeous when you compare it to the Highway-401, the highway between Montreal and Toronto… There’s nothing as boring as this… lol!)

So we arrived in Paris some time early in the morning. I must say, I do not really remember when it was… But I remember it was another very cold day, another gray and rainy day. Looks like we carried the English weather around with us everywhere we went on that tour!

We were parked just outside the venue… We opened the curtains to see, to our big surprise, a mass of fans already gathered around the bus! When did they get there, that early in the morning? We didn’t think about it too much, we were just happy to see them, and to finally be able to meet them all! So we got dressed up (closed the curtains before, of course…), had some coffee and it was time to get out the bus… We were all so very excited until, totally horrified, we saw our manager get out of the bus before us, in underwear, in front of all the fans, to grab his suitcase under the tour bus. Ouch. We were ashamed. And kind of feeling sorry… for the fans. We said hello to everyone, introduced ourselves, talked a bit… It was simple, yet a very good time!

The posters outside the venue

Tour Bus Confessional: Germany

So we just left the UK… We’re on a ferry headed to France, from where we would drive to Amsterdam! The ferry itself was HUGE. And I really mean it. Somehow, it looked like a small airport with its duty-free shops and small bars and cafés in which everything was overpriced! The ferry left the UK in the middle of the night. We got woken up by the bus driver, got out of the bus with nothing on us. Everything had to remain on the bus! The girls were all wearing PJs. The guys didn’t change at all. That being said, I doubt they even wear pyjamas! lol!

Guess whose feet? Gathered in the lounge, in grand style

So we walked around the ferry for a bit, went to see outside only to find ourselves in the middle of a rainstorm. It was now confirmed, the fact that we felt shaky since we got on that boat was because of the storm outside, not because we had just woken up. We finally decided to sit in one of the lounges that was there. Couches and a small TV were fine for us. We were tired and knew we would all fall asleep anyway! And sleep we did… Just as everyone else that was on the ferry. Until, almost at the very end of the ride, we discovered the jukebox! A few pounds a song – it was actually freaking expensive for us, for a single song when you thought about the currency exchange rate – but we wanted to try it. It was kind of old, kind of cheap-looking, and very kitsch. We NEEDED to try this! I do not remember the first song that played, but I sure do know that the guys rapidly took off their shirts and started dancing on the ferry, chest-naked, to the amusement of everybody that was now awake because of us…! Continue Reading

Tour Bus Confessional
September 24 – 27 : UK
Crisis ahead…

It was the big day! The day of our departure! FINALLY!!!! Here’s how the scene was in Montreal: people sleeping on benches in the waiting room. We are excited! I mean, how could we not be? But we’re all exhausted… Without a doubt sleeping was the thing to do!!! We were quite a few people leaving (are you really surprised? lol!) Here’s the list:

– Alex (Singing, doing interviews, getting sick… and sick… and sick again!)
– Jeff (guitarist, more-manager-than-a-real-manager-can-be, perfect filming subject!)
– Miss Isabel (only singing, back then no keyboards yet! Oh yeah, and cooking!)
– Ben (the one with the best immune system out of all of us!)
– Sef (acting as a King, as usual…)
– Moose (I think he wasn’t called Moose yet… Or at least, did not want to be!)
– Matt “Big Byrd” (he had the weirdest haircut I had ever seen – at that time!)
– YB (filming everything he could… and falling asleep filming)
– Kanu (he had a lot of meetings planned, you know…)
– Marjo (planning all the interviews we had with different magazines and human rights organisms)
– Miriam (taking pictures!)
– Stephanie (yeah, that was me… I was correcting blogs/translating)
– Izabel Desjardins (VJ at Musique+, french canadian version of MuchMusic!)
– Mr. Manager (being himself… Only he could do that…) Continue Reading

Backlit Memories
The Band’s First Photo Shoots

The very first picture that ever appeared on Your Favorite Enemies’ MySpace page… That was back in 2007… If not before??? I am not sure exactly… But I know that this is a long, long time ago!!!!

That picture has been taken in Varennes’ church, city where the band was living at the time… I never realized it before… But now, looking at this, it amazes me how the band went to doing a photo shoot in a church to living in a church…

I mean… Who would ever think of having his own studio inside of a catholic church? Playing there, with speakers all around you, with more guitars than you can count, and with distortion? We’re talking catholic church here! This is not a sight you see every day! Yet, here we are, today, years after this picture was taken, in our very own catholic church turned into a studio… Where distortion is a daily canticle… Continue Reading