Opening for Bon Jovi ‘perfect opportunity’ for Montreal artists
Both Contest winners, The Record Breakers And Travis Cormier, have Albums to promote
The two Montreal artists that have won the chance to open for Bon Jovi at the Bell Centre this week are not sure how the gigs will impact their careers. But they are sure happy to be there.
The Record Breakers play before Bon Jovi Thursday and singersongwriter Travis Cormier has the opening slot on Friday. Throughout the tour, Bon Jovi has been holding contests in different cities to pick opening bands. Montreal artists had to submit a video of a song to promoter Evenko and then the public voted on the videos on the Evenko website.
For Cormier, it’s particularly sweet given that he’s a huge Bon Jovi fan, and he has just completed his debut album working with producer Bob Rock, who has collaborated with the New Jersey band. In addition, Cormier wrote three songs for the album with former Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora.
“I’m very excited,” said Cormier. “I think it’s the perfect place to showcase my new songs from my upcoming album. Bon Jovi is the band that influenced my direction the most and I have songs on there written with Richie Sambora, which I’ll be playing Friday night … so to get to play these songs for the first time opening for them at the Bell Centre, it’s the perfect opportunity.”
His album was recorded at Bryan Adams’ studio in Vancouver last August and September and it is expected to be released late this year. In 2016, Cormier was a contestant on La Voix, the Québécois adaptation of the singing-contest TV show The Voice, and he made it to the final four.
Hayden Nolan, one of two singers with The Record Breakers, is also hoping the showcase at the Bell Centre will help generate interest for their upcoming album. Bigger Plans, the debut album from the Montreal band, will be launched at the Crawley Arts Centre in N.D.G. on June 9.
“I was a big Bon Jovi fan, especially when I was in high school,” said Nolan. “It’s not something I could imagine we’d end up winning … It’s one of those things, you hope that it’s going to happen and you think there’s a possibility but the chances are so small that you don’t expect it to actually happen. There were 70 or 80 acts so the odds weren’t to our advantage. We’re really hoping that it will open more doors for us and we’re really trying to expand on this.”
The five members of The Record Breakers are from the West Island and three of the five study music at Vanier CEGEP. The band formed when they were all in high school.
Bon Jovi was originally supposed to play the Bell Centre April 4 and 5 but those shows were postponed until this week because band and crew members were ill with the flu. Tickets for the April 4 concert will be honoured on Thursday and tickets for the April 5 concert will be honoured Friday.