Jean-Marc Pisapia
Born (1957-11-13) 13 November 1957
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Genres
  • New wave
  • rock
  • progressive rock
Occupation(s)
  • Singer-songwriter
  • keyboardist
  • director
Instrument(s)
  • Keyboards
Years active1981–present
Member ofThe Box

Jean-Marc Pisapia (born 13 November 1957),[1] is a Canadian singer-songwriter and director. He is best known as the frontman of the new wave band The Box. As a director, he was nominated for Best Video at the 1989 Juno Awards.

Early life

Born in Montreal, Pisapia learned piano from the age of four and grew up listening to progressive rock.[2][3] He went to high school with musicians Ivan Doroschuk of Men Without Hats and Pascal Languirand of Trans-X and went on to study architecture at University of Montreal.[1][4][5]

Pisapia's father immigrated to Canada from Naples, Italy in 1952.[2] Pisapia has two brothers, Guy and Serge, and a sister, Christine.[2][6] His older brother, Guy, was the keyboardist for the first iteration of The Box.[7]

Career

In 1981, Men Without Hats frontman Ivan Doroschuk invited Pisapia to be a keyboardist on their summer tour.[7][8] That same year Pisapia formed a band, originally called Checkpoint Charlie, which was renamed The Box.[9]

Pisapia serves as The Box's lead vocalist and principal lyricist.[3] He also directed several of The Box's videos.[10] In 1990, while directing the video for their single Temptation in New Orleans, he fell off a moving truck and broke his collarbone in two places.[10] Concerned about the money that the band would lose by being unable to complete the video shoot, he returned to work on it that same night.[10] His work on the video for the band's single, "Ordinary People", earned him a nomination for Best Video at the 1989 Juno Awards.[11]

After The Box's dissolution in 1992, Pisapia collaborated with bandmates Jean-Pierre Brie and Claude Thibault in writing and producing music for TV and radio commercials.[8][12] Pisapia later formed his own music production company, which he named L'Affaire Dumoutier, after The Box's first hit single.[12] Pisapia wrote and performed music for ad campaigns for such clients as Bell Canada, McDonald's, and General Motors.[12]

While Pisapia's first language is French, he prefers performing in English. He told the Toronto Star in 1986: "A lot of people sing rock in French and it seems to work very well for them. I wouldn't say it's written in the stars that you can't (sing pop in French), but that's my personal belief."[13] He also told the paper in 1987 that he was a proponent of "international pop culture," and pointed out that popular artists of the time, such as the Norwegian band A-ha and the Austrian musician Falco, also produced music in English.[14]

Pisapia reformed The Box with an entirely new roster of musicians that he met in the film industry and they released their first album in 2005.[15] The new iteration performs songs in a progressive rock style.[3]

Personal life

Pisapia started painting in 2009 after moving from Montreal to a rural area of Quebec known as the Laurentides.[2][5] He joined a collective of artists and opened two art galleries in Mont-Tremblant.[5]

Pisapia has two daughters.[12]

References

  1. 1 2 "The Box". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. 4 September 2013. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Masse, Muriel (9 December 2021). "Entrevue Jean-Marc Pisapia de The Box band" [Interview with Jean-Marc Pisapia of the band The Box]. Famille Rock (in French). Retrieved 4 August 2023.
  3. 1 2 3 Kelly, Brendan (31 March 2005). "Quebec singer reopens The Box". Canwest News. Retrieved 4 August 2023 – via ProQuest. Then, last year, a friend told him he should do it with new players, given that he had written and sang the vast majority of the material the first time around. . . Black Dog There is indeed a blast from the past, but it's an acid flashback to the `70s and the sort of progressive rock that was all the rage in the days of Gentle Giant, Genesis, Yes, and Pink Floyd. This is the music Pisapia grew up with and still loves. . . The album Pisapia wanted to do is full-on progressive rock, just the thing for fans raised on Genesis's The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway and Pink Floyd's Atom Heart Mother. Just how progressive is Black Dog There? Not only does it pay musical tribute to Bowie, Genesis, Floyd and Gentle Giant, but it also revives a form seldom seen since the `70s. It's an old-fashioned concept album, complete with a spacey narrative.
  4. ↑ Kelly, Brendan (3 August 1991). "New-age music is quiet revolution". Montreal Gazette. p. D1. Retrieved 4 August 2023 – via ProQuest. [Pascal] Languirand - who was a high-school classmate of Men Without Hats' Ivan Doroschuk and The Box's Jean-Marc Pisapia - fronted an electro-pop band called Trans-X, which had an international hit single in the mid-'80s with a song called Living on Video.
  5. 1 2 3 Wharton, Rick (3 November 2017). "Rick Wharton talks with the man, the legend - Jean-Marc Pisapia of The Box". Pembroke Observer (Online). Retrieved 4 August 2023 – via ProQuest. Prior to joining Men Without Hats, I was studying architecture at University of Montreal and I just knew I wasn't in the right place. . . I started painting eight years ago when I moved from Montreal to the country, my daughters being grown-ups having stayed behind in town. . . I soon joined a collective of artists, mostly expats from Montreal like me, and we opened two galleries which I help run in Mont Tremblant.
  6. ↑ "Two brothers and a sister: a family confronts kidney disease together". Je Donne Un Rein. Kidney Foundation of Canada. 6 September 2016. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
  7. 1 2 Siberok, Martin (23 November 1985). "Year of the Box as group tops in Quebec rock". Montreal Gazette. p. C12. Retrieved 4 August 2023 – via ProQuest. In 1981, Pisapia was hired by his school-friend Ivan Doroschuk to do a summer tour with Men Without Hats, but he wasn't invited to join the band permanently so decided to pursue his original plans. . . Over the years the Box has had various personnel changes and now includes bassist Jean-Pierre Brie, drummer Philippe Bernard, guitarist Claude Thibault and keyboardist Guy Pisapia, Jean-Marc's older brother.
  8. 1 2 Baker, Lois Ann (26 July 2017). "The Box returns; First of a series on this year's Musicfest headliners looks at Montreal-based band". Cornwall Standard-Freeholder. p. A2. Retrieved 4 August 2023 – via ProQuest. Pisapia was keyboardist for Men Without Hats for a year before joining the band The Box. "We started in 1982 and released the first record in 1983," said Pisapia...
  9. ↑ Gendron-Martin, Raphaël (13 May 2017). ""On brûlait la chandelle par les deux bouts"" ["We were burning the candle at both ends"]. Le Journal de Montréal (in French). Retrieved 4 August 2023.
  10. 1 2 3 Kelly, Brendan (21 July 1990). "THE VIDEO BIZ; Behind those musical mini-movies there's a whole industry - and a lot of creativity". Montreal Gazette. p. D1. Retrieved 4 August 2023 – via ProQuest. Box leader Jean-Marc Pisapia has directed several of their videos, which can sometimes be a dangerous task. While directing Temptation in New Orleans this spring, Pisapia fell off a moving truck and broke his collarbone in two places less than two hours into the shoot. "The scariest part was the idea of not being able to finish the video and losing all that money," said Pisapia. "I freaked out. I couldn't believe it was all going down the drain because of such a stupid thing."He took some painkillers and was back on the set the same night.
  11. ↑ Bastien, Mark (2 February 1989). "Urban cowboys lasso five nominations Blue Rodeo tops Juno list". The Globe and Mail. p. C5. Retrieved 4 August 2023 – via ProQuest. Best video : Ron Berti-The Northern Pikes, Wait For Me; Michael Buckley- Blue Rodeo, Try; James O-'Mara and Kate Ryan-Art Bergmann, Our Little Secret; Donald Robertson-Jane Siberry, Ingrid and the Footman; Jean Marc Pisapia-The Box, Ordinary People.
  12. 1 2 3 4 Kelly, Brendan (4 November 2002). "'80s pop star lands on his feet: Jean-Marc Pisapia lives outside the box. After the band called it quits, lead singer formed a TV- jingles company". Montreal Gazette. p. D1. Retrieved 4 August 2023 – via ProQuest. When The Box called it quits at the beginning of the 1990s, Pisapia and two of his bandmates, guitarist Claude Thibault and bassist Jean-Pierre Brie, formed a company to write and produce music for TV and radio commercials. Pisapia later formed his own TV-jingles company and he has never looked back. . . His company is called L'Affaire Dumoutier, in honour of the band's first big hit.
  13. ↑ MacInnis, Craig (16 March 1986). "The Box patiently waits to stir up English passions". Toronto Star. p. E2. Retrieved 4 August 2023 – via ProQuest. Pisapia's commitment to English lyrics, oddly, is the result of a long-held belief that French phrasing isn't appropriate to the language of pop music. "A lot of people sing rock in French and it seems to work very well for them," he allows. "I wouldn't say it's written in the stars that you can't (sing pop in French), but that's my personal belief."
  14. ↑ MacInnis, Craig (10 April 1987). "The Box singer skating to new tunes on video". Toronto Star. p. D5. Retrieved 4 August 2023 – via ProQuest. Still on that kick, eh? Jean-Marc has long been a proponent of "international pop culture." He's been harassed, from time to time, by Quebec nationalists who smell a sell-out in his band's use of English lyrics."The public doesn't give a damn about language," he says. "The public wants quality products, period. "A-ha is a group from Norway but they don't sing in Norwegian. Same thing goes for (Austrian pop singer) Falco."
  15. ↑ Ferguson, Sarah (21 May 2019). "Fans can expect The Box to play old favourites at Niagara Falls show May 24". Niagara This Week. Metroland Media Group. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
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