We could talk for hours with Pierre-Yves Lord. His curiosity has no limits, he is interested in everything: scuba diving, astronomy, music, philosophy, television of course, but also sport, politics, to education, to spelling, to the French language, to the St. Lawrence River, to travel.
“And so much more,” he said with a laugh. I don’t find that abnormal, we are all multiple, we all have very varied interests, that’s what makes life beautiful. If we go to dinner together, we’re going to talk about 1001 topics. I want my career to be guided by pleasure, I don’t feel like an imposter going from one space exploration show [Bulletin spatial] to another on children’s literature or music. I would say that the common denominator of these shows is when I can showcase people’s talent. »
When he was asked to be the architect of a festive musical evening like Plaza Plaisir, he exploded with joy. “I thought life was good!” Music, for me, is a playground, it’s what propelled me into the profession, I learned it by presenting radio shows on FM waves, I saw myself as a master ceremony that warms up the mood by featuring songs! »
“Plaza Plaisir is a bit in the spirit of the show Bouge de là, from MusiquePlus [hosted by Juliette Powell and Varda Étienne], we dance and have fun with artists who come to perform songs from their repertoire, guilty pleasures or songs that define them artistically, all at Ausgang Plaza, rue Saint-Hubert,” explains the host who considers himself a musical matchmaker. “Ariane Brunet, aka L’Isle, sang Sensualité by Axelle Red and everyone started singing, the spectators were really attending a party! », says the one who has difficulty staying still when there is music. “It hits me and I take off!” I forget who I am, I commune with people on the dance floor, we let go, we have fun! » He specifies that the Valaire group is the house orchestra and accompanies the guest artists.
As host of the Gemini Awards, he played catch-up over the summer and watched all the shows that made the cut. “I’m up to date with Quebec television! I can even tell you everything that happens in STAT and Indefensible and tell you about the 18 series where there is Éric Bruneau! “, he says, laughing. We talk to him about Vrak closing, the layoffs at TVA, the fragmentation of the television audience. “It’s sad to see a pillar of our industry collapsing like Vrak, to see colleagues losing their jobs. Even if we are often put in competition, I like to believe that there is solidarity in the television industry. I’m not going to focus on what’s going wrong, it can’t be my creative engine, but I’m the kind of guy who will play the violin until the very end on the Titanic. Despite all the turbulence that our community is going through, I am going to be the captain of joy and highlight all the excellence that has occurred, especially since we have not finished experiencing great upheavals with artificial intelligence. This gala is also to thank the viewers, and celebrate our artisans and artists. »
The host likes to watch television with the family. “At home, the television is in a living room near the kitchen, there are still those magical moments where we put down our devices and we all watch together, my wife and our two children, 11 and 14 years old, programs like Live from the Universe, Revolution, Red Bracelets…”
Pierre-Yves Lord will celebrate his 45th birthday on September 11 and he says he is very aware of the passage of time. He confides that the turbulence of adolescence is behind him, that he thought he knew everything in his twenties, that he continued to experiment in his thirties and that now he has everything to learn. “I’m halfway through my life. Spring, fall, sunny days, and times when I’m surrounded by people I love won’t be forever. Every day counts. My mother’s death last June may have accelerated this desire to take advantage of it, but I am almost becoming stingy with my time, because I don’t have endless, beautiful moments on earth. »
And time? He has, he said. He goes back and forth between Quebec and Montreal many times, he loves his life in Sainte-Foy, in the bungalow of his childhood that he bought from his parents and which he completely renovated. “My children are growing up in the same house as me!
“My son is in my room, my daughter is in my sister’s room, and my partner and I are sleeping in my parents’ room! he exclaims.
Time, he has enough to realize one day one of his dreams. “I would so love to compose music. I DJ, I play with other people’s raw material, I do remixes, I do sampling, but I’ll feel at peace with myself when I’ve put something on the table. On a creative level, there is a lot of music that inhabits me, I spend evenings on the synthesizer taming forms of percussion, sounds, creating beats, it puts me in a state of feverishness. Creating music gives me so much pleasure and I have this obsession with wanting to make people dance. »
“I like everything, rap, I can fall into big gangster rap and then into Paganini, tripping on the violin, then listening to Sérgio Mendes, diving into Brazil, bossa nova, disco, Italian disco from the 1980s, Diane Tell whom I rediscovered, my algorithm finds me difficult, Spotify must say to itself: this one, he is really special, we don’t know what to offer him, I overheat the computers! »
“A guilty pleasure was when I was in high school and everyone was listening to The Beastie Boys, Rage Against the Machine and The Offspring, I was embarrassed to say BB’s You’ll Never Know was my favorite song… That was a guilty pleasure, now I’m proud of it! »
“When 100 Geniuses players go beyond their limits and surprise themselves. We bombard them with questions and it’s inhumane to find yourself like that in front of the cameras! These moments when these young people surpass themselves, I find it magnificent. It’s like in sport, when you see the stubbornness and pugnacity of a team that never gives up. »
