About Joel Derouin

Violinist Joel Derouin looks to hit new notes

By Karie Dufour, Cliff Hanger Communications

Violinist Joel Derouin left Canada for Julliard in New York City more than 30 years ago. Since then, he’s had a career that many would envy, worked with music royalty, and has the stories to write a book, but now, it’s time to “crack the whip on someone else.”

Dressed all in black with his long hair deliberately unstyled, Joel Derouin puts on a pair of dark sunglasses.

He really does look like the kind of guy you might see stepping off a rock band’s tour bus.

But today, he stands outside his cottage with his violin looking out at the St. Lawrence River. It’s a small place near Cornwall and in a couple days he and his family will pack up and head back to their home in Los Angeles.

He has come a long way – the Grammy gramophone on his ball cap a small indication.

“This place is really a sanctuary for us,” he says. “Coming from Los Angeles, we try and spend most of the summer here, just to relax. For me, I’m going to try to use it as a place to be creative and write and plan my next step.”

His wife (and volunteer manager) of 18 years Narda will direct the long process of closing down the cottage and getting the family back to reality. This bittersweet time comes every year but this time the return marks a sort of new beginning.

Joel was right there when some of today’s biggest names in music, from The Black Eyed Peas to Bruno Mars to Kelly Clarkson started their careers. Now he’s looking to launch the next phase of his career.

From Cornwall to NYC

Born in Cornwall, Joel grew up in this area that he now uses as inspiration. He first picked up a violin at the age of five and his father encouraged his close friend, renowned violinist Rosemonde Laberge, to teach his son.

“Rosemonde was a big pillar in my life by virtue of the fact that she put a violin under my chin,” explains Joel. “She played and I started playing and I think she saw something in that there was potential there.”

She was right. Joel caught on quickly and over the years Rosemonde’s students became the famed Riverdale String Ensemble, travelling to and winning music festivals across Canada. Today, sitting in front of a vintage piano in his charming living room, Joel remembers it as a defining time in his life.

“For us, we got to travel. A bunch of kids on a bus going from city to city and Rosemonde was great. We would just stay in motels in whatever city the festival was in and she bought a hibachi and we’d cook food in front of the hotel, and there was more than four or five kids per room and… It was just a great childhood. It was my first foray into touring, which I’ve done on and off all my life.”

Most of the members went on to careers in music and Joel was no different.

In 1966, he began studying in Montreal at Le Conservatoire de Musique du Quebec and nine years later he was at Julliard in New York City. He says the different teaching styles and focuses have made him a well-rounded musician.

But there was another influence that would provide a different advantage.

Joel recounts how It didn't take long for him to electrify his violin after listening to Hendrix, Genesis, Pink Floyd, and Jefferson Airplane / © 2013 Cliff Hanger Communications

Let’s rock!

“I would always go to the record stores during the day and I’d always buy rock and roll records,” recalls Joel. “I was into Hendrix. I’ve always been into Jimi Hendrix.”

He also loved the British groups that were breaking into the US in the 70s, like Genesis and Pink Floyd, as well as bands like Jefferson Airplane, who had songs that incorporated electric violin.

“I listened to these guys and I thought man, I could do that but I can also, you know, rip it!” he says grinning. “And I went down and bought a pickup here at Melody Music Store in Cornwall and electrified my violin and that changed my life right away. All of a sudden my sound was larger than life.”

Two years ago, in just a week, Joel put together a Hendrix tribute show for the Cornwall Lift-Off Festival. A highlight and “dream come true” moment of his career came last year when he toured with his favourite Canadian rock band, Rush.

Joel onstage with Rush in Montreal, Canada, during the Clockwork Angles Tour / © 2012 Ted Bingley

Working with music royalty

In the last 30 years Joel and his violins (he has a few) have worked with some of the biggest names in music, including Barbra Streisand, No Doubt, The Stone Temple Pilots, Rod Stewart, Elton John, Neil Young, Alanis Morrisette, Mariah Carey, Michael Bublé, Ray Charles and even Paul McCartney.

“It was a great song (Paul McCartney's "My Valentine"). It was like a real Beatles song kind of thing and the strings added that element that made Beatles songs, that gave it that extra sparkle.”

His violin playing has also appeared in many popular animated movies and TV shows including Disney and Pixar’s Cars and Up, The Simpsons, American Dad, Family Guy and all the classic Warner Bros. cartoons.

“Animation is fun to play,” he explains. “It’s exciting but it’s extremely difficult because it’s wall to wall music and you’re imitating what’s on screen. So if someone is falling down the mountain, that’s what you’re playing.”

"Driving Rain": Sid Page, Joel Derouin, Paul McCartney, David Campell, & fellow musicians / © 2001 A&M Studios

Time to improvise

But Joel especially loves the challenge and unpredictability of live theatre and television, having worked on Broadway, the Grammy Awards, the Oscars, MTV’s Unplugged, The Tonight Show, and Saturday Night Live. He also spent several seasons as the concert master for American Idol.

In 2001, days after 9-11, he participated in the Tribute to Heroes, a live benefit concert created by the heads of the major networks and broadcast on TV, radio and the internet around the world. Joel played John Lennon’s Imagine with Neil Young and then had to rush to get on stage with Limp Bizkit and the Goo Goo Dolls. A member of the string quartet, who was carrying his music, couldn’t make it to the stage.

“I realized at the time that here I am playing to a billion people and I don’t have any music and I pretty much have to make it up and make it sound like nothing is going on. And it went down really well,” he recounts. “That was actually really fun for me. It liberated me.”

Joel Derouin shares a behind-the-scenes story about the 911 Tribute to Heroes show
© 2013 Cliff Hanger Communications
(YouTube video of the performance)

Moving behind the scenes

Today, he’s a confident musician, who thinks he may have run the gamut as a player. He says he loves performing and that it will always be something he does, but it’s time for new challenges.

“I’ll never not want to perform live; I’ll never not want to have that rush that I get from a live audience or the anxiety that precedes live television when the down beat goes on. But I’ve always been kind of distracted by being a leader.”

More often he’s taking on the role of concert master or advisor. He suggests that with his experience, knowledge, versatility, adaptability and resources he’s well positioned to work more behind the scenes in music production. He would love to be the music director for a television show, produce a new artist or take on projects with a more managerial role.

“I’ve played too many notes on the violin. It’s time to crack the whip on someone else.”

But for now, he must pack up his summer life, get his two teenage daughters ready for school and get back in the studio. He hopes the future includes more time in Canada, suggesting that the small cottage “bunker” by the pool could one day make a nice studio…

”I see my future as wide open. It’s ironic that I’m looking at the St. Lawrence River right now and seeing wide open. It’s very inspiring for me to be here because it puts me in an environment and a state of mind where I can look to the future and figure out what’s next.” 

Joel at work with David Campbell at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles / © 2006 Capitol Studios

A last look at the St Lawrence River before heading back to Los Angeles / © Cliff Hanger Communications