Chris Riopel

 

Being surrounded by music at an early age, Chris spent a lot of his spare time listening to music in a music/record store, which his parents owned and operated. By the age of 15, Chris got his first guitar and soon began entertaining family and friends at social events. His passion for music grew as he started writing and performing original songs and he soon learned that expressing his creative talents through music was what he wanted to spend his life doing.

 

In the early 80s, Chris started his recording career when he was introduced to John Lovaghy (a drummer and recording studio engineer) by Frank Farkas, then with Management House. They began doing recordings together, and Chris released his first single—a ballad called Montreal. He followed this up with a modern dance song called Danse sur la terre. This single featured Yves Frulla on keyboards, Rod St. Louis on guitar, Dan Meyers on bass, and John Lovaghy on drums and production.

 

Chris continued to experiment with different writing styles and eventually felt a need to express himself with a heavier type of rock and roll. This is when he collaborated with guitarist Jacky LeDu and created a French rock and roll band simply called Riopel. This led to his first official CD release.

 

This first CD proved to be a success, as it reached the top ten on the Quebec, Ontario, and New Brunswick airwaves. It was supported with two video clips, which aired on MusiquePlus, and a long successful tour.

 

Chris then took a break from touring and his rock and roll lifestyle to spend time with his wife and three kids. He began writing songs for many local artists and found a niche in the country rock music genre. After writing hit songs for many artists, he decided to do a solo country rock CD. Although it proved to be a great CD, he found that he wasn’t really ready to start touring again and preferred spending time with his family so he continued writing songs for numerous record companies, music publishers, artists, and even a few songs for films. During this time, he also collaborated with a few great musicians on an English rock project called Cactus Joe. One of the songs from this project was also used in a movie—South of the Moon (Stargaze pictures).

 

Chris spent years helping many local artists including Valerie Lahaie: a young prodigy piano player and singer, who is now a very popular local recording artist in her early twenties. His friends and family have always regarded Chris as a very talented recording artist and have all encouraged him to get back on the road and entertain the world with his music, as this is what he originally signed up to do.

 

Chris Riopel is proud to announce his new CD entitled TIME WILL LAST!

 

 

 

 

 

Watch and listen to some of Chris Riopel's songs through his musical journey from his new Album on videos .

 

 

listen to some of Chris Riopel's songs through his musical journey from his new Album on Soundcloud

 

 

 

Photo's of Chris Riopel.