Alain Levesque

Alan Levesque Compositions for Film Batterie, Music, Voice, Production Beating on overturned saucepans and bowls with whatever served as drumsticks at the age of 4, it was evident that drums were likely in Alan Levesque's future. Prior to finding an eventual home behind a kit however, at 10 he was enamored with the sound of the electric guitar and was convinced he should play one. Six weeks into the lessons, it became evident that the guitar was not to be the instrument of choice after all. It wasn't until many years later in junior high school that he realized he wanted to play the drums over and above any other instrument. At 14, Alan's mother purchased his first drum set. At 17, Levesque met a young guitarist (Lorne Reid) and bassist/vocalist (Donald Arychuk) and together the forward-thinking energetic trio formed a prog rock group named Roboxis. The band's predominantly odd-time, quirky and commercially inaccessible music reached a very small audience mostly made up of classmates, friends and family. Nonetheless, it served as the catalyst that provided Alan the opportunity to contribute melodically and as a songwriter until the young band's demise three years later. While the other two went off to play the local circuit in cover bands, Levesque opted instead to spend countless hours on his own messing about with microphones, a Synare drum synth, echo devices, reel to reel tape machines and whatever recording equipment that could be found. The majority of the ensuing and predominantly cinematic compositions and noises he produced were far from being anything that could be perceived as conventional music. More importantly, the exercise solidified an obvious disinterest in commercial formula-driven music to be replaced by a penchant for experimental and unstructured genres. Around that time, New Wave and Synth-Pop music were becoming trendy and commercially viable, but more importantly, Dave Simmons introduced his hexagon-shaped electronic drums to the world. "King Crimson's Discipline album saw Bill Bruford's foray into and endorsement of the Simmons drums and electronic drumming... with formidable results no less. "I was absolutely sick. Bill and the Simmons pads essentially changed my life" says Levesque". Now inspired by both Numan and Bruford, Levesque set out to assemble a kit that was something similar to Mr. Bruford's rig. Once the dust had settled (and the savings account effectively drained) an Ensoniq EPS Sampler and ESQ-1 Synth, several Remo Rototoms and a cluster of yellow Simmons hexagonal drum pads were integral components of Levesque's new hybrid rig. 1985. Equipped with new instrumentation and a seemingly endless desire, a now intensely driven Levesque was able to create his own brand of electronically generated music. The drums, synths and samplers served up blank canvases on which anything could be painted, and he was at last able to produce complete compositions wrought from his mind's eye as a solo artist. Many of those works would remain unfinished or reside on floppy disks, but some were ultimately finished and recorded to be distributed in very small quantities under a project he named 'Boys in Factories'. In fact, the only product of its existence is in the form of 10 tracks recorded to a few cassette tapes, one of them landing into the hands of a television station's production department which ultimately led to Levesque being hired to provide music jingles for several TV and Radio adverts. Apart from that, the solo project never left the studio except for having once been featured on a campus radio station (CJSR-FM 88) in Edmonton by an enthusiastic radio DJ named Sandy Middleton. Beyond that, it was back to the studio to continue writing and wood shedding, with the occasional task of providing original scores for several commercial clients and video game designers. Levesque's still evident determination to continue growing, learning and honing his chops... plus a desire to push himself into unfamiliar and sometimes uncomfortable and foreign situations as a musician and composer... has led him to partake in and experience unique and otherwise inaccessible opportunities. Lately, the resume-padding is the result of music compositions and scores for film, video, TV jingles and audio Post-Production. With credits that include scores for Sci-Fi Web Series, Documentaries, Jingles for Television and Radio, Computer Games, the quest to score a major film or two remains high on the bucket list.