I would not be a proper Montrealer, nor a good résidente du Québec if I didn’t adhere to the cult of Celine. She truly encapsulates the Quebec vibe: unapologetically dedicated to the fun of performance and art. I think in her heyday Celine rose to the occasion of super-stardom and embraced it as a performance artist more than anything else (see: backwards tux). I mean, Montreal is the home of Cirque du Soleil (which we tip our hats to the game if you get *that* ending), and is maybe the only place on earth where you will see fat-tired unicycles all year long, including in the dead of winter.
I definitely took the lead on writing Rochelle and wanted to make sure she was authentically Canadian and Quebecoise. And while I know I was taking a risk writing a biracial character, I felt I had enough of a voice to impart as a woman in the music business who had professionally (and personally) experienced loads of injustice, sexism and racism. Being in a rock band (that I often managed) with a black lead singer we definitely challenged the norms. When we rolled up to a gig we were often asked if we were a rap band or if our lead singer was, in fact, the bass player for mysterious reasons. In one instance when we arrived for soundcheck the bar owners took one look at us and asked us not to perform, even though we had a contract. Admittedly that venue was in Alabama and had a huge confederate flag on the stage. So stereotypes work both ways, I guess.
This is not a game about social justice but a game about how the music industry is founded on a complete disregard for social justice. In the 90’s the business model had three pillars: sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Encourage the musicians to be rock stars and let the suits do the rest.
Institutional change happens slowly, in tiny steps. I hope that in writing Rochelle, and in playing her story, that you get a sense of this. Of the barriers and gatekeepers in music, and how these barriers escalate 1. If you're a woman or non-binary; and 2. If you're a person of colour.
Riley is the perfect foil to this, a textbook example of how casual-core gets a free pass while everyone else is held to a higher standard. If you're not the white guy then you're something exotic and the marketing team better be able to put that in the press release.
Too cynical? Too jaded? Maybe a little, but the truth is hard sometimes. Take a look at the demographics of the artists on your favourite playlist. What artists are on there? How hard are those lines between the type of music a white person is "allowed" to make, vs. a person of colour? Any patterns? Most of the black artists are rappers, or RnB singers, when the white folks are allowed to do whatever the fuck they want, right? Assuming, dear reader, that you have tons of Insane Clown Posse and Eminem on your playlists…
How are female artists portrayed? Are they sexualized and wearing tons of makeup? Or baggy pants and a big t-shirt (Billie Eilish excepted).
I wanted to show how these hard gender lines are often forced on young women, especially in America, and especially in the entertainment biz. I think things are getting better, and newer artists have more freedom to be themselves, but there’s still a lot of pressure on folks to fall into a certain category so their music will be easier to sell.