At the end of the phone line, directly from Orlando, Steph Carse talks enthusiastically about the different projects that fill his schedule.
The Quebecker, who will celebrate his birthday on Monday, is currently hosting Joy In Our Town on the TBN network in Florida. “The show features important topics where you can change situations, with a Pay it Forward approach,” he says.
For the past few months, he has also been actively involved in the campaign against bullying YI Count and will be releasing next month’s album My Shining Hour .
In 1989, Steph Carse made his music debut.
Steph Carse will return to Quebec on June 17th to participate in the PA Methot Country Party at the Bell Center. He will sing his mega-hit, Achy Breaky Dance , and the song against bullying, Awesome .
“I never denied Achy Breaky Dance ,” he says. I have often come back to Quebec to do it. When I am invited to big events like La poule aux oeufs d’or country or the Just for Laughs Festival, I always say yes, if the schedule allows me.”
In spite of everything, this enormous success was exhausting for the singer in the 1990s. In 1997, he decided to head for Nashville.
“I needed to reinvent myself,” he said. I always see a song as a role you play. This time, the role had surpassed the artist. I needed to know what I was to do next.
“I grew up on a farm in Mascouche, so country has always been part of my roots. That’s why I decided to go to Nashville. I thought maybe I was going to do something there. “
“I slept in my car”
The American dream, however, did not go as planned. “It was years of lean cows. I slept in my car for months. It’s funny, because I was working on the special Olympics album with Donna Summer over there and her husband was producing tracks for me. I would go to her house almost every day. Actually It was not a house but rather a mansion. But at the end of the day, I would go back to my car, that was basically my bedroom, I would shower at the YMCA and eat at the $1 menu from Wendy. I did not tell anyone. I was trying to stretch my money as much as I could. “
It was in Nashville that Stef Carse decided to change his name to Steph. “It was a suggestion from Donna Summer,” he said. She told me that by calling me Stef, the Americans would think I was Stefanie. While Steph is Stephen’s diminutive. “
This very difficult period in Tennessee allowed the singer to meet his management team with whom he decided to work in Orlando.
“I did not have a definite plan,” he said. I was going where things were leading me. But I met some good people who helped me a lot. “
Life in Orlando
2006
Steph Carse ended up in a PBS documentary in 2006.
After a brief turn to the pop-opera that led him to Las Vegas (“it was a completely different world”), Steph Carse returned to pop with the album Reach Out , in 2006.
In recent years, he has developed a passion for editing and producing videos. “What people do not know is that I work a lot behind from the camera. I am very low profile. “
“I never looked for attention, I never wanted the stardom,” he continues. When I was little, I was shy. But I realized that I liked to express myself through music and art.
It creates a lot of conflict! “
Living in Orlando for 17 years, Steph Carse is very fond of his Floridian life. “In 1997, when I was still living in Quebec, there was 10 feet of snow in front of my garage and I was not able to open the door. I told myself I never wanted to live that again! “
Despite everything, Steph Carse returns to Quebec almost every winter, he who is skiing. “Mont-Sainte-Anne, in Quebec, it’s my place,” he said.
Now in his fifties, what is missing to the happiness of Steph Carse? “I’m trying to meet the person I’m going to be able to share my life with,” he says. I never wanted children and that’s what often broke my relationships in the past. But as people get older, the people we meet at our age are generally not looking to have children (laughs). “
A CAMPAIGN AGAINST BULLYING
A few years ago, the daughter of a close friend of Steph Carse tried to commit suicide after being intimidated. For the singer, who experienced bullying in his childhood, this event was the trigger for launching the YI Count campaign ( yicount.org ).
“I recorded the song Awesome , which reminds us that we all have something unique and extraordinary inside of us to celebrate,” he said.
The singer has recently started touring schools to talk about intimidation. “Through our campaign, what we convey is the power of speech.”
Has he ever heard of Jasmin Roy’s work on bullying in Quebec? “No, but I was just wondering what was happening at that level in Quebec,” says Steph Carse. I would like to talk to him, because perhaps we could combine our efforts. It’s a real problem. “
When he was young, Steph Carse lived bullying for many years, and until 2 primary e secondary.
“At home, we were a foster home for people with mental problems,” he said. We have been a foster home for 25 years. When it came to school, that’s where the bullying started. I was thin and very shy. I became a perfect target. “
MY SHINING HOUR
PHOTO COURTESY
After several years of absence on CD, Steph Carse recently returned to music by producing the album My Shining Hour . The album will be the subject of a TV special on Daystar next month.
“Half the songs on the album are original pieces,” he said. And the other half is made up of covers. “
Among them are Amazing Grace, How Great Thou Art, Crying in the Chapel (Elvis Presley) and Make You Feel My Love (Bob Dylan).
STEPH CARSE IN 5 POINTS
- It was successful in Quebec in the early 1990s with the play Achy Breaky Dance , which was a French-language cover of Achy Breaky Heart , by Billy Ray Cyrus.
- In 1998, he was invited to sing Bocelli at the Opening Night of the Hotel PortoFino in Universal Studios, Florida.
- In 1999, he sang Freedom on Special Olympics Canada, Holiday Heroes . The disk generates over $ 2 million.
- He co-wrote the song Reach Out, in 2005, which became the official piece of the American Red Cross.
- In 2017, he launched the Awesome challenge , which is linked to the campaign against bullying, YI Count.
