Fred St-Gelais is a Canadian songwriter

Songwriter

A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...

, television music composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

, record producer

Record producer

A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...

 and multi-instrumentalist

Multi-instrumentalist

A multi-instrumentalist is a musician who plays a number of different instruments.The Bachelor of Music degree usually requires a second instrument to be learned , but people who double on another instrument are not usually seen as multi-instrumentalists.-Classical music:Music written for Symphony...

, currently living in Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

, Quebec.

Early work

Fred St-Gelais has been immersed in the music industry since he was a teenager. After studying music for several years, both privately where he grew up in the Saguenay/Lac-St-Jean region of the Quebec province, and at the Lionel-Groulx College in the Montreal region,
he began his career playing guitar, bass and keyboards, as well as singing in clubs around Quebec in the late 1980s

1980s

File:1980s decade montage.png|thumb|400px|From left, clockwise: The first Space Shuttle, Columbia, lifted off in 1981; American President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev eased tensions between the two superpowers, leading to the end of the Cold War; The Fall of the Berlin Wall in...

 and early 1990s

1990s

File:1990s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: The Hubble Space Telescope floats in space after it was taken up in 1990; American F-16s and F-15s fly over burning oil fields and the USA Lexie in Operation Desert Storm, also known as the 1991 Gulf War; The signing of the Oslo Accords on...

 with various local Top 40, rock

Rock music

Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

 and blues

Blues

Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

 acts. He decided to build his own studio, where he could work on and fine-tune his production, arranging, and songwriting skills. During this time, he also produced independent albums with local artists, such as Damien Tremblay.
During the same time frame, St-Gelais began to receive more and more calls from various jingle and production music producers requesting his services as a studio musician, vocalist and programmer.

Move to Montreal and later work

St-Gelais moved to Montreal in February, 1999. Since then, he has worked with Marie-Mai

Marie-Mai

Marie-Mai Bouchard also known as her stage name Marie-Mai, is a French Canadian singer from Quebec...

, Celine Dion

Celine Dion

Céline Marie Claudette Dion, , , is a Canadian singer. Born to a large family from Charlemagne, Quebec, Dion emerged as a teen star in the French-speaking world after her manager and future husband René Angélil mortgaged his home to finance her first record...

, David Usher

David Usher

David Usher is a British-born Canadian singer-songwriter. Formerly the frontman for the alternative rock band Moist, he embarked on a solo career beginning in the late 1990s.-Biography:...

, Roch Voisine

Roch Voisine

Joseph Armand Roch Voisine, OC better known as Roch Voisine, is a Canadian Acadian singer-songwriter, actor, and radio and television host...

, Randy Bachman

Randy Bachman

Randolph Charles "Randy" Bachman, OC, OM is a Canadian musician best known as lead guitarist, songwriter and a founding member for both the 1960s–70s rock band The Guess Who, and the 1970s rock band Bachman–Turner Overdrive...

, Melissa O'Neil

Melissa O'Neil

Melissa Crystal O'Neil is a Canadian singer who was the winner of the third season of Canadian Idol in 2005. She was the first female winner and is the second youngest idol winner in the world, with the youngest being 2004 Australian Idol winner Casey Donovan...

, Rex Goudie

Rex Goudie

Rex Goudie is a Canadian singer, songwriter and was the runner-up of Canadian Idol 3.-Biography:Rex Goudie was born in Dawson Creek, British Columbia on November 18, 1985 and moved back to his father's hometown of Burlington, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada with his family when he was a year old....

, the Canadian Idol

Canadian Idol

Canadian Idol is a Canadian reality television competition show which aired on CTV, based on the British show Pop Idol. The show was a competition to find the most talented young singer in Canada, and was hosted by Ben Mulroney. Jon Dore was the "roving reporter" for the first three seasons...

television series, Gabrielle Destroismaisons

Gabrielle Destroismaisons

Gabrielle Destroismaisons is a French Canadian singer. In 2000, she released her debut album Etc..., which sold more than 100,000 copies in a few months.- Videography :* Et cetera ** Into you *...

, Andrée Watters

Andrée Watters

Andrée Watters-Michaud is a musician and a one-time Felix-award winner in 2004, from Quebec-Early/Non career life:...

, Alain Dumas, Les Mecs Comiques, Annie Villeneuve, Lindsay Robins

Lindsay Robins

Lindsay Robins is a singer-songwriter who wrote and performed the theme song "What Would You Do" for the VJ Search reality series on MuchMusic, which went on to be the 2007 recipient of The North American Promax Award for Best Music Package/Theme Song...

, Crampe en masse

Crampe en masse

Crampe en masse is a Québécois comedy duo composed of Mathieu Gratton and Ghyslain Dufresne active from 1998 to 2005.-Biography:Their second album Roule-toi par terre has sold more than 15 000 copies and won 2000 Félix Award for Humoristic album of the year.-Discography:*Crampe en Masse*Roule-toi...

, Réal Béland, and the band Hépatite B, in which he is also the lead singer and guitarist.

Music composed for television shows

In addition to his work with Canadian Idol, St-Gelais has composed music for the following TV shows:

Ramdam, Kif-Kif, the interstitial program

Interstitial program

In television programming, an interstitial program refers to a short program which is often shown between movies or other events, e.g. a cast interview after movies on premium channels...

 R-Force, Fan Club, Star Academie, Stan et ses Stars, Instant Star

Instant Star

Instant Star was a Canadian television program which aired from September 2004 to June 2008. The series starred Alexz Johnson as adolescent music competition winner Jude Harrison. The show chronicles Harrison's experience in the recording industry whilst focusing upon character development.Linda...

, Le club des doigts croisés, Sam Chicotte, and Degrassi: The Next Generation

Degrassi: The Next Generation

Degrassi: The Next Generation is a Canadian teen drama television series set in the Degrassi universe, which was created by Linda Schuyler and Kit Hood in 1979. Degrassi is the fourth fictional series in the Degrassi franchise, and follows The Kids of Degrassi Street, Degrassi Junior High, and...

(Season 7, Episode 7 "We Got the Beat").

Notable accomplishments, nominations and awards

He performed with Sheryl Crow

Sheryl Crow

Sheryl Suzanne Crow is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, musician, and actress. Her music incorporates elements of rock, folk, hip hop, country and pop...

, Sarah McLachlan

Sarah McLachlan

Sarah Ann McLachlan, OC, OBC is a Canadian musician, singer and songwriter. Known for her emotional ballads and mezzo-soprano vocal range, as of 2006, she has sold over 40 million albums worldwide. McLachlan's best-selling album to date is Surfacing, for which she won two Grammy Awards and four...

 and Jarah Jane, in addition to serving as Jarah Jane's musical director during the Detroit leg of the 1999 Lilith Fair

Lilith Fair

Lilith Fair was a concert tour and travelling music festival, founded by Canadian musician Sarah McLachlan, Nettwerk Music Group's Dan Fraser and Terry McBride, and New York talent agent Marty Diamond. It took place during the summers of 1997 to 1999, and was revived in the summer of 2010. It...

.

He has twice been featured in Recording magazine.

The band, Hépatite B, in which St-Gelais is the lead singer and guitarist, had their self-titled album nominated for 2002 best rock album of the year at ADISQ

ADISQ

The ADISQ is a nonprofit organization with the mission to help the music industry in Quebec. It was created in 1978....

. Three of the album's songs became top 20 hits: "Ton Amour est trop lourd", "Mélanie est partie" and "Je sais, je sais".

St-Gelais, Lindsay Robins

Lindsay Robins

Lindsay Robins is a singer-songwriter who wrote and performed the theme song "What Would You Do" for the VJ Search reality series on MuchMusic, which went on to be the 2007 recipient of The North American Promax Award for Best Music Package/Theme Song...

 and Christopher Ward

Christopher Ward (songwriter)

Christopher William Ward is a Canadian songwriter and broadcaster, known as a former long-standing on-air personality at MuchMusic, Canada's music video network, where he and J.D. Roberts were among the first video jockeys in 1984...

's song "Time Bomb," was named a finalist in the 2005 International Songwriting Competition

International Songwriting Competition

The International Songwriting Competition is an annual song contest based in Nashville, TN, whose mission is to provide the opportunity for both aspiring and established songwriters to have their songs heard in a professional, international arena. ISC is designed to nurture the musical talent of...

 (ISC). The ISC received nearly 15,000 entries for the competition, and fewer than 2% of the entries were selected as finalists. Their song was submitted in the "Rock" category.

Along with Marie-Mai

Marie-Mai

Marie-Mai Bouchard also known as her stage name Marie-Mai, is a French Canadian singer from Quebec...

, St-Gelais was showcased at the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame

Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame

The Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame is a Canadian non-profit organization, founded in 1998 by Frank Davies, that inducts Canadians into their Hall of Fame within three different categories: songwriters, songs, and those others who have made a significant contribution with respect to...

 3rd Annual Gala, which was held February 5, 2006.

At the ADISQ

ADISQ

The ADISQ is a nonprofit organization with the mission to help the music industry in Quebec. It was created in 1978....

 30th Annual Gala in 2008, Marie-Mai won a best rock album of the year Felix Award

Félix Award

The Félix Award is a music award, given on an annual basis to artists in the Canadian province of Quebec.The first Félix awards were presented on September 23, 1979, by the Association du disque, de l'industrie du spectacle québécois...

 for her album Dangereuse Attraction (Dangerous Attraction in English), which launched in August 2007. St-Gelais cowrote and produced the album, which also became certified gold in August 2008, one year after it debuted.

St-Gelais and Marie-Mai

Marie-Mai

Marie-Mai Bouchard also known as her stage name Marie-Mai, is a French Canadian singer from Quebec...

 were featured on the cover and in a feature article in the spring 2009 issue of SOCAN's Paroles et Musique magazine.

He was nominated for a Juno in 2010 for "Record Producer Of The Year."