Meteghan is 'paradise' for musician who set up studio in rural Nova Scotia

"It's kind of like a paradise around here in every sense of the word."

Alexandre Bilodeau is sitting in the sun porch of his home in Meteghan, on the province's French Shore, talking about why he moved back here two years ago after leaving Montreal and his band, Radio Radio, to try something new.

For more than 10 years Bilodeau, who performs as Arthur Comeau, built a solid music career as a DJ, rapper and producer, most recently with Radio Radio.

The pop/hip hop group, which works primarily in Acadian French, has garnered plenty of critical praise and commercial success; they were shortlisted for the Polaris Music Prize in 2010, played the winter Olympics in Vancouver, won an Independent Music Award in 2011 and have amassed millions of views on YouTube.

Meteghan is where it's at

But Bilodeau was beginning to feel like he needed a change, and so with a desire to tour less, produce more and focus on his own projects, he moved back to his home community. Meteghan might seem light years from Montreal, but for Bilodeau it was the catalyst for his new endeavour.

"This is where it's at," he said. "I knew that coming here would be a lot easier to produce the albums on an international level the way I want to do it."

With that in mind, Bilodeau used space in his house to create Tide School, a label/studio where he produces and records electronic, DJ and hip hop music, mostly in Acadian French and with a nod to the region's culture, albeit in a modern way. What makes the project especially interesting is Bilodeau is doing it almost exclusively with other people who live in the community.

Having this kind of a scene in a place most people would never associate with electronic music and hip hop isn't a surprise to Bilodeau. The community has always supported his projects, with kids coming out to see his shows and people tuning in to the local radio station to hear his weekly radio show.

And he wasn't surprised to find like-minded, talented people to work with.

"Just in Clare, there's so many musicians, people you wouldn't expect, like plumbers and electricians that can play guitar better than most of the guys on stage at any festival you'll meet. But they chose to do it on their time, as a hobby."

Michael Gaudet, who is from Meteghan and performs as Mike A Vik, said what connects everyone involved with Tide School is a belief in what they're doing and who they are. They're all coming from different places musically (Gaudet mostly played in hard rock bands before this), but it's a shared view that makes it work, he said.

"Like-minded people always gel," he said. "It's like a gang of people that understand each other musically [but] we're all different."

A feeling of validation

The aim of Tide School is to establish musical connections in places such as Montreal and Louisiana and then spread their work further, all while based on Highway 1.

Bilodeau, as Arthur Comeau, is a known commodity, especially in French music circles, and that goes a long way to opening doors. But he's the first to say Tide School is about more than just him, and the music of the others involved stands on its own.

Recent festival dates in Montreal showed them they're on to something, said Gaudet.

"It gives you a feeling of validation," he said. "The people were really digging what we were doing and getting really into the vibe."

'I came back for Tide School'

Moussa Sangré-Ponce, who performs as Denzel Subban and is also from Meteghan, was in high school when Bilodeau was first gaining prominence as a musician.

An aspiring writer and rapper himself, Sangré-Ponce would get on stage with Bilodeau when he would return home to perform with Radio Radio and his previous group, Jacobus et Maleco.

The timing of Sangré-Ponce's own return to the community in January from Ottawa, where he attended university, seemed fortuitous, he said.

"I came back because I received a job here and I'm very appreciative of receiving an opportunity to come back home, because a lot of people, they can't come back home or can't stay here after they're done their studies because there's no job in their field," he said of Meteghan.

"That's what drew me home, but I came back for Tide School."

'It's very beyond language, what we're doing'

For now Bilodeau is focused on producing more music, building a new studio in the garage behind his house and exposing more people to the Tide School catalogue.

He knows from his time in Radio Radio that, while French audiences might be the most interested initially, what they're doing is bigger than language. Good music is good music, he said.

"I'm not too worried about the actual language being used," he said. "Especially in festivals, if you're offering a good-feeling vibe and something new . . . I wouldn't be limited by language, and even Acadian culture, I wouldn't define it as being French people.

"We have songs in English, we have songs in gibberish; half of our French I can't even understand — we're making up words. So I think it's very beyond language, what we're doing."