Man who spent years living on the streets of Vancouver gets a new start

And JP Tremblay, he’s with us in studio today along with Hugh Olichick, producer and co-owner of Akashic Records in US Minster. Hello to the both of you. Thanks so much for coming in. We need a little bit of background here, JP. Back in 2019, you packed up your guitar. You drove out West. What was your your plan, your vision at that time, my little Hollywood, because I heard that even Bryan Adam was playing on Granville St. and playing flamenco. So yeah, I wanted to play music and I see the mountain, the beautiful view, because I’m from Montreal, never been that far. And yes, so everything was going fine, playing some music, having really a great time until, yeah, you know, the COVID. OK. So COBOL, this is really interesting in itself. So you spent some time in a Soyuz, went to Whistler. And so you’re you’re actually parked in your van on the Riverside in New Westminster. You’re you’re, you don’t have Wi-Fi, you’re not plugged into it. And you’re just as about you and your guitar and your music and and finding your space. Yes. So you, you wake up one day. When did this realization kick in? So I need to go to the city, which I, you know, all the time for my water and food, just go to the city, play a little bit it, get my food, my supplies, and just go back to my tent. And then one morning there’s nothing, nothing on the shelf, nothing, nowhere. I didn’t know what’s happening. And yeah, so somebody told me Corona, you guys, there’s the Corona going on. And then like I said, I I thought it was a joke at first because I just came from Montreal, which we had the limb. So the lime and the Corona is like, is that somebody? Yeah, I was like, is that a joke? But I saw that it was very serious. And then, yeah, then from there it was very hard because I didn’t have the chance to make connections. And then so I go back to my tent and I I remember just peanut butter and Nutella. It was like, oh, not even bread so. And playing in the street is a no, no, because they close everything because you had supported yourself by busking until that point, people would give you, yeah, I like your music. Here’s some money and you could live on that for, for the moment, you know, I knew that something would come, but I didn’t expect the Kovid. So that was a real, yeah, real challenge. I see. OK, then things really started to spiral out of control. But what? What are you comfortable sharing with us? Yes. Well, yeah, it’s like we had a year very hard and at some point I could not eat and easy to turn. I am human to turn to medication on the street and then ’cause it wasn’t like for party or anything, was really to survive. You got 5-6 days without eating. Even my brain could not understand what was happening. So yeah, so that year really bring me down. But with the music I was still playing music and and keep the faith, but until a point that I could not because it was really hard. A year without really good food and stuff. It was really my I wasn’t a fog at some point, you know, in my brain. So I even text my my son back east and say it’s too hard. I I, I really didn’t see the end of it. You know a lot of people didn’t see was very challenging. So I tell him I say it’s enough I’m leaving. Like I feel like I want to die kind of. Seriously. Yeah. It was very that bad. Wow. Wow. OK well I think I think that background is is important to to see where we want to go with this next. What happened from from that point, from that point that my son, he he wrote me a beautiful letter and I kind of give me the strength to get out of where I was and then reach out, which I say to everyone today when you have problems, something just reach out. So I reach out to UGM Union Gospel Mission in US Minster. They showered me, they gave me food and a beautiful team from Fraser Elk called iheart. They came and then they brought me to the hospital and and but slowly having good news like no, no, you’re doing OK you have problem a little bit here and there with your blood but you’re going to make it so from there making my way up making my way up and then after that they open a little bit the street so I could start playing again. But that experience show me I met a lot of addict people, a lot of homeless people and I found the human be behind this behavior. I know as a society we don’t like too much that behavior but to to have gone there truly to find a human behind we all human. So yeah so you were busking at one point and there was a a music producer who who saw you and Hugh this this is your your turn to to jump in and and pick pick up the story. So someone brings JP into into your studio. Well well we’re at the studio we had that guy come through we were doing some music with him and he called us and he said hey I just met this great singer down at New West station. Can I bring him up? And Morgan, he’s the other owner of the company Morgan Perry. And he we just looked at each other and said sure anyone can come through. And so they come up, JP comes in and now we meet him and we find out he’s a busker and all. And we we started making music right away with the other producer and him and it just wasn’t going well. But the talent that he had, the feeling and everything behind him was so authentic that I think within like I think we all looked at each other and just realized hey, we need to we need to make something. So I think we kind of we split ways with the other producer, not nothing to it, but we start making music with JP and it was just nonstop magic and and he lets us do what we want and he does what he wants and it it marries very well.