World Music on 101.7 TNL Rocks this month, features Canadian band Beast. The Grammy-nominated band comprises vocalist French-native Beatrice (Betty) Bonifassi and Canadian composer/producer Jean-Phi Gonclaves.
The band released their debut self-titled album in 2008, with lead single Mr. Hurricane released on iTunes for free as the Single of the Week in the
Bonifassi claimed when the band was first formed, ‘the sound that originally came out was very raw and dark, so we decided to follow that vibe…The angry vibe, the mean vibe, it's new to both of us. The angry message is about letting the beast out that's inside, because in society you're not allowed to be emotive or sensitive. The feelings of the moment when we were writing were mostly sadness and anger.’
Bonifassi, whose vocals have been compared to the soulful pipes of Shirley Bassey, adopted a rap/trip-hop style on the album, "It was really by luck," she said, "I didn't plan for it to be a rap album, but Jean-Phi liked what I was doing and we pushed each other to see it through."
The two met when they started performing for a video game company, and what followed was their one and only album, Beast, which spawned two hit singles, Mr. Hurricane and Out of Control.
The video to the single, Mr. Hurricane, was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Short Form Video Category alongside Coldplay and the Black Eyed Peas.
However, lagging album sales and frustrations in the commitments and struggles of their musical career, led to the band taking an indefinite hiatus in 2010. Currently Gonclave has returned to his former band and Bonifassi performs solo. Bonifassi, in a recent interview with Voir magazine, claimed that she has worked in the past for other people’s projects, like in Champion or the immensely successful, Les Tripelettes de Belleville, or collaboratively, like in Beast and is looking to now, form a solo project.
[Play Now];ob=av2n
[Play Now];ob=av2e