About the Record
Written by Nidal Eradi
Back when I was running my previous production company, Resort46, my partner Burton White and I got invited to a studio session by Jason — someone we already knew from the scene as an incredible singer. That same year, he had just made it to the semi-finals of La Voix Québec. He told us the studio belonged to a legendary producer and that we absolutely had to pull up. We didn’t ask many questions. We just showed up — the way we always do — this time with Bojan (Elmnt) tagging along.
At that point, there were already four people involved in the session… plus the mysterious producer we still hadn’t met. Jason comes to get us at the door, walking next to this guy who somehow looked like an even more relaxed version of Scott Storch (yes, I didn’t think it was possible either). He introduces himself: Louis Côté. The one and only. The man behind countless French hits from the early 2000s, including “Femme Like You” by Camaro.
Instant goosebumps.
The studio was spacious, warm, and inviting — with a massive live room and gold records lining the walls. Louis welcomed us in, told us to make ourselves at home, and casually said we could use the studio as long as we wanted. That’s when we realized he wasn’t planning to sit in on the session. Out of pure respect, we locked in and treated the space like the gift it was.
Bojan sat down first and started building a simple but nasty beat. I picked up the guitar and laid down the chords while Burton dialed in the tone through analog preamps into his laptop. Then I grabbed a smooth P-Bass and locked in the bassline while Burton made the whole thing bounce. At that point, Jason was already humming melodies. That’s when the room shifted — we started shaping the song section by section, fully in the zone.
Three hours later, Jason was in the live room absolutely killing it. Vocals, runs, ad-libs, harmonies — everything.
Then came the final moment. Past midnight by now. Louis walks back in, glass of wine in hand. He sets it down, plugs in a MIDI keyboard, scrolls through one of his presets, and in a single take plays the outro line that perfectly closed the song. Majestic. Effortless. Final.
We all looked at each other and knew instantly: that’s it.
Louis laughed, complimented everyone’s work, and just like that — in one evening — the record was done. It only needed mixing and mastering.
We stepped outside after and ended up hanging out until around 3 a.m., talking about everything and nothing. Louis Studio would do that to you.
I still call this one the All-Stars record.