JF Pauzé

Born in Repentigny, on Montréal's North Shore, Jean-François Pauzé, who also goes by the name JF Pauzé, has since the mid-1990s developed a writing rooted in Quebec folk-rock, with elements of neo-trad, country, and Francophone song. Co-founder of the Cowboys Fringants with Karl Tremblay in 1995, JF Pauzé became their main lyricist and composer, decisively contributing to an aesthetic that blends popular energy, everyday narratives, social outlook, and environmental concerns. Across the group's albums, from 12 great songs in 1997 to Motel Capri in 2000, then Break syndical in 2002 and La Grand-Messe in 2004, Jean-François Pauzé refines a direct, narrative and often collective writing, attentive to the suburbs, the middle classes, political dead ends as well as impulses of solidarity. His work also circulates in other formats, notably with Pub Royal, a musical comedy born from the Cowboys Fringants universe. In 2025, JF Pauzé begins a solo path with the song Ballon-sonde, then the album Les Amours de seconde main, announced for 2025, in a musical continuity that remains linked to folk song and roots-inspired rock, with a central place given to the text.