The response to the two pieces that I wrote in regards to stolen records and unethical practice within the industry have been mind-blowing. After my second article exposing Juke Ellington for stealing records, the flood of messages from producers that have had their records stolen in some capacity was overwhelming. One in particular caught my eye, as it dealt with a respected label, and had been a dormant issue for several years. Jean-Francois Martel is a producer with a couple pseudonyms (electro records as Fantohm, and bass records as Youri Pete, who is one half of the group The Bubbleheads). And he reached out claiming that a producer named Marc Rémillard stole a tune from him in 2010:
1.
Marc Rémillard has been released on Trouble & Bass, Play Me, and Heavy Artillery. The tune in question was his first label release, and is the anchor of his career. All of the data and information that was handed to me checks out. I have been given the raw stems from the audio session, proving that Youri Pete created this record. If you have any doubts, you can download them for yourself here. I was also given a time-stamped MP3 from the producer from six months before the record was released via Trouble & Bass.
But before you point the finger directly at Rémillard, we have screenshots of emails sent from Youri Pete to both Rémillard and a direct email at Trouble & Bass that were never responded to. The label was messaged several times in regards, and did nothing. This tune was offered to Trouble & Bass. Rémillard explained that this would be listed as a co-produced record, then everyone seemed to be compliant in releasing this track without the permission of Youri Pete at all:
In all fairness, Youri Pete said "nobody to blame" and "I'm not mad at Marc" in these emails, then hands this information to me. Neither producer is particularly popular or well known by the public or within the industry. Why would Youri Pete reach out to dispute a record that Trouble & Bass probably didn't sell a ton of units of? Accusations like this can tarnish a reputation and ruin a career, and outside of the fact that Do Androids Dance is in the middle of exposing similar stories, waiting this long to say anything makes as little sense to us as the act of stealing the record in the first place. Youri Pete puts it quite simply: "Because i had no way to say it publicly."
That said, Rémillard used this release to catapult his career, and admitted that he had help in producing it. It's still for sale, and Youri Pete never signed a contract or saw a penny from the sale of this record. I actually purchased the tune so I could compare the two records. Outside of a different mix and master, they are nearly identical. The only difference is some slight modification to the drums. The tunes are sequenced exactly the same, use the same sounds, and would be the same exact length if Rémillard let the last note breathe as Youri Pete did. Just for shits and giggles, I placed both of them in Ableton to see how their waveforms differed:
2.
3.
I found Remillard on Facebook and messaged him over the weekend. He denied any wrongdoing and was understandably a bit standoffish. His demeanor and story changed once I provided a link to the audio stems and screen shots of the messages. He apparently angrily messaged Jean-Francis, who didn't waver in his stance in wanting his voice heard. And instead of taking an apologetic stance or admitting wrongdoing, he played the victim. Some excerpts from our conversation:
4.
** I send him a large portion of the content in question **
5.
The only point to be questioned is whether or not Rémillard produced a portion of the original tune as he claimed to have. He certainly didn't produce the entirety of the tune, didn't credit Youri Pete on the record, and doesn't have any contracts splitting profits. I reached out to an artist signed to Trouble & Bass, exchanged a few emails, and the conversation stopped. There might be messages from the label that tells another side to this story, and earlier today, Rémillard posted the following message on his Facebook regarding this very investigation:
6.
With all of that said, I will leave you with is the record from The Bobbleheads, which was time-stamped six months before Marc Rémillard's tune was released, and Rémillard's offering on Trouble & Bass.
