Rick Allison
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Rick Allison was born in Brussels, Belgium on July 17th, 1964. With Irish and Russian and origins from his parents, he became bilingual. He had been influenced by music from an early age where his mother was an amateur pianist and his father had international music interests. At only the age of 15, Rick started a band and gradually performed more and more gigs in clubs around Brussels.
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[edit] First steps to professional musicianship
Rick would join other groups and perform around Brussels but he had and insatiable urge to 'own' the words and music and, thus, became a songwriter. At this transition, he was inspired by various artists, such as: Jacques Brel, Elton John, Pink Floyd, Billy Joel and James Horner, to name but a few.
In 1985, success beckoned. He was hired at the Molière Studio of Brussels where his interaction with famous musicians developed rapidly and he was entrusted with the production, arranging and recording of many other, young, upcoming musicians.
[edit] The Lara Factor
In 1987, he was contracted to a studio that was running musical comedy for children in Bercy. At age 26, he returned to Brussels and became contracted there where his nights were spent in a hip piano bar in Le Crescendo. It was here encountered a woman he was amazed by, singing a rendition of The Girl From Ipanema. It was Lara Fabian. She was writing her first album and Rick opted to help her and they both went to Montreal to do such.
[edit] Fame
It was in Montreal that Rick and Lara made fame. Despite not finding a record label to sign to, they made their own and created Lara's first album which, after two years, became gold, and subsequently platinum.
Lara's second album, Carpe Diem, was also produced by Rick and then released in 1994. In 1995, having gained Canadian citizenship, they created her third album, Pure, teaming up with other famous names, they composed many unforgettable songs that rapidly soared to triple platinum in Canada, Diamond in France, and becamed internationally acclaimed.
Between 2002 and 2003, Rick decided, after helping so many other musicians, that he would created his own album featuring some songs with those who he had duetted with and some of Lara's work. The album is called Je suis un autre. To this day, he still is surrounded by work in the music industry.
