Hi Yvon!

This is Stefan Glas from Germany. Thanks for taking the time to answer these questions. Ready? Okay, let's go!

Have you ever been called a "musical wonderboy"? I mean - starting to play guitar at the age of 8, first band at 11, start composing at 14 and since that time being continuosly active in bands (even some seemed to be just coverbands) - that's not what every kid does.

I'm not too keen on any titles. I'm just a performer who has a good time playing music..Period.
I don't know what they call me behind my back probably worst things than "Wonderboy" ha ha ha ..I really don't care..
Some mite think I'm Great and some mite think I 'm the worst ..That's life, everyone has a different opinion..
I just like to play and not worry about these things.

How did this come? Did you grow up in a musical family - at least your brother Alain accompanied you in many bands that you had.

From day one I always wanted to be a musician. My Dad played guitar and sang as well as some of my aunts and Grand Mother. 
(My father is the second born of 16 children) My aunts and uncle use to give me 25 cents to sing songs when I was very young.
There was always a guitar in our home. One of my aunts that use to babysite us, use to bring Beatles record. I always wanted to play and kind of influence my brother 
to take up the drums..He became really good after a while.. Alain was the drummer for all of my earlier bands which toured Canada 2 years in a row in the early eighties.
6 nights a week 2 hours a night..those were the days..Getting payed to tour the country and party..Rock n Roll
The song that has the most hits on youtube.com is a song I wrote in 1975 We played it with Rock Wizard then with BECUZ in 1981 a song called "Rock N Roll Party" 
the was recorded live in a TV studio in 1981 after our second tour of Canada..11,851 views on youtube.

I should mention my first all original band the " Yvon Serre Groupe" 1983. We had only rehearsed  2 weeks before recording our first TV show..then went on the play every club we could to get as tight as possible since we were going to Montreal and try our luck. Yes it was our lucky break when we performed at the club Soda in Montreal that there was producer looking for bandsin the audience .... a 3 record deal.. I was quite proud of that...there is still 2 sites that have our single up for sale.
 " Renfermer En Prison/Je T'aime"
http://www.cdandlp.com/artist/0-0-0/1/1/serre-yvon.html

The most "different" of your past bands for sure was THE HARRY STRAIGHT BAND. How did you come to the idea to dress up like a clown, stand on really high stilts and make music? Any influences by Alice Cooper, KISS or maybe THE SENSATIONAL ALEX HARVEY BAND? Was the clown show only a part of the history of THE HARRY STRAIGHT BAND? You wrote that it took place from 1994 to '97, but in your bio I can see that THE HARRY STRAIGHT BAND was found 1986 and was active for 14 years.

You are right The Harry Straight Band started in 1986..It was a name I just made up since I was leaving for Toronto (English City) from Montreal (French City) after my record had failed to make heads way in the French market, I felt I needed an English name. The Harry Straight Band was basically a bar band that had a few demos, that played on the radio and had a couple of TV appearances. in 1994 I started creating the clown show. Being influenced by Alice Cooper and Kiss..After the Beatles, the Alice Cooper Group where my biggest influence. I really though I had a chance and put a lot of effort into it. I had a lot of fun for a while but finally got tired of putting the make up on.. Kiss have been putting the make up for all those years.I don't know how they do it. I sent our demo everywhere, and went as far as talking to Bill Aucoin (Manager of Kiss). I have a lot of good memories of the Toronto music scene..

The show started in 1994 with a broken mirror guitar with a clown on stilts ( I was using  the silts for one entire set at the begining )..It progressed to a giant clown (Which would not fit in most clubs..only the head would fit), a mini guitar with 500 LED lights powered by a makita power drill batterie, Giant guitar with 40 lights again powered by a makita power drill batterie (Everything was wireless) a platform with lights, a smoke cartridge attached to my guitar, another cartridge throwing sparks for 12 feet etc.....and ended with using the stilts for only one song at the end.s
I've learned since that Ace Freley (KISS) was using all these guitar gimmicks a longtime before me. 

I was in a nightclub one time with my silts dancing on the dancefloor I  lost my balance and almost fell on the floor, good thing there where other people dancing so I was able to grab on to a few people and continued the show.

What else would you like to stress or to talk about in your carrere before M.I.C. came to life?

Starting from the year 2007 (before and around the Olypmic Summer Games in Bejing 2008) it was not so uncommon, that Western bands started playing in China, but for you it started a lot earlier. How did this invitation to Bejing in 2001 come up? Why did they pick you? Did you have any special relationship to China? Are you maybe a member of communist party in Canada, married to a Chinese girl or whatever?
I started integrating myself in the Chinese community in 1998 in need of a change and looking a woman and adventure. The Harry Straight Band even played in huge Chinese restaurants in Toronto.Being involed in that world I made a quite a few friends, always looking for an oppertunity to bring my band to China. It was in April of 2000 that I arrived in Beijing for the first time.I even brought my own toilet papper. That's how little I knew about this country. I even had some ideas that they where going to search me when I arrived. I was pleasantly surprise
at how the Chinese really treat the foreigners well. Through a friend I visited a few nightclubs talking about bringing my band to China. from Beijing I  went to Shanghai and met a friend
who I knew in Toronto. He brought me to the south of China close to Hong Kong a place called Shenzhen. We went to this huge indoor amusement park/ concert hall called "Future Times" and negociated a deal to bring the Harry Straight to China.. This place was so huge that there was a roller coaster inside. So I quickly rushed back to Canada after a month in China to put a band together for this 3 month contract.
After putting the new band together doing a few warm up shows in Toronto getting the passports etc.. the place went bankrupt. (closed it's doors)

As far as I understand, the first thing you did in China was the Yvon & Juan Show, which gives me a little bit of the impression of what I saw from the HARRY STRAIGHT-clown show. What was it? What about that special outfit with the big hat looking like a mixture of a crown and a jester's hat? The cover of the new M.I.C.-CD shows a picture of this show, which was a bit treated with Photoshop. Any special reason for this?

Before I went to China for the first time I had just started going out with this nice Chinese Doctor who later became my wife. We married in December of 2000..I always had in the back my mind that I was going to play China. I had this stupid idea of teaching my wife how to play keyboards, she had never played an instrument in her life, but she decided to go along with it.
The plan was to put the basic track on a Cd and play the rest live. She practice and learned about 10 songs..I still had the clown stuff in the closet and decide to wear the stilts again
but this time no make up.The Chester hat was part of a suit I designed to go to Shenzhen which also included that cow pants. We did our first show in March of 2001. In May of 2001 We went to China together for the first time..One of her friends booked us in one nightclub and a 5 star resort and brought a TV person to meet with us.

The M.I.C. CD cover.. well, you are right that came from our Yvon & Juan Show period..This was actually a family picture. Our daughter Nicole was about 3 weeks old..another crazy idea.
I had tryed many different covers for the Cd but didn't like none of them. I remembered that picture and though, hey maybe I can try something with this..

Why did you after this first thing in Bejing come to Chengdu, which is in the southwest/central of China? How would you compare both Chinese regions with each other? How much does life in both differ from each other? Tell us what is important and interesting to know about Chengdu! I think it is obvious that China is an incredibly huge country, so the landscape must for sure differ a lot. As far as I can see it, Chengdu would be a good city for me, because I am a passionate tea-drinker and it seems like there are many tea-houses. :-)

Chengdu is my wife's hometown that's why we came here. Beijing is like a desert, Chengdu like an Oasis.ha ha ha. Beijing is more expensive..Chengdu is surronded by beautiful mountain where everything is green and clean water. yes, many many teahouses.. One of the best things in Chengdu is the food.SPICY..YES.. Hot pot,,and known all over China for having the prettiest woman,,YES..Chengdu is also one of the top 10 most beautiful cities in China. 10 million population..

You did several TV-appearances in China. As far as I can judge from the clips on YouTube it must have been gigantic shows with many people attending. What can you tell about these TV-appearances?

Yes, we were on TV starting in 2002 for 2 shows with Juan, then in 2004 when we came back to Chengdu I did the 50 anniversary of the liberation of Chengdu show. We were living in Japan
when they emailed me about doing a TV show to represent the city of Chengdu. They wanted an all foreign band which I put together. But a few weeks before the show two of guys decided not to do it. So I mentioned M.I.C. to the TV producer..Two foreigners and two Chinese..They said YES..Here's the story about how it went after that..

It was the day before the TV show and we where on our way to the dress rehearsal at the concert stage..(a city close to Chengdu called "Du Jan Yan" ).
The two Chinese from our band went ahead of us. As we approached the location I received a phone call from the bass player's phone telling me 
they didn't want any Chinese on stage with us. I WAS FURIOUS..
I told the interpreter if the 2 Chinese (Billy and Chris) don't go on stage with us I don't go on. He said we'll resolved this when we arrive..
 
We arrived (Mark and I)... I left all my music equipment in the car and went towards the stage..going through all the people as the event was outdoor and people where listenning to the other acts of the show. after a few minutes of talking to the TV producer/translator back and forth... nothing was getting resolved..
I started getting pissed off. I told them, first you need to pay the Chinese double their money if they are not to perform with us..NOW!!
again nothing was done..Next thing I did  was to pick up all the equipement band members and headed out to the van that had brought us..with the translator flollowing us and nervously calling the producers on his cell phone. We put everything in the car and waited..finally after 20 minutes of waiting we came to an agreement, they gave the two Chinese their money..
we went on stage to do our thing...the two Chinese on stage with us..
Conclusion..
Everyone got more money and the Chinese (Chris and Billy) still got to go on stage..Although you don't see too much of them on the video clip.

That TV station did call me just recently to do another show, but I was unable to make it.

Except from that you played in China from big open air-festivals to nightclubs or corporate shows. Which shows were especially important or interesting, so you would like to say something about it?

We did a stadium show in Chongqing about 4 hour train ride from Chengdu. That was one of the most exciting shows. I remember when we came out of the dressing room towards
the stage I started to lift my hands up and people where screeming..That was a good one..
it's always a lot of fun we get free hotels, meals etc and share the stage with fire breathing perfomers to Kareoke Girls and Pretty chinese Dancers etc..
Nightclubs are fun too..Sometimes you'll be playing a song and someone will come up with 2 glasses of beer or liquor. they expect you to stop the song drink (Bottoms up)
then continue..Lots of fun..ha ha ha..

How and when did the change from the Yvon & Juan Show to M.I.C. happen?
This was just a way of play in China without having to put a band together..Not serious
Well, when Juan and I cam back to Chengdu in 2004 she told me that she would never play music again..
At that time I was thinking bands again..I had had enough of this too. My wife's a doctor she wasn't really interested in this .

What happened after the first CD with M.I.C.? Suddenly you proclaimed a new band called NAIL, which has the same line-up as the "new" M.I.C. Tell us about these changes!

After the first M.I.C. Cd, I had a meeting with the band and wanted to start recording another Cd but no one was interested. So off I went trying to put another band together.
TSM's Nicky had helped fuel the engine and I was on a mission to make the next album.

Did NAIL morph into the "new" M.I.C.? At least the two songs that you can find from NAIL on YouTube are now on the new M.I.C.-CD.

It was a new band so I though it needed a new name.. Nail was born, then thinking about it I thought maybe I should stick with M.I.C. not that it's the greatest name in the world
but we had one Cd out..and creating a cataloge of Cd's with the same name means more in this business. So I just kept M.I.C.. Nail did a lot of clubs in and around
the Chengdu area to rehearse the new songs before we started recording. 

How will M.I.C. go on? You have now a female member, who was just singing backings on the CD, but who will play rhythm guitar at liveshows. No danger of another split?

The future will tell if it will be the same members. At this point the drums are already recorded for the third album and Huang will (the bassist)  start recording his parts next week.
Angela is also a very talented player and singer..She also plays guitar very well.. She's also pretty cool to watch on stage..

M.I.C. has always been and still is a multinational band with musicians from many different countries. How and where did and do you rehearse?

The guest players it seems have been a part of M.I.C. since the first Cd mainly because I thought it need help the enrich the sound.One by one they came to the studio to record their parts. except for Uchida “ Yugi ” Yuuji & Jun Sugimoto from Japan who did their parts in Japan then forwarded the files to me via internet. I met these guys when I live in Japan. Really good players. They play with a band called "Trouble Tribe Japan".

I guess, you should be around 50 years now, right? Since what age are you able to live from the music? What else have you done for your living in your life?

I still think like a 15 year old, does that count? ha ha ha
I will be 50 in a few weeks. I don't know if I will ever stop performing, I've taken a few short breaks but I always come back.. 
I've had other jobs on a part time basis like travel agent, kindegarden school teacher which I hate.

Talking about your music, I guess I can say, that your way of writing songs didn't change that dramatically over the years. Even the French stuff from the YVON SERRÉ GROUPE has something in common with the M.I.C.-music or other music you wrote during the years. Would you agree on that?

Yes you're right again Stefan, It seems my tast and style has not changed too much since I was 15 years old. When I write a song I also need to feel good about performing it, because that's what I am a performer.. not a singer not a guitar player but just a performer who enjoys himself like a little kid.
Soif it feels good when I perfom it live..that's the best..Cos people want to see you having fun.

In the new M.I.C.-songs I can hear influences from the BEATLES (which can be a reference to your THE JR. BEATLES) to QUEEN or simply good old Rock'n'Roll. Am I right by saying this? What other influences would you like to mention?

I've always been a big Beatles fans since I can remember they will influence musician directly or indirectly forever. Alice Cooper, Bad Company, Mott the Hoople Johnny Winter, Rick Derringer to Lenny Kravets, Green Day, Rob Zombie etc..

In how far did you include influences from Chinese music to your songwriting? In how far do the Chinese musicians influence the songs? Would the songs sound different, if Canadian musicians would have played them?

It was actually the opposite that happened, I changed the Chinese song to fit my style. People don't really care what version they hear..They know those Chinese song so it's familiar to them. I don't think the songs would sound any different if I'd had Canadian players as opposed to Chinese. Rock is Rock

M.I.C. was until now mainly playing in China. Did you live for some time in China (and how long) or did you always fly back and forth? Where do you currently live?
I've been living in China now for more than 5 years this time, but I've been back and forth since 2000. I have had a happy life here.. Good country.

In that one YouTube-clip I can hear that you speak Chinese to the people and that one song you did on TV ('Chengdu shi wo jia' - what does it mean translated?) has Chinese lyrics. How well do you speak Chinese? So far as I know it is one of the most complicated to learn languages in the world. Are you also able to write the Chinese letters, which must be even more complicated?

'Chengdu shi wo jia'  Chengdu is my home ..I didn't mind singing this song although a bit poppy, because I LOVE CHENGDU. one of the best cities in China. I don't speak mandarin too well but I'm slowly learning. I just know how to write my name in Chinese characters. I sing 8 Chinese songs though but..Don't really know what I'm saying.. It's not an easy language.

How about the life in China? I guess living in Canada is not so much different from living in Germany, but the difference to China should be massive. What can you tell about this? Where did you live in China? Did you stay in a hotel all the time or did have your own house, had to go shopping and do all these normal things of everyday life? Tell us about it!

Living in China is Great. We've had our own appartment for more than 5 years living regular life. My wife teaches at a Medical University and Nicole our daughter has been going to school for 5 years now. I'm not sure that living in Germany and Canada are the same. I hope someday to go play some shows in Germany..I love to travel.. I would love to play Hamburg where the Beatles started..That would be so cool..
Regulations here are certainly not the same as in Canada or North America. for example riding a pedal bike you don't need to wear a helmet..Even motocycles won't wear helmets although
it's against the law. Their are no liquor laws here.. You can buy beer liquor, wine etc. everywhere. Even the smallest store will have beer and liquor. You won't see company employee going on strike here. There is a lot of construction going on , everything is being torn down for new building which makes it unappealing to me. China is becomeing too clean..ha ha ha especially the cities..There's also a lot of Rats here..The kind that crawl on four legs..You don't want to leave your windows/doors open at night unless you have metal screens. We had plastic screens on ours and they all had holes in them.. We spent one summer bearly sleeping  killing a lot of rats..
After a while they figured out that our home was not a party house but a death trap..Ha ha ha..
No rats will come near our building anymore..

Was it hard to get into the Chinese culture which for sure is different from what you know from Canada?
It was not that hard since I came to China numerous times before finally living here on a perminent basis. 
Yes it is a different culture but not as different as I though when I first came here.

How was the feedback to your concerts? From what I heard, it is not allowed in China for concert visitors to show too much excitement. I heard from a colleague, who was in China with IN EXTREMO (a German Medieval/Folk Metal-band) during the international culture-exchange fairs together with the Olympics, that the day before at another concert the audience was starting to go a bit crazy and when this happened, the security which consisted of Police- and Military Man bludgeoned them down and the concert was stopped right away. What experience did you make during your concerts?

From my experience the Chinese get just as excited as anywhere else. I think in Japan they're a little more reserved.  (Police- and Military Man bludgeoning people) this has never happened to us..When they had the Olympics in Beijing things started to get a little more stricked.. I could not send any Cd's or DVD's for more than 8 months during the Olympics.
Everything is stressed to the limite when the Olympics comes to a Country, many organisation want world attention, so this is normal.

How is your personal view about the relationship between China and the Western coutries? Do you see yourself as a kind of ambassador for the Western countries, that shows China a part of the Western culture - in your case Rock Music. Or do you rather think that the Western countries have a wrong view about the real situation in China, so you see yourself more as an ambassador, who wants to tell the Western people about the reality in China?

Mc Donalds has been here since 1980..There are a lot of North American fast food here...No, I'm not an ambassador for the Western countries..I just wanna play music..
In my view every country in some ways wants other countries to look less than faverable so that the people feel better about their own country... North American does a great job in portraing China as a 3rd world country. I guess that's why when I arrived in China for the first time with toilet paper and expecting to be searched was just the bad press about the word
COMMUNISM.

Just to make this clear: What we know about China is of course filtered by politics and media from boths sides and they all have their special interests, which makes them creating a picture that they want. So it would be excellent to have an more or less objective view on the situation through your eyes.

People are pretty much the same everywhere in some ways..Most people go to work earn money, raise children, go to the washroom, watch TV and go to bed.
Woman retire at 55 and Men at 60. Maybe it's the same in Germany. I remember when I first came to China people would give me their seat on the bus, Now there's too many 
foreigners coming here. I don't feel special anymore .. ha ha ha..
China is very convenient, compared to Canada were you definitly need a vehicle because everything is so far away, in China I just ride my bicycle everything is close..I even go to gigs
with my guitar and backpack driving my bike..Taxies start at less than 1 dollar..Cheap..

How important do you think is music for China's way towards democracy? I think it is definite that music played a certain role in the process that brought down the German Wall and that changed the whole East/West-conflict. Of course music was not everything, but it had for sure a certain influence, that people were rising up against their system, which was for example trying to keep them away from these Western influences like Rock'n'Roll-music. How do you see this whole thing for China?

Things take a long time to change, some things never change, but China has all that it needs and more. More and more people are buying new cars new housing live is certainly getting better. Like anywhere else in the world big business has the control. They want you to spend money, borrow money etc..It's all about money isn't it?
The world is becoming a big Mc Donald.. One thing that the American hate is the fact that we in China get all these new software, new movies for about 1 US dollar..
To answer your question I don't know if music will change the way people think..Today's kids certainly don't remember the culturel revolution, and if they do know about it they've got 
better things to do...Like everywhere in the world kids are consumed by computer games the internet, text messaging  boyfriends etc..
They don't need to worry about eating..Most of the kids are all spoiled..

How do you deal with the political system in China? For example you played at the "55th Anniversary Of The Liberation Of Chengdu"-show in 2004. I guess this was a celebration for the foundation of the People's Republic of China on October the 1st in 1949 by Mao Zedong after he and the communists won the Chinese Civil War (or at least something closely related to that). Of course we know that during his time as the President of the People's Republic of China Mao became guilty of the killing of millions of people. So the word "liberation" in this contents reminds me a bit of the Roman emperor Julius Caesar, who always wrote in his books that he was "bringing peace" to the countries that he was conquering and subjugating. Anyway - you played at such a celebration. Do you feel that you have been instrumentalised by the Chinese government for their interests? Did you have any moral concerns about playing in this show? Or did you simply think about playing your music, bringing you music to the people of China without having such deeper thoughts like I was writing down in the last lines?

The political system in China, well dosen't bother me. China has treated me well. No government is perfect. Even if they block websites like youtube, facebook etc..
Things are more liberal than other countries would make you believe. But there are still parts of Mao in some facet of everyday life. Concerning the liberation and Mao, Well I think every Dictator/President (or whatever you want to call them Kings, Queens...) etc.. looses their heads when they become in control..They think they're God like..some more, some less..
some kill more some kill less, as history has shown..
It seems a lot  People are using Julius Caesar's line..to take other nations natural resourses..
Also talking about politics usually gets people in trouble..You know...

Well, enough politics! Anything you would like to add? Simply go ahead!

I'm still working hard at promoting "Out 2 Rock" and we'll be done with our next Cd hopfully by May of this year for an end of the year release..
More to come with M.I.C.

So much for the moment! Looking forward to your answers!

Later!
Stefan