A Montreal singer-songwriter and producer, Paul Cargnello built his career on a simple conviction: the words matter as much as the music. He played his first stages as a teenager at Montreal’s Yellow Door, and through the 1990s he was as much an activist as a musician with the political punk-reggae band The Vendettas.
He went solo in 2002. In 2007 came Brûler le jour, his first entirely French-language album, carried by the top-10 single Une rose noire. It was followed by Bras coupé (2009), steeped in New Orleans, nominated at the Canadian Folk Music Awards for best francophone singer-songwriter and selected for SOCAN’s Echo songwriting prize. A dozen of his songs have reached the Quebec top 40, among them L’effet que tu me fais.
The recognition has followed: a MIMI Award for best singer-songwriter in 2005, a win on Radio-Canada’s Sacré Talent, and a Félix Leclerc Award nomination. In 2013 the City of Montreal gave him its Outstanding Citizen Award, its highest distinction for a citizen, for his anti-poverty work. He founded NDG Arts Week in 2010 and is now its spokesperson.
In 2017 he released Intense Cité with the magazine L’Itinéraire, with the profits going to the magazine, alongside the children’s album Something Dimferent. In 2019 he marked twenty years in the industry with Promises and a major show at the Montreal International Jazz Festival. His most recent records — Sad Little Songs (2024), Blues de combat (EP, 2025) and Combat Blues (2025) — carry that same committed writing forward, in French and in English.
Paul Cargnello is also a sought-after producer. He founded the Upper China studio in late 2016 and has produced hip-hop, reggae, punk, pop and R&B records. With his brother Christopher he forms the duo Skinny Bros. He has collaborated with Michel Rivard, Jim Corcoran, Anna McGarrigle, Stefie Shock, KRS-One, Lee Oskar, Maxi Priest, Etana, Narcy and Andrius Mamontovas, and shared stages with Billy Bragg, Ari Up, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Garland Jeffries and Kim Mitchell. He also co-wrote the title track of the film The Good Lie (Warner Bros.) with Martin Léon.
For more information, contact:
Julien Senez-Gagnon
Booking agent |
booking@pasamusik.com
1.438.938.9033 (also on WhatsApp)