Roger Briel Plante (the B.C.-based, one-time Yukoner) plans to return to the territory with new music and a rejuvenated creative mindset
It’s been a while since Roger Gabriel Plante has talked about himself in an interview, he tells What’s Up Yukon when he answers his phone. The singer-songwriter, who goes by Roger Gabriel, professionally, has been writing songs since he was around 13 years old, growing up in Sudbury, Ontario. Now 53 years old, he considers the Yukon home and spends his time between Whitehorse and Kelowna, B.C., where he is on a work contract these days.
“I moved to the Yukon in 2010,” he says. “While I was there, I never stopped writing. I kept writing my music and I’d play every now and then at shows and little festivals when I first started in the Yukon. Once my name got out a little bit, I started playing more.”
Plante, pronounced the French way and not as “plant,” uses his middle name as his stagename for that exact reason. After so many times being called Roger Plant, including on CBC Radio, it was time to take up a different moniker. The father of three balances music with his family and work, but music has been a constant through many stages of his life and, whatever other commitments he has, that remains a passion of his.
“Eventually, after I learned how to play guitar, I started playing my songs,” Plante says. “I started a band to support my first-ever album, which is called Roger Gabriel: Wide Open.” The debut album, released in 2009, was produced by Tom McKillip.
“We got together and released this album, and in support of the album, we went on tour,” says Plante. “I toured a lot of British Columbia and Alberta in support of the album.”
Plante likens himself to the “always the bridesmaid, never the bride” expression, saying he’s had the opportunity to open for lots of larger-scale country artists across Canada, but has come up short of moving those kinds of figures himself. He’s shared the stage with the likes of Alan Jackson, Ian Tyson and Aaron Pritchett, to name a few.
“I’ve played a lot of the big festival stages with a lot of my peers,” Plante says. “I spend a lot of time, as well, when I’m in my writing phase, writing for an album. I go to Nashville quite often to write with a group of friends of mine, a bunch of cool writers I met years and years ago who I’ve been writing with ever since.”
After Plante landed in the Yukon, he ended up getting married and having kids, making music move to a spot on the backburner for some time as he gradually got busier with family needs.
“I put music on hold for quite a while, close to ten years,” he recalls. “Eventually, as the kids got older, I got out a bit more. I started playing again and put my own band together, to keep myself busy and have a bit of fun with music while still working.”
In 2023, Plante released a single called “Truck for Sale.” Since then, he’s been writing more and more, working up to completing another full-length album. His newest song, “OutRun A Bullet,” was released this November.
“It’s just been a little bit of a learning phase to get back into everything again and get back onstage with a band,” he says. “It’s been awhile.”
Plante penned “OutRun A Bullet” with his collaborator Ryan Nicholson, a Nashville-based songwriter. The two each have daughters, and the song title came from a conversation between the two joking about questions they would ask a boyfriend that one of their daughters brought home.
“You start asking the tough questions,” Plante explains. “You’ve got to put the fear of God in them a little bit. We were just having fun with it.”
Though the idea of a song about meeting a girlfriend’s father for the first time leans on the humorous side, Plante wanted the musical end of the tune to be serious. He used a lower tuning to give it a heavier country-rock edge, with hard-hitting drums as well.
“That’s kind of my brand; I’m a country-rock guy,” Plante says. “I love rock and I also like country, so I try to fuse them together a little bit, but never losing my crooner ways.”
Once the song was written, Plante couldn’t wait to lay down the tracks. He contacted his good friend Jay Terrance, who has a home studio in Peachland, B.C., and got down to business recording the new single.
“I’m feeling pretty excited, because it’s a strong song,” Plante says. “It’s got a great message and it’s kind of a fun message too.”
Plante has already laid down bed tracks for another four songs. With music now back in the forefront of his life, he’s excited to record, release and perform much more. He plans to move back up to the Yukon and be closer to his kids who still live there, once his contract in Kelowna is up—and, of course, putting together some shows in Whitehorse is high up on the agenda.
“When I first moved there, I realized there wasn’t a lot of the kind of country music I was playing,” he says. “It was more traditional. The artists and songwriters up there are really amazing, and I was listening to the kind of music they were writing and putting out, and I tried to adapt to it, and it changed the way I write a little bit too.”
Plante gives a shout out to Yukon artists Patrick Jacobson, Speed Control and Elijah Bekk, as artists he admires, and praises the welcoming feel of the music community in the North.
“When I first started performing, they really embraced me,” he says. “I lived in the bush in a cabin, half an hour outside of Whitehorse, and whenever I’d come in to do the open-mic nights or shows at the 202, I found the community very embracing, because people had never heard of me before.”
To keep up with Roger Gabriel Plante, follow rogergabrielmusic on Instagram. “OutRun A Bullet” and the rest of Plante’s catalogue are available on all music-streaming platforms.
