Stefan Defilet
Stefan earned his undergraduate degree at Trinity College of Music in London just this past summer- but he'd been playing music for a long time:
"I started playing when I was 6, and have stuck with it since then, fairly seriously since about 14 when I realised I wanted to do it for a long time. I play the piano pretty badly and the trumpet even worse!!!"
He and fellow Barrage members Ben Gunnery and Matt McDonough were students at Trinity College of Music together, but he hadn't really known them very well until they all joined Barrage.
"I had never heard of Barrage before they phoned me up to audition. I did the audition in London, middle of July, and two days later they gave me the job!"
When I asked what Barrage piece was- for him- the most technically difficult, Stefan said that it was probably 7 Wicked Reels- "where we have to play and tap at the same time... ever tried doing that?!"
But it isn't all hard work in Barrage for Stefan- there are the moments in the show when he and the rest of the group can just cut loose and have a good time:
"I love jumping off the riser into the start of 'Old Joe Clark', 'Chopsticken' just kicks ass and 'Sing Sing Sing' is pretty cool too!!
Stefan also had fun with what I consider the best perk of touring with Barrage- the ever-popular Walt Disney World stay. I wanted to know what he thought when that was brought up to them for the first time.
"Having never been to any of the Disney resorts I was pretty excited, specially as it was Florida which means SUN!! Had a few hours at MGM one morning, and we went on the 'Tower of Terror' twice which was AMAZING (specially the 2nd time, when you know what you're in for!) and we went on the 'Rock'n'rollercoaster' twice. Very cool as well, but far too short."
Not too short is the plane flight across the Atlantic that all the members of Barrage have to make to get to North America- they have a home base in Banff, Canada for rehearsing! I've made the Transatlantic flight myself, and I know how long it can be, so I asked him how he spends his time during the long flights across the Atlantic:
"Trying to get some sleep!!(And generally failing.....)"
As for window seat or aisle seat?
"Window if poss."
A lot of the Barrage members have said that they kill time on the plane listening to music: What's in Stefan's CD player most of the time?
"I'll give anything a go, but mainly Drum'n'Bass music- I love 'Adam F,' '4 Hero,' 'E-Z Rollers,' stuff like 'Lamb', 'Portishead.' I like jazz, experimental, etc."
Since 90 percent of being in Barrage is the touring shows, the question of dream tours came up- as in where would he like to tour with Barrage if he could go anywhere:
"I'd love to go to Asia, they're talking about Japan as a possibility- fingers crossed!"
Stefan Defilet and the rest of European Barrage will be appearing at Walt Disney World's EPCOT park in Orlando, Florida, for most of March and early April of 2001.
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