My year: Montreal music manager has no regrets about moving

When the pandemic hit, Fannie Crepin traded her loft in Villeray for a house in the woods, and she doesn’t miss the city.

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My Year is a weeklong series in which Montréal residents from all walks of life talk with Brendan Kelly about how they lived through the extraordinary year 2021. Today: Fannie Crepin, Music Manager.

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When the first wave of the pandemic took Quebec by storm in the spring of 2020, Fannie Crepin felt it was time for a major change in her life.

Crepin runs a music artist management company called Supercool Management, and his offices are set up in his Villeray loft.

“As soon as it happened, I was talking to some friends from all over the world and reading a lot, and I had a feeling this was going to take forever,” Crepin said. “At that time, people were thinking of reopening in September. Like four months later. I just had the feeling that I couldn’t live in this contagious (environment), with this lack of space, with the lack of green spaces. It had no terrace. I felt super trapped in the city. So I started looking for land. I didn’t have a lot of money and I was afraid of where we were going in the future. “

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He drove north every weekend and looked for places, looking up and down the Rivière Rouge because he knew that was where he wanted to live. He did that for four months, and then his mother found a house in Kijiji with 14 acres of land and the river right there at the edge of the forest. It costs $ 175,000. Crepin bought it in August 2020 and moved in November.

At first, he continued to rent a small apartment in the city, on the Plateau, but after a few months Crepin realized that he did not need a pied-à-terre in the city. He had fiber optics installed at his farmhouse so he could do all of his work online from there. In the summer, he went into town once a week for his regular softball game and slept at a friend’s house.

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But you don’t want to spend more time in the city.

“It’s when I go back to the city that I realize the post-traumatic stress that people in the city have compared to people in the regions,” Crepin said. “It is very different with COVID. The fear is not the same. At first, I brought fear to the city here. But we don’t see many people here. You don’t go out much. “

Crepin also feels like he made a sound financial decision.

“I feel more financially secure because now I have assets that I cannot afford in the city,” she said. “It is less expensive to live here and I have more livelihood. It has been a lot more relaxing for the cost of living. It has slowed down my pace of life, which I sometimes miss. But no one is really doing anything right now (in the city). If everything were the same as before the pandemic, you might miss the city more. But every time I go back now it is not the city that I recognize. So I’m not missing it right now. And my house has already increased in value since I bought it. So this was a great move. “

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He has goats and chickens on his property and loves the experience of living a completely different lifestyle.

“I no longer need to be in the city at my age,” said Crepin, who is 41 years old. “It’s like my public relations were done. I know these people now. I don’t need to stay and go to all the events. If I was 24 or 25, I probably wouldn’t feel that way in my career. I feel like if I go once a month, this is enough to keep the contacts alive. “

In short, he has no regrets.

“It is something very important to leave a lot of friends, I had a very social life,” said Crepin. “I worked in bars for many, many years. It’s a strange feeling at first (being in the field). But COVID helped with that feeling. They were all locked in, so it felt like a better move. I don’t think it would have been so easy if life had continued normally in the city.

“It is the best decision I have ever made.”

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Reference-montrealgazette.com

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