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Album review
CD OF THE WEEK: PARIS COMBO
Five Go Mad in the Studio
11/01/2002 -
Whipping up a catchy multi-ethnic mix of 'chanson', world and Django-Reinhardt-style Gypsy jazz, Paris Combo fuse the charms of retro tunes with light-hearted lyrics about love, wayward cattle and urban pollution! What's more, the fivesome's infectious musical mix is carried along by the clear, joyful vocals of Belle du Berry, the group's ebullient lead singer who was eight months' pregnant when the Combo recorded their new album. We caught up with Belle, Potzi and the group's Australian pianist, David Lewis, and asked them a few questions about their career to date.
OK, let's begin at the beginning and start off by asking how the group got together. How the hell did an Australian end up in Paris Combo?
David Lewis: Well, my first contact with French music came at school. When I was growing up in Australia we used to listen to early albums by Françoise Hardy in French lessons. It must have been something to do with the fact she's got such good diction and articulates all the words! I also used to listen to a lot of Frida Boccara, but I'm into classical music too. I've always loved Ravel and Debussy.
I ended up coming to live in France because I was lucky enough to get a place at the Paris Conservatoire. I was around 19 or 20 at the time and I only had one thing in my head – get out of Australia, travel and see something different. Australia's such a long way from anywhere else that I suppose that's only natural really. Anyway, I started working on the French music scene in the early 90s, playing trumpet with Arthur H. and Manu Dibango. Those were two very complementary experiences – and fantastically interesting too! I ended up joining Paris Combo about six years ago after I met Belle at a gig. I play piano but my role in the group also extends to acting as general organiser and "head of brainstorming"!
Belle du Berry: Mano (Paris Combo's Gypsy double-bass player) was the most recent arrival. He joined Paris Combo back in '96. François (the drummer), Potzi (the guitarist) and I started out playing together as a trio – we've been together for about 10 years now! Back in those days we didn't have any of our own songs. Our gigs consisted of covering old classics by 'chanson' stars like Charles Trénet. The group's been through quite a few line-up changes in the course of our career. We were Les Champêtres De Joie at one point, and before that I spent two years working with the final line-up of Les Endimanchés. I don't actually play an instrument myself, but I use the accordion to try out things when I'm songwriting … I only know the basic keys, though. The accordion's more like having a little pet animal around than anything else really!
Paris Combo's music harks back to the 30s, 40s and 50s a lot. In fact, in one of your songs, Rétroviseur you sing about "looking back in the wing mirror to get ahead in life." Are you happy about being labelled a "retro" band?
BdB: Well, for a long time "retro" was used in a very pejorative sense, especially in the media. And I think that's a shame because there were some really progressive things going on in those so-called 'dark' years. Actually, seeking inspiration in music that dated back before the 60s was seen as something you should feel ashamed about. And that attitude only started to change recently!
DL: Whatever happens, I think the most important thing is not your influences but what you end up doing with them – that's what counts! I mean, I don't think anyone could possibly tell from my music that I'm a big fan of Tom Waits and Caetano Veloso, for instance!
BdB: The thing about Paris Combo is that we all come from very different backgrounds. Paris is the one thing we've all got in common, the same way we're linked by our love of music, especially jazz. Jazz is really the one solid base we work from. Apart from that everyone delves into their own little musical 'garden', digging up a bit of this or that. It's like we all arrive with our own musical baggage and lay it on the table. And our songs are the result of piling all sorts of bits and pieces together and trying to make them stand up and sound coherent. That's another thing we all have in common really - this desire not to get bogged down in any one particular style. I don't think you could play in this group if you did, actually, because Paris Combo's all about mixing up different musical colours and emotions.
DL: That's why you'll hear some pretty surprising arrangements on our albums every now and then. The thing is, we never know beforehand exactly how a particular track will sound. We're into the idea of letting a natural mixing process happen in our work – and a lot of the time we just cross our fingers and hope the end result sounds as harmonious as possible! I think the fact we choose to work like that makes our music pretty difficult to define. If you don't want to spend a lot of time beating about the bush, I'd say Paris Combo's sound is basically swinging French 'chanson' with a retro edge.
On Rétroviseur" you also sing about "staying off the highway and cruising down the back roads." Your music always sounds so calm and laid-back compared to a lot of other modern stuff. Is that because you think current 'pop' music is too noisy and in-your-face?
DL: I think a lot of modern stuff's got real swing to it and I'd say that about music from a lot of different sectors, even the more 'violent' styles. Personally, I don't have anything against people using machines so long as musicians use them in a way which puts a bit of soul into the music. I think all kinds of musical experimentation are interesting. The reason Paris Combo are different from a lot of other groups is because we're a purely acoustic outfit. We can play any time anywhere without having to spend hours plugging our instruments into electric cables … But we're not opposed to the idea of teaming up and collaborating with a totally different group or having someone do a remix of one of our songs. In fact, we've already kicked the idea around ourselves. We weren't able to do that with the last album, for a host of different reasons. But this time round, who knows? I'm all in favour of the idea – as long as it brings something new to the song!
Paris Combo's lyrics tend to always be a bit light and upbeat …
BdB: Actually, I'd say I try and write songs that can be understood on several different levels at the same time. I'm not into the idea of imposing one single vision of things. I prefer to leave listeners free to dig around and come up with any meaning they choose. And if they don't want to do that, well, then they can just sit back and enjoy the melody, the rhythm or the superficial touch of humour I like to bring to the lyrics.
The words to the songs are very much a reflection of my own state of mind really … I love the idea of spontaneous writing, you know, the sort of "automatic" texts Dadaists and Surrealists like Soupault and Tzara experimented with in the 20s. I like the idea of coming up with stuff like that – because on the one hand that kind of writing sounds a bit wild and crazy, but on the other it's absolutely fundamental.
The tour you embarked on after your last album seemed to take you to the four corners of the world …
P: It certainly did! We ended up playing all over Australia and touring South-East Asia as well. In fact, we did gigs in Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia. And we got a really great reception everywhere we played. It was amazing really, audiences in Indonesia gave us almost a bigger welcome than in France – but our album wasn't even on the market in Asia. And over in the States we met American fans who'd driven hundreds of miles - some of them had spent up to six hours on the road! - to come to our gig. They'd heard us on a radio show we did out there that you can pick up on the Internet ...
BdB: We get a huge kick out of playing live and the thing about our songs is that they don't get fixed in stone once they're recorded. They take on a life of their own when we're on tour. In fact, the more we tour, the more changes we add to them. We've got to change things a bit every now and then – if only to stop ourselves getting bored! Improvisation plays a very big role in Paris Combo, you know.
In fact, I think this was the first time in our career that we went into the studio and recorded without working the songs through on the road first!
Interview: Oscar Hapas
Translation: Julie Street
International Tour:
From 1/18/2002 to 1/30/2002 in Australia and from 2/1/2002 to 2/2/2002 in Asia.
From 2/6/2002 to 4/20/2002 in France and from 4/23/2002 to 5/12/2002 in the United States.
