Album review

Matmatah

Just Trying to Make You Smile!

06/04/2001 - 

Matmatah, a dynamic four-piece from Brittany, scored a surprise hit on the French rock scene three years ago with their debut album La Ouache. The group's debut opus sold a staggering 600,000 copies and managed to spark a major controversy about cannabis in the process. Now the Breton foursome are back in the French music news with Rebelote, a second album which finds the band breaking away from the 'Celtic rock' label critics stuck on them in the past.

Brittany and rock have enjoyed a passionate love affair for over twenty years now, the local Breton scene escaping the dictates of Parisian trends and enjoying its own homegrown successes. Matmatah, who sold 30,000 copies of their first self-financed single in Brittany before gaining national recognition with La Ouache, are the latest Breton phenomenon to surface on the French mainstream. Honing their reputation on the local bar circuit in Brest, the Breton foursome established themselves as a first-class live act and before they knew it they were being snapped up to headline at major music festivals and tour China!

Matmatah also managed to spark a national controversy in the early days of their career. An overzealous policeman attended a concert the group played in Nantes in June 1998 and alerted the French authorities after hearing the lyrics to L'Apologie: "Non, bien sûr, le pétard n'élève pas la raison/Je le conseille tout de même avec modération… ("No, smoking joints won't make you lose your mind/ But I'd advise you to consume it in moderation all the same!) Matmatah soon found themselves up in court being prosecuted for "supporting the use and supply of illegal substances" and "presenting narcotics in a favourable light". What's more, the French courts ordered all band members to pay a punitive fine. RFI/Musique caught up with Matmatah before the band headed off on the road again - after a short delay owing to bass-player Eric breaking his arm filming the video to the group's new single Quelques Sourires! Eric being temporarily out of action, we hung out with Matmatah's two guitarists, Sammy and Stan, and asked them a few questions about their new album Rebelote:

Given your hectic 700-date tour schedule over the last four years, how did you find time to work on Rebelote? Did you work on new material while you were on tour?
Stan: Well, there were one or two songs which happened like that. But to be honest, we find it a bit difficult to get down to songwriting while we're on the road. We prefer to concentrate on the concerts instead. Actually, most of the songs on the new album were written after the tour. The first thing we did when we came off tour was take a break. Basically, we all needed a bit of a holiday after four years on the road! We needed to come down a bit and relax. We got down to some serious songwriting over the summer though and ended up going into the studio at the end of October.

Sammy: Things happened in several different stages really. First, there was the whole songwriting period where we all went off and worked on our own. Then we sat down together and pooled the new material we'd come up with. After that we got down to work with our 'artistic director' who came up to Brest to help us structure the songs and give us his opinion on the new material. So a lot of the work was actually completed well before we went into the studio. We worked out some basic structures and general guidelines, but once we got in the studio we did add a few things here and there. In fact, there was one track on the new album that was created during the recording sessions.
Stan: The thing is, on our first album we'd already worked out all the songs long before we went into the studio. We played the songs live before we even thought about doing an album. But this time round things were completely different. This was the first time we experienced working 'to order'.
Sammy: The good thing about working on Rebelote was that we were able to take a bit more time over things this time round. But then again we didn't want to spend too long working on it because, let's face it, there are songs you could spend a whole year working on and they'd still not be finished. Basically, you have to know when to call it a day! The good thing was we were working to a deadline this time round, so there was a moment when you knew you had to stop working on a track.
Stan: Deadlines mean you get a sense of urgency which can be really helpful. We'd never worked like that before so it was good for us, we got to experiment.

Did this new method of working change the way you came up with songs?
Sammy: Well, I get the impression that most of our new songs are really made for four guys playing live together on stage. We really tried not to over-produce the new songs, because we wanted to keep a bit of a live feel to them. I can remember while we were working on several tracks I found myself imaging the guitar parts played live in concert and I knew they'd work really well up on stage.

You went over to the UK to record Rebelote, just as you did with La Ouache. What's so good about recording over the Channel?
Stan: Well, basically we fancied eating a bit of mad cow! No, seriously, we like recording in the UK because the people we work with over there don't really know us or our music so they don't have any preconceived ideas about how things should be done. The other thing is, it's practical for us because it means we don't have to move around a lot - we stay put in one place until we've finished. I mean, if you're working in the UK you don't get your mates dropping in and encouraging you to go out at night. We really wanted to lock ourselves away and concentrate on the album and not think about anything else. We liked the idea of going to another country, having a bit of an adventure and not coming back until the album was finished.

Do you really need that level of concentration when you're working on an album?
Stan: Well, there's always a certain amount of tension going on when you're recording. And the good thing in the UK was that we were locked away in this amazing 17th-century manor house, right out in the middle of the countryside north of London. The manor house was this typically British set-up with heavy carpet everywhere - and it was haunted as well, of course! When you're recording a rock album in such a typically British ambience it's really inspiring. And the other amazing thing is, UK studios have all this equipment lying around which was used by all the legendary groups. This time round we got to work with the console Pink Floyd used on Wish You Were Here! Someone had found it lying round the Abbey Road studios and brought it up there. What's good about working in the UK is that they've been recording rock groups for forty years and they're bloody good at it. British producers and sound engineers have a real expertise we just don't have in France. I don't know why that is really, I mean we've got some very good studios and producers over here. But there's just something special about the UK.
Critics have often got your backs up by going on about the Celtic feel to La Ouache. Would you get annoyed if I suggested there's more of a 'pure rock' thing going on on the new album?
Stan: You can't do anything about that really - whether you come from Brest or you've got a few vague Breton connections, you get stuck with the Celtic tag. Critics find Celtic influences in everything you do. In fact, people have already told us they think certain songs on the new album sound really Celtic. The thing is, you always get a lot of influences carrying over onto a second album. But I think it's fair to say Rebelote is definitely more rock. And maybe it's got less of an upbeat, festive feel to it somewhere down the line. It's hardly surprising really. We recorded La Ouache in our student days, but now we've moved on and grown up a bit - and I hope people who are into our music have moved on a bit with us!

Matmatah enjoyed a lightning rise to fame and that must have caused a bit of jealousy and resentment on the local music scene. But on the song Y'a de la place (Room for Everyone) you send out a very altruistic message to other groups …
Stan: Y'a de la place is a song about the whole festival scene. The thing is, you're always going to get a bit of jealousy and backstabbing. But the important thing to remember is that before we got up on stage at the "Vieilles Charrues" festival, we'd actually been in the audience the previous year. And the process works both ways too! I mean, in 1999 Sammy was up on the main stage playing to 40,000 people and in 2000 he was down in the campsite playing guitar. We believe there's room for everyone everywhere. Everyone puts something into a festival like the "Vieilles Charrues" - it's not just about headlining bands!

On Quelques Sourires (A Few Smiles), the first single release from the new album, you bring up the subject of the controversy sparked by L'Apologie. Did you decide not to appeal against the French court ruling last summer?
Stan: No, we preferred to put our point of view across in a song. We're not interested in using the court room as a battlefield. We preferred to keep our mouths shut up until now. But it's ridiculous people getting things so out of proportion. I mean, when you look at what actually happened … I mean no-one's ever stopped us playing the song live! (Ed: whereas all the members of the band were made to pay a fine after the 1998 concert). It's just ridiculous - over the past 30 years the French government have just stuck their head in the sand on this issue!

There's a line on Quelques Sourires which goes "Pardon d'avoir juste essayé de vous voler quelques sourires" ("Sorry, all we did was try and get a few smiles"). What are you talking about here?
Stan: I came up with the idea for the song while I was watching a TV programme about the "Vieilles Charrues" festival on Arte. In the programme you see us up on stage singing L'Apologie and then the camera pans to the audience and you see 40,000 people, all standing there with these big grins on their faces. And you can't help thinking to yourself, "What did we do that was so wrong? All we did was make people smile!" I mean, come on, you've got to keep things in proportion. There are far worse things going on in the world than that!

Matmatah Rebelote (Trema) 2001

Bertrand  Lavaine

Translation : Julie  Street