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Special report
The French Kiss Tour in India
Starring Mademoiselle K, Anaïs and Emily Loizeau
Bangalore (India)
26/06/2007 -
Times have changed
"We’re children of the ‘70s," says Emily Loizeau with a smile, "I have a real passion for the music of that era. But whereas our parents had the whole hippie dream of India - which holds a certain fascination for us, too - we’re coming at it from another angle because we live in very different times. India has obviously changed a lot since those days, too. I feel that I’m not so much on a mystical quest as searching for spiritual sustenance. And I definitely don’t need a guru. I just want to get out and meet local people because there’s an incredible energy here!"
While tourists indulge themselves in the guru/ashram/all-day meditation routine, Anaïs, Mademoiselle K and Emily have other things on their mind, excited as they are by the thrill of taking their music to a whole new audience. What’s more, this is an audience who have already discovered the girls’ music on radio and television, especially VH1 (the local MTV). So on their arrival in India the three French ‘chanteuses’ could pride themselves on being better known here then The Beatles in their time!
"I don’t know whether groups in the ‘70s actually came out to India to play," quips Mademoiselle K, dressed in her signature jeans, skintight leather jacket and cowboy boots despite the onset of the monsoon season, “When you actually see the conditions, the electric shocks you get when you touch the mike, I don’t know whether it was really possible back then. I think groups came out here in search of other things. India was always my mother’s big dream, she was into the whole flower power thing, but she never dared to live the dream. That was the whole point for her. India was a dream. My approach is very different. I’m not going to go round taking my shoes off or anything. I'm keeping my boots on because they’re on the end of my feet. But keeping my boots on doesn’t mean I’m soaking up any less of the culture here. One thing I’d love to do is take a sitar lesson while I’m out here. If a master sitar-player asked me to get changed, I would because at the end of the day music is the highest force. It’s true, I have my own ritual before I go out on stage. I’m not the same person. I get changed for that."
As she trawls the local boutiques in search of a reasonably-priced electric sitar, Mademoiselle K remains totally pragmatic in her approach. She is still riding high on the fact that she managed to find a harmonium (traditional Indian keyboard) in Calcutta. But the singer is also thrilled that her trip to India means realising another kind of dream, her dream of playing with her band at the “Fête de la Musique.” "You know, this is something I’ve dreamt of since I was 15 years old," she laughs, “I so wanted to be one of those cool groups playing in the street. And imagine, last year I played my first Fête de la Musique with the band of my dreams in China. And this year it’s India!"
Reaching out to new audiences
The three singers are quick to point out to the crowd of local journalists covering the tour that while their work may share certain similarities - such as the fact that they all sing in French and English - they each have their own distinct artistic vision which sets them apart. Anaïs, the opening act at the joint concerts, takes to the stage alone with her guitar, her special-effects pedal and her musical loops. Her Cheap Show deals with a range of personal songwriting issues, offering her own feisty, tongue-in-cheek take on modern-day couples, the "joys of motherhood", the "life is hard" ethic and Scotland. Nittin, a fan from Trivandrum, a southern Indian state, is suitably impressed. "There are just so many colours in Anaïs’s voice. There’s a total explosion of sounds and music coming at you from the stage. We’ve never seen a performance like this before!"
As for Emily Loizeau, she conjures up her own unique poetic universe on stage with a polished acoustic show, sitting at the piano accompanied by a ‘cello, drums and an occasional flute. Her show follows its own dream logic, the stage bathed in soft light as a live video performance unfurls backstage. Marlin, a fan in the audience at the Bombay concert, was visibly thrilled. "The show was so original, so dramatic, so brilliantly staged. And Emilou (sic) is so touching and adorable! Please come back and play here again soon. We need music like this!"
Mademoiselle K’s performances in India have generated great enthusiasm, too. The French singer even got a rave review after her Calcutta concert in the respected daily broadsheet The Indian Express. The newspaper’s critic concluded that "Mademoiselle K has the brutal force of PJ Harvey, the quirkiness of The Pixies and The Stone Roses and the ominous strains of Radiohead… This is the French equivalent of musical ‘blitzkrieg!’" As for the cameraman from TV Taha, on hand to film Mademoiselle K’s concert, he was still reeling from the band’s stunning improvisation and the grand vocal finale. "I could stay here and listen to this for two days without eating or sleeping!" he enthused.
In a land where music is everywhere, carnatic and spiritual sounds issuing from courtyards while FM radios compete with car horns, cawing crows and the general hubbub of the street, Mademoiselle K appears to have found her niche. "I get the impression that audiences here really love it when I go off on a slightly weird tangent, singing about life on Mars or diving through the clouds!"
It looks as if Anaïs, Emily Loizeau and Mademoiselle K actually have a lot more in common than their nationality, their love of ‘60s and ‘70s sounds and Serge Gainsbourg. As their French Kiss Tour of India proves, the three ‘chanteuses’ appear to have an extra dimension to their soul, a spark of wit and irony in their songwriting and an element of freshness, spontaneity and surprise in their live performances. A million miles from the perfect smiles of Bollywood starlets or the revolution-inciting material of local Indian bands, the French trio sing about introspective moods, exploring the emotional impact of solitude, heartbreak, jealousy or the simple ups and downs of everyday life.
Such personal songwriting material could have distanced audiences in India, but instead it appears to have struck an unexpected chord. "I’m not shocked when Anaïs sings about her hatred of coupledom and her issues with Christina or when Mademoiselle K and Emily Loizeau do songs about jealousy," says Sandjeep, from the Madras-based band Rainbow Bridge. "I think it’s normal that artists should draw on their own personal experience.” And this is exactly what Anaïs, Emily and Mademoiselle K have managed to do, winning over Indian fans with their typically French take on songwriting, music and performance.
Elodie Maillot
Translation : Julie Street
02/02/2005 -
