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Mademoiselle K
Second album from France's hot new 'rockeuse'
Paris
18/08/2008 -
What happens in any ordinary interview is that the journalist fires off the questions and the musician answers them - sometimes on, sometimes off automatic pilot! But Mademoiselle K is a girl who seems to be bent on breaking all the rules, so it was no surprise when, in response to a passing remark about her new album cover, the singer launched into a 20-minute tirade touching on China, Poland, national diplomacy and the current state of French rock - before finally returning to the official subject of our conversation: the content of her new album!
Thanks to recent offerings such as ça me vexe and her tormented rock ballad Jalouse, Mademoiselle K fans had realised France's new female French rock icon can be a bit touchy at times. But her second album, Jamais la Paix, appears to have stretched her nerves to breaking-point. "I composed the material for the new album working under a very tight deadline," she explains, "and I found it really tough. In the past, I used to spend up to a month writing one song. I used to take my time working on everything down to the slightest intonation. But this time round, there were moments when I was working on five different songs at the same time and I had to get them all finished within a week. There was obviously more stress and suffering involved in the process because the deadline was so tight. And that meant the moments when I was really up against the wall, when I felt like I was running on empty, weren't happening once a month but every other day. I really had to force this album out. The musicians were all being incredibly productive with the arrangements and there I was lagging behind, running late with the lyrics!"
The wind and the fury
Like her debut album, Ca me vexe, Jamais la paix opens with Mademoiselle K openly haranguing her listeners on a track entitled Le Vent et la fureur (The Wind and the Fury). You can just see the strikingly tall singer, striding around the stage in leather boots and leather jacket, sporting her usual black eyeliner and Chrissie Hynde-style fringe. She's looking for trouble and everyone knows it. "Yeah, I'm definitely setting the tone for the rest of the album on Le vent et la fureur," Mademoiselle K admits, "It's like I'm saying 'OK, come on, but watch out, I might bite. And you'd better know that I'm going to rub you up the wrong way!"
Grave lightens the tone a bit after Maman XY - Mademoiselle admitting that on this bluesy number she has thrown in "a bit of sexual double-entendre for good measure - the way I like it!" Ms. K also throws in a few more quips on her anti-social character and her inability to fit in with the rest of society - a compatibility problem she also experienced in the collective making of her new album. "We composed all the music for 'Jamais la paix' all four of us working together," she says, "Before, I functioned as a singer/songwriter/composer, but this time round I really wanted us to work together because I feel there's something very strong between us." Mademoiselle K announces that she is "really happy" with the resulting album, but admits that "What was really tough during the making of it was having to show the boys in the band the lyrics when the songs were at their most fragile, when the tracks hadn't had time to mature properly. I felt really shy about showing the guys my work like that - it was almost as if I hated them for just looking at it!"
Under pressure
Tension built as the songwriting process wore on and the band, Ms. K admits, almost came to blows over a song called Clic-Cloc. "I knew Clic-Cloc was going to be a song about feeling pressured by time," she says, "but the problem was I hadn't actually come up with any lyrics for it. About a month before we were due to go into the studio together, I told the guys that 'Clic-Cloc' wasn't going to be included on the album even though I knew they were all really into the song and wanted it on there. Anyway, they kept on insisting and it was really winding me up to the point where I was like 'Can you please stop doing my head in?' I was basically trying to let off a bit of steam, you know, escape from the pressure. The pressure didn't come from anyone at the record label or anyone around me, it was pressure I was putting on myself. And it got to the point where I felt trapped. I felt like I'd never be able to do anything on my own ever again, that I was stuck working as part of a foursome! And I hated the other musicians for just being there!"
Somehow the band appear to have survived the making of Jamais la paix with their friendship intact. And perhaps the stress and tension that went into the album's production paid off in the end for, in our humble opinion, Mademoiselle K's second album stands head and shoulders above the usual French rock releases. So let's hear it for Ms. K's vocals - alternately wild, furious, sarcastic or moodily tender - and let's hear it for the rest of the band, too, because Jamais la paix really hits home on a musical level. Breaking away from traditional rock formulas, experimenting with innovative guitar riffs and putting their own unique spin on French indie sounds, these four musicians engage and impress. May Mademoiselle K and her companions never have a moment's peace!
Mademoiselle K. Jamais la paix (Delabel) 2008
Mademoiselle K is currently on tour in France. Paris date: 13/9
Ludovic Basque
