Interview

Interview with Jon Batiste | April guest curator

Charonne B. — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 12:49:46 +0000

Interview with Jon Batiste | April guest curator Charonne B. Tue, 04/06/2021

In April, we are joined by Soul's soundtrack artist Jon Batiste! In his hand picked playlist he will show you a wide range of new musical discoveries and take you on a ride, right here, on Stingray Music. Find out all about Jon Batiste in this special Stingray interview with him!

What is your all-time favorite story so far being band leader and Musical Director for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert?

When I received my first royalty check from playing my music on the show. Songs that I composed as a child were now being broadcast to the world on a nightly basis. It was a great moment.

What was your favorite moment working with Prince?

The meeting in the dressing room before going onstage. We stood in a circle and he spoke about the intention of the performance. It was a great example of leadership.

What is your best and/or funniest memory on stage?

I was performing with my band Stay Human on tour. We have very dynamic and spirit-led performances. One day I jumped in the air a few feet and landed in a split. I did this all the time during live shows but this time my pants split! I did the rest of the show covering my back. 

What were your biggest inspirations when you worked as a co-composer on the hit Pixar film, Soul?

I was inspired by the opportunity to share the music with children all over the world. At this impressionable age these stories have a major impact. 

What’s one question you would ask to your fans?

How are you after such a crazy year? How can I better connect with you in this time? Do you know God and do you pray daily?

If you didn’t become a musician what would you be doing right now? 

I would be a astronaut or a philosopher. Or a monk.

What are your most favorite songs of all time?

The ones I just made on my WE ARE album. Truly put a lot of myself into these songs and the album is genre-less.

You have worked with some iconic musicians in the past. Which musician(s) would you like to collaborate with next? 

A Bantu jazz album with Beyoncé and an African ensemble would be iconic. Cole Trumpet, this young girl who plays trumpet from the Dominican Republic. Temilayo Abodunrin from Nigeria. She’s a saxophonist who is not even 12 years old yet. The future generation truly inspires me.  Stefani Germanotta—better known as Lady Gaga. I think it would be a great exchange of ideas and energy. Keith Jarrett as well. There are many.

What is one thing that your fans don’t know about you (a fun fact)?

I do my own stunts! 

What is the best advice that you have ever been given?

Be yourself.

What’s coming up for you in the next few months? 

Hopefully doing some traveling soon. We booked some great music festival performances and I’m producing some shows of my own. Directing a film as well for the first time! Also working on some more film and tv projects so i’ll be all over the tube coming up. Mostly just excited to see the fans and get back onstage to play these new songs. 

Advice for getting through the quarantine?

Prayer. And lots and lots of therapy.

Find out all hidden gems of Jon and discover his personal favorite tracks!

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Find out all hidden gems of Jon and discover his personal favorite tracks in the link below

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Chip Wickham talks jazz, Blue to Red, and climate change – part 3

Rokas — Tue, 16 Mar 2021 11:12:35 +0000

Chip Wickham talks jazz, Blue to Red, and climate change – part 3 Rokas Tue, 03/16/2021

Stingray DJAZZ's editor-in-chief Rokas Kučinskas sits down online with expatriate British jazz saxophonist and flautist Chip Wickham, who shares his well-informed perspective on topics as wide-ranging as the Spanish jazz scene, climate change, and the future role of the music industry.

Wickham's music is often categorized as spiritual jazz, yet his latest, atmospheric album Blue to Red is firmly grounded in the conviction that the here and now are the right time and place for humanity to stand up for our future.

In this third and last interview part, we ask Chip: what's next for music? How does he view the future of the music industry given its current challenges, and what are his own musical plans for 2021?

How do you view the future of the music, and of yourself? Coming out strong, or even more in the decline, like you said?

In terms of output and creativity, it will be really good. I think people have had time to sit, write, and create. A lot of my friends in the UK are recording now, because there aren't many shows to do, and everybody can move around and get on with their projects a little bit. Even though they can’t do concerts they can go into the studios and record. So I think there will be a burst of creativity – people will put out a lot of records in the next two years.

Whether the quality of that will be any good, nobody knows. I’ve already seen quite a few albums released recently where people have just done an album at home and released it. And it sounds like it, do you know what I mean? So I think that the quantity and the quality might be a little bit out (laughs). But there’s certainly gonna be an outblowing of creativity. My only worry is that the structure will go... The venues and the support crew and all the sound guys: all that will be a lot less. Venues will shut. I know places that I planned to play in my cancelled tour probably won’t be there anymore when I go back to the UK in April 2021.

The whole industry for independent musicians is in the grip of this, right? Venues and the live music sector are going down…

It was already under pressure though, Rokas. We’re talking of an industry where venues were struggling anyway. They were working really hard to make ends meet. They are massively creative in the way they do things, because they pay enormous amounts of money in business taxes and rates, and all this money gets swallowed up and taken off them, do you know what I mean?

To run these businesses is extremely difficult, and the musicians are getting paid not more every year – we get paid less every year. It’s very hard. And live music is meant to save us, because streaming and record sales are 'promotion'. Spotify and iTunes are killing it, because people can’t afford to make the records to put them on those platforms to not make money – which is in fact all they do.

Do you think there’s a way out of that?

It needs a new format. If it’s going to be streaming, it needs to be done properly.

It needs to be done by somebody that can go: “OK, alright, so we’re not just putting together a system that makes one guy a billionaire.” It needs to be a system that maybe will take 20 years to pay for itself – not some sort of tech-savvy who says: “Oh, I’ve got this app…”, sells it on, makes his billions, walks away, and then everybody’s left with this system that’s a mess.

That’s kind of what’s going on right now. The system right now is just horrible. And all it means is that the only people that will be able to make music are people that do it either part-time, or are rich already. And that will just reduce the quality, because making a record is expensive, time-consuming, and a lot of effort.

Then you’ve got the guy from Spotify saying: “Oh, well, musicians these days need to up their output. They need to be putting out a record every year.” He’s got no concept of the fact that they can’t afford to do that. If he paid us loads of money, we'd make an album every six months. Fundamentally, he doesn’t get the industry that he’s raping. He is physically taking all the money out. He doesn’t understand it at all. And that’s shocking.

It just needs some other system. Already CDs are gone – we make CDs, but we don’t sell many. CDs are pretty much pointless. People don’t even have CD players anymore except in their cars or whatever. You sell CDs at gigs maybe – I sell more vinyl and downloads.

So the formats are all swooshing around. People like vinyl because it’s a physical format. Many people actually want to own something – they’re fed up with streaming and having everything but listening to nothing. That's kind of an issue with music, isn’t it? When you get on to Spotify - there’s so much there, but you listen to the same stupid stuff round and round. Or they’ve got the flippin’ algorithm monkey on your back – all it takes is somebody in your family to listen to Christina Aguilera and that’s it - you get Christina Aguilera forever!

It’s really difficult to enjoy it. And I’m getting like 30,000 streams a month on Spotify, which is a really decent amount. If I was selling 30,000 records a month, I’d be making good money. I’m making 30,000 streams and I don’t make a penny out of that. I make very little. The record company takes half of that, and then – forget about it! It’s like, 300 streams for every dollar? It’s pathetic. It’s pointless, absolutely pointless.

Then I guess the live sector needs to reinvent itself completely. Right now it is the main supporting pillar of the industry – if it collapses, the whole industry goes down with it.

Well, it’s… How do they reinvent it, though? I mean, there’s a lot of streaming going on. Ronnie Scott’s are doing some really lovely streaming, and Peggy’s Skylight in Nottingham in the UK did some wicked streaming as well. Really good jazz clubs are doing online events and you can donate or whatever. I’ve watched some great gigs, and I’ve donated – I think it’s something you should do. I think that’s really very good, because when life goes back to normal they might be able to continue that as a hybrid thing: you can have a live show as well as it being streamed so people that can’t get in and be there can still watch it by paying a nominal fee. That’s interesting, because it’s setting all that up now for the future. And that’s great.

The good venues are as ever industrious, hard-working, amazing people. But there’s also other places that are just gonna shut. They can’t afford to do streaming, or they just literally can’t pay the rent at the moment, because they can’t make any money. They’ll just shut and it will shrink. Whether they will go back again – I don’t know.

Do you think it’s possible that musicians start protesting and stop putting their albums on major platforms?

That’s possibly the only way to stop it all working, isn’t it? For people to stay: “No, I’m not doing it.” But if you’re the only who doesn’t put them up there, of course you’re wasting your time.

The trouble is that the record companies are doing it. So if the record companies got together and went: “You know what, we’re not having this, we’re not giving you a single...” That would be interesting, wouldn’t it? Because that would immediately change their business plan, and someone somewhere would have to start thinking properly about how it all works.

What about musicians’ unions? Can they do something? If the sportsmen in major leagues are not happy, their representative unions get into lockdowns until the satisfying agreements are reached. Is that a possibility among musicians?

There’s no community on that level, is there? There’s no union mentality anymore. The idea of getting together and supporting each other has been knocked out of people. It doesn’t exist in the world. It’s been joyfully squashed out of us over generations, hasn’t it? Where we don’t see that as something we can do, so everybody acts as an individual. And then guess what happens? We all get rolled over, do you know what I mean?

I guess what it needs is an effective alternative. It needs another company that comes along and says: “Alright, we are going to run it this way, not for our profit, but to be fair.” And at that point maybe you’ll get something where everyone will just go: “OK, we won’t use other platforms, but only this one.” But it needs an alternative system.

Streaming as it is, is a flawed plan for music. I love the idea of it: you could just dial in and listen to what you want, pay one fee and you’ve got all that music. it’s a wonderful idea, there’s nothing wrong with it (laughs). But as ever, people want to pay four or five pounds for that. But in reality, to make it work within the structure they've got at the moment, you’d have to be paying ten times that, wouldn’t you? Yes, that is a hard sell, but only because all the profits are set to go upwards and not back into the system. All the money gets sucked upwards and none of it drips back down again – as ever in life with all trickle-down nonsense, do you know what I mean? That’s my economics degree coming in there, isn’t it? (laughs)

But it’s eating the music alive, it’s killing the golden goose. It’s literally just killing off musicians and their lives and their ability to make music, and it's done by the system itself, just for one person to be mega rich. It’s extraordinary for Apple not to pay their taxes anywhere in the world - congratulations! It’s such a shame… There should be so much more common sense that you can’t run a company like that.

Again, you’d expect governments to step in and say: "You’re not allowed to do this, it is unfair practice, this is abusing artists", and step in with some laws. But of course they won’t. They’re all in the pockets of all those rich people, who go: “OK, I bought three Tory MPs this week. What have you bought?” It’s literally like that, isn’t it? (laughs) “What do you own? I own a government!” (laughs) "O, somebody got some money!" It’s funny, but it really isn’t…

Let’s try to end on a more positive. What is your plan for 2021? Will you be recording anything else?

Yeah, absolutely! As soon as I can get back to the UK or Spain - probably in early 2021 - I’m going to be doing two significant recordings. I’ve got it all written, so I’m gonna be doing two things.

Nice! Is it a continuation of what you started with your last album?

Yeah, it will be a similar sound. There’ll certainly be a bridging sort of record, and then maybe one that’s a little bit different. Maybe a little bit more harder-edged, I don’t know… That’s what I’ve written during the lockdown. I’ve written about four albums-worth material, which is brilliant for me. It’s a case of organizing them into an effective story where they all work together.

So yeah - 2021 is going to be that year: I’m gonna get back into the studio and start putting all these ideas together, and then, like everybody else I guess, I’m gonna be releasing way too many records by the end of 2021 (laughs). You’ll won't be able to see me for the avalanche of jazz records, all with like, 'The Lockdown Blues', or COVID disaster titles - a tsunami of them. I shall avoid that, don’t worry - mine will be a very gentlemanly affair. By then everybody will be glad to put it into history – if they can of course.

In April I’ve got a tour booked around the UK, which should happen. I’ve got Ronnie Scott’s - bless them, they rebooked me again exactly a year after the first gig was supposed to happen. On April 10 I’ve got Ronnie Scott’s in London – the headline slot on Saturday night, so that's is fantastic. I’m building a tour around that. I’ve also got Peggy’s Skylight on Friday the night before. I was meant to have German tour, but that got cancelled, so I hope it will happen by the end of 2021, although a lot of promotors are talking about 2022 already…

Editor's note: at time of publishing, Chip Wickham's touring plans for April 2021 have been rescheduled for November 2021. Stay updated about Wickham's future endeavours on https://www.facebook.com/ChipWickhamMusic/.

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Chip Wickham talks jazz, Blue to Red, and climate change – part 2

Rokas — Tue, 09 Mar 2021 12:06:00 +0000

Chip Wickham talks jazz, Blue to Red, and climate change – part 2 Rokas Tue, 03/09/2021

In this second of three interview parts, Chip discusses his inspiration for Blue to Red, the jazz community's stance on climate change, and the opportunities for development that open up in times of crisis.

RK) Let's talk about your recent album Blue to Red. It was influenced or inspired by the climate crisis, right? I wondered if that came recently – that all of a sudden you became more aware of it and then you thought: “I need to do something about it”?

CW) Just jumped on board you mean? (laughs)

(laughs) Well, maybe you've always been an activist, like a Thom Yorke?

No, I’m somewhere gently in the middle of those two things. I really wanted to write a deeper, sort of more spiritual album. My music gets classified as spiritual jazz, and the first two albums have got definite elements of that, as well as lots of other stuff. I’ve managed to pull together lots of different things, but it was always lumped under this spiritual jazz title – which I kind of like, as well. It is a bit more open-ended than saying this, that, and the other.

I thought: for this third album, I’m gonna go deeper into it. I’ll get more down to sort of Sun Ra, Dorothy Ashby and Alice Coltrane sounds. So I changed the line-up: I put the Rhodes piano in, I put a proper harpist in, and I concentrated on the flute and some effects. Stuff like that. Musically, I was heading down that road.

And of course, that road is all about the stars and planets, you know? Sun Ra’s stuff, for example, has a sort of otherworldliness to it. I grew up looking at the stars, seeing the astronauts – the sort of pinnacle of technology. I started to daydream get some of those music inspirations and bring all this together.

But the more I did that, the more I felt sort of stupid. I thought: actually, you know what? This is just navel gazing, isn’t it? This is just pretending, this is stupid. All these amazing planets and the Solar System… Actually, the most amazing planet is the one we stand on. It’s the only one we’re designed to live on.

Yet people go on about putting people on Mars. It’s a joke, a massively expensive joke! Mars is not designed for human beings. And yet, all the time and effort we’ve spent on putting people on it - probably for all the wrong reasons, just probably because there’s something we can dig up and sell back here, or to put the first McDonalds on Mars. Do you know what I mean? It’s so vain. Human beings become so vain.

We completely overstepped our own ability to see what’s clever. All our good efforts and all our wonderful technology – not all our technology is wonderful – are just designed towards the wrong things. We’re thinking too hard about the wrong things, and our greatness is being wasted.

I was watching a lot of documentaries about planets and stuff like that, and I watched one about Mars. Four billion years ago Mars was a blue planet. It had seas - it’s Earth’s sister planet – so it was blue. It had an atmosphere and a very similar climate to ours. And it lost it. It lost its magnetic pole in the middle, its gravity. You know, we’ve got the northern lights - that’s things hitting the Earth and bouncing off the top. Mars lost that and lost its atmosphere, because the solar rays were too strong. Without that, Mars went from blue to red. Ironically, that happened about the same time we started having life here. So that sort of blue-to-red, it’s something we’re doing - we’ve got this beautiful blue planet and we’re basically stripping it and ruining it, so it will also end up red.

And it was just that feeling that actually I couldn’t seriously write a load of songs and dream of planets when our reality is so obvious, isn’t it? It just seems fanciful. And then Christopher Nolan’s film 'Interstellar' - one of the tracks is called 'Interstellar' and I really like it. And that sort of sums it up. I’ve watched that film about 20 times. I love it. And it is just that kind of battle between our greatness and our ability to sort of think ahead, and plan, and create, and invent - it’s wasted if we don’t protect our own planet. It's just... We literally are going to create something that eats ourselves.

Did the idea of incorporating Fender Rhodes and a harp come before or after you chose the solar angle for the album?

There are two different things going on there. Musically, I wanted it to have that kind of a spiritual sound.

When I write, obviously I don’t have lyrics. When you write instrumental music you don’t have words, so it is a little bit difficult for some people to get into. I get that, because I like songs as well – we like words, don’t we? Words give meaning. When you have instrumental music, you’ve only really got the titles really. If you really want to imply something, you’ve only got titles of the songs or the titles of the album to imply something, or give character to a song, do you know what I mean? So the titles were very much designed to be reflective about that kind of idea that we are going from blue to red if we’re not careful.

Of course, musical decisions, you can’t reflect that in the actual sort of... in the change in the instruments. I still wanted to write a very spiritual sounding album, with a like post-Alice Coltrane kind of sound. That didn’t change my musical approach particularly. But it certainly gave me a little more bite in some of the songs, a little bit more aggression in there, a bit more attitude, do you know what I mean? Again that’s all very easy to say, isn't it? (laughs).

But it’s our biggest problem. We’re all facing it. It's stopped becoming a middle-class coffee or dinner table conversation now. Everybody in bars, people on the streets are talking about it, because it’s real now and it’s going to become more real with every step we take towards it. It’s not just me, is it? And it’s not a fad or a course you can jump in and jump out of. It goes to the heart of our system.

It goes to us as human beings - we need to evolve, we need to stop doing what we’re doing in the way we’re doing it because we’re eating up our own planet. We’re eating up our planet from underneath us. And that goes to the heart of every area; our economic systems, our capitalism, you name it – it goes to the heart of everything, because that’s where effectively the problem starts and you can’t protect the planet if you’re constantly trying to monetarize it.

The biggest wars in the future are going to be fought about the Amazon. People are going to be invading Brazil to save the Amazon, do you know what I mean? That is what we’re looking forward to, isn’t it? Stuff like that. The geopolitical map is going to be very interesting if we don’t find a way of adapting ourselves economically to the issues that we’ve got, because at the moment we’ve created a monster, haven't we? We’ve got huge companies that have more power than countries, and we have political systems that can be bought, and we have individuals that are more powerful than entire countries. That’s really bad news for everybody, isn’t it? It is! Nobody wants to talk about that, but it’s not good for the future.

As an individual, do you have things you try to avoid doing after becoming more aware of the climate crisis that is happening?

Well, I think I don’t need to be like Greta [Thunberg, ed.] and get the boat everywhere, do you know what I mean? I think it’s more the political power that we assume.

For example, if a political party is pushing the fact that it wants to ban all petrol cars or shut down certain power stations because they’re a huge drain on resources, or control industry and stop the practise of flying a bag of oranges across the world to be sold somewhere else – that’s where I think I can make a difference. But I don’t think there's much an individual can do, apart from buying an electric car or whatever. We can all do our day-to-day recycling; all the little things that we know.

But the real issue is way bigger than that. It’s about resources and the fact that you’ve got countries still relying on coal, and oil, and gas, for extraordinary wealth and that they’re extraordinarily powerful as the result. You’ve got to somehow change that. That’s the issue, isn’t it? It's very hard for individuals.

The right to vote is probably the single biggest power we have to elect the right government officials.

It’s power in numbers, it’s ideas. If all of a sudden people are driving electric cars and the electric charge car points are being installed everywhere... But they could’ve done that 10 years ago, or perhaps even before. The development of electrical technology could have been done a long time ago. It’s that kind of stupidity: this could actually have been done a long time ago, but the political power stops that. It’s the serious wealth that owns those resources that doesn’t want that to happen.

And so all we can do as individuals is say: “I don’t want single-use plastics. I’m not going to drive a petrol car. I’m not going to take unnecessary journeys on a plane until they find a way of redesigning them.” But it all has to come from the framework of this rampant capitalism, where making profits and stock exchanges are more important than a hospital, do you know what I mean?

It’s ridiculous: economy has always been measured by how the rich are doing and not how the poor are doing, and that’s the trouble. We always talk about gross domestic products, economic growth and stock exchanges – we’re talking about rich people and people that have money making money. We’re not talking about the average person in the street, about wages going up, or health care being more comprehensible or effective, or all the things that are good about society. Or trying to help people with housing. All the real day-to-day stuff is never talked about, because it costs money, doesn’t it? Governments have to decide to do that as opposed to doing something else.

It was very interesting watching the Governor-General of New Zealand in this lockdown. She’s just gone - boom! “No, we’re doing this, no we’re doing that.” And she’s been fantastic! Really making brave decisions in a way that you just wish other governments would do it. And then you suddenly realize that other governments won’t do that, because they’re not in a position to make those moves. They’re too controlled. It’s a shame – good ideas are squashed until there’re enough of us to push them out again and then they have to deal with them. It’s a bad thing in a moment of crisis – whether it’s the crisis we’re in at the moment, or the climate crisis. It’s a bad thing, because time’s against us.

Another thing that took me by surprise is the role of the jazz community in all this: you’re one of the few musicians that address the topic of climate change in a creative way. Do you know why that is? Are you aware of any movements among jazz musicians regarding the climate?

I really don’t know. The trouble with jazz is – as I said before, it doesn’t have lyrics. And I think it’s very difficult for jazz musicians to have a message when it’s instrumental music. It’s very easy for Bob Dylan to do protest songs, because you get it (laughs). He’s got the lyrics and there’s a meaning to it. But as jazz musicians, it’s very hard. You have to approach it in a very sensible way, because there’s a limit to what you can express. All you can do is just allow your music to be used by people in that world. Or doing concerts for certain charities or fundraisers…

I guess the issue is: you have to be very careful in coming across as a bit crass. A lot of people jump on things, which you asked before: “Do you mean it or don’t you mean it?” There’s a lot of scepticism, about people that talk about it because it’s such a hot topic. But I think in reality we’ve passed that point.

It is a topic that ordinary people should be talking about, because it’s going to directly influence them more and more each year. Whether it’s the weather, or whether it's the cost of things, or whether it’s people they know in other parts of a country that are having problems because of it. Climate change is affecting all of us and will just get worse - exponentially worse. It won’t just get a little bit worse every year. It will get worse and worse quite quickly, and that’s the trouble.

The rest of the world seems to be talking about it – so do you think the jazz community will start talking about it more and more at some point, in the (near) future?

Well, I hope so. At the moment, with COVID, everybody has something else to talk about, which is a bit of a shame, isn’t it? Because this problem is not going anywhere, is it? I guess with anything as big as COVID and the global nature of this crisis, the issues are going to be economic rather than environmental for the next two or three years.

A lot of people have already been talking about taking the chance to restructure environmentally through this, after the lockdown and the intervention the governments were doing –they are capable of intervening, isn't that shocking? (laughs). They are capable of spending money on things that they have to! People are saying, “Why don’t we take this opportunity to change this and that?”. You can see that after a war or after any great world event there’s always a lot of change and restructuring. I think there’s possibly an opportunity to do something.

But whether this opportunity will get lost in the recession that will probably knock the stuffing out of everybody and will create a lot of poor people... while the rich get richer and Amazon still don't pay tax and all the rest of it, do you know what I mean? It’s hard to see this opportunity work out, because the system is so controlled. They’re very good at distracting people from what the real big issues are, and distracting them with nonsense.

People have gotten used to the showbiz side of politics these days, you know, the whole Trump-ism thing... People watch politics for entertainment, and as much as it’s nice to see some entertainment in politics, it’s a serious thing! It is life and culture and our futures being mapped out in little five-year blocks. It’s shocking… it’s shocking to watch it at the moment. For anybody that's slightly grown-up the whole world must seem a very strange place right now.

I agree - it starts looking a little weird, yes…

And it’s shameful as well. It’s shameful that you see things happen that people don’t react to. Like in the UK this week. They’ve had a vote in parliament to not give poor kids free school dinners in holidays. They did that over the summer holiday but they’re not doing it over this one or the one at Christmas. The MPs have voted against that. But it doesn’t cost them anything to do that, in the big scheme of things. Somehow, amid all of this, their lack of humanity is shocking! They can’t look after the poorest kids, who, when they don’t go to school, probably don’t eat during the day. At the same time the UK MPs spent 12 billion on a contact tracing app that didn’t even work... Do you know what I mean? That’s shocking!

I am not getting party political here – this should be absolutely shocking to people. They should say, “Hold on a sec, all that money - where did it go? We want it back!” But of course it’s all gone. Who are these people they paid it to? Who are all these companies that suddenly appeared and said they could do it? That said they could make personal protective equipment? It's shocking! When it comes down to it, they can’t pay for kids to have school meals. This lack of humanity is mind-blowing, it’s horrible. This is not a world we should be proud of…

Next on Discover: in the last of three parts, Rokas Kučinskas invites interviewee Chip Wickham to talk about the future of the music industry in light of the challenges independent musicians are faced with. Wickham fills us in on the current role of streaming platforms and suggests an alternative system. Enthusiastically, Wickham discloses some of his artistic endeavors for 2021 and beyond.

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Chip Wickham talks jazz, Blue to Red, and climate change – part 1

Rokas — Fri, 19 Feb 2021 11:15:21 +0000

Chip Wickham talks jazz, Blue to Red, and climate change – part 1 Rokas Fri, 02/19/2021

In this first of three interview parts, Chip talks about making major life decisions, thriving on the Spanish jazz scene, and tackling the current live music lockdown – Wickham-style.

RK) Before I start asking you about your last album and everything that’s happening today, what’s your background? I read you’re from England and that you studied music. Can you tell me a bit more?

CW) Yeah, well… I’m a bit of a world traveller, really. I’m from Brighton, but I spent a lot of time in Manchester, up north. So I'm kind of from different parts of the UK. Some people call me a southerner, sometimes I’m a northerner, depending on who you talk to (laughs). And then I lived in Madrid. Well, Madrid is still home. My wife and I moved to Doha recently.

And did you study music at a conservatory?

I didn’t, no. I studied economics in university and while there I was having lessons with a saxophone player, Phil Chapman, who was also from Brighton, but happened to live in Manchester at the time I was studying there. It turned out he was the head saxophone tutor at Leeds College of Music, which is a big UK jazz school. So I lucked out, and I ended up spending all my time having lessons with him every week.

I was doing economics because I was quite academic at school and all the rest of it, so I was on that route, but I love music. My parents aren’t musicians so I think sometimes when you’re at that age, it’s very hard to see music as a career choice and it’s very easy to find yourself at school choosing sensible things and not music.

So do you do music full-time right now, or do you still work in the field of economics?

No, I never did that. I left university and went straight into music. I only really got the degree for my mum and dad to be honest, and I've never used it in life.

And from all types of music you chose jazz…

Well, it kinda chose me, really. I think that’s a safer way of putting it. With music, you know, you kinda find yourself, don’t you, in one home or another by default, like we all do. Playing saxophone, of course, you can’t avoid jazz – it’s such a jazz instrument.

I see. I wanted to remark that for a person who studied economics, jazz is not the most economical choice.

I saw some report that apparently economics graduates have the highest average earnings during their life out of all the graduates – and then there’s me: “No, no, I don’t want to do that - I want to play music, and I want to play jazz, as well”!

I had my chance in life, but I didn’t take it. Ever since then, it’s been a downward hill slope in the world of jazz (laughs).

When did you move to Spain after you graduated?

Not for a long time, really – I was in Manchester for a long time, 15 years or so, working and playing. That’s where I learned being a musician, really. I left Brighton as an eighteen or nineteen year old. So I hadn’t really got anywhere yet when I left Brighton. I didn’t know the scene, I wasn’t really gigging or anything. My musical growing up happened in Manchester, and I was there for a long time. I met my wife there, we had our kids there and the rest of it... I moved to Madrid in 2007.

How does the jazz scene in Spain compare to that of the UK?

The jazz scene in Spain is very interesting. I mean, it’s very different from the UK. To me, the British way of hearing jazz is very American-influenced, but it's also about looking for your own vibe within that.

The Spanish are very different; they are a very different flavour. There are lots of Cuban guys here that are amazing. You tend to find a lot of elite jazz musicians here that are Cuban, as Madrid is the main airport hub from South America into Europe, and of course it’s Spanish-language and all that; the same way Americans end up staying in London – because it’s a big place!

When I first got to Spain, I really liked Prestige and Blue Note, those kind of black jazz records. That heavy sort of ‘50s, ‘60s '70s CTI kind of sound. That was my education. When I got to Spain, there really wasn’t any sort of knowledge of that sort of music, because Spain didn’t really grow up in terms of that kind of music until the '80s, as they were very much under the shadow of Franco until mid ‘70s and they didn’t really have their democratic system. Their explosion of culture and music happened in the early '80s and it was a wonderful time for Spain. There’s a lot of kind of sentiment about that era.

So a lot of jazz musicians are older guys that come from the '80s. There’s a really weird sort of fusion scene from all these '80s-sounding guys that kinda control the scene. They’re very much into their fusion, with flamenco and six-string basses. All of which is fascinating, of course - older guys kinda going for it, do you know what I mean? Which wasn't really my scene, to be honest.

Your sound is quite different from what you’re telling me about Spain.

Absolutely!

So how did you blend in? How did you find yourself in there?

Well, I kinda ended up sideling a little bit into the soul jazz really, which just sort of kicked off.

I mean, I didn’t really play that sort of straight jazz – I was there for a good 6 or 7 years before I started doing the straight up jazz stuff, as it were. I was doing lots of soul jazz, lots of rare groove and hard funk. Then there was a big soul explosion in Spain and lots of neo soul bands, like The Dap-Kings, with a singer and a horn section and all that. It kicked right off and I was very much into all that, really.

I brought over and worked with guys like The New Mastersounds, who are like kings of rare groove and funk in the UK. All those soul jazz bands in Spain couldn’t believe I knew them! I got up on stage to sit in with them when they came to Madrid the first year I was there, and that was it: the next day my phone didn’t stop ringing, because everybody from that scene had been at that gig.

I must say, it doesn’t sound too difficult...

If anything, it was too easy! I just got all the best bands, loads of horn section work, I did that kind of funk flute stuff that I do as well... I ended up in that little world for quite a few years when I first arrived. Happily, of course!

I did lots of good albums, worked with Eddie Roberts, was part of a really good jam session every Wednesday at a place called La Boca del Lobo, where everybody and the house band were the cream of the funk scene. We'd just play the roof off the place every Wednesday, and anybody who

was in town on that night would come and sit in with us. We had The Dap-Kings come and sit in, and Corinne Bailey Rae...

There are moments where as a musician you look back and think: “Oh, yeah, it was really happening!" We had loads of bands, we made loads of records, we were really busy writing and being creative, and we were all making good money. There were lots of gigs, you know.

And I was right at the top, I was plugged straight in with all the good guys. It just seemed to explode around me. I was just lucky – I brought my contacts, but it was already happening. Still, it was nice to help and make them feel they can compare to other countries in Europe, because Spain is not known for that kind of music.

I wonder then, how did the whole pandemic affect your music and everything?

Well, it’s just ground to a halt, isn’t it, really? We’d already made the last album, Blue to Red, last April. I had recorded the previous two albums in Spain, but this one was done in the UK. My albums started to sell really well in the UK, and then there’s touring, and of course being British I’ve got all my contacts there – so it was easy just to work with guys from the UK.

So the album was done by April 2019, but the record company, being the record company, said: “Let’s release it in December 2019”. That became February 2020, which became a disaster, because obviously we got swept away by the tsunami of the pandemic arrival. By then we had a choice to either do the release or sit on it.

The label, who are quality people that care about my music, and I agreed to put it out; see what happens and not worry about things we can’t do at the moment. I had the full promo tour booked including the headline Saturday night gig at Ronnie Scott’s, which is the hardest gig to get in the UK. I mean, it is the place, really, but in the end I couldn’t go and do it (laughs).

So yeah, we decided to release it anyway just thinking that the world needs music right now and that’s what we do. There’s no point sitting on it, because there's no guarantee there's gonna be a quick in-and-out of this thing. And then we were right, because it is still a mess, do you know what I mean? Those gigs that were booked for April 2020 were moved to October 2020, and now they were rebooked for April 2021 (laughs). [At time of publishing, they have been rebooked for late November 2021, red.]

Everything is being rebooked. Everything is moved to the future. Is that how everything looks for you right now?

Yes, but it’s fine. It is what it is. I don’t think it’s worth worrying about, because the world will go back to normal at some point and we’ll get on with it, do you know what I mean? I’ve been using the time. I've been writing loads of new music and I’ve taken the time to practise. It’s always time versus money in the world, isn’t it? But, really, sometimes time is more important than money. As long as you're can financially do that, of course.

We’ve been hearing about how much musicians struggle at the moment, financially. Yet you seem to be very calm about the situation.

Well, I live in a bit of a bubble. The reason I left the UK was because it was getting very difficult to make a living as a musician. Over the last 20 years I’ve seen our industry crumble around us anyway regardless of this. I think a lot of musicians at any point in their live have to make a serious decision about how committed they are – how they’re prepared to live their life and still be creative, or how to make it all work if you have a family and kids and all that.

Even before the pandemic, there’d been a very slow crisis going on, where I’ve watched a lot of my friends walk away. I went to Madrid because I wasn’t doing enough work in the UK. I thought:

“OK, my wife is Spanish, we’ll go there and see.” It was an option for me, so we took the gamble and we went. And it was fine there as well for a while. But then the economic crisis happened in 2009, when we had to bail out the banks, of course, God bless them, and then we all had to pay for that… no comment.

(laughs)

Yeah, do you know what I mean? (laughs). Everyone’s forgotten about that now. We’re paying loads of money to support jobs and blah blah blah, but we paid nearly the same amount to private banks for their own corrupt ineptitude, and nobody batted an eyelid. It just sort of went: “Let’s just give them a billion” (laughs).

Yeah, that’s what we have to do, yeah… (laughs).

It’s crazy, isn’t it? The world is crazy, and I think it’s a shame, in a way, that these things happen.

But we left Spain to come here (Doha, auth.). I’m OK because I’m in a bubble and my wife’s got a really good job here. Here we’re OK, we’re protected. I’m not like your average musician at home, you know? I don’t have much work here now. A few gigs are sort of coming back, and I can do a little bit of part-time teaching just to pay the bills. The big stuff - I’ll just have to wait.

I’ve accepted the fact that no one's gonna die, I’m OK, and I’m not gonna worry about that. I’m not gonna complain about it, because there are people, friends of mine that have got nothing. Literally. No work. No means. Everybody’s suddenly delivering food on the back of a bike, or something.

It sounds like you were fortunate not to have to make major adjustments to your life due to the pandemic.

No – but then I’ve made those adjustments already twice. I've moved two countries to find myself here. So I’ve already taken some massive risks and gambles to find myself in a lucky spot at the right time.

I mean, as a family we were already trying to make our way in the world – and my life isn’t just me, do you know what I mean? And that’s normal, that’s normal life, isn’t it? We’re all normal people. It doesn’t matter what you do, if you’re a jazz musician or whatever you are. I'm a dad as well as a husband, as well as a rock-star, you know what I mean? (laughs). I’ve got to keep all these things real, haven’t I? So yeah, we’re OK.

I’ve just taken it more as a chance for me to go: “I’m OK, I can ride this one out from here”. So, rather than sitting and watching the back end of Netflix, I sort of got on with it. I’ve been writing lots of music, and I’ve been studying, and I’ve been doing all the things that we should be doing: eating better and exercising, and just enjoying the time. This is it, you need to go with a flow sometimes.

For me that’s been OK but I know unfortunately that’s not the story for everyone. Lots of my friends are just… They’re OK now, and they’re surviving on what little support they get from the government, and they’re surviving on what money they had, and they’re surviving on family, like we all do, you know?

There've been plenty of times in my life where even as a grown man with children, I had to ring my mum and dad and ask for some money because my car is broken and I can’t afford to fix it. That’s life, isn’t it? Music is worse – you're paid so little and you live hand to mouth, don’t you? It’s kind of flood and famine: you get paid lots in summer or whenever you have festivals, and then suddenly get nothing.

Next on Discover: in the second of three parts, Rokas Kučinskas invites interviewee Chip Wickham to talk about his latest album, Blue to Red. Wickham explains how his ideas on climate change shaped his musical perspective and discusses the role of the individual in countering global crises.

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Entrevista con J. Balvin

Zac — Wed, 12 Aug 2020 09:23:27 +0000

Entrevista con J. Balvin Zac Wed, 08/12/2020

Solo porque estamos en agosto no quiere decir que el calor del verano se va a calmar. En especial si nuestro programador invitado del mes es J Balvin.

⏯ Escucha el canal con la música de J. Balvin!

Mientras seleccionaba sus canciones favoritas, conversamos sobre la música, la cuarentena y la vida como un personaje animado.

La colección personal de música de J. Balvin

Si tuvieras que tomar una canción de las que elegiste para el canal de programadores invitados y escuchar solo esa canción por el resto de tu vida, ¿cuál sería y por qué?

“El cantante” de Héctor Lavoe, es una gran canción y tiene muy buena vibra

¿Qué has aprendido sobre ti durante esta cuarentena?

A estar en paz conmigo y con mis pensamientos. Medito bastante.

¿Cuál es el lugar y el espacio o con qué personas te sientes más seguro para escribir con honestidad?

Con mi familia y eso incluye a mis colegas que respeto y admiro. Solo trabajo con la gente que tiene buena vibra.

¿Qué letra desearías haber escrito?

“Idilio” de Willy Colon – un clásico inmortal.

El video musical de AZUL

Hace poco te convertiste en un personaje animado en tu video musical, AZUL. ¿Qué sentiste al verlo cobrar vida?

¡Fue genial! Fue una gran experiencia ver como el aspecto visual alegra tanto la canción. Siempre me han gustado las caricaturas.

¿Si pudieras hacer un cameo o cualquier caricatura, cuál sería y por qué?

¡SpongeBob! “Esto e' un party por debajo 'el agua, Baby, busca tu paragua’, Estamo' bailando como pez en el agua.”

¿Cuáles son los planes que te entusiasman más para el verano?

Estar en Medellín con mi familia y disfrutar del aire libre.

¿Qué cosa crees que tus fans no saben de ti?

Siempre pienso en ellos y los amo. Leggo!

Sigue el ritmo de las últimas noticias de la música. Síguenos en Facebook, Youtube, Instagram y Twitter.

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Interview with J. Balvin

Zac — Wed, 12 Aug 2020 09:08:49 +0000

Interview with J. Balvin Zac Wed, 08/12/2020

Just because it’s August doesn’t mean the summer heat is going to simmer down! Especially when J Balvin is our Guest Curator for the month.

⏯ Listen to J. Balvin’s music channel!

While going over his hand-picked favourite songs, we chat about music, quarantine, and life as a cartoon.

J. Balvin's music channel

If you had to take one song that you chose for your Guest Curator channel and listen to that song and only that song for the rest of your life, which would it be, and why?

“El cantante,” by Héctor Lavoe – it’s a great song and such a vibe!

What is something you discovered about yourself during quarantine?

Being at peace with myself and my thoughts. I do a lot of meditation.

What place, or setting, or other people make you feel safest to write the most honestly?

Being around my family and that includes colleagues that I respect and admire. I only work with people that have that good vibe.

What lyrics do you wish you wrote?

“Idilio,” by Willy Colon – a timeless classic.

AZUL music video

You were recently turned into a cartoon in your music video, AZUL. What was it like to see that come to life?

It was so dope! It was a great experience to see the visuals bring such happiness to the song. I’ve always liked cartoons.

If you could make a cameo on any cartoon show, which would it be and why?

SpongeBob! “Esto e' un party por debajo 'el agua, Baby, busca tu paragua’, Estamo' bailando como pez en el agua.”

What summer plans are you most excited about?

Being in Medellin with my family and enjoying the outdoors.

The thing you didn't know about J. Balvin

What is one thing that your fans probably don’t know about you?

I always have them in mind, and I love them. Leggo!

Stay on the pulse of the most recent news in music. Follow us on Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, and Twitter.

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Interview with Sam Fender | Stingray PausePlay

Stingray — Tue, 14 Jul 2020 20:41:18 +0000

Interview with Sam Fender | Stingray PausePlay Stingray Tue, 07/14/2020

I'm Zack Monson here with a very special episode of Stingray PausePlay at Osheaga 2019 with up-and-coming superstar Sam Fender. How are you man?

Sam: I'm good how are you?

Childhood tidbits to the sound of “Bitterweet Symphony”

Very, very good to see you man, I'm great. I guess let's just dive right in: what's your kind of happiest earliest childhood musical memory?

Sam: Christmas morning and my mom getting The Verve “Bittersweet Symphony”- Urban Hymns, the album- and she puts “Bittersweet Symphony” on and I'm like three, four and I just remember opening up my toys to the sound of bittersweet symphony. I just remember that and it's the smell of the Christmas tree as well, it's the smell of that Christmas tree because well had a real one. Get in, posh is out.

Your family, obviously spending Christmas together musically, your family's very musical. Your dad's a songwriter, your brother's writing songs. Was there ever a time that the three of you have gotten together and written together?

Sam: God no, and we never will.

Why is that?

Sam: Cause it's shite, it'll be shit. No, because my dad actually said the other day that we should do it but my brother hates the idea of it and I kind of agree because it'll just be like the fucking Osmonds. So you know I mean like um I don't think it's a good idea but you never know we might do it one day.

But I mean you don't even have to sing on a track together.

Sam: Say if my career my career bombs, I got a family band coming.

Yeah good. Did your dad ever give you any songwriting advice?

Sam: Uh, yes. When I used to… He used to tell us to get to the chorus quicker, and I still haven't listened. Yeah?

Well what advice would you give your dad for songwriting?

Sam: Get to the chorus slower.

What was going on in your life the first time you picked up a guitar?

Sam: My parents just had a divorce and my dad got us a guitar for Christmas. It was like a guilt present

Yeah really! Well it worked out!

Sam: It was a divorce… it was a good Christmas because they were both guilty so they both tried to… I've got some good presents that year.

Yeah you got two years of them battling for your affection.

Sam: Yeah it was a divorce Christmas, which is perfect because it came right in time for all of my teenage angst and all of that.

Yeah, right absolutely.

Sam: So it came at the perfect time, but I didn't I didn't touch it for two years or something. Sat in the corner while I played with my lightsaber, because I was only eight years old when I got my first guitar.

Luke Skywalker and Bruce Springsteen

Were you into Star Wars?

Sam: Still am, I love Star Wars.

You had all the toys, the lightsaber and everything?

Sam: I got a fair few lightsabers over the years.

Do you still have one?

Sam: I've got one because I found one on the way home from a night out. I was really drunk I was pissed, mortal drunk walking on the street and it was on the wall of my old house where I'd moved from. It was a lightsaber and I've actually still got it and it's really bad because I've just stole some kid’s toy

You did

Sam: Some kid just left his lightsaber, and I was mortal drunk, and I stole it and I didn't take it back and I've still got it. I feel really bad so I'll tell you what. The people who live at 30 Grosvenor Place now, that's where I used to live, I've got your lightsaber. I stole it five years ago and I will give you a buck if you want it. I kind of stole it because I felt salty about the fact that I'd left that house and it was a nice place, and I'm still salty about the fact that you lived there and I don't, but I'll give you the lightsaber back I promise you.

Well, we're gonna keep track of the comments on this video to make sure that these guys on Grosvenor know what you're doing. You know you've talked about when you started songwriting, this kind of mask of trying to mimic the people that you like to mimic the other artists that you listen to who were the people that you were trying to mimic?

Sam: Springsteen, Arcade Fire. I just wanted to be like my heroes, you know what I mean? I kind of wanted to create music but that reminded me of what I listened to when I was younger, but the songs that they didn't write… Do you know what I mean? I know it sounds crazy because obviously I'm nowhere near as good as Arcade Fire or Bruce Springsteen, I'm like I'm like a crap version of the two, but I want to like- I've always gone under the notion that you write the music that you want to hear on the radio. I write the stuff that you want to hear and that's what I've done I think. I think I've achieved that with “Hypersonic Missiles”. I really like that, I'm proud of that song and I like “Dead Boys”. So I think them songs sort of kind of resonate and they've connected and worked.

With a lot of people, around the world now.

Anxiety and previous jobs

Sam: Yeah, and that makes us feel great. It's such a confidence booster. It was good because inside I'm crumbling, I’m cripplingly anxious inside, and the fact that you guys are listening to the tunes it makes it a little bit better, thanks.

So for somebody who's crumbling inside, do you find it hard to get on stage sometimes, is that tough?

Sam: Yes, yeah.

What's going through your head before you get on?

Sam: I'm not good enough, I can't sing or write yeah. Or this: I'm gonna break my voice, I'm gonna… I'm gonna make a fool out of myself. There are loads of things, but that is natural I think, that's what most humans feel I think. I'm sure Madonna feels that- she won't ever tell you that- but I'm sure Madonna does feel it as well you know I mean?

But then what what do you do to kind of push past those moments? Because you could just turn around and walk away right?

Sam: Um I'm not going back on benefits. I sucked at that job, I sucked at being a restaurant waiter and I sucked at being a barman, and I don't want to go back on benefits so… I gotta stick at it!

That’s a decent list of reasons.

Sam: One day they did… In a call center I worked at, you were supposed to have a certain target for the amount of hours that you were on the phone. I think the target was like “yeah I do like 30 or 40 hours a week” or something like that. Then came in the guy, the boss was really pissed off, he was like going around and he's like: “Johnny you've only done 22 hours this week, anyway Jack! 13 hours” he's like “Disgraceful”. Then it came to me and he's like “Sam! you’ve done five hours this week!”

What were you doing the rest of the time?

Sam: Just watching YouTube videos and like, eating pot noodles. And then I had this technique to build my hours back up on the phone. I would ring a number that I knew would leave you on hold and then I just take the phone off the hook and leave it on hold for hours on end.

You’re a genius, you’re a genius. We asked the last artist that we had in to ask you a question. The artist is Sophie Tucker and the question for you is: “Hey I'm Tukker and I’m Sofi, and we're Sofi Tukker. If you had to get a tattoo tomorrow, what would it be?”

Sam: I would get… On that bicep I'd get mints, and then that bicep ‘and dumplings”. So mints and dumplings. I'll have mints and dumplings in there or NA-29, my postcode, across my knuckles to make us look badass. ‘Hell's Angles’ cause my dad had a schoolbag- I'm actually thinking about getting ‘hells angles’ tattooed because my dad’s schoolbag he found when he was 23 but he found it when he was like 14, 15 or something and it said ‘hell's angles’ on the top cause he couldn't spell angels back in the 70s.

Let’s talk Hypersonic Missiles

Hypersonic Missiles, not the single but the album, it's full of you know great singles we've already heard. Is the album gonna be more of a lovely softer Sam or harder heavy Sam?

Sam: A bit of everything. The album's clearly, I would describe it as a chocolate selection box of Sam Fender. A milk tray of Sammy Fender. It's kind of like… Some of these songs I wrote six years ago, do you know what I mean? I'm dying to get it out because a lot of these songs are from a back catalogue that I've been writing for years and years, so there's some really kind of like embryonic, old, lyrically not as strong sort of quite innocent pop songs from there from an innocent time when I was like 19. Then there's like the more recent stuff there’s is the second track on the album called “The Borders”, and now that's kind of more contemporary Sam and I really like that it's really like Springsteen and driving and eighties and it's got a sax solo in it.

Do you have a favorite unreleased song?

Sam: Yeah, probably “The Borders”. The Borders because it's not a pop song. It's five minutes long and it's kind of the first time that I've stopped trying to write sort of singles, you know I mean? I was kind of like- I just wrote free flow, bit of poetry you know. And “White Privilege” is good as well. “White Privilege” was just like a stream of consciousness that kind of fell onto the page.

I mean talking about things like white privilege or suicide or toxic masculinity or love and depression in parts-

Sam: It's pretty 2019. Walk, I'll give you that.

But it’s like you, you seem to so comfortably talk about these things that other people kind of may have a difficult time with. Why is it so much easier for you than some?

Sam: I wouldn't say it's necessarily easier I just think it's the sort of things that people are talking about, and it's the sort of thing that I'm talking about. I don't know, I'm just asking questions. Me, I think it's that it sort of seems to be what's on everybody's mind at the moment.

Yeah, definitely.

Sam: Male suicide was brought up purely because that was a part of my existence. I'd lost a friend to suicide- I'd lost two people I knew to suicide but one was a friend and… there was a lot of suicides going on around my hometown. I wasn't deliberately trying to capitalize on a tragedy or anything like that.

No, of course.

Sam: I was just sort of writing because it was a way of a form of therapy for myself. the worlds in such… in such...

Shambles?

Sam: Shambles. I was trying to think of a better word than shit for the… but it is in a shit place, and I think we're in a very rapidly changing time like that, there's a lot of change going on. But I've got to highlight that you know my job has been probably made easier by the fact that I'm a white kid with a guitar, you know I mean? I think it'd be harder if I was a girl or not white, and I have to acknowledge that because let's face it like I won the British Critics Choice Award. Now it's just like that, it's kind of like I'll say “Yes!” and then I was kind of like “Ah”, cause it's like what? I'm not doing anything different and everybody keeps hyping as up as if it’s this thing like everybody's going on… And I hate it when people say like “You are the next Bruce Springsteen” because I'm not. Like I'm not as good as Bruce Springsteen I never will be. Also I'm not doing anything particularly original, it's all just indie, it's all just indie guitar music. It's a white boy playing indie guitar music it's like “Woop dee doo!”. But I guess if people are resonating with my songs that's all that matters to me, like I'm happy about that. I just don't want to be overhyped, I just think people take it as it is.

Well look, man. I think all the praise you get is well deserved whether you think it is or not.

Sam: Thank you.

You really are a great talent. Your songwriting is great, your voice is great and I really can't wait to hear the album and just see you explode the next year, man.

Sam: Oh thanks man, I’m going to try my best!

Sam Fender on Stingray Music

Thanks for coming to talk to me, I really appreciate it. You can hear Sam Fender on Stingray Music’s Adult Alternative and more. Jump on our mobile app or on our web player, find the magnifying glass search icon, type in Sam fender to find the six channels that we play them on. We'll see you next time guys!

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Entrevue avec Roxane Bruneau | Stingray PausePlay

Stingray — Tue, 07 Jul 2020 20:46:01 +0000

Entrevue avec Roxane Bruneau | Stingray PausePlay Stingray Tue, 07/07/2020

Bonjour à tous, ici Charles Boyer. Aujourd'hui à Stingray PausePlay j’ai le plaisir d'accueillir Roxane Bruneau. Heureux de t'avoir parmi nous!

Roxane: Salut! J’étais pas prête on dirait, je t’écoutais et j’étais comme “y’est donc bien bon”. Je suis juste tombée dans la lune sur ce que tu faisais!

Le succès de Dysphorie et les tounes d’adolescence de Roxane

Ça fait deux ans que t’as sorti ton premier album Dysphorie, dupuis il est toujours au palmarès des ventes au Québec, sur ta chaîne YouTube actuellement il y a 18 millions de visionnements, félicitations!

Roxane: Hein, pour vrai?

Oui oui. Et l'on me dit que tu avais beaucoup de pression pour ton deuxième album. C'est quoi le défi pour ce deuxième album là?

Roxane: C'est tout un défi dans le fond, parce que le premier album je l'ai écrit naïvement. Comme je disais je ne savais pas que ça allait être un CD, fait que c’est des textes que j'ai écrits de 12 à 26 ans. Il s'en est passé des choses, puis j'en ai eu de l'inspiration puis pour moi c'était juste pour moi et mes quatres murs. Fait que quand la pression du deuxième album c'est en deux ans, il s'est passé quoi? Pas tant de choses au niveau personnel. Au niveau carrière, oui ça l'a complètement changé ma vie, mais dans la vie quand je faisais des chansons je me disais pas fait qu’il fallait que ça passe à la radio, fallait pas que ça passe sur les chaînes web, c'était juste pour moi dans le fond. Maintenant, c'est pour tout le monde, il faut que plaise à tout le monde c'est ce qui me stresse un peu. J'ai pas envie que les gens disent “elle a change, mais en même temps je veux changer un peu, je veux évoluer.

Est-ce qu’il y a une direction musicale présentement qui s'installe pour ce deuxième album?

Roxane: C'est sûr que ça va ressembler un peu au premier, mais en même temps j'ai évolué là dedans avec mon directeur musical Matt Brisset qui m'a beaucoup appris des trucs sur la musique en général. Je savais pas ce que je voulais, je savais pas ce qui se pouvait non plus, tu sais aujourd'hui les chansons beaucoup changé en spectacle, on les a transformées pour le show fait que pour le deuxième album ça risque de ressembler un peu plus à ce que je fais en show maintenant.

Durant tout le mois d'Août t’auras ta Chaîne Vedette sur Stingray Music. Évidemment on retrouve de tes propres chansons, mais aussi d'une sélection de tes coups de coeur tels que Souldia, Billie Eilish, j'ai vu aussi du Safia Nolin… Mais du Asking Alexandria, un band metalcore?

Roxane: Oui, bien c'est ça je l'ai mis dans mes choix, je me suis dit: “ça va peut-être pas passer”, mais ça disait c'est les chansons qui t’ont le plus marqué, que t’as le plus aimé dans ta vie-

Et pourquoi elle se retrouve sur ta liste?

Roxane: Parce que moi j’étais une adolescente quand même intense, puis je dirais que quand j’étais vraiment en colère c'est ce que j'écoutais. Le titre de la chanson c’est: “If You Can’t Ride Two Horses at Once You Should Get Out of the Circus”. Ça a pas de bon sens comme titre, puis me suis dit que j’allais essayer de pousser ma note jusqu'à là pour voir s’ils vont la mettre. Là tu me dis que ça passe?

Bien ça passe certain, c'est ta sélection!

Roxane: C’est malade, ça va être tellement drôle t’imagines sur les télés ou le son est comme mono ca va juste gricher!

Ça va détonner.

Roxane: Je trouve que c’est une bonne chanson, vous devriez l’écouter.

Les Cocos et Roxane l’humoriste

Sur YouTube récemment tu as mis une vidéo pas de montage, très directe où tu rassures tes fans “écoutez je suis en plein déménagement, désolée si je poste presque rien présentement”. Quel lien entretiens-tu avec tes fans?

Roxane: Bien, first je ne les appelle pas des fans parce que je trouve que ça me met sur un piédestal que je ne mérite pas du tout. Pas que je ne mérite pas, mais je trouve que ça n’a pas rapport parce que je pette comme tout le monde, ok? Fait que moi je les appelle mes Cocos. C'est un peu comme ma famille parce que j'ai pas passé par La Voix, j'ai pas passé par Star Ac’, c'est eux la première vague de tout ça. C'est pas une grosse machine qui m'a poussé, c'est pas un non plus les médias- puis c’est rien contre les médias parce que la deuxième vague c'est vraiment les médias, les radios puis tout le monde qui me l'ont donné- mais si l'album s'est rendu intéressant pour les médias, tu comprends ce que je veux dire? Qu’ils ont fait comme “Ah, faudrait aller regarder ça”, c'est vraiment les Cocos parce qu'ils ont acheté partout. J'entretiens le lien que je leur dois tout à ces gens-là, puis c'est par Internet que ça se passait. Je veux pas qu’ils pensent que parce que maintenant je suis dans les medias traditionnels, que je les délaisse, fait que j'ai fait un petit vidéo où je suis assise devant ma caméra, pas de montage rien en disant “Hey, j'ai plus de temps! Je m'excuse j'ai plus de temps, mais ça va revenir. Je vais prendre des vacances juste pour vous autres puis je vais en faire”.

Puis les Cocos ont bien compris?

Roxane: Ils comprennent toujours, ils sont vraiment compréhensifs.

La première fois qu'on s'est rencontrés aux Francos de Montréal l'année dernière, tu me disais qu’avant chaque concert t’avais une conversation spirituelle avec ta grand-mère. Est-ce que ça a toujours lieu?

Roxane: C'est moins intense, mais je lui fais toujours un petit signe. C'est tellement fucké, parce que je suis allée dans je me rappelle plus quelle ville et il ya une femme qui est venue après le spectacle qui m’a dit: “Je veux vraiment pas te faire peur, mais il y a une femme avec toi sur scène. Elle est là puis elle veille sur toi”. Puis cette personne la me connaît pas, j'étais juste comme “Oh my God”. Puis j’ai une file encore de comme 100 personnes à signer et prendre des photos, mais je faisais juste penser à c’est qui cette madame là qui est là, mais moi j'aime croire que ça se peut que ce soit ma mamie.

Pourquoi pas? Sur scène, bon t’as autant de plaisir à chanter, mais à faire rire aussi ton public. Oserais-tu faire un stand up comique dans le cadre d'un festival d'humour?

Roxane: Je sais pas. Parce que j’ai eu le syndrome de l'imposteur la première année et demie avant l'ADISQ, par rapport à la chanson. J’étais comme j’ai pas ma place là, j'ai l'impression de voler la job à quelqu'un. L’ADISQ a fait en sorte que je l’ai plus, et j'ai comme une reconnaissance de mes pairs. Même si j'ai pas gagné, pour moi j'ai gagné parce que j'ai plus ce stresse-là. Mais pour l'humour, j'ai pas eu de baptême encore, c'est comme si les humoristes savaient pas vraiment que je faisais de l’humour, puis je faisais pas partie de la “gang”, entre guillemets. Quand je suis allée faire le podcast de Mike Ward, après ça les gens de l'organisation m’ont donné une carte puis ils ont dit: “Quand t’as le temps, prends un 5 minutes puis viens faire un open mic, parce que pour vrai ça vaudrait vraiment la peine que tu le fasses”. Ça, ça m’a donné un petit “ah, peut-être”, mais je pense que le personnage de Roxane Bruneau, les deux polarités, c'est vraiment l'espèce d’euphorie comique, puis en même temps la dysphorie, pas pour faire de mauvais jeux de mots, de tristesse. Parce que mon spectacle c'est vraiment les deux pôles, ma personnalité aussi tu demanderas à mon band ils sont en train de devenir complètement fous. Mais je pense pas que l'on peut vivre l’un sans l'autre.

Je le verrais moi, parce que dans tes capsules vidéo on rit beaucoup.

Roxane: Ouais. Je dis ouais, je le sais pas dans le fond. Vous riez beaucoup!

Si j'étais...

La prochaine série de questions ça va être sur la thématique de si j'étais. ça se veut un peu drôle, moi aussi je veux être drole. Alors si tu étais un repas, lequel serais-tu?

Roxane: Une soupe tonkinoise.

Mon dieu, vite comme ça?

Roxane: C’est mon repas préféré puis là tu m’as donné envie d’en manger.

Si tu étais un moyen de transport-

Roxane: C’est dégueu parce que je viens littéralement de dire que je voulais me manger. C'est sûr que ça va être coupé au montage (Eh non!), c'est triste parce que c'est une bonne blague.

Si tu étais un moyen de transport?

Roxane: Un char électrique genre une Tesla. J’ai pas moyen de m'en acheter une mais au moins je ferais une différence pour l'environnement là dans mes rêves. Fait que je suis une Tesla.

J'aime ça. Si tu étais un appareil électronique, lequel serais-tu?

Roxane: Un ordinateur, tiens. Ben oui, un bon Mac là tu sais?

Et la toute dernière: Si tu étais quelqu'un d'autre qui serais-tu?

Roxane: Moi j'aimerais ça être moi mais vraiment plus tard. Ça serait rassurant, juste pouvoir être une journée dans le vraiment gros future, mettons j'ai 50 ans, juste voir j’ai tu évolué? Où si je suis juste encore capable de me faire du Kraft Dinner? Je veux être moi. Je m’aime assez dans la vie, je suis capable de dire que je m’aime assez pour dire que j’aimerais ça être moi plus tard. Parce qu'on change dans la vie, donc c’est pas vraiment moi, moi plus tard. Tout est dans tout, comprends-tu ce que je dis?

Roxane Bruneau évoluée, qui a grandi.

Roxane: Exactement! Je veux voir où je me suis rendue.

J’aime ca.

Roxane: La fille est comme “Parti de rien maintenant je suis ici”, finalement ça a pas tant marché son deuxième CD.

Gilles Thibodeau et Lady Gaga

Prochaine question c'est une question qui nous a été posée par un autre artiste qu'on a reçu précédemment. Dans ton cas il s'agit du groupe Paupières, alors voici leur question: “Salut c’est Paupières voici notre question. En fait on va demander celle qui nous énerve le plus de nous faire poser. Pourquoi le nom de votre groupe? Alors pourquoi trois petits points.”

Roxane: Bien, ça aurait été bizarre que je m'appelle Gilles Thibodeau, ça aurait pas tant fitté. Parce que j'ai un deuxième nom de famille, que je ne nommerai pas, mais je le trouvais moins punché. Et puis il y en avait déjà pas mal dans le milieu artistique de ce nom de famille-la, j’en dis pas plus. Puis, quand j'ai commencé sur Facebook ça a tout de suite été Roxane Bruneau, fait que oublie-ça si j'avais changé pour un nom genre Lady Gaga.

Mais as-tu été tentée d’essayer peut-être?

Roxane: Non, non parce que juste les Cocos ça m'a pris un mois et demi trouver le nom des Cocos. J’étais comme “faut que je leur trouve un nom, faut que je leur trouve un nom”, puis a un moment donné j'ai perdu patience et je les ai appelés les Cocos. Tu sais, je suis pas bonne là-dedans pour créer des noms… À mettons PL Cloutier, c’est un YouTuber et ils les appelle les Watawatadoo, les Wataworld ou je sais pas quoi. Ils ont une espèce de nom fucké puis je suis comme: “Ah c’est donc bien nice, j’aurais pu moi aussi”, mais en tout cas, non.

À quoi ressemble l’agenda de Roxane Bruneau pour les mois à venir?

Roxane: Veux-tu voir? Mes cernes ont des cernes. Bien écoutes, la Roxane du futur va être en vacances deux semaines après ça je repars 2-3 shows par semaine tout l’automne, tout l'hiver. On est booké jusqu'en 2020.

Ton deuxième album on peut espérer le voir quand, il va sortir quand?

Roxane: On me chuchote à l'oreille que c'est en Février 2020.

Ça approche à grands pas!

Roxane: Oui!

Roxane Bruneau sur Stingray Musique

Merci beaucoup d'être venue a Stingray PausePlay

Roxane: Ça fait plaisir, merci de l'invitation.

Je vous rappelle que les chansons de Roxane Bruneau sont diffusées sur les chaînes Stingray Musique Franco Pop, Le Top Détente, sa Chaîne Vedette pour tout le mois d'Août et plusieurs autres, toutes disponibles sur notre application mobile Stingray Musique ainsi que sur notre chaîne de vidéoclips Palmarès ADISQ par Stingray. Et si vous voulez en savoir d’avantage sur Roxane Bruneau, consultez le roxanebruneau.com

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Interview with Mac DeMarco | Stingray PausePlay

Stingray — Tue, 30 Jun 2020 18:33:35 +0000

Interview with Mac DeMarco | Stingray PausePlay Stingray Tue, 06/30/2020

We are here in our beautiful RV at Osheaga chilling in bed with Vernor Winfield McBriare Smith the 4th also known as Mac DeMarco. How are you my friend?

Mac: I'm good

You're good just chilling out yeah, had a good day?

Mac: Yeah!

Busy, busy, busy?

Mac: So busy.

Man, I feel like a woman

Yeah that's fine. So my friend, why music?

Mac: Why the fuck not?

Hahaha that's a way better answer! To make all your fans feel like you're not the huge rock star you are, what are some other shitty jobs that you've had in the past?

Mac: Construction, insulation, McDonald's, Starbucks.

You worked at McDonald's?

Mac: Yeah for a week, yeah.

For a week?

Mac: Yeah

And did they fire you or did you leave?

Mac: I like, went through the drive-thru and just handed them my uniform back through the drive-thu window.

That is genius. That's actually a genius move. So I loved the video for “My kind of woman”, and I recently saw your incredibly sexy faux American Apparel ad.

Mac: Yeah, I don't even know who made that. It's kind of weird, but a lot of people talked to me about that. Yeah, it's kind of weird

What is your favorite part about dressing as the opposite sex?

Mac: Um I like to feel like a woman. I like to I like to feel sexy and I like to feel-

So you don't feel sexy as a man?

Mac: No. Sometimes I feel like I may be a woman trapped inside a man's body, so it's nice especially in this circumstance is my life right now, you know, I can get away with exploring that.

It's pretty acceptable now for you to switch that up, and you could just go and get that changed anytime you want.

Mac: It's like people are almost used to it.

Almost, yeah. So, what is your kind of woman?

Mac: um I don't know probably big tits

Okay, so if you had to piece together bits of celebrities, who would you piece together to make your perfect woman?

Mac: I would take Angelina Jolie's tits. I would take Jennifer Lawrence's…

Tits as well.

Mac: Yeah, tits. Yeah it would just be kind of a blob with 19 sets of celebrity tits on it. Just kind of like a slate of flesh.

She sounds intelligent, yeah that really sounds good.

JX-3P, DX7, R2D2?

So how do you write music? What's your process like, is there a process?

Mac: I just sit down and press record and then song comes out sometimes, sometimes it doesn't.

Do you always start with guitar?

Mac: lately I haven't been but usually yeah. I'm kind of a guitar guy.

And what have you been doing instead lately?

Mac: A little bit of keyboard first-

Oh! Piano, synths?

Mac: Synthesizer.

Yeah? What kind of software do you use?

Mac: I don't use the computer at all.

Oh so all analog stuff?

Mac: Yeah.

Like what?

Mac: I got a Prophet-5, we got a Juno-60, JX-3P, DX7, DX100, whatever you want!

I think halfway through that you started making up random alphanumeric combinations there

Mac: No, they’re all synthesizers, look them up. Vintage Synth Explorer.

What is the most important song that you've ever done?

Mac: Most important song that I’ve done or written you mean?

That you've ever written.

Shit, I don't know.

What's your favorite Mac DeMarco song?

Mac: Um fuck, I don't know I guess um… I mean hell maybe I'll just go with rock and roll nightclub why not?

Okay, fine. What does a song need to be good?

Mac: It needs to be catchy. needs to be rockin- or it can be very somber and tender- but it needs to be… need to have a little extra touch of spice. I don't know what it is maybe that's why the music is so magical cuz nobody can put their finger on it

Or in it.

Mac: Mm-hmm

Great Canadian bands and little pricks from the UK

Which is- I kind of wish I could! I feel like it'd be a little squishy but like warm a bit. That's beautiful. I hear your mom runs your social media accounts, is that true?

Mac: No, but hers is pretty much a social media account. Her Facebook account, kids just hit her up and she like talked to them for weeks and hours and shit and some fucking little prick from the UK proposed to her over Facebook, a 17-year old-

Did she say yes?

Mac: She was like, well, and she said no but like you know she talked to him. if I see you over in the UK you little shit I'm gonna beat your ass!

Mac DeMarco is not stoked.

Mac: He's trying to ease trying to be greasy on my mother to make me listen to his demos. I'll kick your ass boy.

So his whole point of getting married to your mom was solely so that his new stepson would hear his demos?

Mac: Yeah little prick.

So let's say they got married would you at least take a listen?

Mac: I would beat the shit out of my dad every day.

At the wedding?

Mac: Yeah, yeah.

Really? But your poor mom I feel like you'd be ruining her special day.

Mac: It'll be fine, get a couple glasses of wine in her, passes out, beat the dad up.

So your mom passes out after a few glasses of wine?

Mac: Not a big drinker, not really no.

That surprises me to be honest with you, I feel like she could drink it up.

Mac: Yeah well, the apple fell a little further away from the tree.

Hahaha, that's fine. What is a great Canadian band that people should get into? Or really that just you’re into, you know? What’s some great Canadian music that you love right now?

Mac: People should listen to Sean Nicholas Savage, they should listen to band called Viet Cong (now Preoccupations), they should listen to band called Each Other, they should listen to a band called Home Shake and they should listen to a bang called Walter TV.

Walter TV?

Mac: Yeah.

Why have I heard of Walter TV?

Mac: It's my band mate’s band and then Home Shake is my other band mate’s band.

I feel like... did you talk to Nardwuar about Walter TV?

Mac: Yeah dude

That's right, okay okay. I don't have any gifts for you, how does Nardwuar know how to give people the right gift?

Mac: I don't know. With me I could kind of figure it out because he talked to a lot of my friends in Vancouver about what to ask me to freak me out, so I knew exactly where he was coming from.

How did he know who your friends were?

Mac: I mean he's a Vancouver guy. A lot of my friends are in this music scene they run record labels and shit so he just calls him up I think.

Is he as weird off camera as he is on camera?

Mac: Yeah, I think he's like a pretty genuine dude like he doesn't really put it on

No way, that's not a thing he just is usually strange.

Mac: it's really cool.

Festival Experiences

What is your best and worst festival memory?

Mac: I remember I woke up in the car at Bonnaroo and it was so hot and I was covered in sweat and but also like crusty and like cooked that sucked. Best, best festival memory-

Oh that wasn't your best?

Mac: That was the worst. best one I remember swimming in a creek with my booking agent in Australia-

Where in Australia? I’m an Aussie myself.

Mac: At this festival, Meredith. It was outside of Melbourne and that was it the whole festival I just really loved it, that festival’s amazing.

What was it called?

Mac: Meredith.

Meredith. And who are you most excited to see here at Osheaga?

Mac: um I don't know. I wanted to see Outkast I think we're playing at the same time

I think they're up next yeah.

Mac: I watched Skrillex on one of those one of the TV screens backstage for a while that was pretty insane, some weird shit going on.

Oh yeah, like what? I missed it.

Mac: Just insane people going nuts. He's in this like weird fucking graffiti tank looking thing and it's just like so much bass I thought I was gonna have diarrhea.

Did you have diarrhea?

Mac: Oh my god, came close but you know-

But you saved it

Mac: Yeah, saved it for later

That's really good to hear. I'm genuinely happy for you that you didn't shit your pants at Skrillex.

Mac: I’m probably going to do it on stage instead.

I'm sticking around for your show so if you poop your pants, if you could just look me right in the eyes when you do it, it would make my weekend.

Mac: No problem.

Mac DeMarco on Stingray Music

You're a sweet man. Mac DeMarco is a sweet man. You can hear Mac DeMarco playing all over Stingray Music's Rock Alternative and Mellow Indie channels, Mac thanks for stopping by and hanging out in bed with me man.

Mac: My pleasure!

It was a good one. Guys tune in next time have a good one!

Mac: Peace out!

Peace out!

Mac: I love you mother.

Love you, I also love you Mac’s mom. Will you marry me?

Mac: Chill.

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Entrevue avec Lara Fabian | Stingray PausePlay

Stingray — Mon, 29 Jun 2020 15:28:58 +0000

Entrevue avec Lara Fabian | Stingray PausePlay Stingray Mon, 06/29/2020

Bonjour à tous ici Charles Boyer. Aujourd'hui à Stingray PausePlay, j'ai le plaisir d'accueillir Lara Fabian. Heureux de t’avoir parmi nous!

Lara: Merci, merci Charles.

La Voix

Et félicitations! Ta candidate Geneviève Jodoin est la grande gagnante de la 7e édition de la populaire émission La Voix, une association qui a porté fruits.

Lara: Mais oui!

Que retiens-tu de cette rencontre avec Geneviève?

Lara: Bien, je dirais de façon plus générale ce que je retiens de cette saison de La Voix, c'est qu'on peut vraiment continuer de s'émerveiller à chaque étape. et Geneviève a contribué énormément à cet émerveillement constant et renouvelé. La voir choisir ses chansons, la voir être en pleine possession de ses moyens puis prendre ce bel envol vers le public, savoir que le public l'ait choisie. C'est une très très belle experience, je suis vraiment très heureuse pour elle surtout.

Tout à fait. Durant tout le mois de Mai, tu auras ta Chaîne Vedette sur Stingray Musique. On y retrouve évidemment de tes propres chansons, et aussi d'une sélection de tes coups de coeurs tels que Queen, Barbra Streisand, Céline Dion, il y a Jacques Brel et plusieurs autres. Pour quel artiste demeures-tu la plus fidèle, dont tu ne te lasses jamais d’écouter?

Lara: Il y en a plusieurs sais-tu, mais je te dirais que définitivement Streisand fait partie de ces voix qui sont un peu la trame sonore de ma vie. La bande originale de ma vie vraiment, parce qu elle a été présente à toutes les époques pour moi. Nana aussi, je te dirais Nana Mouskouri, parce que ça fait partie de petites joies d'enfants. Freddy parce que moi il m’impressionne tellement, puis aujourd'hui je dirais que j'ai le sentiment que son âme s'est réincarné dans Brendon Urie de Panic! at the Disco, donc ce serait pas mal en ce moment les quatres que j'écoute pour des raisons différentes mais random.

La beauté de l’expérience

Ton premier album est sorti il y a presque 30 ans déjà.

Lara: Oui, oui.

Qu'est-ce que tu peux maintenant offrir aux spectateurs que tu ne pouvais pas à tes débuts?

Lara: Oh mon Dieu, j'ai tellement de choses. Tellement de choses, je crois, qu'on accumule durant des décennies comme ça, beaucoup d'expériences. Et je suis quelqu'un d'intense, tout le monde le sait, je suis quelqu'un qui vit vraiment les bras ouverts. Mais je crois qu'aujourd'hui, ce que je peux apporter c'est que dans ses bras ouverts là il ya plus d'espace pour les autres. Il y a plus d’espace pour partager, il y a plus d'espace pour se connecter entre nous qu’il pouvait y en avoir quand j'étais plus jeune puis vraiment inexpérimentée.

On sent beaucoup de gratitude chez toi aujoud’hui.

Lara: Enormément, et c'est un cadeau de pouvoir tant d'années après être encore là parce que les gens sont contents de te voir, parce que les gens aiment encore tes chansons, parce que tu les entends encore fredonner tous tes hits, c'est magique. Franchement c'est un cadeau de chaque instant. Puis, je pense aussi que c'est une responsabilité c'est que tu vis à vis d'un public, fait que ça marche dans les deux sens cette gratitude-la.

Sur ton plus récent album Papillon, il y a la très belle chanson “Je ne t'aime plus”. Pourquoi cette fois-ci avoir décidé de chanter le désamour?

Lara: C'est vrai que c'est la première fois que j'écris une toune où il n'y a pas vraiment de lumière à la fin. Écoute, je crois qu'on est rarement près dans la vie à avoir le guts de dire c'est vraiment terminé. Je crois qu'au fond de nous, avec de l'amour là, on cultive toujours un petit espoir. Mais je crois qu'il ya des amours toxiques dans une existence, qu’un moment donné on doit se… desquels on doit s'éloigner, et je crois qu'il ya un âge pour faire ça. Il ya un âge où on est capable de dire: “Sais-tu quoi? Ca c'est pas pour moi. C'est pas suffisamment bienveillant, c’est pas suffisamment lumineux, c'est pas suffisamment nourrissant”. Et à ce moment là, parce qu'on a plus peur d'être seul.e, parce qu'on sait qu'on l'est pas finalement quand on est lié.e aux autres de façon saine on se dit ça, ça marche plus. Puis je ne t'aime plus le sait la tonne qui a été capable qu'il m'a donné le courage de dire à quelque chose qui était toxique dans ma vie “Non. Stop”. Elle sert à ça cette chanson là, c'est pas tellement le désamour comme l'amour qu'on doit enfin avoir un peu pour soi même aussi.7q

En Rafale!

Tout à fait. Prochain segment de questions c'est en rafale, c'est plus léger.

Lara: Ok.

Si tu pouvais être quelqu'un d'autre durant 24 heures, qui serais-tu?

Lara: Je serais Marie Curie, pour savoir comment on fait quand on est une femme à cette époque, puis de changer le cours de l'humanité. Fait que oui, si je pouvais 24 heures je serais pas du tout dans mon métier. Je serais une chercheuse dans un laboratoire, puis j'essayerais de trouver une solution pour aider les gens.

Intéressant. Quel film pourrais-tu revoir 100 fois?

Lara: Hm. Oh mon dieu je le sais! C'est Fried Green Tomatoes en anglais, mais c'est où Les Beignets de Tomates Vertes en français où Le Secret dans la Sauce. C'est un film épique qui raconte une histoire d'amour entre deux femmes, puis c'est vraiment une histoire d'amour qui se déroule dans un endroit qui s'appelle le Whistle Stop Café, donc ils font des beignets de tomates vertes mais s'il ya une saga infiniment plus grande, c’est dans le temps de la ségrégation c'est extraordinaire.

À voir.

Lara: À voir, vraiment.

Ta chanson kitsch préférée?

Lara: Ma chanson kitsch préférée est en Italien, elle s'appelle “Gelato al Cioccolato”, mais je pas sûre que- “gelato al cioccolato dolce e un po' salato”- je suis pas sûre que ça peut pas être mon moment de honte non plus là. Entre le moment de honte puis la kitscherie, mais c'est une chanson italienne des années 80 je crois, des années 80.

Le hobby qui te permet de décrocher?

Lara: Cuisiner définitivement. Dans la cuisine avec mon chum puis ma petite fille.

Qu'est-ce que vous cuisinez?

Lara: Ah plein de choses! On fait beaucoup de salades, on est très legumes, fruits, poissons tous les trois. On fait plein de choses, on s'invente des petits menus et on va au marché les trois, on choisi nos affaires les trois puis on rentre et on se fait un grand fun dans la cuisine.

La toute dernière: ta devise dans la vie est?

Lara: Carpe diem. Ici, maintenant, et remercie à chaque instant.

Beyoncé, une nouvelle tournée et la langue de l’émotion

Ca te va bien. La prochaine question nous provient d'un artiste que l'on a interviewé précédemment. Dans ton cas, il s'agit de l'artiste française Jane. Alors voici sa question: “Salut c'est Jane et j'ai une question pour vous. Alors est-ce que tu préfères faire un featuring avec Beyoncé ou vendre un million d'albums en un jour?”

Lara: Je préfère faire un featuring avec Beyoncé.

Quelle chanson vous chanteriez ensemble?

Lara: Halo, oui probablement. Parce que vendre un million d'albums en un jour… puis après on fait quoi? Mais un featuring avec Beyoncé après tu le sais pas ce qu'il peut arriver, comment la manne céleste peut s'ouvrir parce que tu as la chance de traverser la vie d'un artiste comme ça. Avec moi, je suis plus pour les expériences humaines que pour les chiffres.

à quoi ressemble l’agenda de Lara Fabian pour les mois à venir?

Lara: Hey c’est assez occupe! Il y a une tournée en preparation, fait que ça ressemble à une grosse grosse intense période de ma vie où je vais rentrer en création de la tournée. Puis on va partir en tournée à partir de Septembre, on va passer par le Québec aussi bien sûr en Avril, mais c'est comme presque 75 shows à travers le monde.

C’est enorme, partout dans le monde! Parce que tu chantes dans plusieurs langues.

Lara: J'ai cette chance là puis j'ai cette chance aussi d'être aimée en Français dans plusieurs pays. Ce qui est fou Charles, c'est que quand moi je vais à Bucarest, à Budapest, à Sofia, à Moscou, à Saint Pétersbourg, à Paris, à Londres, à Berlin, a Amsterdam, à Athènes; moi je chante mes chansons en Français et les gens chantent avec moi. Ce qui est fou, c'est que le français a été un incroyable vecteur de chansons, de mes chansons, même dans les pays où on ne parle pas la langue.

C'est tellement beau de voir justement quand tu chantes je suis malade devant un public qui peut-être comprend pas la langue mais-

Lara: Mais il comprent la langue pareil, ils comprennent la langue de l'émotion, je crois que c’est ca.

Tout a fait. Puis ils t’accompagnent, comment tu arrives à ne pas décrocher à ce moment là? C'est tellement puissant de voir un public chanter aussi fort.

Lara: Je me berce tu sais, je me berce avec eux.

Merci beaucoup d'être venue nous voir a Stingray PausePlay.

Lara: C'est moi qui vous remercie de m'avoir accueillie chez vous.

Lara Fabian sur Stingray

Je rappelle aux gens que les chansons de Lara Fabian sont diffusées sur les chaînes Stingray Musique Le Top Détente, Franco Pop, Chansons, Souvenirs, Pop Adulte et sa chaîne vedette pour tout le mois de Mai, et plusieurs autres toutes disponibles sur notre application mobile Stingray Musique ainsi que sur la chaîne de vidéo clips Palmarès Adisq par Stingray. Pour en savoir d’avantage sur Lara Fabian, consultez le larafabian.com

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