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Every year Sónar aims to enthuse us, excite us, educate us, enlighten us, and even assault our senses with bringing out la crème de la crème of what they call, 'Advanced Music'. This year is no exception, with the array of musical acts and DJ´s during the course of a three day music marathon with this year the focus being on the femme fatals of the music industry, an industry where the male population tend to dominate. This year the ladies get to rule the show.
The elaborately stunning and historic Palau de la Música Catalana excel in holding artists that push boundaries and that are unique in their own mode and 2008 sees Sónar at the Palau, for a very special show, using this virtuous venue to celebrate the magical tones of Camille, "the first new lady of France", as hailed by distinguished The Times.So how does this French chanteuse look after her dulcet tones? "I jogs two hours a day, talking a lot, making a lot of interviews", giving us a smirk and laughs, "that's good for my voice". Looking after your voice is looking after yourself; it's being connected to yourself, there are no rules. Being connected with myself, is taking care of myself. It's breathing, it's sleeping, it's enjoying things... Sometimes I train like a proper singer, doing scales and stuff. I´d rather do that with another singer and get some feedback. I experiment every day. It's a way of life like breathing. And for the stage, each day is different. One day I feel tired before going on stage so I just want to sleep. Another day I just want to talk and laugh, another day my voice is sore so I will do some little exercises. We often improvise with the musicians before going on stage to warm up and have fun and interact. Usually I wouldn't train too much; I wouldn't do scales before going on stage. It's a matter of dealing with the way of life, the way we live when we're on tour.”
Her new album, written with English producer MaJiKer, 'Music Hole' uses her voice as the stem and reins of the horse and carriage that is her album… What made her use that title?She looks at us in her dreamy and almost ethereal expression: "It's a circle, the hole of the origin. You gather around and wonder what's in the hole. Throw things in it, make a stew in it, or make a fire. It's an image; it´s an organic image. It can be the hole of the mouth too, or any hole from the body. I connect to the music, to traditional music, to theatre and singing, talking, dancing, telling stories, it could be a cabaret or a Broadway show. I feel like I feel like I wanna do it my way, tell my most stories, my most intimate stories, create my own characters within myself, and that is 'Music Hole', that is my music hole, that's how I feel about music in the 21st century, connected to our body, to organic things."
The last two albums were sung in French, why did you choose to sing in English with 'Music Hole':"It's not because of the majority of the people speak English. I did a lot of shows in French and there was not one moment where I thought that language was an issue. Maybe in between songs in shows, speaking in the local language helps to communicate with the people. Sometimes when a song is written in your own language, they tell the whole story word by word. Some songs you can understand because they are written in your own language but some songs, they are more like ambiguous and more open. And there are songs that are foreign and I think they are magic too because you just make up your own story or you get a few words and you can imagine, and if you want to solve a mystery you can find out what it´s about. When I sing in French, some people say, “wow, it sounds so nice, we like the song…” I don´t think it´s a way to touch more people; it´s a way to touch more things inside of me. I feel language is about humanity. The more languages you speak, the more human you are, the more open. To me language is so imaginative, it's so crazy, it's so good in terms of images and sounds. There are lots of ways to sing in different languages. In that case, in 'Music Hole', I wrote those songs because I know enough English to sing. I could sing in any language, it´s just the way you play the song."
And when asked if her sudden success surprised her…"No, not really", she responds comically and without a hint of bashfulness. "Success is something real and very not real. The audience is there and they react and interact. What I like about music is the interaction. What I like is that you communicate with the world. I include the audience. Music is about including people, getting a feedback from them. It's about resonance. Without a room, there is no resonance; you need a room to resonate. It's the same with music, with your album, if you don't have a response, it's very violent, you´re alone with your little sound and it doesn't resonate it, that's what I like. The rest is very abstract, like number of albums sold or being on TV. To me being on TV is doing my job. I go back home and sleep, I don't watch it.”
And finally, what can we expect from your show?"I don't know!", she responds chuckling and with a coquette look, "You have to come and find out!"
Don't miss this extraordinary example of the French sound at Palau de la Música Catalana
on Saturday, 21 June 2008 at 8:30pm.
Cristina Jiménez
20 June 2008