Ils s’appellent Belle Mare mais, qu’on se rassure, ils n’ont aucun lien de famille avec un célèbre présentateur de télé-achat nouvelliste. Ils ont sorti en avril dernier l’un des très beaux disques de l’année 2013, le magnifiquement nommé The Boat of The Fragile Mind. Interview-découverte.
Comment vous êtes-vous rencontrés et comment Belle Mare a-t-il vu le jour ?
On savait qu’on voulait une femme nue sur la pochette et, avant de faire notre choix, on avait pensé utiliser une photo mais on ne savait pas vraiment comment trouver un modèle. On a donc fini par utiliser quelque chose qui était accroché chez moi quand j’étais gamin et que ma mère avait fait. Je l’ai pris en photo sur mon téléphone, j’ai fait quelques retouches et voilà le résultat.
Quelles sont les prochaines étapes pour vous ?
Actuellement, nous sommes en train d’écrire et nous allons bientôt commencer à enregistrer. Ensuite, l’année prochaine, on espère partir en tournée. Ou au moins en mini-tournée !
Et en VO :
We met at this awesome place in Park Slope called Bar 4. Unfortunately, they just recently closed for good, which is a major bummer. They had this great open mic every tuesday. Amelia was there singing a few tunes with her friend – it was her first open mic ever, and I happened to be there watching. I was completely blown away and knew that I had to introduce myself. I think almost immediately after she got off the stage I asked her if I could record a demo for them and within a few months Belle Mare took shape.
Where does the name Belle Mare come from ? Did you know that there is a famous French teleshopping host (well, he also writes suspense short stories) called Pierre Bellemare ?
Haha! After we released our EP, I started to see his name pop up along ours – I knew about the author thing, but you’ve just clued me in that he also does the teleshopping bit. I can assure you that we had never known about him. Our name was actually taken off a map.
How would you describe your music in 3 adjectives ?
Mysterious, Creepy, Atmospheric
Well, I think Amelia’s voice naturally has this timeless quality to it, and that really goes a long way to obscure the sense of time and place in our music. Living in New York is certainly crowded, but it also has such a strong nostalgia to it – its just a really inspiring city to be surrounded by. Oh, and a healthy amount of reverb always helps 🙂
We like to pull from a lot of different artists, whether its visual or musical. In terms of music, artists like Grouper and Sharon Van Etten were refreshing during the recording process, because they are both unabashed by the emotional weight of their music. That means a lot to us.
I’m also curious about the cover art of your album. Where does it come from and why did you chose this picture ?
T: We knew that we wanted a nude woman on the cover, and before settling on this we had thought of using a photo, but didnt really know how to get a model to do it. What we ended up going with is something that was hanging in my house when I was growing up that my mother had done. I took a picture of it on my phone and did a bit of photoshopping and there you have it.
What are the next steps for you ?
A: Currently, we’re writing and about to start recording. Then in the next year we hope to head on tour. At least a mini-tour!