With more than 15 years of career mixing vintage swing and jazz with modern electronic rhythms, Caravan Palace return with 'Gangbusters Melody Club', their fifth studio album, which also represents a return to the dance floor. Zoe Colotis, Arnaud de Bosredon and Charles Delaporte also do not leave aside their love for music videos and once again create a batch of visuals that promise to be some of the craziest you have ever seen, just as we are accustomed to. The French group will bring their new songs to the Spanish capital on June 11 as part of the Noches del Botánico programming.
We spoke with Zoe about the secrets to maintaining freshness after so many years, the creation of her particular style and the importance of social networks in the new music industry.
How have people received your fifth album?
I think it is liked by the people who listened to the group at the beginning and who liked that music more, while it continues to interest those who enjoy modern electronic music.
You remain faithful to your sound, but it is a return to dance and club music.
We've also put a lot of thought into making it an album that's easy to make at gigs, because some had a sound that was better in the studio.
And how do you manage to stay fresh after all these years?
I would say the good thing about music is that you can consider yourself a rookie your whole life. If you keep discovering new sounds, new music… you can't get bored. The passion for music remains the same. And also some musicians leave, others come. Lucas's way of playing the saxophone, for example, has made us want to do different things on the album. We also continue with a mutual respect and creativity that connects us very well.
You always do the songs separately. Arnaud and Charles make the music and then put it together with you, right?
They start alone and according to what I tell them, some things change. Then we started with the singing melodies. There is no fixed rule, but the basics are to do it before singing.
How easy does that make when creating?
That's because we have the habit of doing it that way, but I don't know if it's the best way. It's that some things are easier because you already have a basis of harmony, but also the structure leaves less room for singing.
You have to find the spaces for yours.
That is. We also use a lot of vocal samples, but from old, different songs, and sometimes they are not songs, they are things from movies. After all that mixing, we start to hear something that sounds like the beginning of a melody. So, I start taking those notes and putting words.
I read in the press release that your music is “between the commercial and the underground.” Which side do you see yourself most on?
Exactly where you said it. The name of the group is Caravan and Palace. We are the two extremes, on one side and the other. The middle is where we are best, because we have one foot in the underground and also in the music that we listen to. We have a lot of complicated, dark music, and also things you can hear on the radio. We don't have musical racism.
«Where we find ourselves best is between the commercial and the underground»
How would you define your sound?
A mix of vintage music, from the past, and modern production, electronic and club music. We also have that love for the organic melodies of music from the past, when all that HiFi stuff wasn't asked. Music from before was an energy, and we mix that organic energy with everything that technology can offer us for a total sensory experience. The mixture of these universes inspires us a lot. That's why our mascot is a robot, which is the symbol of technology, but it is an old robot.
The music is so stimulating that it can distract you a little from the lyrics, but songs like 'City Cook' or 'Mirrors' are quite cool. How do you balance both parts of the song?
We try not to make it too obvious. If it's a happy melody, then don't say that the sun shines, although we do from time to time. Other times we like a positive melody with darker lyrics. We try to mix the environments. The song title sometimes also gives us direction. Sometimes we write something for the title and when the song is finished we change the title.
In addition to the music and lyrics, there are the videos. Yours are quite famous. Where does your love for these types of music videos come from?
We are big kids and we like cartoons. The good thing about that is that you don't have any limitations with what you imagine. We really like to trust the creativity of an artist we like, and we trust him to propose ideas to us. It's a conversation. Normally, they propose the ideas and we ask them for things that occur to us, for example, nods to other video clips.
What do you think of the state of the music video today?
It depends on what you expect from it. For me, what is necessary is for the creativity of artists to be found. I love the idea of someone who has something strong with images, who has inspiration with music. For me it is like a gift. I still think that art is very important in everyone's life. Not only to market it, a song needs a video. That whole question doesn't interest me much, but I really like the idea that the creativity of artists is shared with the rest of the universe and I wish we could do it for all music. Sometimes they come to see us in concert wearing the costumes from the music videos. The big girl inside me is very happy when she sees that. I love to imagine that all that creativity connects and travels from human to human.
You do very well on networks, but this is not the case for all artists. The debate is in the air and I wanted to ask you if social networks are also part of being an artist today.
It is an endless debate. If you don't do it, there is a lot of frustration from the people who follow you, because they like to have access to this, but the truth is that it costs a lot of work and time when you are not making music, video clips, and then, you leave aside what that really feeds you. You can't give something halfway either. If things don't come from the artists, you can see that it is like communication, advertising and something more commercial. In other words, we don't feel like doing that either. We are trying things. It's easier for us to be active on social media when we're on tour, because we're together. When we are each in our studies, we don't feel like thinking about what we could upload. I deal more with Instagram. Our manager takes care of Facebook, Arnaud of Twitter and Charles of TikTok.
The arrival of Tiktok has been good for you, right?
The truth is that I looked at it for 15 minutes and I was like: I can't. Too fast. I didn't know if I liked what I was seeing or not. I had no idea. So, I have cut it. I stick with Instagram and it's already hard for me so much that I don't do anything. However, we have noticed how important it is. During the exploration of the new album, a TikTok trend emerged with a song from the third album, 'Comics'. We thought that song was, like, not dead, but that nothing was going to happen to it today, and thanks to TikTok it came back.
