Elodie O
interview by John Farris
Elodie is the leader and singer of Elodie O.
JF: Elodie Ozanne. That's -
E: Elodie O.
JF: O?
E: Yeah.
JF: And the O is from?
E: Ozanne.
JF: And that is spelled?
E: O. Elodie O.
JF: That's the band's name.
O: O-Z-A-N-N-E.
JF: Oh, right. And this is Elodie Ozanne. Elodie, you're wearing a very beautiful ring, where'd you get that?
O: It's a very cheap ring, but it looks expensive.
JF: And it's actually part of your act, isn't it?
O: Totally.
JF: Because I noticed a lot of body language when you were singing. There's this sort of slinky you. Is that unconscious?
O: Slinky?
JF: Slinky.
O: What means 'slinky?'
JF: You know, slithering. Gliding.
O: It's completely unintentional.
JF: It just happens? And what do you intend.
O: I don't know. I just intend I think.
JF: You just 'intend.' And you're in front of a band. A very tight band. I've watched this band become tighter and tighter. And you intend, what? With this wonderful ring, and this unintended slinkiness?
O: (laughs)
JF: What happens? Who inspired you? How did you become a singer?
O: I've been playing cello since I was very young.
JF: Cello. You've been playing cello?
O: Yeah.
JF: I imagined you were a classically trained musician. And you traded that for?
O: I was very inspired by musical theater, like what you see in Europe. The good stuff.
JF: Meaning?
O: West Side Story.
JF: West Side Story? That's Broadway Stuff. I thought you were going to say Tennessee Williams.
O: The Fred Astaire things.
JF: Oh, you're talking about Broadway.
O: But good Broadway. Not the Broadway of nowadays.
JF: You mean Cabaret? I was going to ask you about that. You were sort of inspired by -
O: I was inspired by good musicals. Musicals from the '50s and the '60s inspired me.
JF: And you equate Hollywood with good?
O: (laughs) In those days, yes! I liked it.
JF: Oh, that's wonderful. And that brought you to what you do now? You liked Fred Astaire. Who else?
O: I don't know, I liked Bob Fossey stuff -
JF: Bob Fossey. Broadway, you're on Broadway!
O: I was on Broadway a long time ago, then I got a
scholarship to come here and I did some Broadway stuff and I hated it so I stopped right away because I thought it was commercial and boring
.
JF: Did you find that a conflict? Liking this stuff and finding you didn't like it as much as you thought?
O: Yeah, because it was totally different from the idea I had when I was young and I saw these movies and it was something completely different. Something completely commercial and horrible.
JF: And so you?
O: And so I started to sing jazz and get a jazz band and kind of indie.
JF: I forgot to say I'm impressed. So you got a jazz band.
O: I got a jazz band because I'm always listening to jazz and classical.
JF: What periods do you listen to? I'm just being picayune here. Did you listen to any particular people? Who did you listen to and who did you turn off? For example I listened to Shirley Horn, she just died the other day, just this weekend. And they did a memorial to her today. I never was impressed. I listened to five hours of her, and was still not impressed.
O: I listened to Billie Holiday, a little bit of Ella Fitzgerald, but to me she became a little bit technical in a way. And a lot of Billie Holiday, Sonny Rollins and Max Roach. And a lot of Satie and Chopin and no pop at all. And now I'm listening to a lot of pop.
JF: You're band does borrow a lot from theater. There are a lot of theatrical elements that you bring, there's a theatrical element to your presentation. And the music itself has a very - it's more than "pop," in an American sense. It might be pop in a French sense. It's more, almost circus.
O: What do you mean circus!?
JF: Which is bigger.
O: I don't know.
JF: Tell me about the members of the band and what you like about each of them?
O: The band is really moving around a lot, so it's hard for me to say anything, because I feel like I'm still searching, writing
.
JF: Well you have Ben Zwerin in your band. Is Ben in your band?
O: No, it's Nic. Nicolas Thys. He's Belgian. And Zeke Zima is playing guitar, he's from Argentina. And David Mason is playing the drums, he's from Ireland. It's like, a very international band.
JF: And what do you like about these people?
O: What do I like about these people? (long pause) People can understand about the music I'm doing and the bass player is adding some groove, and the guitar is relating to the harmonical stuff and then the drummer is the same thing, understanding the groove, but it's not the completely obvious groove that everybody is - I don't know.
JF: Well, in the context of your liking popular music and jazz, what makes you like these people? Why stop there?
O: These people?
JF: What makes you like this sound?
O: To be honest, I'm still looking for the right sound. (laughs) You know, I'm really inspired by whatever the Fred Astaire thing is.
JF: But we've already established that that's commercial.
O: But right now, for what I'm doing and stuff, it's more - I'm more inspired with someone like Bjork, you know, for me this is totally the thing.
JF: Is this heartfelt or is this just a way you can make some money?
O: See, that's the mix of both. It's like somebody who does something very specific and personal and artistic with a mix of a vehicle people can understand, a rhythm part of it somehow. So she does weird stuff in a way, like harmonically or the way she sings or whatever, and then you have the rhythm section, really accessible. And it's the vehicle that makes people understand what she's doing and accept her weirdness in a way. And what's kind of what I'm looking for.
JF: I'm going to ask a question that you can say is unworthy of your response, or unworthy of my asking it - but I'm going to ask it anyway at risk of your response. Are you doing popular music because it's difficult to get a cello chair in an orchestra?
O: Absolutely not. I played cello but I never wanted to be a cello player.
JF: So that was what you never wanted to play.
O: I liked to play cello and then I was trained seriously as a dancer, and then I did some Broadway stuff, more as a dancer than as a singer.
JF: So you did do Broadway stuff?
O: A little bit. (laughs)
JF: Where did you do this?
O: Around?
JF: Around where?
O: Somewhere around. Ohio, whatever.
JF: Tell me, what were you in?
O: I came from France and I put all my belief into it, and something inside me was telling me it was horrible and tacky and everything, but I wanted to do it, so I kept doing it, and I was hired to do a couple of shows and stuff and then I stopped.
JF: So you were a triple threat.
O: A triple threat! Totally.
JF: A dancer and a musician. But you decided to chuck it.
O: I decided it was bullshit, commercial. And in France you may do a show, people rehearse for three months, here you do it in ten days. You have to learn the music, the dance, everything. And people are like fucking robots, you know, and I hated it, it was completely non-artistic, it was technical, all technical, and I was never good at that.
JF: So how did you make it to NUBLU?
O: I live around the corner. I know the owner. I know Ilhan and I used to do dance rehearsals here before it was NUBLU.
JF: Oh my goodness, I didn't know you were here that long. And then you fell into the formation of the band?
O: No, I didn't fall into it, because basically I'm writing everything and I was having this other band in France with the two records.
JF: What records were those?
O: The name of the band was Elm.
JF: Was that the initials for something, like an acronym, or is it like the tree?
O: No, it's like the tree. The guy I was playing with was Manuel, and my name is Elodie, so -
JF: So there was an acronym in there as well.
O: And also there's E.L.M. in French, which is a brand name for like, heaters. And I kind of like that.
JF: That gets you hot, right?
O: I don't know, whatever.
JF: What was the label?
O: Telescopique, in France. I wasn't really writing, then. This guy was writing on the first album and then I started to write with him, I started to write my own stuff and I really liked it. It was kind of the thing I was prefer to do.
JF: When was that?
O: Three years ago or something.
JF: So you came to New York to do the Broadway stuff?
O: I got a scholarship from the French government to do like musical theater post-formation, because I was an actress in France. That's the real triple threat bullshit kind of thing. So I started dancing and doing the cello, then I went really serious in the dancing, then I did acting, then I did TV in France, and theater. But I always wanted to do something related to the music, so I came back here, I got a scholarship from NYU and a scholarship from the French government and I did musical theater and I didn't like it really, I mean I learned some stuff because I got mixed between acting and dancing and singing, it's something I always like, and I think it never evolved really, or it evolved in a really bad way. So I did that, and I had a jazz band, and I went into my own writing.
JF: And you play music with that band or you just sing?
O: It was singing, standards. I never thought I could compose anything.
JF: But there is a third leg of the threat. There is this music and you were a performer, but you weren't a composer.
O: Now I'm a composer.
JF: You were just a cellist? What was your repertoire when you played the cello?
O: I was, you know, I - it's not a big part of my life, the cello thing. It's a big part because I'm composing a lot on cello, but I've never performed as a cellist.
JF: Well, I happened to notice, as I sit listening to you, that music generally is a big part of what you do. It's more than three chords.
O: I'm a composer. And it's funny because we go into rehearsals and the guys are like, "What is this chord?" And I don't know. I have no idea. I compose, I plug the thing the thing and I play. I have this whole classical training in cello, I look at the music thing, and I couldn't play without the music thing, and now I compose and I don't even know what my tunes are in what key they are in.
JF: You have to know what key you're in if you're going to play music on the cello, right?
O: No, because you read the notes.
JF: But it's in a key. It's not all confined to one key, you need to know what key you're in.
O: Well, I read notes. With jazz I have a chart and I can read B-flat and this and that, but for me it's kind of an effort, and when I plug, I plug in my protools and I just plug in my thing and I play whatever.
JF: So is that a good thing or a bad thing?
O: I think it's a good thing.
JF: So where is it going to stop being kareoke - the idea is to make art accessible to everyone with these new technologies, to make it more thorough. Art is ultimately communication and one would like to convey the sunset one sees, the colors of the sunset or this and that. There's an element of chance early on, that doesn't exist now. There's no element of chance.
O: Composing in a way, I don't know anything about. I just do it instinctively and I learn, like with dancing, playing cello, acting and all that. This is the thing I do instinctively. And I don't know what I'm doing.
JF: So it's the most immediate for you?
O: It's instinctive.
JF: That's what I mean.
O: I like that, I'll use this beat. And somebody will tell me "Oh, it's like a reggae beat." And I'll say "Oh, really?"
JF: In a way, on the one hand, to make a painting metaphor, you have Picasso saying he's trying to get back to the child in him, and you have the immediate in art as absolutely desirable. The immediate is borne along such technical. things as learning an instrument.
O: I think the technique is necessary, but it can be your worst enemy. Because you know you have all this, I guess I have a lot of knowle to perform, I'm going to change a little bit of what I've done. I've learned from recording.
JF: Wow
O: I have to say I've been really inspired by NUBLU. I've been really inspired by rhythm sections here. I've been really inspired by Jesse and Aaron. And I came here and I heard Love Trio and Jesse and Aaron playing, and I said, "Okay, this is what I need to add to what I'm doing." And then I started to build the band thinking a bit about that.
JF: Well that's really wonderful. It's a great venue for workshopping and the realization of the music.
O: I have to say, this is the first place where I came and thought, "This is a place where I can learn." And bring something to my music.
JF: Great! Thank you!
