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interview by Lila Stanphill Sitting down to interview Papillon was an interesting and provocative experience. These guys are good friends and their relaxed and somewhat familial interaction was a pleasant and humorous one that I found very refreshing. Mikael, Roger, Xavier and Nick are an exceptional group of musicians who have just released their new CD, Soledad, recorded at Are You Listening? studios and are busy planning their assured adventures in the great big musical world. Their style is atmospheric and seductively textured, approaching a certain sense of melodic dreaminess. The kind of dream where you are enchanted and a little disturbed at the same time, and leaves you waking up only to wish you can fall back into slumber to get a little bit more. Tell me about how you came here and how you got together. Nick: I lived in Hamilton, Montana until I was 18, then moved to Bellingham, Washington, lived there for a year and realized there was more music happening in Portland. So, I came down here and that was almost seven years ago. Mikael: I came 8 years ago from Brittany, France and also heard there was a good, happening music scene. It took me a while to find it, but I ultimately did. I met Roger right when I moved here and met Javier a little while after that. Then I met Nic and decided we'd all play together. Were you playing in any other bands before Papillon? N: Yeah, all of us. Xavier: Only one other band in Ecuador I played with 7 years ago. We put out a CD, but that was it. Then I didn't play for 5 years. Papillon is the only band here. Roger: I moved to Portland 8 years ago around the same time as Mik joined a band called King Black Acid and that lasted about 4 years or 3 albums worth. Took a break for 2 years and decided to come back into music with Mikael. N: And the rest is history. Or future for that matter. Have any of your past musical involvements been similar at all to Papillons’ sound in any way or is this a completely new style for you? M: We feel like it's different. We want to do something different. In our rehearsals we're always trying to find these nice sounds. We'll just be playing around and someone says, "Well, what about this...", so we try it. It's nice because we all have opinions and we like a lot of the same kind of music. N: We like to take classical style and do something new with them. I mean classical in the tradition of nice bossa nova music and we try to make it new again for people and ourselves. M: There are things we can do to refresh traditional elements. We want to make a new taste. Because I'm sick of seeing taste become tasteless because so many people do the same thing. N: One way that I can say that it's different from other bands I've been in is because there's this nice simplicity to the way we go about it. We focus more on how we play than what we play. Other bands I've been in like to get real technical and write a lot of crazy changes in the songs, so that it's doing all of this fancy stuff, which is cool and I still like to play that kind of music y'know. You have to concentrate a lot and stuff, but this way we can be more soulful. Because the songs are fairly simple and we choose our sounds carefully so we can pay more attention to HOW we're playing. I notice Papillon has gone through several incarnations with various different members, and on Soledad there were two additional members. What led you to this lineup? M: The lineup from the first batch has evolved and we have gone through a couple of changes because we haven't all been really into it. That happened when Nic joined the band 3 years ago. So, it took us a while to find this sound and energy with us all working together. The first version was a little bit more, well... a little bit different. Back then we had an excellent classically trained jazz drummer. I don't know it just wasn't working out. Our energy was going in different directions, so the music turned out more campier. N: That's when people started saying that "They’re a lounge band." That's the category they were put in. But, that's not really what these guys were thinking. That's ok, could be worse, but still don't want to be put in that category. I don't think anyone would call us a lounge band unless they hadn't seen it since those days. M: This is the group here. Ian Miller is primarily a guitar player, but he was an excellent keyboardist for us. He plays in another band, Lisa and her Kin, with his sister. They are a very busy, so he made the choice to play for that band. So, I decided to jump on keyboard instead. I think that not being in a 6 person band and only four has its advantages. It seems a little more cohesive. I noticed some electronic influences on your CD. Is this something you want to work into the sound
R: Electronic sounds on the album is the sampler primarily. We started using that as a rhythm for our live shows. We’ll record pieces onto the sampler and play those behind our live shows. So, it's not so much electronic, but sampling. The keyboard adds an electronic element, too. Sadly, the general music shopper is going to find you based on what shelf your album is sold on. Do you think with music becoming more diverse and many musicians not maintaining strict guidelines pertaining to one particular category--do you think up and coming bands, like Papillon might get mistakenly shuffled into industry classifications that don't really do them justice? M: It is always. I think it's changing a little bit. R: I don't think the musicians are really so concerned about categories, but I do see a conflict. X: Everybody asks, "Oh, you're in the band? So, what kind of music are you playing?"You have to categorize, you know. "It's this, this, and this and that, that, and that." And they still might not know. Pop is a very general description. M: People are changing a little bit. There're more possibilities of finding original music, they're not running through the regular channels. Obviously, the internet helps a lot. You can get on a computer now and find out about a band on the other side of the world. You would not know them in their own country maybe, someone can be in this complete other place, hear it and decide, "Hey, this is great, I want it." They can actually buy it and that's an accomplishment. So, there might be a chance coming up where the public might be able to find music they like, rather than, you know... N: Music fans are starting to think more like musicians. For example, the music writers say, "Oh, they have a serpentine rhythm section and they coat it with lush psychedelic sounds and the sultry vocals of Mikael Jehanno." Then, the industry guys are going to say, "They're Euro-pop" and the musicians are going to say, “Well, that sounds good. I like it!" So, we'll just have to leave it to someone else to categorize us, because that's not our job, really. But, it's important. Someone needs to do it if you are going to market a band. It is also important for us to know, to recognize what direction to go in, in order to reach the largest audience. X: We all have a certain consensus as to where we are going to. We make our decisions for songs based on what sounds good to us. We all have an abstract concept of what we want to do, but it isn't the same as what we might be categorized by in the industry. Do you think the mainstream media outlets are open to playing local music rather than some band that they already know will sell? Papillon seems on the cusp of going to the next level, but like a lot of local bands it is nearly impossible to get radio play. How would you comment on that kind of "growing pain"? R: Radio and other media helps a band to be successful, but I wouldn't rely on the media that we have, as far as local radio stations go. It's great to send them your press kit and CD, but I would also work through other channels. X: Its really the goal to share our music, ideas, concepts with everyone. I took the CD to Spain this last time, and everyone really liked it. It's cool, and I wasn't even in the band at the time. N: It seems to appeal to different age groups, too. X: Yeah, like at Bastille Day with the kids running around. They were the only ones who say, "Yeah!!" Having fun, being free, with all of the adults over here, so serious. N: I remember, while I was playing, having a great time, totally zoning out. I looked over and saw this little girl, must've been like 5 years old. She's just standing there staring at me with her jaw dropped. It's a good feeling, you know. That's what it's all about. Do you think it is selling out to conform to a marketing strategy to gain a following and backing in contrast to venturing into more obscure realms in order to develop an "underground" following and eventually gain industry recognition? R: I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I think it's good to see where your audience is and having the backing definitely helps, but I don't think that works when you're changing for it. We're more interested in figuring out what do best. I don't think we've done anything to put ourselves in that position. But, I respect many of the musicians who have made themselves known, having the audience that can propel them to have more freedom. X: Its pretty honest, pure, and sincere. We're dealing with abstract concepts. We're not trying to do anything other than sincerely what we feel. We play this way or use this sound or these rhythms or whatever, because this is honestly what we like. N: We're lucky because we're feeling inspired, but we're not postponing that, we're acting on it. In order to have some commercial success, so then we can go back and be inspired again. I think that works for some people, but a lot of times if you make it that far and gone through all of the hassles to get there, you probably aren't feeling the same as you were in the beginning. I think we're lucky to be in this situation. Do you allow yourselves to improvise on stage or do you try to maintain a set? R: I think there is a good balance between improv and formula that works and keeps it interesting for us as musicians so that we can go out and improvise and come back to what you normally intend, which is good music. X: Its just our rehearsal is more like improvisation. It's funny because we just sit down to rehearsal. We start playing. Nic lays a groove, I lay a bass line, Roger's doing some funny thing over there on his guitar, then Mik patches in the keyboard. Then we think that sounds great...we don't always agree, but its fun, it's really fun. M: Its pop music though, so of course songs that are pretty established that I sing. So, you kind of have the same kind of tune going and then you build improvisation around that. We do a lot of pop songs, whatever that means... N: That means you improve when you get to the solos. R: Kind of, but I think it's a natural tendency to depart from the original structure. But, we always seem to get back to our song structure no matter what. M: A balance. N: That subtle, delicate thing that made it work in the first place. A lot of it is finding out what that is. You identify a central fact and then you design the song around it. Do you write your songs to appeal to your audience or is it a more selfish thing? N: I think it would be the same. In my experience, the things I have the most fun playing, the things that I like the most are the ones that get the best response when I'm performing them on stage. R: For the most part, we started out as music fans before we ever became musicians. With that in mind, we want to be into what we are playing but keep aware of what the audience wants to listen to. Naturally we are growing as musicians, by playing with each other. X: We definitely have a fresh sound. We all have different influences from all over from Fela Kuti to Gilberto, jazz to... N: to old country. I don't think any of us go “Now, I want to sound like that band."
M: We're trying to make something new and interesting. We think of what the audience thinks. It’s a challenge for us, but for them too. Neither of us knows if they're quite gong to like it, because we're not trying to go a certain way. Some bands have a really specific audience that goes to shows. They read in the paper and they know it's going to be "their" kind of music, especially in Portland. For us it's always a question. We don't know if they're going to like it or not or if it's up their alley. There aren't that many bands that play that similar to us, so you never know how they are going to react to us. You are performing as an opener for the Rock the Film and Music Festival in Los Angeles, tell me how you got the chance to do that and what it's about. M: Yes, it's a music and film festival put on by Allison Anders, who is a very cool, independent director in L.A. Most of the films are about music. We're playing at a party outdoors. Allison’s’ friend is Kurt Voss which is another director (Down and Out with the Dolls). So, we met him, in that I had a role in the movie and they used some of our music. Kurt is really into music, himself. He has his own band called The Beatings. Part of Papillon had a session with him in the studio as a back-up band. So, we're sort of close enough to call on the phone. He said, "You guys should play." His movie is being screened there, too. So, we're playing, it should be a lot of fun! Are you interested in becoming involved with doing more soundtracks? M: Some film makers use our music. We haven't done really any "soundtrack music" per se, but we did a couple of songs with "Down and Out with The Dolls" and there’s a new film by another director from L.A. who's using the song Diablo off our new album. It is definitely something we want to get more into, possibly score a soundtrack. I think we all see our music somehow in the sphere of soundtracks. We're all into the cinema and movies. N: And instrumental music. Soundtracks are its own art form, very cool. I make short films and one of the funnest parts is making the soundtrack. Do you find that music is your primary form of artistic expression or do you have other creative outlets? N: We all do. Mikael is a pretty good writer and an excellent actor. Roger has got a good hand for painting and drawing. I like to make films, draw, make collage. Javier, you must have some form of extra curricular activity. Drinking? X: There we go, I'm the crazy one. M: I think everybody has something they can do. Do you feel like you approach these other art forms in the same ways as you approach the music? N: In general. R: Yeah, I think so. X: I prefer most things, design, art, architecture that are fresh and new, sort of the same way. Are you all in pretty equal collaboration with one another? N: Oh, yes. We go over every little detail. X: Nic comes up with all of these handy situations. I saw the other day he built a reverb unit out of this dryer hose. He knows about acoustics and sound. Roger has an incredible knowledge of equipment and... N: How to coax sound out of things. X: Mikael writes songs and plays keyboards and writes sexy lyrics. M: That's a good definition of our band. We all work on it like we're making dinner together. Not all doing the same thing at the same time. I find that interesting, somebody's always putting a little salt there, or something. We never really have an idea of where we're going and that's part of the fun. Which is why it's hard to say what genre we are in, we would have to look back at what we did already, but of course it's already done. We don't know if we're going to make it tomorrow. Amaze your friends with this: Papillon is french for butterfly. Also it’s a breed of dog!!! |
of the band more?
It's all about creating a new thing. That's the exciting challenge.