Nouvelle Vague is not a glorified cover band. ‘Tribute’ is a little closer, but still not there.
Having taken the world by storm with their covers of some very beloved songs and putting a spin on it by having them sung chanteuse style by mostly young women. Making them not only more harmless but giving a timelessness to the oft dated music of the era’s from which they borrow. It seems almost strange to take music from the seventies and eighties and give them a spin or remake in the stylings of musical periods from the forties (bluegrass) and late fifties (bossanova) but it works. It most certainly works because even if you do not think of yourself as familiar with the stylings of this band, you have almost been guaranteed to have heard them in the various incarnations in media and advertisements.
I don’t know what I was expecting from the set, maybe some of the gentle mood of the music I had grown to love through the years since their debut Nouvelle Vague. Whatever was expected had flown out the window in a rush of flying shoes and screamed obscenities as the lovely ladies of Nouvelle Vague took the stage. The energy of the small band was almost impossible to be contained as they went through an impressive set list of almost every song I had loved since childhood. The singers for this tour, Karina Zeviani and Helena Noguerra, are no quiet flowers; from the wild dancing to the louder vocals the show was quite powerful and energetic.
It’s a crowded backstage area behind the Manuel Artime Theatre of Miami. The room is full of wine and food and the members of Nouvelle Vague are raucous and happily preparing for their set. Singer Helena is singing and bouncing around the room in a sequined dress. Marc Collins, one half of the collective that penned this idea is the sole source of quiet in the place. It will be interesting to pick the brain of someone who holds the love of these songs enough to devote his time to re imagining them.
QRO: So welcome to Miami, where were you before tonight?
Marc Collins: Dallas. Texas, yeah Texas. We were supposed to play in Dallas before.
QRO: How do you like our weathers here? It’s cold for us but you are used to more types of climate.
MC: I expected something a bit… Uh… [laughs] hotter. Because last time I think we were in Miami two or three times. Last time I swam at the beach and this time… ahh…
QRO: Not going to try swimming now? [laughs]
MC: No, [laughs] I don’t think so
QRO: With this third album, you have gone with a different approach. You have the artist collaborating. How did you decide to involve the original artist collaborate?
MC: Because we had really good feedback from almost every band we have covered, so we thought maybe we’ll contact them. We see that you like what we have done; maybe you’ll like to work with us on the new album? The idea of the duet was maybe a good idea because we didn’t really ask if we could do the songs, so it’s a meeting between nouvelle vague and them so we just contacting some of them and most of them said okay, great. It was not that difficult.
QRO: So the trouble was only in administrating? It was more just getting in contact with them then them agreeing.
MC: For sure. It was hard to do the schedule between their own tours.
QRO: How do you come up with the song selection for the albums?
MC: Most of the time it’s just songs we really like. My favorite ones. First time was the songs that inspired. ‘Let’s do this one because I have an idea for this.’ I have a visual for this one. Also for this album it’s probably the last one with this kind of thing. We tried also to choose bands that would be forgot like magazine for example.
QRO: Did you have list? Go in order? [laughs]
MC: No. [laughs] We did not have a list. It’s not like that. No, it’s just like more you know like oh shit! We forgot this artist for example. We have to do something on this artist! Something like that.
QRO: Have you ever had an artist not want Nouvelle Vague to re-imagine their song?
MC: We don’t really ask their permission
QRO: You just go to the label?
MC: Yeah so, I don’t know. Probably there are some who are not really happy with what we have done.
QRO: So you said this is the last time you are doing it this way, what’s next?
MC: The plan, Nouvelle Vague four will be different, I don’t know exactly how now but very different. We are going to do kind of special thing for friends with French musicians and with Americans, from the New York Dolls (QRO photos) to the Pixies (QRO live review), all these bands that kind of punk thing. Punk.
QRO: Are you going to change styles again? This album had more of a bluegrass feeling…
MC: I don’t know. I think that it will be more mixed up every album.
QRO: Do you find it hard to change genre or do you want to be known as a band that is always reinventing themselves?
MC: No!
You know we had done this for the first album. And even in the first album there are a lot of songs aren’t bossanova. I think this one is really different. I think it’s important to think it is not only this! It’s not a recipe. It’s more than that. I think that now we should admit it is not only that, it is more than that. And the audience should know about these things. Yeah, I think it is important to do change. It is boring to do the same things forever and ever. We don’t just take a song and do the same thing.
QRO: Do you intend on doing any original composition?
MC: No. Well I don’t know to tell you the truth I don’t know. It depends. At this point I think the first life of Nouvelle Vague was this three albums of covering post-punk bands in completely different ways. After we didn’t expect it to be so successful. So after we have to do something completely different. Why not write our own songs? Because we have written our own songs for different projects. So we can lead everybody, I don’t know exactly.
QRO: You have so many recordings used anywhere and everywhere. It seems like you cannot turn on the radio or TV without hearing an advertisement, or a theme song, something you haven’t touched. How do you feel about the licensing of your music?
MC: Oh yeah, I agree with everything. [laughs] It’s good. It’s bringing money. People are getting more into the songs. It’s great!
QRO: Where is your favorite place to play?
MC: Clubs.
QRO: Not theatres?
MC: No. No. No, no. We did a show in America for example, probably one of the best shows was in Salt Lake City in a rock club. They were really close and it was good. Much better then when people are sitting and [clapping stiffly]. When you are sitting there tonight you will see.
QRO: We have to know, it has been said that when choosing singers for songs that you pick only one who have not heard the originals. Is that true?
MC: No. It’s a legend.
QRO: We had to hear that from you [laughs]
MC: [laughs] It’s a legend.
[another band member comes in asking what’s the legend?]
QRO: That you guys choose singers who have never heard the original you are covering.
[laughs]
QRO: It is hard to imagine that people haven’t heard these songs.
MC: No, because you are into this music. But most of the singers they don’t know about this music. They’ve never heard about The Clash! It depends on which music you are into. If you are into rap music you might not be into this music.
