<< [Part 1] IS HERE

I’ve got this one lucky time to see this cute folk band and asked them something…this is a translation about the french interview. (you can swith version of CTN-music at the right)
I hope you’ll learn more about them, read more on Myspace.

To Mark & Morgane from Cocoon:

1 - At first…Hello! How are you since we met on February the 1st at Bikini near Toulouse, France? And what are your feelings about this tour?

We’re fine, thank you ! The tour has a good start, we lived some huge moments since the beginning, the places were full of people, we felt welcomed.We’re very happy.

2 - In a few words, could you give us a brief? How did you met? How did you decide to become a band called Cocoon?
Cocoon was me, Mark, at the beginning. I’ve got songs, I overplayed them, dubbed myself with a sort of girly voice…I took the decision to write a note, because the mix was awful. And then Morgane came. Cocoon was born then, 2 years ago.
3 - Where do you come from? how old are you?
Morgane is 21 and I’m 23. We belong to the sea and the mountains. We’re coming from everywhere.
4 - Do you have a coach, a manager, a promotion team? Or are you made by yourselves?
Step by step, we could built a good team with edition, labelling, booking, designer and producer…Everything goes little by little and each one is important.
5 - I really liked your performance on “Rehab” (from Amy Winehouse) because you don’t show the same picture as her…is it a choice of you just like to play it? did you sing other covers

That’s just it. We don’t like drugs, we don’t want to show such a picture of ourselves and we’re sad about her, because she has a huge voice as well as her album. It was fun to play it differently, we’re a bit harder sometimes in real life.And it’s a real good song..On scene we like to cover ultra pop/soul/hip hop/rn’b/dance songs, we put ourselves in, in a folky way. If we had to cover folk songs, we’ll be boring! We covered “Hey Ya” from Outkast and others. We like challenging and discover good songwriters in other kind of music.

6 - What are the pros and cons when you came real fast in the music business?

We don’t see at first that “sharks with cigars” are there like in a movie, but we were lucky to meet just a few.We realize that we have to be in secure, in a good team, to give orders to people even to ourselves and to be ambitious if we want to get what we want for our band development.We’ve got to be trustful with older people sometimes, the ones who have 20 years of musical business on their back and are so sure to know everything about the world. That’s the most difficult thing.
There’s also a ton of voice, words to learn at lot of hypocryts, non-stop. I fear journalists and politic too. we have to fear the business and get concentration on songs, that’s the essential part. There’s not a lot of friendship in music but when you’ve got one friend, it’s pretty because it’s all about music passion. A lot of people seems to forget it. What is worth? songs. that’s it. It’s hard to find these people.
7 - Do you play instruments other than guitar and ukulélé for you you Mark and piano, Morgane?
Yeah I play banjo and toys too. Morgane is about to learn guitar and ukulélé: it’s a new gossip!
8 - Who are you day by day? What’s your last best movie
I don’t understand the first part of the question. About movies, I’m pretty sure that Morgane would say “chihiro”, she’s watching everything from the Ghibli studios in the tour bus. I would say “Gone Baby Gone”, I don’t even know why. Maybe because of Casey Affleck, he’s at the top.
9 - A great book?

Catcher in the Rye, Salinger.

10 - What do you do on days off?
We take a rest, I spend a lot of time on the internet, answering on myspace for example. We do new songs, meet our friends.
11 - Do you have other passions (painting, photo…)
I do lomography. I love it. Morgane makes cookies and special home made dishes in the new kitchen of her new flat.
12 - When I first listened to “On my way”, I can’t help myself to thing about a good artist who is deceased too soon, I loved him for his technic to play guitar, and I see him in you. He was called Elliott Smith…I guess people talked about a lot with you…what are your influences?
Elliott Smith. Cat Power. Sufjan Stevens. Nick Drake. Cash, Dylan, Young, Drake… Good songwriters from everywhere singing in english…
13 - Could you explain this choice with Panda and mountains? Is there an ecological message?
Not at all.The panda is soft, heavy and like a bodyguard, at the same time melancholic. It’s our logo, not more. We show a lot of this picture, the childhood side, but it’s just 20% of our plan. there are more hard things behind. “The panda is hidding the forest”.For the mountains, that’s where we belong.Represent, wesh ya.
14 - As a french band, will you write a french song later? and why singing in english?

No. English is folk music, and we’re playing folk. And we so do want to play outhere!
15 - At the Bikini hall, you sang a new song called “baby seal”, I liked it…are you on the way of a second album?
I love it, it’s my best song to play, like every new song. We are not on the way of something new at this time, we’ve got a huge tour to give, then we’ll see. At the same time, I like to write, I can’t help myself. I write even if I’ve got 2 or 3 days off. Morgane writes too at this time. We also write for other people, more well known as us.
16 - Where are the places where you find inspiration, as well as your melancholic, joyful, hopeless or sad texts (or the album title)?Is there some real stuff?
Yeah. The album is about mysself, Morgane, moments, full of pictures and animals. It’s still difficult to talk about lyrics. I’m not objective and I don’t want to be.Let’s say that it’s an album about 2 persons who are learning to become a man and a woman, in a urgent way. Then with all the joy, cliché and deception that you can get. Writing was a natural thing, very fast. I can’t easy talk about it, it’s too violent and like shameless.

17 - Do you have something to say via your songs?
The listener have to come to meet us now. He has to take a word, a note for himself and hug it, like a lucky thing or whatever he wants. I just want people to identify themselves a bit.
Messages are on stage when we play.
18 - What do you think about these words?’Dreams can become true and we can dream all life”
As usual, I don’t like this. Morgane could answer this I think. I can’t answer now, I don’t think about it at all. Playing music was almost true for me, no alternatives, it wasn’t dream, it has always been there. I dream about to purpose to Cat Power for example but I do believe I could dream of it all my life.

19 - What can we wish to you for 2008?
Bretzels.

*********

I hope to see you soon and hug both of you!! Thanks for according me a bit of your time.

Jessica Kuijer.