Hinter Who Are You Lutra Lutra?? verbergen sich zwei Franzosen namens Julien und Fabien, deren neue Wahlheimat Berlin geworden ist. Stets auf der Suche nach neuen Geschichten reisen sie gern durch die Weltgeschichte: Ob Australien, Island oder irgendwo in Euroapa, überall erlebt man Sonderbares und Schönes, trifft Menschen und genau die daraus gewonnen Eindrücke machen die beiden zu Musik. Zum Einsatz kommen Ukulele, Gitarre, Klavier, Konzertina oder Mandoline und das klingt wirklich ganz zauberhaft.
„Lutra Lutra breathes somewhere where you can meet Tom Waits, Bonnie Prince Billy, Nick Cave or Devendra Banhart. Their tunes are sometimes soft and calm, sometimes loud and sharp, but always elaborated with a compulsive need for a strong melodic line.“
Das „Interview“ erfolgte per Mail.
How did you met and for how long do you make music (together)?
Julien: We met 6 years ago and starting making music together right away, like, 2 weeks after. We met in Brest, France, in a music festival. Then we started hanging out and I introduced my songs to Fabien who immediately found lots of harmonies and melodies to go with them. The first concert we did was a few weeks later!
Three words to describe your music.
Julien: soft / colorful / honest
Fabien: melodic / sewing / sensible
What are your Lyrics about?
Julien: The majority of the songs tend to paint a feeling I experience at a very precise moment. It can be a strong feeling but also a very small or temporary one. Then my work is to try to express it in a kind of poetic way. Sometimes when I start writing I don’t even realise what it is about. And then it all comes together. It also has to fit with the acoustic guitar melody.
Are you also street-musicians (e.g. in U-bahn)?
Not really. We tried it a few times though, but not in Berlin (Ireland, Australia).
Can you make a living out of your music?
Julien: We’ve been trying for the last 6 months and it’s really hard. As we work in an independant way, we do everything ourselves. From writing to recording, finding gigs, organising tours, driving the van, settling the stage and playing.
Fabien: As Julien said, it’s been a try this last 6 month, after touring 2 month a year in the past 4 years, but we are far from making it alive, even surviving of it is a point we didn’t reach yet. But we are working on, and still hope it will come one day. The passion is there to keep us trying.
What concerts are coming up and what are your future-plans?
Fabien: Tonight (15. März 2104) we release our 2nd EP „White on White“ live, in Berlin // Pannierstr. 40. Then, we have some concerts in Germany and Denmark, probably in Switzerland too. We plan to tour the maximum possible in between the studio recordings.
In the future-plans, we gonna try to find a booker and a label, cause we would like now to have a structure helping us in our process, and we also plan to record another EP for the end of the year.
Artists (music) you really adore?
Julien: Peter & The Wolf / Damien Rice / Turner Cody / Herman Düne / Stanley Brinks
Fabien: Overhead (Silent witness) / Jay-Jay Johanson / Herman Düne / Stanley Brinks
Tell me 5 records you listened to when you were teenagers.
Julien: OK Computer (Radiohead) / Jagged Little Pill (Alanis Morissette) / Showbiz (Muse) / Word Gets Around (Stereophonics) / Without You I’m Nothing (Placebo)
Fabien: Bad (Mickael Jackson) / A Johnny Cash Compilation / Money for Nothing ( Dire Straits) / Passion and Warfare (Steve Vai) / Electric Ladyland (Jimi Hendrix)
What german habbits don´t you understand or which ones do you find most funny?
Julien: Like in Berlin, people eat all the time! Middle of the afternoon? Yeah why not, let’s have a burger! 4am, yeah, let’s have a wurst!
Also, drinking beer on the street is legal! Great! And beer in glass bottles! Great! And you can just leave your empty bottle on the ground! Smoking inside bars is crazy too, it’s been forbidden for years in France. It’s like being back in the 90’s.!
Fabien: What I don’t understand is the 2 duvets on a bed. They use to have 2 little ones, instead of a biiiig one. I found it funny.
Anspieltipp: „What Are You Lookin At“. Der Instrumental-Part ist toll.
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