In Conversation with
Vialka:
A little background:
Not sure how I
would compare Vialka to you as they are
one of these acts
who sound completely different to almost
anybody I have
heard, but yet sound vaguely familiar in a way
which is
un-nerving.
Formed around the
basis of Marylise (Vocals, Drums)
from Dunkerque, in
the north of France and Eric (Vocals,
Bass Guitar) They
make music which I guess in particular
when Marylise sings
comes close I guess to Janis Joplin, but
which they then
both take well beyond that and depending
on when set they
play can range from beautiful indie
pop to free form
soundscapes which come close to my friend,
Bela Emerson (of
course whom introduced me to them at
a recent gig in
Manchester) in style.
I had a chat to
Marylise at the end of their gig who told me a
little about how
she was trained as a drummer which was if my
memory was correct
was through as a percussion drummer in
some kind of
drumming band in France… Either way from
talking to her, I
knew I should contact Vialka for a interview,
and so I did…
This interview
then followed shortly after in true Setting
Sun style.
Thanks to Eric for
the interview and hopefully
Marylise’s
Pregancy will go well and not stop
Vialka too much!
For more
information on the band – please go to
their website on www.vialka.com
Cheers for
everything
AEN
Setting Sun:
How
are things and What’s happening at the moment?
Vialka:
Things are fine
here, we toured a lot this last winter and spring
and needed a short
break to get back on our feet.
I leave tomorrow
for a two week tour with Crank Sturgeon,
and Marylise is
off to Belgium for a theater production.
Setting Sun:
Can
you next tell how Vialka started – who fired
the
starting pistol for be it out of a better word?
Vialka:
Marylise and I had
already been playing in a trio
called NNY, and
after it broke up we continued doing
noise/improv stuff
as Hermit. A friend of ours offered
us to play at the
Sziget Festival in Budapest, so we asked
Jacopo Andreini to
join us on the sax and started
writing
songs.
A month later we
were on tour!
Setting Sun:
What
are your influences and what have
you
been listening to recently?
Vialka:
I suppose the list
is long! Marylise is quite
influenced by
classical music, and lately I
have been delving
deeply into folk music from
Africa, eastern
Europe, and central Asia.
Of course, a big
influence for us has always
been our friends and
the amazing entourage of
musicians and
bands we meet and play with
on tour!
Setting Sun:
Have
been listening a fair bit to your
tracks
on your Curiosities of popular
customs
CD a fair bit recently in
particular
‘village mentality part two’ –
What’s
the story behind that?
Vialka:
Village Mentality
part one are lyrics that Marylise
wrote about a
village we lived in in the Slovenian
alps, perhaps
depicting some of the negative aspects
of village
life.
Marylise wrote part
two about the village we
live in now, in
central France, and it's about the
more postive
aspects of village life - the postman,
and the volunteer
firemen and the stronger ties
between
people.
Setting Sun:
I
also know from seeing you live in
Manchester
that you also like to play
two
different sorts of sets – one of which is
more
un-structured shall we say and
the
other where you would play songs
from
your albums
/
singles – How do these compare to
each
other and what first started you off
with
this approach?
Vialka:
We try to be
flexible in order to keep it
interesting and
unpredictable for both the
audience and for
ourselves - it can be hard to
play the same songs
every night in a
row for three
months! We don't necessarily
do seperate
"sets" like we did in Manchester
(although it was
fun), usually we mix improvisation
and compositions,
sometimes a full improv show
when we we have
the opportunity to improvise
with other
musicians or groups, or if we
have two shows in
a city we often do one
improv night and one
composition night
(depending on the
venue and audience).
It keeps us on our
toes.
Setting Sun:
Out
of interest, where did the inspiration
for
your name ‘Vialka’ come from out of
interest?
Vialka:
Well, a couple of
things actually: we toured in
Russia as Hermit
in 2002, together with Tea Man
And Tea Gum from
St Petersburg.
To make a long
story extremely short, we were
kicked out of a
train by drunken soldiers in the
middle of nowhere
for riding without tickets.
The middle of
nowhere was actually a tiny
little village
named Vialka, or Fialka
actually, which
means "violet" (as in
the flower) in
Russian.
Back in soviet
times, rock bands were called
"VIA",
which stood for Vocal Instrumental
E(a)nsemble. We put these together, and well,
the rest is
history.
Setting Sun:
What’s
next for yourself – do you
have
any more releases / concerts planned etc?
Vialka:
We have a new
split CD with Kruzenshtern
& Parohod from
Israel coming out soon,
will record some
new songs in october, and
are booking tours
in Europe, the USA, and Israel
for this
fall.
Marylise is
pregnant so we'll be taking a maternity
leave as of the
end of the year.
Setting Sun:
A
few slightly more lighter questions to
wind
down with – Where are you both
from?
What’s the music scene like where
you
are? Have you been to any good concerts
recently?
Vialka:
Marylise is from
Dunkerque, in the north of France,
which should be well
known in England for the battle
and subsequent
evacuation of British
forces at the
beginning of the second world war.
It is also well
known for it's wild carneval.
For a city of it's
size (200 000 souls or so) Dunkerque
has a great music
scene, with plenty on
interesting projects
and some pretty active ones too.
I'm originally
from Vancouver Island, Canada, but
have not lived
there in almost ten years.
At the time when I
lived there the music scene was
very active, very
original and generally quite eclectic –
as it tends to be on
islands I'd say.
These days I
gather that there are some pretty
good and internationally
known bands
coming from the
Island.
Setting Sun:
What
would you be like to be doing when
you
are 60?
Vialka:
I have no
particular long term plans as such, I guess I
would like to be
sailing around the world or
herding goats or
keeping bees.
Setting Sun:
What
will you be doing when you are
60?
Vialka:
Who knowns, if you
asked me where I would be and
what I would be doing
ten years ago I don't think
I would have been
able to tell!
Setting Sun:
Lastly,
(Nicked from a pal’s Zine in a way)
“Imagine
you were ship wrecked on a desert
island and could have the choice of having
5
records or Cds with you with a stereo of
course
– what would be your desert Island discs?
Vialka:
Hmmm, tough
question. To be honest I suppose
I wouldn't bother taking
any discs or a stereo as a
desert island
seems like it would be a good place to
make music, and as
much as I am a music fanatic,
I very much
appreciate silence. However, I imagine
this question is formulated
to expose the list of
my favorite discs
so here it goes anyways:
Five just
gets complicated, so here's three in no
particular
order:
Djunushov
Brothers "Ergime" - music from
Kyrgyzstan
Ali Farka
Toure "Niafunke"
Xiaohe - solo
album by the leader of the Beijing
group
Glorious Pharmacy, cannot read the title
... I could
live to regret this though there are others...