 |
| The Mots Nouveaux at Brokechella (2014) |
This interview was done in 2014 with the
band. It was conducted in context with the music festival, Brokechella, which is now known as Broke LA. I hope you enjoy:
Notes from Vivace: I
know Emma found Aaron over Myspace. Can
you expand on that?
Emma: We both went to
college in Nashville – though not at the same time. We had similar Myspace friends. I was living in Tokyo, singing at Disneyland
Tokyo. I came across his music. When I moved to Los Angeles, I found him on
Facebook and suggested we should write music together.
Notes from Vivace:
Aaron, how was it being on an Olay
commercial?
Aaron: The commercial
was meant for Amanda (his girlfriend and the Olay model in the commercial) to
sing and I was supposed to play the piano.
It was written around the story of how we met. They changed the direction of the commercial. We met on the rooftop. That part of the commercial took 20 minutes
as they shot from various angles.
Notes from Vivace:
Emma, I was on a plane and decided to watch “In Time.” I saw you on screen. Anyway, I did an IMDB and saw that you’re in
an upcoming film called “1:30 Train.”
How was it working with Chris Evans, Captain America?
Emma: It was Chris
Evans’ directorial debut. I played his
ex-girlfriend – that one that got away.
(I often play the girlfriend on television.) It was an awesome opportunity.
Notes from Vivace: So
both of you spent time in New York (Emma filmed “1:30 Train in New York), how
was your time there.
Aaron/Emma: We played
at Bowery Electric and Sidewalk Café. We
got to meet New York musicians. We have
folks in place to play with us as we’re going back for the full summer. We’re going to write a new album while in New
York. It is harder to write in Los
Angeles as we usually have shows coming up and it takes time to prepare for
these shows. We can hunker down when out
there. We’ll have fewer distractions.
Emma: Our most
productive time recently was when I was in New York in December and
January. Aaron was out here in Los
Angeles. We’d set specific times to meet
and Skype to write our music. There was
nothing else to do in terms of music, no shows to plan.
Aaron/Emma: We have
10 to 12 song demos. We have new
arrangements with instrumentations.
We’re trying to be self-sufficient (versus our current set-up with a
horn section). We’re trying to maximize
what we do between the two of us. This
guided our new arrangements by default.
It is heavy on vocal interplay.
Stylistically, our sound has changed a lot since 2010. We’re inspired by soul/funk, late
60s/70s. Our song has grown sexier in
the last year.
Emma: My heart was
broken in October. Many of the songs
were inspired by man hatred/women empowerment.
Notes from Vivace:
Aaron, I know you have a degree in economics. Have you found that major totally useless or
is there some interdiscplinary benefits that apply to music?
Aaron: I’ve thought
about that. Both economics and music are
highly organized systems. Both are
highly intricate. Both require intuition
and evidence. Music isn’t something you
can take apart, it is the whole. One
needs to analyze music, but there is also something mysterious about how music
works. Finishing a song requires trying
different styles, rhythms: like an
economy.
Notes from Vivace:
Aaron, so what is in the bottle/flask that you always have with you when
you perform?
Aaron: Water.
Do you have thoughts on Brokechella that you’d like to say?
Aaron/Emma: We’ve
talked about playing Brokechella in the past.
It just didn’t work out. We know
a lot of people involved with Brokechella.
We’re stoked to play it.
Notes from Vivace:
Any final thoughts?
Aaron/Emma: We did
just release an EP in Decmeber, which you can find on the Internet. We’ll also have CDs on Saturday.
Emma: The Mots
Nouveaux has always been a passion project.
I wanted to make my own music versus singing music that was given to me
[Disneyland Tokyo]. Everything was
always done live. Now we’re shifting to
the studio.
Aaron: I’ve gone full
circle. I started out without a
band. We then formed The Mots Nouveaux
and started performing with a full band.
We’re now heading back to the studio as a duo.
Emma/Aaron: Thigh
highs and whiskey.
That ended the formal interview. We had a brief conversation about
travel. Emma told a wonderful story
about her time in Tokyo. She was walking
in Tokyo and saw this sign. One English
word was there: Jazz. She decided to go inside. She walked up four flights of stairs. When she got to the bar, it was this tiny
space. There were only 4 bar
stools. Ella Fitzgerald albums lined the
walls. The bartender would play jazz
albums throughout the day. She’d spend
her days inside the bar just reading, drinking.
