The Irrepressibles

door Fleur Pierets | mrt 25, 2013 | Music

The Irrepressibles

Text JF. Pierets Photos Courtesy of The Irrepressibles

He’s the highly talented artist behind The Irrepressibles, a 10-piece band, using conceptual sets, none-theatrical lighting, projection, dance and couture fashion. Their ground breaking approach continues to push the boundaries of live popular music and they have been commissioned and performed for many of Europe’s leading festivals and institutions including the Latitude Festival, the V&A, the Hackney Empire and guest appearances at the London Fashion Week.

Their heavily emotional style of music is created instinctively, playfully and cathartically by Jamie McDermott, the founding member, and center piece of The Irrepressibles. The moment Jamie knew he was a musician is quite an emotional story. Being in love with his best friend, he wrote songs to express his feelings. Other than the wishful happily ever after, they fell apart as friends and the singer felt so alone he was looking in the face of suicide and wanted to throw himself of the cliffs of the seaside town where he lived. Yet, instead of jumping, he decided to give his life a more noble purpose; “Through music, I wanted to explain the world the beauty of being in love with another man in a way that everyone would understand.” Needless to say this kind of intension is one of the things we love here at Et Alors? Magazine.

As a working class boy from North Yorkshire, he discovered the library and was craving for knowledge. “I read about Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McClaren, Andy Warhol, about the political force of music in the words of Atalli and Eisler and fell in love with the iconic imagery of film makers Fasbinder and Kenneth Anger”, so his genesis began with a manifesto to “make something that portrays the real originality, drama and intensity of life.”

Irritated by the manufactured pop music, its lack of real emotion and the boring visual aesthetics of indie music at the time, he wanted to create something fresh and reactionary. Most influenced by nonmusical elements such as the sounds of laughter and the hum of the bus; “The movement of people and machines all have a complexity of nature a kind of polyphony in their interaction. My music has this interaction“. It’s an organic machine of emotion, what McDermott calls his ‘performance objects’ or ‘live spectacles’.

‘It is boring of the music industry to be so conservative when so many other areas of society aren’t.’

What began as an art performance project in 2002 resulted into the release of their debut album “Mirror Mirror” in 2010. The Guardian called all 12 songs humorous, vain and marvelously camp. Two years later, The Irrepressibles released the album “Nude” throughout the world. “Take off your clothes, I want to see you naked” are the first words we hear Jamie McDermott’s deep baritone sing. With reviews like “Consisting of 12 pieces in total, fusing discordant electronica with the more familiar classical orchestrations of old, Nude represents McDermott’s attempts at writing a concept record explaining the rich complexities of life” and “As ever, McDermott sails alongside and above the melody, reaching astounding levels of emotive strength as the song builds to its heady climax”, the world hears that McDermott has a talent that few can match.

Despite these beautifully arranged songs and a great voice, it’s very refreshing to hear someone sing unapologetically about his homosexuality “I wrote much of Nude when I was 19, 20, 21. At that time I was really finding who I was. Blossoming with my sexuality and writing songs about my adolescent experiences, being bullied and isolated. I’ve always been very honest and open. Making music for me has always been a very cathartic emotional process”, McDermott states. “New World” – from the album “Nude” – was a song he wrote to a friend to tell him to come-out and be free. “I was hearing a lot about these kids killing themselves for being bullied because they were gay and I was deeply disturbed by this. I wanted to send this message in the hope of being part of making young people confident in their difference”. The album Nude is heavily about affirming difference and letting it be free.

Comparisons with Antony Hegarty and David Bowie are never far away and the singer explains being very much influenced by what he would call the lineage of gay artists. He believes that gay artists create a slightly different aesthetic of sound and visual. Nevertheless he does not fear that his music will be marginalized because he is not ashamed to promote the so-called gay interest. “It is boring of the music industry to be so conservative when so many other areas of society aren’t and when pop music is meant to be the vanguard of culture. For too many years gay artists have been marginalized when their music has been influential on other more acceptable artists. So why should anyone who is gay be dishonest?”

www.theirrepressibles.com
www.gentlemanagement.be

This article is featured in Et Alors? Magazine 5.

Read the complete issue here.

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Saint Marteau

door Fleur Pierets | mrt 3, 2012 | Music

Saint Marteau

Text & photos JF. Pierets

In an era where much of the contemporary music has been sampled or ripped-off from past sounds, there’s a man working the stage dressed in but a jaunty straw hat, a bow tie and golden knickers. His lively, roguish manner of performing sets a whole new view on today’s live concerts. Born in Belgium in a family of artists, Saint-Marteau seemed predestined to become a painter but found himself behind the keyboards of a rock band at the age of 16. Some unmentionable years later, he’s looking his audience straight in the eye and blossoms as a showman and a performer, bringing a truly unique, flamboyant repertoire, between rock and music hall, with songs that aim straight for the heart. At the moment Saint-Marteau is touring with a theatrical show called “Saint-Marteau se fait Gainsbourg”, which is built entirely around songs by the great Serge Gainsbourg. Let’s get to the bottom of it!

About his personae
The old adage goes that good things are worth the wait so it took me some time to discover my voice and the magical world of the spotlight. I created Saint-Marteau from scratch. He is a man with no past. A performer who sings in French and loves a good show. He’s definitely both a child of the 80’s and 20’s and likes to dress up as a mix between Maurice Chevalier en Vanity 6.

About performing on stage
Let’s face it, Grunge killed glamour. It fills me with the utmost dismay to watch a singer behind his microphone, murmuring about how badly he has slept or how tormented he really is. You know why? Because I don’t care. When I take the effort of going to a concert and buying a ticket, I want to be entertained, I want to see an act. When you are performing, a discussion of motives is besides the point. You have to entertain your audience. When you’re rolling over the stage in misery, make sure your rolling is interesting enough to look at. So to disrupt the deathly boredom of most live concerts, I opted for cliché’s. As a performer I see myself as some kind of superhero/singer, a cartoon character who brings his fantasy world into the spotlights.

About being influenced by French songs from the 1920’s and 1930’s
I love the old French chansonniers who were characterized by their suave manner and using a cane and tilted straw hat as their trademarks. Maurice Chevalier, Charles Trenet, they gained international fame as stage personalities because their shows were universal. They were as much suited for Tokyo as for London. Despite the fact that they where singing in French because that kind of stage communication goes beyond words or language.

About todays chanson
In the current generation of French singers I’m missing the edginess, the humour and the unusual. The things that are happening in France, on a musical level, are quite intimate and inwardly. I wanted to break through that trend with a show that goes way back in time but wanted to sauce it with some contemporary music elements. When you are performing with a boater or a cane, everybody knows where you’re heading at. It’s securely etched upon people’s memory. But when you mix that sort of entertainment with a rock band, it starts to get interesting. I feel very comfortable singing French chansons, I feel at home in the tradition of the revues, the cabaret. But that doesn’t mean I have to play the accordion with a bottle of wine next to me. It all lies in finding the right mix.

About his audience
Everybody is who he is and I’m certainly never going to hide my sexual preferences but I’m not aiming for a certaintype of audience, on the contrary. That would be too narrow minded. When I’m on stage I see all different kind of ages looking up and that makes me more than happy. The tongue-in-cheek aspect of my shows could cause eyebrows to be raised, but it doesn’t. It shows that good entertainment tickles all ages. Point taken.

‘By doing what I’m doing and by really going for it, I think I might be more engaged then someone who fulminates against the whole system.’

About being politically correct
I don’t have a political agenda and I certainly don’t have ‘a message’. I love l’art pour l’art. By doing what I’m doing and by really going for it, I think I might be more engaged then someone who fulminates against the whole system. Especially in times like this – with false morality and where they forbid grown up people to smoke – I think following your intuition is the perfect antidote against this childish approach. It’s even more effective then any political or social statement. You don’t have to start kicking at things to make a strong point.

About having fun
My shows are spicy in an old fashioned way. That’s much more pleasant then trying to shock with explicit details. After several decades of stage actors taking off their clothes every two minutes, we’ve seen it all and there’s nothing more to add to it. So it’s much more interesting to suggest things. To have fun. Having fun is much more daring these days then going naked.

About discipline
I love partying, I love putting together fantastic outfits to set the room on fire until 6 in the morning with nice perfume dupes, but I also love the obviousness of work. Because performing is a job, you have to be in strong mental shape. I spend countless hours reading books on business articles on business marketing and making strong sales pitches for my brands such as the ones here

I have a very worked out physique and I do a lot of mental preparation before I step into a tour. When I’m on stage I don’t want to get stuck on having to improvise. I aim for a strict choreography and that needs the necessary discipline.

About Gainsbourg
I’m not the kind of artist who swims into the tribute-circuit but I have a strong bond with the songs of Gainsbourg. I went through his complete oeuvre. There were almost 600 songs from which I chose the ones who resemble my own style. You have to see it as the opposite of a tribute. It’s more like shamelessly using someone else’s work for own purposes. I’m not a fan of Gainsbourg as a singer. He had a grand charisma but his live recordings are exuberantly bad and I’m not a fan of his murmuring, clumsy way of performing. But I truly adore him as a composer and a writer. His music. Gainsbourg is such a rich character. He’s Parisian but also a Russian jew. He was a kinky womaniser but also a grand poet and very funny. He was everything at the same time but I’m going to work with his lyrics, his music and transform it into a Saint-Marteau show. So don’t expect Gitanes and a five o’clock shadow.

About the future
Despite the fact that I consider Belgium a nice place to live and work, I might be ending up living in Paris or Marseilles. Who knows? As long as I can keep on doing what I’m doing because I love my life and I hope to take more advantage of it. But time will tell and you never know how the world will look in about 20 years from now.

www.saint-marteau.com