|
John Beaudin - Hi Bet.e and Stef, we love your album here at the Breeze! Bet.e - That's great! John - You know what? We put your song 'I'm There' on the air and all of a sudden everyone's in a good mood. So mission accomplished in other words! Bet.e - oh yeah! John - We are getting so much response from the album, obviously this Bossa Nova thing and a light jazz feel in there is great. This whole album has sort of a 'jois de vivre' kinda feel. Was that your mission when you recorded it? Bet.e - Yes, it was intended in that way because we really just do the music that we love without regards to if this song is well known or not. We don't care and if it makes us feel good then we figure it will make other people feel good as well and it has that as part of our intention. John - The album is doing really well in Quebec right now too isn't it? Bet.e - Yes, it just went gold! John - Is that right, congratulations! I am not surprised because when they first sent it to me they (Universal Music) said watch this album, you put it on and you will get response right away. Really, we put it on and people started calling us. So, I know artists sometimes don't always get that gratification of people telling them right off the bat just like that so I just wanted to make that clear for you that you both know that.
John - Well, Dee our mid-morning person (at The Breeze) wants to know when are you coming out west? Stef - Soon. Bet.e
- Yes, soon. According to our manager and agent they are working
on sometime in February for us to start touring the West of Canada.
I assume we should be seeing you guys in the spring I guess! Bet.e - Yes. John - That is amazing, how did you do that for five hundred bucks? Stef - Yes, actually it was a french studios and it was easier to go with the lower cost and we had fun there with our first real studio experience. It was fun, really simple and really intuitive also because it was our first thing and we are just doing what we love doing so it was so easy. John - Sort of a labor of love. Stef
- Exactly, it still is but
when it gets bigger you get more people involved and it is a bit
more complicated but still we have fun doing what we do for sure. John - I know that both of you did a lot of what artists sometimes call the 'dirty work'. You were the ones that were phoning the radio stations and doing most of that work before you got signed to a major label. Bet.e - Yes, absolutely. John - Most artists as you know hate doing that kind of stuff. Stef - Well, even when you hate it you have to stay in your house alone and do some work to promote yourself when you don't have a name yet and you are the best person to do it because you do it for yourself. I think that is the secret and magic of it. John - You just said it right there because a lot of people who don't do it they pay the price sometimes. It needs to be done unless you have a major label. I know that Steph you left the country and studied in Paris and is that where you first had a touch of this Bossa Nova feel?
John - It really does and I can't say that enough. Stef - There is tons and tons of music from Brazil and it is so amazing the beautiful songs they have. It was really great. John- The music of Legends like Antonio Carlos Jobim and Ivan Lins is very popular right now and has been for awhile in North America - I just love that Brazilian effortless way of singing. You both do that well. Stef
- We had to work on it but for sure there was a radiant texture
with our voices that fit with the music but there is also words
behind it and it sounds so natural even though we are not Brazilians
is because we really work and love what we are John - And it can't hurt that you are French and can roll your r's.(laughing) Bet.e - (laughing)Absolutely, you know French has Latin roots just as Portuguese does and that definitely has been a real plus for us. John - Bet.e, you sort of took a scenic route (to music). I know that you took a few Psychology courses and then you became more involved as being a singer, right? Bet.e - Yes, I was beating around the bush for a while there. I studied Psychology and I had a radio show and I studied theatre and dance. Everything related to each other until I got to a point where it was very clear that I absolutely needed to become a singer more than anything else. I liked the other things but not as much as the idea of becoming a singer. John - You both seem like very attractive people and although I haven't met you, how come your album cover is so fuzzy?(laughing) I say lets market these attractive people! Bet.e - (laughing). Well, it is kind of nice to not do it the usual way though, isn't it? You look at the album cover and you want to see more. It makes you want to see more! So when the video comes out or when we come to town there is going to be even more of an interest because of that. John - You know what I was thinking, neither one of them want to be recognized in the produce section of their grocery store. Bet.e - (laughing)Well, it is a little too late for that but lets say it just kind of turned out that way. When we looked at the pictures we had that we preferred they happened to have that feel so we decided to just generally go with that sort of fuzzy feel. John - It is attractive you are right, it does look very nice. It is that Psychology part of you you are tricking us Bet.e(laughing). Bet.e - (laughing)It is very useful. John - Tell me about the first single "I'm there."
Bet.e - We love Carlos and we love talking about him. He is on the song 'It's Over' on the album and he has his own album out and he is great, we just love him! It's a song that was written for a friend and like a lot of our songs has a powerful and uplifting message. John - So, how did you specifically meet? Who introduced you to each other? Bet.e - It was my sister. Stef was dating a sister of mine at the time and I knew him as my sister's boyfriend. I also have another sister who at one point got married and she was the one that actually had the idea of us playing together because she new that Stef was doing Bossa Nova and she knew that I wanted to sing and she thought we should just come together on this. It turned out our voices blended well together and we did love the genre of music very much and we both wanted to make a solid career out of this. It just kind of dawned on us slowly that we would make a good team. So, we just started slowly hanging out together learning, listening to songs and making arrangements up as we went along. The whole process has been very organic and it has been going on at a very smooth even pace. John - So in other words because your sister dated Stef you kind of know all the stuff. So you know all the dirty stuff about him. I don't mean sexually but I mean all the dirt (laughing). Bet.e - (laughing)Well, we have been working together for almost 10 years. So we know each other pretty well. John - Well, it is like a marriage anyways, right? Bet.e
- In a sense, yes. John - (laughing)What is the biggest thing you admire about each other? Stef - I think on my side it is Bet.e's drive, her winning energy. I have played with a lot of musicians before and when I met Bet.e she had the thing that I was looking for and that is the drive and desire to really succeed. It was great to find someone with the same will that I had and I have learned so much from her. Bet.e - There are many things but Stef has a love of producing sound that has been more than useful and so fundamental to our work and he really cares about making something sound right whether it is live or in the studio. You absolutely need someone to be that way as much as you need somebody to be very business oriented you really need someone to care about how it sounds and knows how to make it sound right, Stef has that. Another thing is that he is very willing to evolve. He is very willing to improve himself on any level and to go to the next level and I think that is great. Some people spend their lives half asleep or get to a level and are just stuck there and Stef is into evolving and I think that is really cool. John - As a music lover I just love this genre of music and I love many genre's of music but when someone takes the time to put the sound right and to bring it up a notch. The true fans, the people who really listen really notice. Bet.e - Exactly. John - So, you sing in English and also in Portuguese, right? Bet.e - And also in French of course and Spanish too. John - It is amazing you bring in so many cultures, it is like a melting pot. Bet.e
- Is very Canadian you know,
it is very Montreal and it is very Canada I find. There are people
from all over the world here and most people where we live in
Montreal are bilingual if not trilingual and it is really a common
thing. The great thing is that you have this peaceful gravitation
of everybody. Where in some countries you can't even be in the
same neighborhood without fighting. I think this is a fantastic
thing we have here, this openness to different cultures. The Brazilian
response here in Canada has been good.
|
Bet.e
- I am glad, this is the first time we get that kind of feedback
from Calgary. So we are really looking forward to playing out
in your end of the country.
Stef
- Yes it was actually. I
was with a friend and I was taking about vocal jazz and he played
me some stuff and he told me that I should do that. After I heard
it, I was like wow, this is beautiful and I want to do this so
I started practicing in my little room in Paris. I was trying
to get the chords, the phrasing, the singing and then I had a
chance to play in a little club there and it was a big Brazilian
Community in Paris actually and I had a gig and it started like
that. After I came back I had a few alternative bands some grunge
and underground bands, I later met Bet.e. Bet.e really wanted
to sing and she was really too jazz so we started with Jazz standards
and a few of both of our songs and the more we went out the more
we loved it and our voices really blended well and fit into that
kind of music and so it was the perfect music for us.
doing.
When you love, work is easy.
Stef
- Well, Bet.e wrote the lyrics but just to mention before she
talks about the lyrics, this is the first time we played with
real Latin percussionists that have the more Latin side where
as we have always played Bossa Nova and more Brazilian stuff.
This musician (Kullac Viger) that came to us who is a Peruvian
and he played a lot with Carlos Placeres. He brought that new
vibe that you can feel on the album, that Latin vibe where we
are going to also and it is a new door that we open with this
guy(Kullac Viger) and Carlos Placeres.
