2023-06-22 00:36:36
Marcos French is not Marcos French. At least as far as Confessions of a Prima Donna is concerned, a new album by the Cordovan singer-songwriter who has been living in Madrid for years, which mixes Latin music (from bossa nova to bolero) and Italian-Spanish song from the ’70s from a fascinating voice and guitar approach.
Although here the voice that is expressed is that of a man, it is lubricated by the sensitivity of a woman; more precisely that of the Prima Donna, as well as the title of the first single. “Prima Donna is a song of liberation, from the point of view of a woman who decides to open herself up to love once more,” French explains.
“It is the confession of a ‘woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown.’ And by saying this, the song immerses itself and is inspired by the universe of Chavela Vargas and Almodóvar. With folkloric and ranch airs, with an acoustic, direct and raw sound”, she adds.
Assuming himself as a vocal performer with theatrical resonance, French points out that his songs constantly change situations and interlocutors. “I don’t consider them to be directly biographical, but they do share my perspective on life”, he maintains.
“I was driven by non-identification with the forms, with the genres, with the norms. What is masculine and feminine? When am I Marcos and when am I Prima Donna? When do I sound folkloric or when do I pop? I don’t know, and I don’t care too much either. Because I believe that type of information limits us and divides us”, completes regarding the work produced by Yago Escrivá, half of the Ainda duo.
Confessions of a Prima Donna is simple and charming; ideal to be assimilated in the shadows of a concert café.
French says he’s been playing it for a year and a half in that minimal way. And that the album is “coherent with the live performance” because he wanted to preserve the spell of having the viewer at the mercy of a close encounter.
“The recording with Yago was live. All the songs resulted from first takes and without a metronome. I was inspired by how Edith Piaf or Jacques Brel recorded. Onda café concert, like Amor de ciudad grande, the album by Nacha Guevara”, he illustrates.
Marcos French and regarding the alleged militant profile of his new album
Confessions of a Prima Donna might be considered a militant record. It can be embraced by feminism, and by the LGBT community to put their demands to music; and it can also be associated with gender fluidity.
Was that the intention of its creator? “I would be a hypocrite if I deny it to you or accept it because I didn’t think so. I just set out to challenge the way you identify with something. I go once more. What is feminine? What is masculine? What is pop? What is boss? What is bolero? My challenge was to break those forms and adapt the impulses to the form that the song needs”, he answers.
“Starting to compose from the Prima Donna seemed much more interesting to me than doing it from Marcos French. Going back to talking regarding what I am is very limiting. In Prima Donna, the single, I thought of my widowed mother and another aunt… It is a hymn for those women to open up to love, to have sex, to enjoy ”, she reveals.
“And I can’t write that as Marcos,” he says. I created a character to do it without the idea that he is a militant. But if he ends up being it despite everything, I love it ”.
“Involuntarily permeating is much more potent than if you do it with militant determination, now that I think regarding it.
–The truth is that the search was like that, genuine. I get a little closer to theater because all my musical development was always exploratory. I never felt like a musician who was clear regarding what he wanted to do, that he said with certainty “this is my thing”. For me it was always getting into research and being romantic, then more pop… And that’s how it was until I got here. The permanent exploration led me to incorporate all my feminine side, my empathy with women, my admiration for them. That just came out. For example, a song that I love is Dear Youth, a total drama.
–And who or who did you think of in that case?
–In Maria Callas, for example, an amazing woman who died alone in her apartment in Paris. Or in Judy Garland, who ended her days in a hotel in London in the most absolute ostracism. I was wondering what happened to these women to end up like this following having generated what they generated? Anyway, it’s good to become a channel that goes beyond your reality. If the record can generate unity and empathy, the goal has been achieved.
–While you talk regarding exploration, your friend Dani Spalla told me that, in a way, her career consisted of the gradual liberation of the ties of jazz.
–We are all seeking to be freer. Consciously or unconsciously, everyone is in it. Everyone in your line is trying to find peace of mind, to be able to love more, or to be more yourself. So yes, I agree with Dani. She participated in the songs Roca and Dos perlas. And I also participated in Dara, the album that she will publish soon. I am always linked to Córdoba. Even though I’m far away, I’m close.
–Does what Charly raises in “Silver on Silver” happen to you, that “you have to go so far to be here”?
–It is that here you end up making collaborations that you would not have imagined possible there. People come here with less prejudice. If I had met some of them in Buenos Aires or Córdoba, perhaps I would not have come across them. They enter to carve other issues. Here it is “Here I am, let’s do something”; You empathize and something really nice is created with the Argentines. When I left school in 2003, I felt that I had to leave; I felt very different, I was not in the scene. I was very theatrical, I didn’t know where to get into musically. This album makes me happy because in it I was able to integrate everything, even that which at some point I rejected from myself. He always said to me “Why are you so theatrical? Why are you so intense singing? Why do you sing with so much vibrato?” Now I don’t care if I sing like that. I freed myself from that control and reasoned “This is who I am, whatever happens has to happen”.
–Although the album is not “up” it has Raffaella Carrá as a suggested trigger. How did you feel when she died?
–I found it very sad and at the same time, incredible. Because just thinking regarding Raffaella brings you joy, did you see? It is an injection of energy; I think of her and she keeps referring me to the colors, to the choreographies. In addition, I present the album at Florida Park, a place that is here in the Retiro Park and that has a good history. It is the room in which concerts began to be televised following the Franco regime. And Raffaella sang there! Also Lola Flores, Julio Iglesias. It is a room of 500 people in the middle of the park. It’s very strong to be standing in the same place that she was.
Will you present this album in Córdoba? For now, it does not need deployment or a large budget…
-I tell you. (The producer) Vivi Stallone met me singing at the Café Berlin in this city. She was traveling, she went to that room and connected. She goes once more: in Buenos Aires it is more than likely that we would never have crossed paths. The concrete thing is that, the day following the concert, we got together to have a coffee. I arrived at the meeting with my speech of small rooms, of theaters, and she retorted “And why not a festival?” And like she started throwing me a lot of ideas in another direction. So yes, I will go to Córdoba with all that support.
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