is Catherine Watine : producer, songwriting (music & Lyrics) vocals Bernard Becker : executive producer, recordings & arrangements Markus Dravs : aditional programming and recordings
RFI MUSIC Interview (part of RADIO FRANCE) :
Watine, the enigmatic French rock chick
Rock meets pop meets electro
Paris
22/05/2006 -
With one foot in electro and the other firmly planted in the classical world, Catherine Watine is a musical oddity. Hailed as one of France's most original new talents, Watine has just released a debut album, Dermaphrodite: whimsical, worldly wise and strangely sincere. RFI Musique hooks up with this new 'grande dame' of rock'n'roll who looks set to follow in the footsteps of Marianne Faithfull, Nico and Kate Bush.
"It's hard to classify your own music," Catherine Watine muses, sipping a cup of Earl Grey tea, "These days, you're more or less obliged to do so, but I'm not a big fan of labels" Understandably so, when you consider that this indie ash blonde with deep blue eyes has spent her life crossing musical divides. Watine is absolutely passionate about pop, but also driven by a love of rock guitars and Bach fugues oh, and she likes to flirt with electronica every now and then, too! How then to describe Dermaphrodite, her debut album released this year on the independent label Catgang? Watine claims she has learnt to sum the album up in four short words: "Folk! Dream! Pop! Electro!" "But my PR guy goes round saying it's alternative rock," she laughs, recounting how "One day this journalist put another take on things, saying I was like a female Lou Reed. That's a great compliment if ever I heard one!"
Catherine Watine who presents her face to the world with barely a trace of make-up is possessed of a natural elegance, the kind that comes with being a mature woman perfectly at ease with herself and those around her. Wearing flat shoes, non figure-hugging clothes, with not even the obligatory pair of rock chick shades to hide behind, Watine is a million miles from rock'n'roll clichés. "Being rock'n'roll is on the inside," she explains, "it's a state of mind where you allow yourself the possibility to experiment in life. Some people get into the bad habit of taking whatever life throws at them. Not me!"
Watine's face lights up with a mischievous smile. "What's life for if you're not curious enough to get out there and experiment with stuff?" she demands. So being a rock chick means roaming the globe, coming into contact with other cultures and gaining insight into different mindsets, living each moment as a totally new experience? Then, in that case, Watine certainly qualifies as a female rock icon like Marianne Faithfull, Nico, Kate Bush and Bjork, "women who dare to be exactly who they are!" Watine is more comfortable claiming allegiance to a certain musical 'family' rather than citing direct influences. And it is clear from the heartfelt tracks on Dermaphrodite that the family in question are those who sing straight from the guts, throwing feelings and emotions into their songs no holds barred.
But while the lyrics on Dermaphrodite - inspired by "things I've experienced in life but not directly autobiographical," insists Watine are powerful vectors of emotion, it is the music that touches that raw nerve. Watine's direct but enigmatic style of songwriting is an almost mystical process which she explains by saying she is "receptive to what might best be described as 'signs.' I tend to express whatever comes to me. I just open up and let it all flow through me, through my body, down my arms and my hands to the tips of my fingers - and then out it finally comes onto the piano keyboard!"
Interestingly enough, Watine prefers to describe herself as a "mediator" rather than an "artist", substituting the word "instinct" for "inspiration." Moving her tea cup to one side for a moment, she fingers an imaginary keyboard, explaining how melodies come into her head unbidden, followed by the words, those snatches of phrases that "just so obviously" fit the music. Writing in English also comes naturally to her, she says, even in a country where the airwaves are predominantly given over to music in French. "I can't help it," she says, "The music I write just has an Anglo ambience." An ambience which, we might add, is enhanced by the most delicate electronic arrangements, Dermaphrodite being a masterpiece of sweeping strings, subtly captivating layers and unexpected percussion noises designed to "reproduce the sounds of nature."
"But have you stopped to listen to what lies behind all that?" asks Watine, evoking the long stretches of northern beaches fading into the horizon, the sound of the wind and the rain she loves so much, the distant clatter of boat masts knocking against one another in the harbour. And you can suddenly picture her, head held high, striding along a deserted shore, with a smile on her lips. As she makes her way along the beach, she bends down to pick up random pebbles and scraps of driftwood, scribbling in her notebook as she gathers these precious "signs" that will tingle their way down her fingers later in the day at her piano keyboard. "It's an extraordinary thing when you get into a state of heightened consciousness," she says dreamily, "when you're there in the moment, standing with your feet dug in the sand, totally plugged into nature and conscious of being part of the universe."
Abandoning her Earl Grey, Watine digs deep in her pocket and offers up a couple of lines she scribbled down on a bit of paper while walking in the rain the other day. "Et je me suis assise pour mieux voir la force de la vie/ Me la mettre en mémoire pour les jours engourdis." ("And I sat down to get a better look at the life force / To fix it in my mind for the numb days ahead.") A whimsical, but in fact, quite brilliant description, of the essence of rock'n'roll!
Catherine Watine Dermaphrodite (CATGANG) 2006
Daphné Kauffmann
Translation : Julie Street
Influences
First of all, classics. I think that that's understandable! A grandmother whose living room had a grand piano and an organ, a godmother who was concert organist, a piano under my fingers since my childhood. What was missing was the solfège.. which is why I couldn't get very far in my deciphering of partitions, enough though to pass some piano auditions, during my boarding school years.
Then, I don't know if you would call it influence, but more a kind of family of the heart.. in a wanted disorder, including Eliott Smith, Divine Comedy, Janis Jan, Boards of Canada, Massive Attack (and Day One released on their label Melancholic ), Radiohead, Portishead, Tori Amos, Joni Mitchell, Laurie Anderson, Kate Bush, Nico, Mélanie (what have they done to my song, ma), Bjork, Steevie Wonder (the green album), Dead can dance, Peter Gabriel, Sting,.. and the more recent ones from scandinavian electro-pop.
:cool: Approved by: Ecouté et approuvé LES INROCKUPTIBLES, Une decouverte TRAX, FERAROCK, Label "LA FNAC AIME"
Journal Of A Voyage
" Ce journal de voyage est né d’un moment de grâce partagé au piano avec la compositrice de talent Ory Chalk dont j’affectionne particulièrement l’univers musical flamboyant. Je vous invite à la connaître sans plus tarder pour ceux qui n’auraient pas encore eu le plaisir de cette magnifique découverte ! Et pour ma part, j’espère avoir le plaisir d’égrener à nouveau quelques notes pour un nouvel écrin « chalkien » ! "
Album DERMAPHRODITEThe musical landscape is based on a cinematographic blend of Radiohead, Satie, Kurt Weill and preludes of Bach embroidered by multiple voices and electronic sounds and whispers. The original creations for piano are superbly amplified by the guitar and chord arrangements of Bernard Becker and the additional electronic touch by Markus Davis (collaborations with Bjork, Brian Eno, Emilie Simon).
The conclusion is a subtle patchwork of folk, trip-hop, romantic pop-electro, leading us into a world of sensuality, feminity and tenderness approaching the style of Kate Bush, Marianne Faithfull, Portishead, Tori Amos, Anja Garbarek, Divine Comedy, not to mention her profound attachment to Eliott Smith, Radiohead and Day One.
Watine offers a look into life with its questions and thoughts but also a view upon the world and our dreams of liberty and independence so deeply anchored in all of us.
MANY THANKS TO BERNARD BECKER who produced this album and made those beautiful strings arrangements, and a great thanks to Markus DRAVS for those amazing aditionnal programming and mixing
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Avec les productions de : RITON, FILA BRAZILLIA, GUS GUS, THE UNDERWOLVES, PETER BLACK, FRED PACE des Rinocérose, VOLGA SELECT (Ivan Smagghe et MArc Collin), AARON CARL, CLASHCORNER et JAZID COLLECTIVE
Chronicles, Interviews & play-list by : LE MOUV, FIP, RFI, RCF, FERAROCK, INF0 RADIO+++LES INROCKS, TRAX, MAGIC POP MODERNE, ROCK & FOLK, LE NOUVEL OBS, LONGUEUR d'ONDES, L'ECHO DES SAVANES, ROCK ONE, ROCK&MORE, PRESTO, L'ETUDIANT, ABUS DANGEREUX, FRANCOFANS, FUTUR VIDEO MAGAZINE, STATION SERVICE, LA DEPECHE DU MIDI, OUEST FRANCE, LE PROGRES, LA NOUVELLE REPUBLIQUE, LA REPUBLIQUE DU CENTRE, COURRIER DE L'OUEST, LE MAINE LIBRE, VENDEE MATIN, PRESSE OCEAN, EST ECLAIR, LIBERATION CHAMPAGNE, DERNIERES NOUVELLES D'ALSACE, TLM, METRO, SUD-OUEST, BORDEAUX 7, CAFE MUSIC+++
Webzines et webradios : 404, ADA le decouvreur, BENZINE, BAMBOO, POPNEWS, RFI MUSIQUE, TATAPOUM, ATTICA, ASSODEGENSNORMAL, CAFZIC, ELECTRONE, I-MUZZIK, THE FAKE, LA MAGICBOX, LIABILITY, MUSIQUALITE, ROCK SOUND, ROCK MUZIK, STARS ARE UNDERGROUND, VIVA LA POPA, W-FENNEC, JOWEBZINE, THE FRENCH TOUCH, STAYA, KRIENEN, ZICAZIC, ZICLINE, LE TOURNE-DISQUES, STAIRCASE, FRANCHUTA World : USA : Airplay KKFI 90.1 FM (Kansas City, Missouri) - Listener-Powered Community Radio - KBOO.FM (Portland, Oregon)
"L’ensemble mélodique et planant à la fois, s’orchestre avec des cordes et des arrangements extraordinairement subtils, des programmations cachées, une expression vocale très aboutie" LE MOUV «Un album d’une touchante sincérité »RFI MUSIC «Dommage que Watine ne soit pas vraiment anglaise, car le plaisir serait alors total»ABUS DANGEREUX
un desir qui a l'ecoute de ce dermaphrodite n est pas pret de s'attenuer» A DECOUVRIR ABSOLUMENT
«De belles melodies deployees sur fond de trip-hop" BAMBOO
«Si ce disque arrive jusqu aux oreilles de programmateurs respectables, alors une belle carriere s'annonce pour la demoiselle Watine» BENZINE
«De belles ballades au piano et des cordes de tres haute volee» COURRIER DE L'OUEST
«Electronique, folk, classique, tango meme, Watine reinvente un trip hop a la francaise, nourri de spleen et de poesie» ECHO DES SAVANES
«Tendre et voluptueux, les murmures de Watine n'ont pas fini de resonner» ELECTRONE
«Un univers ou beaucoup devraient se retrouver» EST ECLAIR
«Cela change de tout ce que j ai entendu jusqu'a present !» FNAC.COM
«Son album est place juste a cote des chefs-d oeuvres d Emilie Simon» FRANCHUTA
«Une seule recommandation a faire : laissez vous emporter dans l univers feerique de Watine» FRANCOFANS
«Un album de trip hop elegant» THE FRENCH TOUCH
«Habitée par la musique, elle compose, écrit comme elle respire et déclame ses chansons avec une voix de confidente qui touche l’âme» FUTUR VIDEO MAGAZINE, LE CHOP ENVIE
«Un album superbe et delicat, une grande reussite» I MUZZIK
«Son trip hop remonte des tripes, fourmillant de details inattendus» LES INROCKUPTIBLES
«Un ovni dans le paysage musical francais» ROCK ONE
«Un tricotage subtil patine de vintage, melant folk, pop rock, dream electro et symphonique qui nous entraine dans un monde sensuel, feminin et tendre» LES INROCKS.COM
«Une sereine melancolie, douce et fraiche a la fois, qui traverse un Dermaphrodite aussi inspire que decomplexe qui parvient a passer la simple ornementation » LE JEUDI
«Un petit bijou» JOWEBZINE
«Un album hors du commun et parfaitement indispensable» LIABILITY
«A ne pas rater» LIBERATION CHAMPAGNE
«Watine parcourt depuis quelques années le monde pour distiller ses sons downtempo avec sa voix qui est d’une rare beauté»LUXING PARIS
«Watine nous offre un exemple de tenacite et d independance, que viennent couronner des chansons inspirees» MAGIC
«Une tendresse musicale unique» MAINE LIBRE
«Watine met en scène une instrumentation très riche mais dont le rendu s'avère très sobre, et surtout d';une magnificence qui fait de cet album l'un des fleurons de la scène française» TATAPOUM
«Entre mystère et évidence, sagesse et folie-douce, rencontre avec une nouvelle grande dame du rock’n’roll»TENDANCE, MEDIATHEQUE RUEIL MALMAISON
«Les morceaux se devoilent peu a peu, et prennent toute leur dimension au fil des ecoutes. Ce qui nous condamne, mais c est un plaisir,a laisser la musique de Watine s imposer doucement mais surement» MUSIQUALITE
«Un moment charmant » NOUVEL OBSERVATEUR
«Murmures musicaux, pop evanescente, des petits bouts de pellicules s echappent d une symphonie quotidienne. Comme d autres sifflent, Watine reve en chantant. Deambulation fragile. Attention, precieux !» NOUVELLE REPUBLIQUE
«Un album de tres bonne facture» POPNEWS
«Certains titres lancinants tournent sans cesse, comme dans un songe» PRESSE OCEAN
«Un tres bel album» PRESTO
«Un Velvet au feminin aurait pu composer « Dermaphrodite », bel album d amour a fleur de peau » LE PROGRES
«Watine c est un contre courant fort» RADIO CLUB
«Un album d une touchante sincerite» RFI MUSIC
«Le style de Watine touche tout a la fois, et surtout au coeur» REPUBLICAIN LORRAIN
«Un album delicat. Entouree d un piano, de cordes, de guitares et de programmations, sa voix attachante egrene de douces melopees teintees de spleen»ROCK & FOLK
«La musique est une question d emotion et Watine l a bien compris» ROCK N MORE
«Un ovni dans le paysage musical francais»ROCK ONE
«Si ses influences sont décelables, son écriture et son chant sont personnels. On l’écoute, comme on le ferait en se tenant derrière une porte, la surprenant dans son intimité à tisser des contines.» ROCK YOU
«Dermaphrodite ou quand l electro rencontre les emotions, ca donne une oeuvre originale qu il faut decouvrir» STAYA
«Dix titres fragiles et aeriens qui vous emmeneront tout droit dans les nuages »STARS ARE UNDERGROUND
«Un tricotage subtil, patine d influences vintage melant folk, trip-hop, pop et jazz, au fil d un monde sensuel, proche d une famille qui reunirait Nico, Suzanne Vega, Portishead ou Rickie Lee Jones» SUD OUEST
«Watine, une etrange hybride d'electro-pop islandaise et d'un folk plus US, un plongeon apaisant dans une mer de sensations neuves» SUR LA MEME LONGUEUR D ONDE
«Un univers vaporeux et capiteux qui evoque Portishead, Depeche Mode ou Air» TLM
«Watine libere une vraie particularite qu il est parfois difficile de saisir. Mais si la connexion se fait, la magie opere» TRAX
«Un album sensible qu il faut ecouter jusqu a trouver des atmospheres jazzy, plus sensuelles. Typiquement feminin» VOXX
pépite trip-hop, naviguant entre chanson à la française (avec beaucoup de textes en anglais) et ambiances electroniques» W FENEC
«Il fallait oser entrer directement dans la cour des grands avec un tel ouvrage et pourtant, qui s en plaindra ? » ZICAZIC
«Si vous avez besoin d un bon coup de frais dans la tete, ecoutez cet album qui n a pas le gout de deja entendu » ZICLINE
Bonjour Watine, et merci de m'accueillir parmi vos amis. Je suis heureux de vous avoir un peu découvert au travers de votre page. Voici me concernant le lien pour découvrir le clip de la chanson "Le Président m'a dit", en espérant vous apprécierez ce mélange chanson française et musique brésilienne. Si le clip vous plait, laissez un commentaire ainsi qu’on vote, afin d’augmenter sa visibilité.
Hi Watine! It's been a while. How are you doing, and any new music to share with me? I don't know if you know this artist:http://www.myspace.com/gabweidemann, but the song "Religion" really moved me, and reminded me of your music. I hope all is well in your world, and hope to chat soon. LV Tage
Hi Watine. Please pardon my lack of communication. How are you? Hope you're doing well. I've been MIA locked in the studio and not getting in touch enough but wanted to let you know my cd is done. I have a label and they're releasing a single right away so I put a couple tunes up if you're interested. Cheers
"Concis comme il faut, érudit comme il se doit (Velvet Underground, Giant Sand), poli jusqu’à l’effacement, Survival ne cherche pas à dissimuler ou encore moins tirer profit de son statut artisanal. Grande réjouissance de saison". Spirit
Tu n'as pas 1 minutes? Ca tombe bien, je vais te prendre que 2s de ton temps précieux. Peux tu voter pour SVENSSON ? http://www.myspace.com/ouifm Merci par avance
Message pour les fans de WATINE, concert prévu le 4 JUIN 2009 au Fairfield Café, place du Fer à Cheval et le 5 à LAUZERTE (82) Voici le lien pour copier le fly! http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.editAlbumPhoto&albumID=124120&imageID=31250410&MyToken=20dd0c0f-0821-4505-9e4a-ec752fa6ef33 Bises à tous, Catherine, que je suis impatiente! Bises à toi...
NICOLAS COMMENT (& Co) feat. Mahut (drums), Michel Peteau (guitar), Mr Waechter (bass) en concert le jeudi 26 mars 2009 à 20h30 au PPcafé (28 rue Jules van Praetstraat - 1000 Brussels) à l'invitation de Fabrice Delmeire rédacteur en chef de la revue RIFRAF (http://www.rifraf.be)
hello my dear Catherine! how was your concert this evening in Lille? i was thinking of you and i'm so sad that i didnt see you again:( but no days off at work.hope you had a wonderful time with friends. big big kisses madzka
salut petit parisien. on vient jouer chez toi, tu vois facile, on prend les guitares, on les met dans le tgv et on se casse de rennes. on arrive au klub, on allume les amplis qui sont là bas et on fait un concert.<br />easy easy ça va être bien.<br />les infos utiles: ça se passe au klub, rue st denis, paris I, jeudi 2 avril, 21h. <br />xx, the russian sextoys
Hello Cath,
<br />Tu fais bien de te laisser aller aux bienfaits du Soleil...et de t'accorder ce genre de plaisir...
<br />J'espère vraiment que le Sud t'accueillera pour une scène dont tu as le secret...
<br />Tu as du recevoir "Ventilo"...
<br />Mille bises Cath...et plein de belles choses pour toi, ...encore,... toujours!!!!
compil FaceA Face B
