Fresh and amusing, realistic and melodic, this new album is like a musical capture of the past three years Talisco spent roaming around the world. As something that only makes sense as a metaphor, Capitol Vision was composed by French musician Jerôme Amandi and mixed by Jaycen Joshua, the most-prolific US producer. We've met the guy behind Capitol Vision – the highest point from where you can actually contemplate the most important events of your life.
Signed on the independent label Roy Music, where he stands along Jil is Lucky or The Toxic Avenger, Jerôme Amandi creates his music by fits and starts, almost nervously. Always on the run, he may have some years to catch up. Talisco was born three years ago, as a child's dream come true. The incommensurable wrath of society had indeed lead him towards a classical pathway: studying, then working, Jérôme Amandi was experiencing adult life through a job in marketing and communication. Yet, one day, he concluded that the time had come to fulfill his dreams. The eyes wide open to the world, he now combines different inspirations to bring to light a musical journey filled up with electro folk. A passion, a signature and a creation that we wanted to explore a little bit more.
How would you define your musical universe?
This question annoys me (laughs) – it is really complicated. It is complicated because I actually spend my time trying not to define it, to avoid having walls around me. When you define something, you actually build walls; when you create, you constantly try to push boundaries… But, yeah, I think that for a lot of people my music sounds like pop, indie, electro-rock. In this popish category.
Your music sounds more trip hop to me…
I don't know; I listen to so much music – from unbearable electro, to pop music to hip pop or super rock songs. I am so curious about music that my influences crossover lots of styles, and it eludes me.
If I understood well, you used to work in communication and marketing before dropping off everything to go back to your first love: music. Is there any trigger that brought you back to your dreams?
This is something that has always been following me. I mean when I was eleven, I wasn't asking myself to many questions. I knew exactly what I wanted to do: music. Then you end up being 20, and you don't want to struggle – I mean I didn't want to, so I worked. Is there any trigger? I guess I was just bored with my job, so I tried.
The fact that you didn’t do it by your 20s… Was it because you were looking for a certain 'social security'?
Definitely! I didn't want to end up struggling in the metro or begging money to my parents. I'm rather an independent person, so I don't want to waist my time running around after money. I didn't want to follow this ‘drop-out-artist-creative’ career path. It's actually society that tells you it is complicated to become artist.
Once you said: “I live a lot in my fantasies, that's from where I can find the energy to create”. What are those fantasies?
This afternoon I went for a two hour walk – music in the mug. I have met people, the light was great, there were some contexts and so many ideas came to me. I felt a lot of things – like everybody actually, when you take a walk somewhere and it's beautiful and you get inspired. And when music goes along with that, suddenly you dream – you almost bump into your own ghost. Someone who could have been you fifteen years ago; you see yourself as a kid with your parents, or with an ex… I don't know, I imagine lots of things, and so many emotions rise up! That's what I want to transpose.
Your song Stay is like a funny 'je t'aime moi non plus'. How much love and relations are big topics you like to explore through your music?
It is true the videoclip evokes that: I leave, no but I stay, and then I leave again… This is just a metaphor. I don't speak about love in my album. Stay relates to that one time I tried to leave Los Angeles.
So it's actually a love for a city?
Yeah, this is what I expressed here. It broke my heart to leave Los Angeles. And, yeah, it became a cliché, a little bit ironic and off the wall because I left, I went back, I left, I went back… I've returned to Los Angeles maybe a thousand times, and I never really leave it. So it's this kind of joke: “Farewell, I leave for ever” and I go back there a month later.
What moves you that much in LA?
My roots are Spanish – so first of all there is an atmosphere, a Mediterranean atmosphere that is familiar. People are kind, they are curious, they want to share. This town respects you, not like London or Paris that grab you, clearly. It is a city that lets me breathe, gives me some space. Besides, there are so much clichés in LA that the notion disappears; clichés from all over the world! It is a city that inspires me, there is no barrier. I have the impression you can walk around with a poop on your head and this can become interesting. That's why I find it cool.
You've said that you like to talk about 'real stories' – there is always such a melancholic tone in your songs. Why is that? Can you write when you're happy?
I write when I'm happy, I do not write when I'm sad. Actually, when you create something, whatever it is music or a painting, it is a true introspection over an emotion. Then you glorify this emotion, so you work on it; you spend time with this sensation. I don't want to spend time with a sensation that hurts me. For some people, digging the spleen is what’s interesting, and they take pleasure in doing so. I love nostalgia, I like feeling sad sometimes, but I choose to live happy.
Are real stories happy stories after all?
I like feeling good in everything I do, I think this is just a point of view. Considering a rainy day as something sad is just a point of view. I believe you can extract happy things from every situation.
Your first album was Run, the second one is named Capitol Vision. How would you judge the evolution? What have you tried to express with this one?
This album speaks more about real experiences, about realities. Run is the beginning of an artistic life. I just wanted to express what was happening in my mug, and not in reality – so I was in my fantasies, totally. You know, earlier, I was walking around and so many things came into my mind – I don't know why this is how I work: all these emotions, I put them in a box that I kindly place aside, then I give myself some time to open it and transpose them. Capitol Vision narrates two or three years on tour – we did almost 200 gigs. We went everywhere, we met so many people, it's crazy! So this album came naturally – it would have been snob to not speak about what I've experienced. It is not there to express spleen, or torture or something negative. I want to express something immediate – this is how I am in everyday life.
You said you didn’t want to be polite with this album – what do you mean by that?
It’s really easy. This is a wink to all the labels, marketing and so on: I don't want to satisfy a request. I don't want to make a second album that will reassure fans or labels. This is not how I work – if tomorrow I do this, I'll stop doing music. The ultimate luxury is doing what I'm doing now: I do what I want to do. No one is telling me “you should sing like this or that…” No.
You must know a lots of tricks, since you've worked in marketing. Now that you're on the other side, do you use some tools to sell your work?
I consider there are different steps: my artistic environment is detached from medias. I want to be detached, so I've found a solution: I work instantly, I never spend too much time on a track. It works or not. If not, it means I'm intellectualizing the track, so I'll start asking myself: “Maybe I should do it like that to…” No one bothers me. Everything works instinctively. Anyway, I do pop: pop is a track, it’s a song, so you have to understand it immediately. So no marketing story.
Is there any reference that have guided you during the making of this album?
I will say California. It is a bit cliché what I'm saying, but Los Angeles set the tone. When I am in LA, I listen to lot of hip pop. That's the thing – what I love is actually being in a car and listen to hip hop, very loud! And I love going to hard rock gigs. There is one album I listen to over and over – Kanye West's Life of Pablo. I can not get enough. So I guess Capitol Vision gets a pop rock tendency. But it has actually been mixed by a hip hop producer from LA, Jaycen Joshua. I wanted someone from hip hop, not rock or pop. It was quite hard to work with him, because he works with A$AP Rocky, with Jay-Z – big names! But the collaboration went so smoothly: he liked the music, and he actually made my mix while working on A$AP Rocky. He did both albums at the same time. So I guess the album borrows from this part of the world.
You're listed in Le Printemps de Bourges, which is a big scene for pop and rock'n'roll – how do you feel about that?
Like a child. We got Printemps de Bourges, but also Les Vielles Charrues – the main stage – the Main Square festival. I can't wait for that. I love playing during summer on big festivals; what I love most is when we finish the gig, and I just walk around backstages, just to see the artists. I can sit for hours, just watching artists around. I did it during Solidays last year. I was alone for hours, with a beer, sitting and watching – I was like a kid.