“Everyone Has A Story To Tell” starts with a Prophet-6 arpeggiator establishing from the beginning its electronic aesthetic. What comes next is the main hypnotic riff, played by the saxophone and doubled by the rest of the band, blended in a complex rhythmic groove. The story has just started and during the brief improvisations, the listener is introduced to the second main theme, this time a beautifully minimal melodic line that sums up perfectly the main idea and redeems the listener with its simplicity. Monsieur MÂLÂ managed to keep our attention for more than 6 minutes in an instrumental gem that set our expectations for their debut album really high. Read our discussion below.
- Describe your sound in 3 words
Explosive, captivating, inhabited
- Everyone has a story to tell. What is the story behind this track? What is your creative process like?
First of all, it’s important to know that we consider ourselves as story tellers trough music so releasing this track as our first official content seemed like a great introduction.
For us this track is all about the journey that leads to some kind of liberation. In the video we are playing surrounded by giant screens where is projected a metaphor of what could be the struggle to achieve something, the loss and recovery or even life itself.
About our creative process : generally one of us brings one or several ideas, it can be just few elements or defined parts. Then we just jam on it, each one of us is looking for his right place and then we compose all the parts and the structures all together. Our tracks usually evolve a lot with live performances that give many ideas as well.
- Which artists have been most influential for you, as a band and as individuals?
That is a tough one. Even though we are all influenced by current pop music all the great jazz bands/artists like Herbie Hancock, Robert Glasper, Snarky Puppy and many more, our strength as a band is that we all come from different backgrounds.
Mathieu (drums) has a lot of hip-hop influences like Kendrick Lamar, D’angelo, J Dilla… He also grew up in the French west indies culture and has been very influenced by Caribbean bands like Kassav.
Having Cameroonian origins from his father (Etienne Mbappé), Swaéli (bass) has a strong background in African and world music. He also has been influenced by fusion jazz band like Sixun, Ultramarine, The Zawinul Syndicate and by funk bands like Earth Wind and Fire, Cameo, or Funkadelic as well.
Balthazar (saxophone) comes from a more « traditional » jazz background. He has been influenced by Joe Henderson, John Coltrane, Guillaume Naturel and also by French composers of the 20th century.
Son of a singer, Nicholas (keyboard) has been influenced by many singers/song writers such as Stevie Wonder or George Benson and being from Italy, Italian composers like Enio Moricone were a big influence too. He also improved his piano playing listening to Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett.
Robin (violin) was born to a family of classical musicians. He grew up listening to classical music but also bands like Camel, Pink Floyd and System Of A Down which gives him a progressive rock background. During teenagehood he got introduced to a lot of different genres and artists such as Jamiroquai, Etienne Mbappé, Nick Murphy, Mac Miller and Erykah Badu to name a few.
- You decided to release this song as a live session first. What do you enjoy most? Writing music or performing your music live? What would be your dream performance venue?
These two process are very different and complementary at the same time but the satisfaction of playing in public is priceless ! Although we love the writing process as well and again, for us, playing live is a huge part of it.
Our dream gig would be on a big festival like Coachella !
- What is the best concert you have ever been to?
Nicholas : Gregory Porter at Jazz à la Villette
Swaéli : Brandford Marsalis Quartet at New Morning
Balthazar : Ernesto Tito Puentes big band at New Morning
Mathieu : Kassav at Accor Hotel Arena
Robin : Eivind Aarset at MUPA Budapest
- Your music feels like it could work perfectly as a movie theme. If you were asked to rescore a film, which one would you choose?
We would love to do Gladiator even though going after the great Hans Zimmer is scary !
- If you could change anything about the music industry, what would it be?
We are living in the « streaming era » which is great because that’s supposed to mean that anybody can have access to any artist anywhere. But the ressources between artist are unequal. If the music industry gave more ressources to the independent or « non-mainstream » artists it could give people access to a larger panel of music and maybe develop their sensibility toward something else. Music is so rich and full of talents…
- One last thing we should know about you?
Well… except the fun fact that one of us has to get fully naked every time he goes to the toilets (even in winter !!)…
Our very first single will be out on every platform in July 2020 !!! We are so looking forward to it ! Stay tuned on our social media !
- Thanks Monsieur MÂLÂ
instagram.com/monsieurmalagram
www.facebook.com/monsieurmalaofficial
www.youtube.com/channel/UCLKxxl2r9xCwXtiPoIzoKwA
Secret Eclectic 
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