Sonnenbrille auf, Handy an. Schnell mal zwischendrin ein, zwei Nachrichten getippt. YANNICK ILUNGA alias PETITE NOIR sitzt uns im Büro von Domino Recordings gegenüber. Es ist ein sonniger Tag in Berlin. Ob sich das auch auf das Gemüt des Sängers und Produzenten aus Kapstadt niederschlägt, ist fraglich. In der vergangenen Nacht hat er sich in Berlin verlaufen und musste gezwungenermaßen unter freiem Himmel durch die Straßen irren. Zum exklusiven Track-By-Track mit Popmonitor tritt der Kapstädter dennoch an und kommentiert die Songe seines heute erscheinenden Albums La Vie Est Belle / Life Is Beautiful…
I like to think of my music as Noir Wave, which is a state of mind. It’s more about freedom than about a specific type of sound ‘cause you can always hear when someone’s free in his mind. This is the base of Noir Wave.
INTRO NOIR WAVE
It has a dark undertone but it’s still quite positive, especially with the lyrics life is beautiful at the beginning. I suppose that’s quite ironic like the whole album. It’s just a chilling song. There are so many beutiful things in the world like plants and birds and stuff and then the hardness of life comes. Life is still beautiful.
BEST
It was the first song I wrote for the album. The demo was also called “Best”. It’s my favorite. It’s quite an angry song if you compare it to the older music and perhaps the perfect Noir Wave song. They’re all Noir Wave, but this one is the best.
FREEDOM
It’s quite politically focused and pretty obvious about what it’s about. We don’t really live in freedom. You can’t do whatever you wanna do. And also with freedom comes a lot of responsibility. I guess people haven’t really been able to experiment with freedom and to get used to it because of capitalism.
SEVENTEEN
That’s a song that I wrote like four years ago. We sort of re-built it for the album. That’s a love one I guess. It’s just for the person you love. You will always be there.
JUST BREATHE
It was supposed to be on the EP and then on the first album, but it didn’t come through. It’s also messaging „it’s gonna be okay“.
LA VIE EST BELLE/LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL
Again, the tone of the song is quite dark, but then the lyrics are positive. It’s a song about colonisation. Even though all these things happen, life is still beautiful.
MDR
Mort de rire! It’s like saying LOL. It has this interlude kind of vibe and it’s a love song again.
COLOUR
That’s about how colour doesn’t really matter. It’s been such a big thing in the world for so long and really messed up so many people.
DOWN
Another positive one. We’re not going down! Just keeping everything on a positive note again. Life is beautiful!
CHESS
It’s like a conversation between me and my girlfriend. We had a conversation on Skype and a I sort of took that and made it into this song. It’s a love and hate song.
PETITE NOIR
La Vie Est Belle / Life Is Beautiful
(Double Six Records / Domino Recording)
VÖ: 11.09.2015
