23 October 2016 (released)
23 October 2016
It is almost two decades since Pink Martini released their striking debut Sympathique. Having steadily built their fanbase through their eclectic, world music focused orchestrations, the band always return with a new, unexpected mix of songs. Their new album Je Dis Oui is no exception. With the band on tour with the record, we caught up with the man at the helm, Thomas Lauderdale.
Hi Thomas, how are things going?
It's going well. We were in France last week and now we are in London.
Are you enjoying the current shows?
They are fantastic. The new album is something we feel really good about. It's been going down great. We've been doing conga lines every night! It's great getting people out of their seats and on to the stage to dance.
Je Dis Oui sees Pink Martini return to a revolving vocalist format. How do you select who sings which songs?
It all unfolds organically. We have two main vocalists and they each have such different styles. That sort of helps dictate what they are going to do. The guests - Ari Shapiro from NPR has been recording with us ever since our fourth album. It just made sense to have him sing the song in Armenian as well as the Arabaic version of La Soledad that is on this album. It's really determined by whoever I am spending time with. There is a woman called Ikram Goldman, who is actually largely accredited with getting Michelle Obama in fashion and design. She has an atelier in Chicago. She's Queen of fashion week in Paris and New York. She is Lebanese but grew up in Israel then Chicago. She, like me, loves Fairuz music and she introduced me to this song Shalabiya. When it came to recording the album, I flew her in to run China through the pronunciation for the recording, but as the lessons unfolded, it just made sense for her to record the vocals. She is obviously fluent and understands the nuances. Arabic is a really difficult language, one of the most difficult to sing or speak, especially if one is not a native. I want to be as respectful as I can when we record in a language. Some countries are just happy that we have made the effort to record in the language, but with Arabic, as an American band if we don't get it right, it is almost an insult. As Ikram has a great voice, even though she has never been in a studio or imagined recording with us, but we just went with what was working.
It sounds like the Pink Martini recording process is one centred on experimentation.
That's right. You have to be entirely flexible and tough on yourself. If something is not working, you have to know not to force it too hard. That will never work. There were 20 different songs we were working on. Some of them weren't finished so we ended up cutting 5 of the songs and they will be on the next record.
In the past you have recording solely with Saori Yuki and with The Von Trapps. Do Pink Martini plan a return to working with another featured vocalist?
It's amazing to have parameters. Both The Von Trapps and Yuki collaborations had very set parameters. I like having those guidelines. The repertoire of the band is so all over the map - stylistically and linguistically. It means the choices are never ending. With Yuki they wanted the hits of Japan in 1969. When I started getting into it, I just felt it was too limiting. I introduced music from all around the world in 1969 and took those hits and made a Japanese language version. Is That All There Is, the Peggy Lee song, in Japanese. I like having those parameters though as it forces one to be really creative and to think laterally. Hopefully people are listening to this album from the beginning to the end, so that it is seamless and not jarring, but still diverse. It isn't ever like listening to 60 minutes of hard core disco. All Pink Martini albums should be both musical wallpaper but also a splendiferous experience when turned up and concentrated on.
Finally, what can we expect from the tour? Is it mostly an insight into Je Dis Oui?
It's everything. A retrospective as well as most of the material from the new album. People go to concerts and want to hear things they are familiar with. But hopefully they will also want to buy the new record if they have enjoyed it.
