Eternal flowers
Lara Brown
is a songwriter and singer from Québec who presents her second album but the
first one under her actual artistic name, Lara
Brown (2012). She defines the sound of the album as retro and modern and it
includes her own songs and one by Serge Gainsbourg, one of her biggest
influences. After having used the names Lara and Lara Hurni (actually her real
name is Lara Hurni Brown), and releasing a previous album called Petits coeurs assassins (2009), she finally
has chosen the name of her mother, Lara Brown, to present her second work with
so personal and deep lyrics and full of very good tunes. Zanzibar is her latest single, a powerful mix between the old
cabaret songs and the modern pop tunes that surrounds a dark story of someone
who lives in shadows. No one seems to know her real name, sings Lara Brown, but
we have all the elegance embodied in her songs, in tunes and arrangements. She
brings us back all the beauty of the old songs but reborn through her modern
sensitivity and deep and serious lyrics. Her heart doesn’t kill, her heart
makes us believe in music.
You studied
dance, acting and music. Why did you finally decide to become a songwriter?
For me, a singer-songwriter enjoys more freedom. In
acting and dancing, you learn a part and then act
your part in front of a public, but I believe when I'm on stage singing, I can
do whatever I feel like doing. I can dance, act, I can go wilder some nights or
cooler on others... I'm my own minute choreographer.
Born Lara
Hurni-Brown, your debut album was published under the name Lara and titled Kabaret Montréal (2006) and it really
has a cabaret atmosphere. What attracts you from the cabaret style?
After studying theater, I wanted to explore singing
while acting big. Maybe I needed to affirm my
new vocation strongly, maybe that's all I could do then... I have to say I listened to a lot of music in the cabaret style : Kurt Weill, Edith Piaf, Anna Prucnal, etc.
What’s so
sacred on spring? (Le sacré du printemps)
For people living in Quebec, spring really is sacred !
After enduring a never-ending winter (almost 5
months) with very low temperatures such as minus 25 degrees, spring is THE
thing you're longing for. Every spring, people
seem to go wild, you can feel it in the air. It's a welcome
shock when you swop your winter coat, boots, hat and gloves for your
mini skirt or shorts. Guys go dumb, just grin,
do mad things as girls go wild... everybody goes crazy ! It's the spring fever.
With new
influences from folk rock and jazz, in 2009 and under the artistic name Lara
Hurni, you released a mini-album called Petit
Coeur assassin. Were you talking about your own heart?
Not only my heart...
I think everyone has an potential assassin living inside. Well, mostly they don't reach the assassin
stage but so often people end up either hurting
someone else or hurting themselves all in the name of friendship or love,
sometimes through distress, or for revenge, or due to psychological problems,
and in extreme cases suicide or murder.
Lara
Hurni-Brown, Lara, Lara Hurni and now Lara Brown, presenting your brand new and
album. It is simply called Lara Brown and
it’s been released in 2012. Why have you changed your artistic name so many
times?
The opening
is a really powerful pop song. “Elle les
connaît à fond mais personne connaît son vrai nom” (She knew them deeply
but nobody knew her true name). Do you need to create a distance between you
and your artistic role?
This song is about a waitress
who is fed up with her job. As I also work part time as a waitress to
pay my rent, I know what it feels like to be “the girl of the night” in some
drunk guy's head. I think many waitresses would recognize themselves in the lyrics.
But to answer your question, not really, I know some
artists need that distance. I think I am still myself
on stage, only I'm the one in the spotlight and larger than life – it's like
being 20 times bigger !!
Never say
never again? (Jamais dire jamais)
Never!
What kind
of flowers do you dream in the middle of the night?(Des fleurs au milieu de la nuit)
Flowers of fantasy, flowers of desire... Eternal
flowers !!!
You’ve also
recorded the Requiem pour un con (Requiem
for a fool) written by Serge Gainsbourg. Dedicated to anyone in special?
To a lot of people unfortunately. A
"con" is like a "jerk" – someone who messes things up for
himself and for others – on a personal level or in a wider sense. Take a
look at the world today, it’s not hard to recognize them, they are ruining
nature, culture, justice and have a lack of respect for human lives.
Which is
the influence of Serge Gainsbourg in your music?
The mix between French pop, classical
music, jazz and modern sounds. I like his originality, his dark side and his
way of pushing the limits. The lyrics of Gainsbourg are also inspiring,
introspective, poetically crude and sexy.
About the
song La pieuvre (the octopus) in
which you talk about the manipulation in a love relationship. What do you think
is the source of that kind of manipulation which we can see also in every state
of society?
The source must be selfishness and the need to control
others. For certain people – the manipulators of this
world – love becomes a kind of power trip. And part of the gratification comes
from controlling and manipulating all aspects of the relationship. Hence the tentacles of the octopus!
Probably
the word coeur (heart) is one of the
more frequent in your lyrics. All you need is love?
Yes, those Liverpool lads
and I do need love. Who doesn't ? I think love is the thing you really
need to live a happy life. Love of friends, family, love love love... and true
people know you can't buy love.
“Le temps fait des ravages sur les amours inavoués” (Time wreaks havoc on the unspoken loves). Why are we
so unable to live our true feelings?
We're afraid of giving and afraid of losing... When you let go of these fears, you start feeling the real things.
Where are
you?
In my bed, in the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada,
Planet earth, and you ?
I'm here, there and everywhere alone with my little heart.
LARA BROWN VIDEOS here
An interview by Juan Carlos Romero
Lara Brown website www.lara-brown.com
Photo courtesy of Lara Brown
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