VICTORIA+JEAN TRAVELLING FOR LOVE

There are musicians who are true artists and when you think of Victoria+Jean you will definitely think they are just that.  From there well crafted videos, to their high energetic performances to their unique and creative sound, Victoria+Jean is here to show you something that you have never seen or heard before.  Set to make their appearance at this year’s SXSW, FERNTV spoke to lead singer Victoria about how this lovely musical melee started.

FERNTV:  How would you describe Victoria+Jean to those who are not in the know when it comes to your music?

Victoria:  Difficult question I’d say we try to make something honest and something that comes from the heart… I think other people that know our music would be better on answering this question.

FERNTV:    Can you tell us the story of how you two met and found your musical chemistry to form Victoria+Jean?

Victoria:  I used to play with a drummer who knew Jean, and for one concert I was using Jean’s Guitar amplifier.  On the way back from the concert we had to stop over at Jean’s house and give his amp back.  That’s where I met him for the first time he didn’t say a word he just looked at me and smiled, he just couldn’t take his eyes of me and watched me go. I was wondering, who is this guy?
Anyway a week or two went by and the same drummer invited me to go see this new band His Band.
And so I went to see his band, and there he was playing his guitar, and he was playing the guitar like one of them from the good old days, like a Jimi would, or an Eric Clapton, he was absolutely amazing, I was filming him with my camera, when all of the sudden he noticed me in the crowd , and that same beautiful smile, smiled at me again. After their concert we lost contact of each other because of the crowd.
After that I had to return to Paris, where I was living at the time, and thought that I’d might never see him again. But he actually got to know that I lived in Paris and he went searching for me everywhere in the city, just to find me!  He had no luck there, but he wrote me a love letter. And I said yes for a meet in Brussels and told him “you’ve got an hour to convince me”, he convinced me and I’ve never left since.  We never got together to make music together at first… it came later with a simple  “why not try and if it work it works, and if not, it doesn’t matter”  But the first time we tried out a couple of songs the chemistry was evident and strong, with respect for one another.

FERNTV:  Do you feel that travelling throughout the world and being globetrotters have made you both better musicians and songwriters?

Victoria:  Yes it made us realize that there is no frontier with music.

FERNTV:  How is it you are able to work with some of the world’s most prominent sound engineers and what does that mean to you?

Victoria:  We must be good 🙂 well with our persuasion and the fact you don’t get anything without nothing so we went forward and chose our favorite sound engineers and contacted them (most of them said yes to the project) by leaving them the choice of choosing the song they preferred on the album, and luckily they all chose a different one!  I don’t know what it means to us I think it just means that even if your “small” you’re able to have big ideas, or just see big, try, think that you have nothing to lose, so why not do it?

FERNTV:  How does it feel to have that buzz around the world in regards to your performances?

Victoria:  We have no idea… is there really a buzz? All we can say is that to every performance we offer what we’re able to offer to the people who come and see us, and the first word between us is to have fun, and to feel your music.  Because music is about sharing and if you’re not able to share it with someone, then how are you supposed to share it on stage.  Each gig is a new challenge for us.

FERNTV:  There is a lot of creativity and art behind your videos.  Can you describe your latest one from Where We Belong and what it is like to work with director Phil Carron?

Victoria:  Phil Carron is more of a friend now, and it started by getting involved by working with him… he’s a very smooth and easy going guy, so working with him was absolutely delightful..
Plus it was the first time had to act around explosives and not moving nor blinking, around them, wasn’t the easiest thing to do!

FERNTV:  How does it feel to be playing and being part of SXSW this year?

Victoria:  We’re proud and hope to be giving everyone what they expect from us 😉

FERNTV:  Tell us about your upcoming appearance in Toronto this year for CMW and have you been to our city?

Victoria:  Yes we have already been to your city, the last time was for a festival called Indie Week in October as we won the prize of the festival in Manchester to go and do Indie week festival in Canada!
It was really great and such a wonderful opportunity, after our venue over there we got the chance to get signed to a Canadian Label (Cadence music/ ex Maple music records).
So we definitely have to say that canada believes in us and that we’re more than happy to be apart of CMW ! And we won’t disappoint you!   And why not one of these days we could come and live in Canada?!?

www.victoriaplusjean.com