Sophia Djebel Rose is one of the most versatile voices in the French music scene. With her new album “Sécheresse” she presents a collection of songs that combine elements of traditional French music with avant-garde poetry and many experimental ideas. In conversation with us, she shares insights into her creative processes, her artistic influences and the emotional energy that drives her music. It becomes clear that she is less interested in conventional concepts than in understanding her music as an intuitive expression of life. In this interview, Sophia talks about the special role of language in her art, the challenges of life as a musician and the raw intensity of her latest album. She also shares her thoughts on the connection between tradition and innovation and the inspiration she draws from personal and social experiences. The result is a rich dialogue with an artist who consistently defies the boundaries of genres and expectations.
How did your musical journey begin? Was there a particular moment when you realized that music and songwriting would be a central part of your life?
Let’s just say I always knew. I took a few detours before I got on the path. But now there’s no turning back. I made sure to close all the doors.
What influences – musical, cultural or personal – have particularly shaped you? How are they reflected in your work?
I think that most of my influences are not musical. I am generally moved by artists with a unique background who have invented a means of expression that is unique to them as well as new ways of living and feeling. I am thinking in particular of art brut.
Many of your songs seem to have a strong narrative orientation. What inspires you when you write lyrics? Are there any topics that are particularly close to your heart?
I rarely write lyrics. Most often I take my guitar and sing. And sometimes I feel the rightness of a particular text. So I make a song. The rest I forget.
What role does language play in your art? You sing in French and English – how do both languages influence the mood of your songs?
A language is above all a way of pronouncing. Each language has its own resonance space inside the body and the mouth. French is special because it is sharp and cutting, even quite nagging. It must be tamed. Especially since for some reason that I do not know, English has become the most commonly sung language, including by native French speakers.
You have just produced your new album “Sécheresse”. Would you say that it is – in the most general sense of the word – a concept album, and if so, how would you describe the ideas behind it? I also ask this question because many of our German-speaking readers often only understand the French lyrics in a fragmentary way…
No, I don’t think the album is conceptual, quite the opposite. It’s true that sometimes I try to conceptualize my own music, to impose a direction on it, but in this case I only delay the creative process. Because in the end what must happen happens, and always without my knowledge. The songs that make sense and that I choose to keep emerge clandestinely.
“Drought” seems to have a rawer, darker energy compared to its predecessor “Metempsychosis.” What emotional or thematic development is behind it?
Yes, it’s true. The album is raw or rather brutal where Métempsychose was quite gentle. Between the two there is the violence of the world. The first was composed at home, far from the world. When I think of my first album I think of a time before civilization. A beach, somewhere in Greece, before JC. And then I started touring. The life of a musician is precarious, and it is even more so for a woman. Sécheresse bears the trace of these few years of wandering and struggle.
The musical structure of “Sécheresse” combines a gentleness that could be described as pastoral with strong eruptive moments. How do you decide when a piece remains sober and when it explodes in intensity? Do these things arise spontaneously during improvisation, or do you sometimes already have an idea for a song as the ideas mature?
In Sécheresse, there are songs that I have never played live before and all those that I played well before recording the Album. All the eruptive moments come from live. It is the energy of the road, and that of the contact with the public.
“Blanche Biche” is based on a traditional French song. What drew you to setting this particular piece to music, and how would you describe the connection of the piece to your own songs on the album?
Blanche Biche is a thousand-year-old treasure of the French folk repertoire. It is the story of a woman who transforms into a deer at nightfall, and who will be decapitated by her hunter brother who does not recognize her. I am not the one who approached this song, it is the song who approached me as it echoes our modernity. For me this song is above all an ecological and feminist libertarian anthem. It gives me strength when I am on tour.
As someone who only understands French in fragments, I would like to know what kind of story is being told in the song “The Man in the Golden Suit.” In a way, the piece feels like an enchanted fairy tale whispered to us from another dimension, and there are also quotes that seem to come from an old record. What kind of subject is it?
This song tells the story of the funeral of the man in the golden suit, echoed by scenes of nighttime swimming and naked bodies shimmering in the moonlight. What gives this feeling of an old record, I think, is the way I treat the voice. In some places I doubled it by shifting it slightly. It creates a kind of magnetic blur.
Some pieces, like the title song, seem to have a proximity to the tradition that is generally called chanson, but this is perhaps also an impression that foreign speakers quickly have when listening to French. Do you have a connection with such traditions, which go back to the time of the troubadours?
I would rather link “Sécheresse” to the anarchist song and to what was done in the 70s in France. I am of course thinking of Catherine Ribeiro + Alpes to name just one reference. I don’t know enough about the troubadours to talk about them accurately.
I would like to ask you a few things about your early work. “Metempsychosis” is an album that is strongly inspired by nature and the concept of transmigration of souls. How did the idea of combining these two themes in your music come about?
Again, these are not ideas, they are feelings. This feeling of being below or beyond my own body. It is a sensation that comes in the contemplation of the world, where one forgets oneself in what one observes, whether it is an ant, a river or a cloud.
You recorded the album on the high plateaus of Auvergne. Did you live or do you live in this particular place? How did it influence the atmosphere and the feeling of the music?
Yes, that’s where I live. It’s a desert here, it’s the least populated area in France. We’re at an altitude of over a thousand meters, it’s cold and the landscapes are austere. However, I find that there is an underlying joy in this austerity. An immense joy.
How do you feel when you play live and establish a direct connection with the audience?
When the link is created and the magic happens, there is this wonderful thing that is created, it is the appearance of a common entity. Then there are no more subjects but forces. And all together we are this force, which is similar to a vibration.
Your voice is often hailed as a central aspect of your music. How do you prepare for the emotional and physical demands of singing?
From a physical point of view it’s quite simple, I drink water! From an emotional point of view however, there is not much to do except accept having little control and dive with joy into chaos and the unknown!
Are there any future projects or collaborations that you are particularly looking forward to? What can we expect from you in the near future – besides the upcoming European tour?
There are a lot of new desires that have sprouted recently. I don’t know yet which one I’m going to choose, or rather which one is going to choose me!
Interview: US & A.Kaudaht
Fotos: Sophia Djebel Rose & Hazam Modoff (Foto 2)