
Fresh from sharing the dazzling ‘Lunitudine’ last month Monsieur MÂLÂ have dropped another sublime single. Inspired by jazz, rock, funk, electronic and world music, their genre-hopping sound has seen them recently championed by Music Is My Sanctuary. The baroque touches and gospel elements on ‘Cor Anglais in E minor (op. 3)’ gives their music such a distinctive sound and makes this track a must-listen.
Monsieur MÂLÂ is made up of Swaéli Mbappé (bass), Mathieu Edward (drums), Nicholas Vella ( keys), Balthazar Naturel (sax), Robin Antunes (violin/mandolin).
“Our music is made to make people let go, put aside every complex and free the flow of everyone’s imagination. It induces dance and even trance, but also hopeful nostalgic melodies,” explain the quintet.
Since we loved their first two singles, we didn’t hesitate when we got the opportunity to premiere ‘Cor Anglais in E minor (op. 3)’.
Ahead of the track’s release tomorrow, we talk to Monsieur MÂLÂ to learn more about the band.
You’ve all played in other projects; how did the five of you come together?
We’ve all known each other for a very long time and had the occasion of playing together in many projects, jam sessions, as a backing band for open mics or pop artists, and we’ve always had this complicity personally and musically. Then the will to make our own music came. We wanted to push our freedom, spontaneousness and, more importantly, our sincerity to its maximum. Building this team for that felt immediately like an evidence.
What were the initial creative ideas that made you decide to all work together?
Like said before, we wanted to create spontaneous music that mixes all our different influences and that corresponds to us. We share a lot of influences, but each of us has his own as well. We create our own genre by mixing all these differences.
I love your new track! Would you mind taking us through the creation of ‘Cor Anglais in E minor (op. 3)’?
This is our first-ever collective composition. Everyone actively participated in the writing and arranging of it, which makes this tune a real showcase of what the Monsieur Mala sound is about. We’ve been locked down inside our Parisian studio during a week and took a lot of time to experiment with textures and tones, blending all of our instruments.
Stylistically, your tracks mix an array of genres. When you’re creating, do you feel that you consciously make an effort to be different or flow organically?
We definitely flow organically, and we don’t put any limit. Most of the time, when one of us brings an idea or a composition, we arrange it together by playing it in rehearsal or sometimes directly on stage, then we go in studio where we give a lot of space to experimentation. We like to take our time in production, and we are very lucky to work with Valentin Couineau, a genius sound engineer and great friend that help us a lot to put our ideas to life.
Has life in Paris informed the way you make music or the music you listen to?
Of course! Paris has this unique vibe with a panel of artists and musicians that come from everywhere, rather they based in Paris or just passing by. All that created a particular emulation that we’ve been living in for a while, and that obviously influenced each one of us one way or another.
Any upcoming local talent we should check out?
You guys should check out these killing bands: BADA-BADA, Daïda & Yusan.
What’s in the pipeline for you guys in the upcoming months?
There will be a new single and video every month until fall 2021, there are a few concerts in Paris this summer, and we will release an album at the end of 2021/ beginning of 2022.
Any last words to the Twistedsoul community?
We hope you’ll enjoy this next music video; we most definitely had a lot of fun making it. Stay tuned for the upcoming ones. And more importantly, keep being curious for young artists like us. It is your curiousness that feeds our creativity! Thanks a lot and see you very soon ;).