Watoo Watoo

Michael Korchia is what you may call a true pop craftsman: he manifactures his small indiepop songs at home, with the aid of a small circle of friends (Gypsophile is amongst them) ad with his wife Pascale lending her beautiful voice to his tunes. While the first Watoo Watoo album, "Le Fumalin" is finally being released in Europe, we talked a while with him.

Did you have any experiences prior to Watoo Watoo? How/When did you decide to form WW?

I started a band with friends when I was 19 -we just started playing music. we wanted to make a kind og 60's garage/punk band, but we really couldn't play. I was at the bass. then I wanted to play something more pop. I met the guys from the band Christine & we played together. After 18 months I left the band because I started writing songs and there was no room for 3 songwriters in the band. Yet, we're still friends, 12 years after.
it was then time to make my own band, influenced by felt, the velvet, the buzzcocks & the stooges. Mumbly was born, also only the felt & Velvet influence could be heard. Mumbly is still on, yet I'm the only original member. but this is another story.
After 1 year with mumbly, I realized I wrote too many songs for the band to follow. I had the idea to record them quick'n' dirty, doing all instruments myself, to make them listen to the band so they can choose. One day, i had the idea to ask my girlfriend Pascale to sing on one song. I noticed she had a pretty voice. we recorded a couple of songs, still in a fast way. Then watoo watoo became more and more important, the songs sounded good. Mumbly could only play one of my new songs every few months, while I had recorded many songs, that i liked.
I realized I could try to release the songs under the name of watoo watoo, a "real" band.

You have often worked with Gypsophile, who is one our favourite artists. What can you tell us about him?

Guillaume is a really nice guy. that's funny because he used to be the kind of very shy guy who would sit and never talk to most people. yet, the 1st day i talked w/ him on the phone we became friends & he spoke a lot. he has never been shy with me, but i've seen him shy with other people. now he's more mature!

How do you work together?

i often help him to find & mix/master new loops for his songs. also he recorded a cd at home (Unaneelmi). He's played live with us a few times and he has played some guitars for us.

Do you know he goes around saying that you can't play? :)

I know. Well, i can make you listen to his 1st demoes if you really want some fun. that sounds like a castrated little boy playing acoustic guitar in a cupboard. the lyrics are very embarassing though.

How is working and living in Bordeaux in respect to Paris, and is this in any way affecting your music?

On a daily basis, the big difference is that I have a very big & beatiful flat for the same price!
I'm 33 but it's my first job. when I was in paris, I was still more or less student (I made a thesis in marketing). I worked as a professor & in a market research company, but from time to time.
there's no big difference except that paris is colder... & many of my friends still live in paris. although, there are a few gigs I won't be able to see :-(
what affects my music is the time I have to make some. And now I have some time. another important factor is technical: I record music in my computer. the more sound samples & "virtual instruments" I have on my computer, the more free I am to write and arrange my music. Now I have really a lot of drum loops, sound samples, instruments emulators, etc. I can work much more on the arrangments... although I keep in mind that a bad song will still be bad with good arrangments.

How's your electronic project Booly doing? What is it about?

It's half asleep. I wanted to start something influenced by to rococo rot/tarwater, some audio drugs (the label) bands & whatever... I wrote some decent tunes waiting for a label. now I want to concentrate more on watoo watoo; I can write pop songs with electronic sonds, so that's ok for me.

I guess that working with your wife can be strange: what are the dynamics between you two in Watoo Watoo? Do you and Pascale agree on the way a song should sound or do you have bigh fights over it? Is she keen on singing your lyrics?

She doesn't care much about singing. in fact I just have to let her know she'll have vocals to records in the next week, then I play her the songs and give her the lyrics. she sometimes complain about the music, the lyrics or both. it takes between 20 mn and 1 hour to record the voice for each song. sometimes I try to indicate her how to sing (but as I can't sing at all, I'm not that helpful), sometimes not. that's all.

What's the story about you not being able to play guitar? Is that true or it's just a trick to work with great guitarists?

I just can play very easy rythm guitar parts or play one string guitar solo. Shame on me. I'm not a bad bass player (also I never practice anymore), but as a guitar player, I'm a big shit.
I played nearly all the guitars in the 1st watoo watoo cd because, at the beginning, I didn't think I would release the songs on cd one day. the songs were very easy to play... just a few simple chords and very easy rythmic patterns.
in the next cds, I added some bossa and jazzy influences, and the songs didn't sound so much all the same. in fact, I'm now unable to play 80% of watoo watoo songs!
and yes, didier from christine has always very well understood my needs. and he's a great guitar player.
I've also worked with antoine chabert who used to play with the Yachines and who is now in the band Cocosuma. he's the most incredible guitar player I know, one of the best I've ever seen in fact.
when I need loungy acoustic guitars, I call Guillaume Gypsophile. now I am not in Paris anymore it's gonna be more difficult to ask my friends to record guitar parts for my songs. but I sometimes go to Paris with my laptop and also some softwares perfectly reproduce the sound of rhythm guitar.

On Le Fumalin there are hints of many different styles, from jazzy to classic indiepop to chanson francaise... would you be able to identify some common elements in your music? What would you define a typical Watoo Watoo song?

Interesting question. when I write a song, I always start from the chords, never from the tune. yet the most important thing for me in a song is that it needs to have a beatiful melody. so, basically, if you
just listen to the guitar or the piano, you must feel that the song is very melodic. also I don't like weird song structures or breaks, because the most important thing is the melody. also the songs all have a
powerful AND melodic bassline.
of course, pascale's voice is a very important elements. some hate her fragile voice (some people tink she's 16 when they listen to her voice, yet she's twice older!), some love it because it's very sensual, sweet and full of emotions.
I'm glad all songs on le fumalin sound consistent although this is not an "unipolar" album. it's definitly far from being only indiepop.

The western print of le fumalin has taken a very long time. What's the story?

A long story!
To make it short and not too boring... Clover in Japan released the japanese version. We wanted to wait 6 months to release the world version on dogprint, but the label went bankrupcy. then I had a lot of
work for my dissertation and I had to stop music for a while. a label said yes, then no 4 months later... then it took me ages to press it under my own label.
What depresses me is that I'm very proud of this record... it's 100 times better than anything else I've made. yet we've sold VERY few copies.

What's your opinion about pop music in France right now?

(this is the answer)

What do you think of French mainstream artists like Benjamin Biolay or Keren Ann?

I'd say they're half mainstream. there are 2 really mainstream articts that I adore : Alain Souchon and William Sheller. they're really big here and they're very talented. Benjamin Biolay... he writes beautiful arrangments but his songs have no soul and he should stop singing, well singing is not the word... he
mumbles. Yet, he wrote a really nice album for his sister, Coralie Clement. it sounds like intemporal chanson francaise.
It took me time, but I love Kerenn Ann's 1st album (i don't like the 2nd one).
I like a lot Jean Bart, who has released some real lovely records. but my favorite french artist (still alive) is Julien Baer. he released 2 albums in the late 90s and they're the best released in france since serge
gainsbourg's "bad news from the stars" in 1981. he's a fantastic lyricist and his songs are really strong. it seems he's been looking for a label for a couple of years though. How sad!
Of course Gypsophile is very nice too, although I preferred when they were more poppy.

I imagine that having two babies and a regular job leaves you little time for composing...

You're wrong ;-) actually I also still work in the market research company I mentioned earlier.
but I don't teach so much (250 hours a year). I also do some research. but hey, I'm at home half of the time and when I go to the school where I teach, I don't often stay more than 6 hours.

What are you working on at the moment and what should we expect from WW in the future?

I'll try to have 10 songs recorded by the end of the summer. then I'll have to record some guitars. I guess this will be done by the end of the year at worst. some songs are still really indiepop, but I have one song that sounds more like some Lali Puna stuff, and another one that's trip hop. there'll still be jazz and bossa hints also. so expect more variety.

WW have published for some glorious labels, like Blackbean and Placenta and Radio Karthoum. So you are truly a piece of the international indiepop scene. How do you fit into it?

Well, I don't know whether we fit somewhere, in fact. I have some "indiepop" friends. but, well...
when I was 18-20 I used to listen to lots of punk bands. I still listen to punk, but there are many bands that I now don't like anymore. same thing for indiepop... I still listen to a lot of 80's pop (felt, smiths,
wedding present, ...) but there are some indiepop bands that I used to listen that I don't like anymore now. Sometimes they sound too cheap and the songs are weak.

Do you have any friends/favourites amongst other indiepop artists?

Real friends? People from gypsophile, christine, river. I also virtually chatted a few times with nice people from souvenir, cat's miaow, etc.
People at marsh marigold are very friendly! I'm also a friend of alexander @radio khartoum

Salvatore

Links:

Watoo Watoo: www.watoowatoo.net
Watoo Watoo@indiepop.it: www.indiepop.it/bands/watoo