Electro-pop duo tackles the pain of addiction in their new multi-lingual single ‘Decroche’, released on April 20th, 2018.
The duo tells us more about the message behind the single, the inspiration behind singing it in three different languages – English, French, Mandarin, and more.
What is the inspiration or message behind the single ‘Decroche’? What inspired the title of the song?
Bonnie: Kick it off.
It was just becoming too recurrent in my entourage, that people started to freak out, taking too much or using to hide a deeper wound. I wanted to talk about that, to explore the highs and the lows of an addiction and its effect on its entourage. ‘Décroche’ is a French verb that means “to pick up the phone”. It also means “to kick off a habit, to get down what was hooked, to switch off.”
What inspired the idea of singing it in three different languages?
Bonnie: I’m French but I grew up in Hong Kong, so I spoke English at a very young age, and learned Chinese Mandarin at school. It’s kind of who I am, I tend to mix those 3 languages in my songs. On this particular one, I thought it interesting to use French at the beginning, to start softly, with words that taste sweet in my mouth, to characterize the melancholic & poetic aspect of the addiction; then the chorus in Chinese sounds almost like a children’s tune, but with a tension “a la devilish sauce” like the little evil voice that draws you back to it. The rest is in English cause, it’s a matter that speaks to everyone.
How would you describe your sound?
Elia: As we have a lot of different and eclectic influences, our sound could be a mix of downtempo/trip-hop, dark ambiences, urban hard beats with a touch of blues in the voice of Bonnie.
Who would you say are your major musical influences?
Bonnie: Portishead, Radiohead, Björk, Billie Holiday, Nina Simone
Elia: All the cold wave of the 80’s with bands like Bauhaus, industrial and electro body music in a Skinny Puppy mood, noise rock (Jesus Lizard) added with hard techno and cold beats.
What’s been one song your personal playlist that you’ve had on repeat and why?
Elia: For the moment, I go back to listen to Sofa Surfers. It was their 20 years tour recently and liked a lot the way they mix electronic and acoustic sounds, power and elegance. A track like ‘Home Truth’ is a masterpiece for me and I often listen to it, very loud!
Bonnie: There are so many… I tend to be obsessed with an artist and play her/him on loop for weeks. But, let’s say ‘Fuck the Pain Away’ by Peaches is a track that always makes me happy.
What’s one question that you wish you were asked in an interview, that you’ve never been asked?
Aie-aie-aie! Tough one.
What would you do or say if you had Simone de Beauvoir in front of you?
Listen to ‘Decroche’ below:
Follow Bonnie Li on Facebook and Twitter. Check out more of their music on YouTube and SoundCloud.
