Joie Open Their Chlorophyll Lungs
The Warriors & Weirdos page strikes again. For the less initiated amongst us, Warriors & Weirdos is a Facebook fan page dedicated to Norwegian singer, songwriter and performer Aurora Aksnes. It now has over fifteen thousand members, and many of them are talented performers in their own right. On occasion I stumble across the music of one of these members, and it’s usually so good, that I have to write about it here. Let me introduce you to Joie.
Joie (Joy in French) are a duo, formed in 2020 by singer and actress Jodie Ruth-Forest and composer Tom Bierton. Jodie studied acting for a year at the Cours Florent and for three at the Cours Acquaviva in Paris. Jodie is the author of the play ‘La Voix des Femmes’, and she directed her first short film in ‘Je suis la Renaissance’ for the Nikon Film Festival, also in 2020. Tom pursued electronics at IRCAM (the Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music) in 2017, and gained a Masters in composition at the Conservatoire Supérieur in 2019, all based in Paris. Tom pursues several artforms in sculpture, painting, poetry and as a choreographer.
Joie made their debut single with help using Ulule, a crowdfunding site. Their goal of raising €2829 to fund the recording of two songs with orchestral backing was exceeded to €3160 at 111% with 74 backers – not a bad start to their musical career! The duo headed into the studio in September, where the extra funds generated meant they could record an ‘intimate version’ of their single, featuring just piano and vocals. In January the fruits of their labour was released as a three-track single and music video entitled ‘Blue Forest’.
Blue Forest begins with piano from Antoine Ouvrard, a myriad of whispers and tinkling of percussion. Spending out on real instruments instead of going down the software route completely paid off, as evidenced in the opening moments of Blue Forest. Instrument samples may be genuine in software these days, but it still lacks the compassion and expertise that comes across when played by a professional. That’s one of the things that really drew me to this track. My first thought was: ‘this is their first single? Wow.’ It shows the kind of result you get when you strive only for the best.
But let’s not forget that the best is also achieved from brilliant writing. Tom Bierton’s composition surrounding Jodie Ruth-Forest’s lyrics are a match made in heaven, and how wonderful those lyrics are; ‘The crackling of leaves, sweetening my nomad strides, fragile twisted fluttering by, the hugging branches lift me high,’ is an example of just one of the verses in Blue Forest. The fact that Ruth-Forest managed to squeeze the word ‘chlorophyll’ into the lyric is an achievement in itself, and it’s all beautifully delivered by herself and Amélie Raison on backing vocals.
As well as Blue Forest being the first thing I listened to from Joie, I also watched their music video at the same time. Directed by Jodie with the script by Joie, it features all manner of beauty in France’s Haute-Savoie, on the border of Switzerland. Jodie is of course the central character as she ascends through the hilly forest at the end of Autumn, with the variety of colour that time of year brings. The detail in the presentation is gorgeous, featuring slow-motion and even drone shots across the landscape. The combined audio and visual aspects made me an immediate fan.
‘Frustration’, the B-Side to Blue Forest begins with the sound of a train and a wordless backing vocal. The train clattering over the tracks is manipulated by Tom into a beat, his electronic influences coming out in Frustration where they were absent in the single’s A-Side. What I love about Joie is that they haven’t made the choice to sing in one language and stick to it, like so many artists do – Frustration is sung by Jodie in French.
As well as the electronic side of the single, the musicians employed for Blue Forest are also present for this track. Particularly noticeable is the entire string section with Marthe Gillardot on violin, Pierre Courriol on viola, Céline Lepicard on cello and Jeanne Bonnet playing double bass. If you listen closely, you’ll also hear Daniel Alvarado-Bonilla’s clean guitar parts, but more obvious is Maëlle Martin’s harp playing. Both the music on Blue Forest and Frustration has jazz sensibilities, with no instrument constant that you might find in pop music, and it makes for a thoroughly enjoyable listen as more and more of the compositions reveal themselves over time.
Continue reading for Joie’s first ever interview! The duo talk about how they met, their crowdfunding, the writing and recording of the tracks, musical influences and their hopes for the future of their music.
1. Welcome to the Musical Universe, Joie! How did you both meet and when did you first decide to make music together?
Jodie Ruth-Forest: Thank you! We were both living in Paris. We met on a project we were both in, a play by Martin Crimp staged by some friends. I'm trained as an actress and was contacted through a friend to replace someone on the play. Tom was training as a composer, so it was pure coincidence that he was in this play. They needed someone to fill a small role and play a bit of saxophone. On the evening of the last show, we fell in love...
Tom Bierton: A few months later, we were in the train to visit my parents in the Alps. Jodie told me about an idea she'd been maturing in her head after listening to Aurora. She'd always wanted to sing her own songs and she wanted us to create an album together. It was so far from my usual musical preoccupations back then, but I really felt like doing something new. Initially I was mostly doing it for her, I had no idea how important it was going to become for me, how much it was going to feed me creatively!
2. You crowdfunded this single - when did you decide that was the best way to make your debut release?
Tom: It was Jodie's idea. She'd already funded her historical play 'La Voix Des Femmes' successfully on Ulule, so she knew it could work. I myself really believe in crowdfunding as a means to finance Art. It's collective sponsorship, you get a real feeling of solidarity and collective responsibility for culture, far from the frankly sometimes beggar-like aspect of state grants.
Jodie: We'd already been working on the songs a bit but the first wave of lockdown in France gave us the time to fully concentrate on writing the album. We weren't thinking about a first release as a single yet, and the idea came to us in June when we were in the Alps again. The crowdfunding worked wonders and it was really beautiful to feel carried by so many different people. It gave us a real boost!
3. Jodie, these songs have beautiful lyrics written in both English and French, what made you want to use both languages in your work?
Jodie: Initially, I write all the lyrics in french, without concerning myself with rime or alliteration. I write them like I would write freeform poetry. I felt that some of them could be translated into english though, and when Tom did so (he's bilingual), we both agreed they felt more fluid, truer.
When I feel like keeping a song in french, it's because it feels like more of an intimate moment, less universal. The english ones are the ones with the messages I want to share as widely as possible. It triggers different parts of me when I sing in french or in english. They're separate, complementary sensations and I couldn't do without one or the other. Some songs in the album will be half and half!
4. Tom, in terms of composition, how did these songs begin life?
Tom: As I mentioned previously, these songs are far off from my usual musical territories, as I'm a contemporary composer. I floundered for a bit, but there was a real thrill in exploring new approaches to music. Where I would usually start with exploring timbre and rhythm, I found myself at the piano, reading the lyrics over and over and trying out harmonies and riffs for the right colour and feel. When I'd find something tasty, Jodie would join me at the piano and we'd work together on melody.
The arrangement came after. We had agreed on a list of instruments, and I really reconnected with the pure joy of orchestration. The stressful part was that neither of us really got to hear the full version before the recording! It was worse for Jodie, at least I could hear it in my head... Then, once we'd recorded, there was the large task of assembling and mixing the parts, not to mention creating all of the electronics...
5. All the tracks have beautiful strings on them, what was it like to record in Poisson Barbu Studio in Paris?
Tom: We recorded in four different sessions. The first was for recording the instruments. Most of the players were friends from the Conservatoire Supérieur, and they did an amazing job. Just to illustrate, in the studio, the pianist and harpist hadn't rehearsed together, and were in separate rooms and couldn't see each other. They had to play in time just by ear, on the spot. We recorded them all in a day, piano, harp and double bass in the morning, and string trio in the afternoon.
Jodie: I was really amazed at how professional they were!
The studio was a tiny thing in the 18th district in Paris. It made me feel really at home, and so did our sound engineer Romain. It was a good thing too. I was really excited to sing but I think my body was just stressed out! The night before, I woke up in the middle of the night with my whole chest completely blocked and hurting like hell. Of course, having asked Tom to marry me three days before didn't help. (Tom: I said yes by the way!) It stayed like that for three days and I had to record the whole thing singing through the pain! It was an amazing experience though, and I still got to record without the whole chest pain a month later when we recorded the intimate version of 'Blue Forest'.
Tom: I also recorded the guitar separately. The guitarist is a talented composer and a dear friend of mine. He came over and we took an afternoon to experiment on the guitar part and record it at home over the songs I'd already partly mixed.
6. I love the intimate version of 'Blue Forest', was a similarly arranged version of 'Frustration' ever part of the plan?
Jodie: I couldn't imagine 'Frustration' in a more intimate version. It already feels very intimate to me. Initially the intimate version of 'Blue Forest' wasn't even planned! We decided to make it a stretch goal of our crowdfunding after we got several really positive comments on the demo version we'd put online as a teaser.
7. How would you approach performing these songs live as a duo?
Tom: I don't think we'll be performing this live as a duo, there's just too much happening in 'Frustration' to make such a reduction. I'd really like to perform them with a larger ensemble, orchestrating most of the electronics into the instruments and having a choir to sing the back vocals to 'Frustration'. But we need to finish some more songs before we can think about going on tour!
8. The video for 'Blue Forest' is gorgeous! Tell me about the making of that. How long did it take and whose idea was it film in Haute-Savoie?
Jodie: We wrote the screenplay together and I directed it and designed the costumes. The setting wasn't difficult to find, it was shot just above Tom's parents, at the exact same place where I lived the moment that inspired the lyrics.
There were just four of us on set: the cameraman, the drone pilot and assistant cameraman, Tom who was serving as a general handyman, and myself. We shot the whole thing over five days in november. It rained almost the whole time, it was freezing cold (it even snowed once or twice). I've never been as cold in my life as when we had to shoot the scene in the nest. We had technical difficulties too, the camera we were planning on using was too heavy for the steadycam we'd rented, we lost a whole afternoon of shooting due to mysterious circumstances... We were on the go from 6 or 7 am to about midnight on most days. In the end it was an amazing experience though, and we finished just in time to get back to Paris for the second lockdown!
9. A question for you both: what music inspired you growing up?
Tom: Actually when I was little, we didn't listen to that much music at home. It was always varied though, we'd listen to Vivaldi, Enya, french singers, peruvian music, jazz... My first personal obsessions were with Iron Maiden, Deep Purple and Nirvana. A friend of mine made me a few compilation Cds and I'd listen to them over and over. Then when I went to high school, I got really into jazz, especially Charlie Mingus. Again, I had a handful of disks which I'd listen to constantly.
Jodie: My mum reminded me the other day that when I was little, I was obsessed with singers with powerful, versatile voices: Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey... My family's always listened to a lot of music and I was brought up in an environment with very varied influences. My mum listened to Jamiroquai, Michael Jackson, Alicia Keys... My adoptive father was more into jazz, funk and gypsy jazz. My biological father is the one who introduced me to french singers, and the wonderful world of musicals. Combined, they all gave me a strong taste for music.
10. And what are your favourite artists to listen to right now?
Jodie: Most of the songs by Aurora and Camille. They just hit a chord inside me, something I've not found elsewhere in commercial pop or french songs. Thanks to my adoptive father and now Tom, I've been listening to more and more jazz and funk: trad jazz, Jamiroquai who just make me want to dance, Snarky Puppy, Vulfpeck, Jacob Collier, Girls in Airports... That's really my groove these days and it's pushing me more and more towards finding that sweet spot between pop and jazz.
Tom: I listen to a lot of very different music, jazz, pop, contemporary music, classical, djent, electronica... But there's a grey zone I love somewhere in jazz, where artists tend to make music that's impossible to classify. To me, the most interesting, original, varied and rich music is somewhere in the crossroads between all those genres. I could give you hundreds of names, but if I had to give one, I think it'd probably be Food, an anglo-norwegian duo composed of Mathiew Bellamy and Thomas Strønen.
11. You've previously said you hope to release your debut album on a label. Do you have many songs ready to be recorded? Would you consider releasing them independently?
JOIE: We've got four more songs in the piano-voice stage, and Tom's got quite a few ideas for some juicy arrangements... Jodie's written most of the lyrics for the rest of the album, we're thinking about twelve tracks total.
We really hope we'll be able to find a label or some other partnership to finance the rest of the album. It's a huge amount of work, and I don't see us trying to crowdfund song after song individually.
The whole album is going to be more varied in style. One of the songs has got a definite smooth jazz feel to it, another is definitely funk inspired. Yet another has got that tribal, gut wrenching vibe, kind of like Woodkid. Joy has such a wide spectrum to explore... We can't wait to get to work!
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Connect with Joie on Facebook and on Instagram @joie__music.
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