Photo: Amelia Troubridge
As the end of the year approaches, one can't help but look to the future. Now is the time to be looking for change, for the new, for something bold, brave and different. That is exactly why the world needs Petite Meller.
A shock of colour and a spark of infectious creative energy, the spritely Parisian culture junkie brings life to a pop world so severelely lacking in originality that it often borders on parody.
She's created a world of her own, and now it's time for you to be part of it.
Community Festival LDN is about exactly that - and we'll be presenting a night at XOYO headlined by the magnificent Petite Meller, and also featuring the must-hear acts K.Flay and Tiggs Da Author. For tickets and information, head here.
Get to know the young eccentric, as we talk to her about film, philosophy, fans, style, London and 'turning pain into a joyous party'.
You've talked about how important it is to bring another level into music - a concept of sorts. How would you define, if it's possible, the "concept" of Petite Meller?
It's an assemblage of things, like a puzzle: how our unconscious built, that's how I create my videos and my music. I believe it's really important what you absorb into your mind. For me it's classic cinema, philosophical theories, a painting in The British National Gallery, a Shakespeare play in the Globe. I'm very inspired and those memories enriching my writing or styling whatever I do.
It all starts from the sounds in the studio, I call my genre "Le Nouveau Jazzy Pop" which comes from the Jazz records I used to listen to as a child like Dizzie Gillespie, Duke Ellington, Fella Kuti, Charlie Parker, and the chansons my mom used to listen to like Charles Aznavour and Chantal Goya.
The visual aesthetic comes from the sounds, and then I meet people on social media who become my team a nd we create together little realities, which I love. I believe in coincidental encounters that meant to be.
I try to take pain and turn it to a joyful party, in that way I'm healed and hope to enjoy others.
You say want to bring "the unconscious libidinal dream into reality" in your music and videos...
I was always fascinated by the unconscious, and how in our dreams we let our inner feelings and desires out. It's like my new song 'Barbaric' - it's inspired by the idea of people repressing their feelings to fit into conventional society. I'm intrigued by about acting out what we're truly feel, regardless the reality's norms, even if it may look like insanity to some people.
How do you go about doing that?
I create freer realities in my videos which i invite people to join in. For me they are realer then other realities other people create for us. I believe you should choose in which you'd like to exist.
What aspects of your philosophy degree make it into your music?
Philosophical ideas and theories often inspire my songs. Deleuze's the idea of "the Becoming", to be a part of an animalistic gang, being uncivilized in 'Barbaric'. The saying of Zizek "loving your symptom" in 'Backpack' or the idea of a pleasure out of pain (Jouissance) of Lacan in my songs. It's like a philo-pop music maybe, funny for me to think of it in that way.
You also bring your cross-cultural influences into the music. What are your favourite films?
My style is inspired by classic cinema like Godard, Bergman , Tarkovsky, Antonioni, Fellini. A movie like Death in Venice inspired my beach wardrobe 1920s bathing suits and straw hats.
And if you could make everyone in the world read just one book, what would it be?
Oh , good question! I guess Hamlet - or Ulysses by Joyce. They're both so complicated with endless layers that it can take a lifetime to fully comprehend them. For me, they're the sublime.
You tend to cast ordinary people you've seen in the street in your videos. What do you think that adds to the videos? Can you talk us through what you're looking for when you're choosing people?
I always arrive early with my directors to find our cast. Honestly it's about an eye connection. I wonder down the street, I know what I look for and I know they're just there somewhere waiting to be discovered. Like in 'Barbaric', a father of one of the girls wrote me a letter of how the experience that inspired her to be a pop artist.
All the characters in my videos are my friends for life. Like Justin Elephant who carries me down NY street in 'NYC Time', or Hadija from Kenya who reports me on her grades at school, or Helena and Katherina who I met on a Munich street and came to France to shoot 'Backpack'.
Have you played many UK shows before? What do you make of UK audiences?
I played at Heaven recently and it was like a heavenly experience, it felt like coming home after a lot of travelling.
I've lived here for over a year now, and I feel the London crowd especially understands what it means to madly dance the pain away. I feel we are a little community, together celebrating the absurdity of life. It was really special for me and my extremely talented jazz band - Smiley (percussion), Richie Garrison (saxophone) and Emlyn (keys). Je voudrais encore!
Gigwise presents Petite Meller, K.Flay, Tiggs Da Author and special guests at XOYO as part of London's Community Festival on Wednesday 4 November. For tickets and more information, visit here.
Photography by Amelia Troubridge
