{"id":1884,"date":"2019-03-31T20:23:12","date_gmt":"2019-03-31T18:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.planetharmonica.com\/?page_id=1884"},"modified":"2019-05-08T12:00:42","modified_gmt":"2019-05-08T10:00:42","slug":"spotlight-on-the-marshals","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.planetharmonica.com\/NextGen\/en\/spotlight-on-the-marshals\/","title":{"rendered":"Spotlight on the Marshals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2><i class=\"fas fa-pencil-alt\"> <\/i><span>Root Blues with overblows: interview of Laurent Siguret<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Planet Harmonica: The very first ear-catching thing when listening to your album is this rough blues sound, quite unusual for a french band. Could you tell us about your influences and how you set up the band ?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thomas and Julien put the band together in 2009 and kept playing as a duet until 2013. They made 2 albums in the meantime. Then, I joined the band and we issued 3 records since then, with Freemount Records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We all have our own musical universe, and we all like people like Creedence, Howlin Wolf&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Each of your albums is strongly associated with the place it has been recorded. Can you tell us more about that ?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Basically, our goal is to record each album in a different location. We stay there for 3 or 4 days, chilling out, trying to grab the feeling of the place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>How do put your new songs together ?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Julien often brings an idea, a theme, that we all try to develop, just like if we were jamming. We rehearse at the \u00ab\u00a0After You My Friend\u00a0\u00bb studio that Julien manages, which provides great playing conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>How do your recording sessions work ? Do you play live when recording, maybe adding some retakes, ou do you record instruments separately ? How do you work together in the trio ?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Over time, we recorded in \u00ab\u00a0full live\u00a0\u00bb conditions. On the previous albums, we used to record at least drums, harmonica and guitar together, then vocals and the other instruments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the last one, we decided to go for a mono recording, only one mike to take everything even vocals. This implies that we all have to really listen to each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Mono recording ? How surprising ! No room left for mistakes !<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Indeed ! And by the way, I noticed some small things I would have liked to retake. But that&rsquo;s the rules of the game, and we really wanted to play \u00ab&nbsp;live&nbsp;\u00bb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-soundcloud wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-soundcloud wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Les Bruy\u00e8res Session by The Marshals\" width=\"500\" height=\"450\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?visual=true&#038;url=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Fplaylists%2F638283717&#038;show_artwork=true&#038;maxheight=750&#038;maxwidth=500\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Let\u2019s focus on you, Laurent :<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>We really enjoyed your playing in the context of this blues trio. You play your parts wisely, just at the right place and at the right time, without \u00ab\u00a0over playing\u00a0\u00bb if I may say so. Can you tell us more about that ?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From the very beginning, I have tried to serve Julien and Thomas&rsquo; music. We listen to each other carefully when we work on our songs. We try new things, I play a lot. When it comes to this new album, I have to say I tried to remove everything that I thought unnecessary. This is not the album of a harp player, this is the music of a band. I think the room left by Muddy Waters to the harmonica in some of his pieces is a pretty good example of what I am trying to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>How to you design your solos ? Do you use pentatonic scales and\/or blues scales ? Do you play overblows ?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I think my solos have changed over time, and as I attended training sessions by Jer\u00f4me Peyrelevade and Sebastien Charlier. I primarily play in E flat on a A flat harmonica and I switch harp if the band plays another key, which allows me to keep the same picture of my playing in mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, if we consider playing a C harmonica (on a piece in G) : at the beginning, I used the G major pentatonic scale as a backbone for my solos, adding D flat on a regular basis (the fifth flat). Then I started to play overblows and overblaws, studying at the same time the B flat major pentatonic scale, the E blues scale and even&nbsp; the G minor melodic scale. Now, when I play blues, I use the 5 and 6 overblows, and the 7 and 10 overdraws. When soloing, I mix scales according to Julien&rsquo;s chords. And I also add other notes as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>You have won the Marche D&rsquo;Aincourt challenge, a very different piece compared with the music you play with the Marshals ! How wide is the range of your influences ?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I listen to a lot of music, but less and less harmonica. I still like blues, but I&rsquo;ve rather listened to jazz for the last years. I also like some kinds of bluegrass, or even Argentinean music.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Which harp players have particularly influenced your playing ?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When I started, my only influence was Diabolo, a harmonica player I saw playing on a Jacques Martin TV show. Then I saw him playing along with Jacques Higelin. When I started to play, I did&rsquo;nt know anybody and I could&rsquo;nt afford buying records. On top of that, blues was way far from what I used to listen to at the time. So I played mainstream pieces. Then I met a harmonica player who told me to buy JJ Milteau\u2019s book. Thank you so much M. Milteau, your book really tought me how powerful the harmonica is ! He influenced me so much. Nowadays, I really like Jason Ricci&rsquo;s flamboyant style, Vincent Bucher&rsquo;s playing accuracy, the poetic Michel Herblin and (sorry for mentioning them again and again) I have to say I&rsquo;m always amazed by Sebastien Charlier&rsquo;s stunning playing and Jer\u00f4me Peylevade&rsquo;s versatility.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text-justify mb-2\" >Root Blues with overblows: interview of Laurent Siguret Planet Harmonica: The very first ear-catching thing when listening to your album is this rough blues sound, quite unusual for a french band. Could you tell us about your influences and how you set up the band [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.planetharmonica.com\/NextGen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1884"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.planetharmonica.com\/NextGen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.planetharmonica.com\/NextGen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetharmonica.com\/NextGen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetharmonica.com\/NextGen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1884"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetharmonica.com\/NextGen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1885,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetharmonica.com\/NextGen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1884\/revisions\/1885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.planetharmonica.com\/NextGen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}