fbpx

Month: May 2023

Nestled within the heart of first street and situated just opposite our main stage, you really can be on the doorstep to the jazz festival this weekend. In their own words, INNside is:

Use this promo code (604119GQE)  when booking to be able to receive up to 20% off the best available rooms between 19-28th May, when booking direct – INNSiDE by Melia Manchester

It looks like it’s been a busy 5 years for the Julie Campiche Quartet, touring all over Europe! Do you have any highlights from previous tours? And are you excited about getting back on the road again?

Yes, the last years have been very busy ! I have so many highlights and amazing memories with the band! It’s hard to pick only one, but I think, we say that ‘every cloud has a silver lining’ right ? So we performed at this concert in Lausanne. It was the first concert of our 1st album release tour. We started the concert and suddenly both my microphone and the FX pedal of the saxophone player went down on the very first song. So Leo, the saxophone player and I had to play acoustic for all of the first set. We had to change the setlist while playing because some of the pieces couldn’t be played without FX. It was all very tricky, but at the same time it came out all very natural and peaceful. That’s the feeling I always have with this wonderful team! I completely trust the band to go through anything that can happen and the music will still be there and meaningful.

Of course I am very excited to start this third phase of our release tour. And to come back to the UK !!! We definitely fell in love with the UK audience last November, they are amazing. A very curious and greedy audience and I love that !!

Would it be fair to say that your performances are both incredibly theatrical and visual? What was the inspiration behind this?

For me, playing music is like telling a story. So yes, I guess it might have an influence on my performances and make them theatrical and visual. For the visuals, we sometimes play with video mapping to increase the effect. I really enjoy it when different art forms meet to tell a story together. For example, I also had a recent project with a trapeze artist and some dancers for the video for our single ‘The Other’s Share’, working with diverse creatives and mixed media The mix of arts is like an immersive story. Like a 4D show!

Your work, in your own words, ‘is infused with themes such as the media’s incessant flow of news, and identity in a digital world, that together provide a determined yet urgent fragility to your music’. Would you be able to expand on this? Where do your musical influences come from and how do you represent these subject matters in your work?

Like every human being I’m influenced by the world around me. So of course my music is influenced by it. And I always was involved in some political issue. When I say “political” I don’t mean in a political party, but I mean in issues that affect us as citizens of this planet and how we live together. For me these topics have been very central to me for as long as I remember. So of course, my music, as my life, are influenced by this. Also because I think that music can really help to grow our soul and be a source of energy for change.

We’d love to know more about your two-theatre project’s Kalavrita Des Mille Antigone and Ouh La La Les Loups. How did they come about? Do you enjoy composing for the stage and how does it differ from your work as part of the quartet?

These 2 theatre projects aren’t running anymore, but it’s something I really enjoyed and I would  maybe consider a return to theatre again in the future. On ‘Kalavrita’, I was just a performer, I didn’t compose the music. And, ‘Ouh La La Les Loups’ is the first professional job I had when I decided to go pro into the music field. It’s a duo with my father who is a storyteller. I composed the music. So I started my professional journey with theatre. That also might have an influence on the fact that I always work my music as I would “tell a story”. For each of my compositions, the intention of music is always linked to a story.

More recently I composed and performed some music for a theatre piece about Rousseau. A big project with children and a baroque orchestra and me as electronic and free electron. It was really inspiring ! As I mentioned, I always love to mix the art forms, so of course I love playing and composing for theatre.

We are delighted to have you join us at mjf2023 – what are you looking forward to the most about playing the festival and what can they expect from a Julie Campiche Quartet gig?

The audience can expect some emotions and waves of energy.

We are absolutely looking forward to come back and play again for our UK audience. I look forward to meeting the Manchester audience as I have never played in the city before.

Will you be catching any other mjf artists whilst you’re over in Manchester? And if so, who are you looking forward to the most and why?

As I’m running all the time for weeks and months, I haven’t yet checked the programme fully yet. But I will have the time to do it while we will do the big drive from Geneva to Manchester, an epic 15 hour journey! So yes, I will definitely enjoy the time there to listen some other artists and make some new discovery. I’m really looking forward to it.

Julie is playing Band on the Wall in their main venue

28th May, 1 PM-2.15 PM 

Tickets are £12.00 and you can buy them here