French artist Yann Le Razavet, as known as Marble Arch, just released an addictive single for bedroom pop enthusiasts: “I’m on my way”. Marble Arch released his first record, the Bloom of Division, in the fall of 2014, where he first introduced his ideas of how shoegaze and psychedelic pop could be. We talked with the artist on the future of the project, and how he reveals his sensitivities through delicate melodies, lo-fi roughness, and pastel melancholic hues.
KALTBLUT: What inspired the video for “I’m on my way”?
Marble Arch: “I’m on my way” is the first single of this new album. The video is an idea of Elliot Broué and Nino Le Chenadec. We always wanted to stay in childhood, one of the themes explored in the first album, as a transition. It’s an anthology of 90’s images, our lived childhood, memories, and especially the story of a phantasmagorical afternoon, a complicity – between imagination and reality.
KALTBLUT: One thing that stands out with your sound is this strong sense of nostalgia – what is nostalgic to you? As simple, obvious, or even complex as this may be, I’d love to hear.
Marble Arch: Nostalgia [and] melancholy, [are] really a part of me. I think it would have been impossible to deny it or repress it in this project. I think everyone is a bit nostalgic in their own way. I look to the past to find inspiration, to find naivety.
KALTBLUT: Can you talk about how Marble Arch formed and progressed to where it is now?
Marble Arch: Marble arch is my personal project created in 2014. It was born after I put on the web a series of demos that made my first album. At this time, I was unemployed at my parent’s house and everything was created in my teenage room. That’s why this theme is very important to me. Today I live in Paris with my girlfriend. She helped me a lot to write the lyrics. This is where I composed the second album that will develop much more themes in relation to my life here. When I arrived in Paris, I was finally able to create the band with friends. Today we are five onstage and it’s [become a] much more interesting live [experience] compared to the beginning.
KALTBLUT: Do you identify as a Parisian artist? A French artist? How does that define you?
Marble Arch: I feel like I’m a French artist. I am very happy in Paris, but [I was] born in Brittany. I am an immigrant here!
I think I will always have a detachment with this city with the arrogant mentality of some people, especially when it comes at night.
KALTBLUT: Is there an ongoing narrative behind your upcoming album Children of the Slump, or does each song have a distinct story to tell?
Marble Arch: Each song has a special story. This can be personal experience or [a] transcript of moods [and] colors. The album is called Children of the Slump because this summarizes a state of mind, a feeling in which I composed the album. [Lyrics] for tracks on Children of the Slump have been written by my girlfriend. [Transcription] has never been easy for me. There is also a song that speaks about it on a B-side track.
KALTBLUT: Does the lyrical collaboration with your girlfriend help you transcribe your feelings and experiences into these songs? What is particular about this arrangement with each other?
Marble Arch: For this second album, I had the desire to transcribe more personal things, less fiction.
I am a discreet person who does not easily spread his emotions, his feelings. The only person who knows me so well except myself is my girlfriend. On these songs, the collaboration was done naturally. In the titles written by my girlfriend, there is the testimony of moments lived or things of the every day: insomnia (“Moonstruck”), precarious life (“Children of the Slump) daily life and reference to the author (“Today”).
KALTBLUT: Where would you like this project to go? How much of this is living in the present versus soaring years ahead to what it could be?
Marble Arch: I have always taken it as a personal project, a part of myself, as a therapy. Marble Arch will remain anchored in the present, will always be linked to my feelings of the moment. I hope people will enjoy this album because I think I did it honestly.
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