“I am one of those who swim against the tide, who refuse the direction of the wind,” sings Olivia Ruiz in Reply, first extract, revealed this Wednesday, from a new album expected in early 2024. The artist proves once again that she knows how to be where we don’t necessarily expect her. This song – the first unreleased since the release, seven years ago, of his last album, To Our Loving Bodies – ventures into more raw, minimalist and electro sounds. “There was a little desire for electricity. I wanted to move on what had made me move in recent years,” she confides to 20 minutes.
Your last album dates back to 2016. Did you miss music?
Not really, in the sense that, even if they weren’t original creations, with the show Sewn mouths [dans lequel elle racontait l’exil de ses grands-parents qui ont fui l’Espagne franquiste] and the musical tours around my two novels [La Commode aux tiroirs de couleur et Ecoute la pluie tomber, parus chez JC Lattès en 2020 et 2022], there was a big creation part, on already existing songs. I didn’t feel like I was missing music but there was a slight desire for electricity. We were on acoustic things, indie, garage and it’s true that I wanted to move on what had made me move in recent years. I felt more in a feeling of energy. A little fidget started to grab my pelvis and the sound of this new record, of the songs, came out in colors close to Replyeven if it is a very atypical piece.
It’s indeed a surprising song, with an electro dimension to which you weren’t accustomed the public…
I wanted minimalism, sensuality. The words “hips” and “pelvis” are at the center of each song. We respond to these things more through sub-bass and electronic music with Dave Grohl-style drums. For the stage, these new pieces will fall into the arms of the old repertoire and we will have a lot of fun revisiting the old titles in its new sound colors.
Could we summarize “La Réplique” by saying that it is a celebration of female empowerment?
We could. It’s an anthem to women who avoid the highways in favor of the back roads. (smile)
The text also expresses your part of Hispanicness…
The chorus came to me spontaneously in Spanish. There was something obvious. I’m talking to a man and saying, “OK, now I’m listening to you, but you don’t talk much anymore. When a woman asserts herself, it makes you shut your mouth.” There is something of a game nature in this song. This woman plays with established roles, with expectations towards her, it is a song of freedom saying: “Follow your instinct, the answers are there, in the cry of the viscera that we do not listen to enough”.
Despite the emergence of the #MeToo movement, the freedom of speech, the media coverage of feminism, women’s rights remain a fight, nothing is ever acquired…
It’s also something very present in my discography. The chocolate woman is a song against fatphobia saying “find the look of someone who loves you rather than attaching yourself to your image in the mirror”. My body, my love said “I fuck therefore I am”. I have always needed to affirm, in whatever discretion I can, the fact that these battles are mine. I do it in poetry rather than by joining a party. Sewn mouths was a tribute to the resilient, to those who overcome the tragedy of their history to build a destiny for themselves. And that’s a lesson. I feel part of a community, first of women, then of human beings with their fragilities and their strengths.
The clip for “La Réplique” is very graphic and minimalist, structured around contemporary choreography. Does it announce the aesthetic you want to develop?
This is clearly a first clue as to what is going to happen. With the photos of Charlotte Abramow, who did the cover and the booklet of the album, with the team who produced the video and the Rift Marseille company, we were in a very artisanal approach. The suits were tailor-made, there were no visible brands, a lot of construction and manufacturing was done. In the big shows that I have done until today, you didn’t necessarily feel the hand of the man. At my age, I’m more inclined to tell my son “Look, we can be super creative with pieces of fabric” than “you absolutely have to be dressed in something to be chic and flash”. It is a global approach, in accordance with the speech of the woman in this famous line.
Your first album, “J’aime pas l’amour”, was released twenty years ago. How do you view it today?
I really don’t wear any, if you knew! I look ahead, I’m afraid of not doing everything I want to do so I don’t look behind. Recently, on the networks, someone wished me a happy birthday, which I didn’t understand right away. Indeed, in October, it was 20 years since I don’t like love is out. It’s stupid, I would have liked to celebrate it symbolically, especially with all the songwriters of the time who accompanied me even though it wasn’t a given.
You have written two novels. How has this changed or not changed the way you approach writing your songs?
After finishing writing the new songs, I started to reread the lyrics to rework them and I said to myself “Damn, this is terrible, I’m not saying anything”. By having people around me listen to this and whom I trust because they know how to be objective, the reactions were: “You have refined your writing, it is more written. It’s much more immediate…” The dichotomy between my feelings and this feedback challenged me so I tried to understand. Of course, after writing 250 pages, I have a feeling of interstellar emptiness when I write three stanzas. There, I’m going to start writing a novel again and I’m going to have difficulty putting myself into a long format and not being in the formula since that’s what the song has been requiring of me for several months. I’m amused by the way the brain goes into a certain mode depending on the activity we’re doing and its ability to deform very quickly (and reform very quickly, I hope), in the meaning which is necessary at the moment T.
You were talking about the scene earlier…
I can’t wait to get back on the road to concerts. This is where I am the most me, the most optimal (laughs). There is L’Olympia in my sights on November 20, 2024. It will be a highlight because it’s been a while since I’ve been back. I am one of the blessed children of this room since I have been attending it since the beginning. I had a special bond with Jean-Michel Boris who is no longer [ancien directeur général de la salle, il est décédé en 2020]. The last time I did L’Olympia, my four grandparents and my parents were on the first balcony, I only saw them all evening and, this time, there will be a little fewer of them. This Olympia promises moments rich in emotion and I can already feel my pelvis quivering (laughing).