“Et si” by Docile
The striking synthesis of retro and contemporary sound, in which the vocoder emphasized the fragility and the robotization of the vocals, was remarkable. I am referring to a young and aspiring artist named Docile, who is incidentally a Frenchwoman, who recently released her latest song “Et si”. It is the beginning of a series of seven tracks, which are released sequentially.
The prologue is a melancholic ballad, which closely resembles a poem. “Et si” is not only the recollection of a relationship, but also the contemplation and the review of things afterwards, and the coping with how close emotions can lie together, how they are stifled by monotony, until it ends. All these effects are not only excellently arranged sonically, but also revived by the performance of Docile.
A kiss to a lost love, a wistful past, which haunts you intermittently and reminds you of the changes that life has in store. “Et si” by Docile, wonderfully tragic!
Who is the person behind Docile the artist, and what or who got you into music?
I come from an environment that is not at all artistic but I’ve always been fascinating by music. I started learning at 4 years old, but I’ve always been the worst student of my music school. I was working a lot but I didn’t have it easy however I knew music will always play a huge role in my life and that I’ll work hard and fight to create music I’m proud of.
Docile is a part of me that I only assume on stage and in my songs. It’s a much more confident, feminine and engaged woman than I am.
What are the main influences on your musical style?
Since my childhood there was “chanson françaises” in the family house. In my teenage years I was spending my time searching for new songs, so I was listening to all kind of music, especially pop, rock, soul, slam etc..
More recently I’ve met Electronic music, the way you can create atmospheres drove me crazy and I really enjoyed spending hours with Marc Lapeyre cooking music with all his plugs and synthesisers. Regarding this new project, the music is really a blend of Marc’s inspirations and mine. But personally, the artist that inspire me the most for this 7 new songs was Iliona, a young Belgian singer. I really love the way she delicately uses autotune on her voice.
Your track, “Et si”, creates an amazing cinematic electro pop atmosphere. What inspired the composition ?
I wrote the lyrics of “Et si” many years ago when I broke up with my first love. The text was so much longer, it was more a poem than a song.
In the composition I really wanted to convey this feeling of powerlessness in the face of a break-up, this time when your mind is consumed by this feeling of failure, and you can’t think of anything else. You just become crazy questioning yourself “What I should have done?” How we got there ? And above all “And if I could do it all over again ?” / “Et si c’était à refaire ?” In french
The drum loop is deliberately heady, as if we were hoping to rewind this love story endlessly. I used the vocoder and autotune to give a more dramatic atmosphere and I wanted the voice almost robotique, as if the pain was dehumanising Docile.
The single is also part of a series of seven tracks that will be released in the next months. What can we expect from the series?
The 7 songs are really different but have been all compose with Marc, so it’s always a blend of contemporary and retro sounds that combine chanson, pop, rock and electronic music. A videoclip will be released on one of those songs, we work a lot on it since many months with an incredible team, so for me it will be “the masterpiece” of the project!
How do you decide when a song is ready to release?
It takes such a long time. I can spend years, and try 5 different versions for the same song. I think I overthink when it is question of my songs !! haha.
For this series, we first try them on stage, we wanted to see how they were received by the public. From there, we modified them several times until we finally found the recipe that really seemed to work on the listeners. But the truth is that I force myself to take them out, because I always have something to say and I always think it could be better !
Being an indie artist can be very tough. How do you balance your time and energy between your music and your personal life?
It’s actually really hard and frustrating, because I spent almost all my time promoting my musicI and would really prefer have the time for writing and composing. I have thousand of text and melodies ideas in my head but no time for writing them down. I also need to eat and pay the bills so I had jobs that took time and energy I would have preferred to devote to Docile.
But I guess this is coming to be better, I now have a manager and just signed a distribution and publishing contract, I really hope it it will free up my mind and my schedule to compose !
If you could collaborate with any artist you want, who would it be ?
Sofiane Pamart, I’ve always dream to write a slam on a classical piece..!
What are you working on right now and what can we look forward to from you next?
Right now I’m working mainly on the promotion of this 7 new songs. Obviously I will continue to make music with Marc, because I’m really proud of what we're able to create together and I love composing with him.
But I’d also like to try new collaborations. It’s really important for me to constantly reinvent my music, and this can only happen through encounters. I love to discover the univers of other artists, his or her way to compose, listen and to love music. Collaborations help me to have another vision of sound and what can be done with it , and it's just fascinating !
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