Happy Hour Harmonica Podcast

Rachelle Plas interview

• Neil Warren • Season 1 • Episode 16

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Rachelle Plas is a French player who learnt her craft at an early age in group lessons provided by Greg Zlap in Paris. She won various competitions at French music festivals which led on to her touring Europe and beyond with her band. After making a splash at the World Harmonica Festival in Germany, Rachelle became the face of Hohner’s Golden Melody harmonicas. She has gone on to record two albums since, with her fusion of blues, soul, pop, rock & electro bringing her fast flowing harmonica style to a new and younger audience.

Select the Chapter Markers tab above to select different sections of the podcast (website version only).

Rachelle's website:
https://www.rachelleplas.com

Rachelle's boutique store, where songs and teaching material can be purchased:
https://www.rachelleplas.com/victoryswaymusic-boutique-store


YouTube videos:
Hohner Masters of Harmonica:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8z_DrIDsQSw

SBW I’ve Got To Go:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rd43fxbelFI

Orange Blossom Special:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajrNA6sPoDM

Mellow Down Easy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwXt3Tj377A


French Harmonica Players:
https://www.planetharmonica.com/Ressources/FrenchHarp/FrHarpUK.htm


Podcast website:
https://www.harmonicahappyhour.com

Donations:
If you want to make a voluntary donation to help support the running costs of the podcast then please use this link (or visit the podcast website link above):
https://paypal.me/harmonicahappyhour?locale.x=en_GB

Spotify Playlist:
Also check out the Spotify Playlist, which contains most of the songs discussed in the podcast:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5QC6RF2VTfs4iPuasJBqwT?si=M-j3IkiISeefhR7ybm9qIQ

Podcast sponsors:
This podcast is sponsored by SEYDEL harmonicas - visit the oldest harmonica factory in the world at www.seydel1847.com  or on Facebook or Instagram at SEYDEL HARMONICAS
and Blows Me Away Productions: http://www.blowsmeaway.com/

Support the show

SPEAKER_00:

Hey everybody and welcome to episode 16 of the Happy Hour Harmonica podcast. Once again, thanks to my sponsor, the Lone Wolf Blues Company, makers of effects pedals, microphones and more, designed for harmonica. Remember, when you want control of your tone, you want Lone Wolf. Please remember to subscribe to the podcast and also check out the Spotify playlist. Rochelle Plass joins me today. Rochelle is a French player who learned her craft at an early age in group lessons provided by Greg Slap in Paris. She won various competitions at French music festivals, which led on to her touring Europe and beyond with her band. After making a splash at the World Harmonica Festival in Germany, Rochelle became the face of Holner's Golden Melody Harmonicas. She has gone on to record two albums since, with a fusion of blues, soul, pop, rock and electro, bringing her fast-flowing harmonica style to a new and younger audience. So hello, Rachelle Plass, and welcome to the podcast.

SPEAKER_01:

Hello, Neil. Thanks a lot for the invitation.

SPEAKER_00:

Starting out a little about yourself. You're French and you currently live in Paris.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, that's right. My birthplace is in Normandy. My family comes from there and a little bit from Brittany too. I live in Paris. It's the most important places for concerts and musical activities and a central point for all of this. And we are making our performances in France and of course in other countries, in Europe and all around Yeah,

SPEAKER_00:

I've been to Paris many times myself. I went to the Sunset Jazz Club last summer.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, that's really a mythic place. I did a concert there a few years ago and it's a really lovely and nice jazz club.

SPEAKER_00:

Did you move to Paris for the music or did your family take you there when you were younger? No,

SPEAKER_01:

we were living 100 kilometers from Paris, so it's really close. We always went there on weekends to visit museums and cultural places for music and every art. There's a lot of things to do and see for the cultural life in Paris. So that's what we love. Even for French persons, Paris is great for tourism, I think.

SPEAKER_00:

So I want to talk a little about the French blues scene, and particularly there's some very good French harmonica players, which maybe some of the listeners won't be so familiar with. So when you were going to Paris, visiting from Normandy when you were younger, were you aware of some of these French harmonica players and the blues scene in Paris at that time? Is that what got you interested in the harmonica?

SPEAKER_01:

In fact, I started harmonica at five years old. In those years, I found a harmonica under the Christmas tree. It was my parents who offered to give me that gift. I did my first learn of songs really younger with my mother. We were just playing some few really easy songs like Amazing Grace, When the Saints, French songs also, and for kids, of course. After that, when I was eight, I started to come in Paris for the School of Harmonica. It was named Le Souffle du Blues. In English, it's something like the Breath of the Blues. I studied there during six years, from eight years old to 14 years old. Everything was in Paris. During those years, my teacher was Greg Lapp. The name of the place where the lessons were taken is a blues club in Paris, one of the most mythic blues clubs for the blues and harmonica scene in Paris. So we were already in a good place for that. And every night from 10 p.m. to two or three hours in the morning, there were some concerts with four stations of blues musicians in Paris. So there was Jean-Jacques Milteau and Greville Zalap, of course, for the harmonica players. There was a lot of other musicians. After that, myself, I built my first bands and first concerts. To a period when I was, I think, 17 or 18, I was going to make some concerts there every two months with my band.

SPEAKER_00:

So you started on harmonica at the age of five, after your parents bought you a harmonica.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So was the harmonica your first instrument? Because I understand you also play a little flute, a little guitar as well.

SPEAKER_01:

In my childhood, Childhood, when I was five, the first instrument was a little flute. And after that, I discovered harmonica at five. There was a guitar at home, so I tried to make a little learning of it, but it was hard because it's the hands for little girl. It's a little bit strong and more. It's making some hurt a little bit to the fingers because it's hard at the beginning. I had to choose something really because I was at the school in some moments. So I didn't have much more time and I did a lot of sports too. So I needed to choose one instrument after. So harmonica stays.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, great. So you chose the harmonica, so it's good for us all. As you say, you took harmonica lessons with Greg Slap, who's a fantastic, actually originally a Polish harmonica player. Yeah. He moved to France. So Greg Slap, again, for people who don't know, is a fantastic player.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah.

UNKNOWN:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

seen him perform a few times so what was it like working with Greg Slap?

SPEAKER_01:

It was absolutely great in fact it was some stages three months stages with a concert each time at the end So during three months, we learned some songs, a lot of songs, I think about 10 songs, different songs. And after that, we were choosing three or four and coming on stage with true musicians with all the harmonica school. There were four different levels. So I started by the level two because I played a little bit before by myself. And after I passed on the level three, the level four and in fact each time you are able to make some more improvisation so at the beginning during the concert you are just playing the main theme with your friends and after that a concert after concert so three months after three months you are making much more improvisation and surprise. So Greg used to call with a total surprise his students of the level three and four to make some improvisation with the musicians on some other songs with levels one and two to make something musical, something unique, I want to say, in real conditions. So it was really a great experience and exercise to prepare the first bands, making music with your friends in real conditions. That was a really great learning.

SPEAKER_00:

So were they all group lessons with Greg Slatt?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, there was. I think we used to be between 10 and 15 students for each session. There's some group lessons, lessons with 10 or 15 persons. But yes, it was not particular lessons. always with the group. After that, at 14, I stopped the lessons. In fact, in that harmonica school, I made my first bands, prepared my first CD. After that, Greg went with Johnny Holiday who is a great star in France for the French songs, a rock French song star in France. Very, very, very known. He was on tour with him, so he stopped also after that. A few years after, he stopped the school in Paris. And actually, the school is always running with all the teachers. I

SPEAKER_00:

think you mentioned J.J. Jean-Jacques Milton, another, probably the sort of leading figure in French harmonica.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, of course.

UNKNOWN:

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00:

Did you listen to his music when you were young? Was that a big inspiration to you?

SPEAKER_01:

In fact, when I was young, the first method of harmonica I used to learn was some from Jean-Jacques Milteau. After that, when I was taking lessons at the Utopia, this place in Paris, during the night there were some concerts. The concerts were also those of Jean-Jacques Milteau, sometimes. So one time I went there. It's a really small place, so everything is really close to the audience. I just went to see him and say, hello, what are you doing? I'm playing harmonica at the harmonica school, little girl. Okay, okay. And at the end, we did the jam together. So that was so nice.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, you took these lessons and you started playing then with your own bands. What sort of age were you when you got your first band together?

SPEAKER_01:

My first band, I have two stories to talk about. The first is 2003. I was 11 and I did an opening for the Blues Festival of Voreal in France. It was my first appearance with a real audience, with just a guitar player with me. I remember it was Yves and his first name. We did three songs. It was an absolutely cute and great experience I kept. I remember I have a film of that. So maybe one day I will put it on YouTube just for fun. It was a really nice experience and really the first appearance performance on stage, in fact. Two years after, when I was 13, I did like a concert with awards, a competition. It's a blues competition, always in Voreal. We were a few groups there at the end. I won, so I was very happy. I think we were seven or six on stage. So it was really my first band in 2005.

SPEAKER_00:

Fantastic. So did that help launch your career then as a band, winning these two competitions?

SPEAKER_01:

It permits me to get some concerts on great stages. That's really where the goal, in fact. What I remember of that night is that, in fact, at the end, I met one of the jury members. His name is Frédéric Youni, and he is a French harmonica player, one of the greatest ones.¶¶ He played with Prince, Stevie Wonder. Actually, he lives in the US. He was in the jury members. It was really a meeting, really interesting and full of hope for the future with a lot of good advices. I also met the headliner of this night, the group Jesus Vault, the rock group Jesus Vault. And I did a jam session with them at the end. They invited me to join them on stage.

SPEAKER_00:

You were quite young then when you had quite a lot of success. So when you released your first album in 2012, the album called Profile.

SPEAKER_01:

And just before that, I did another competition in the south of France. It was in 2010. It was like a small competition too with a few groups. And we won too. We had this chance. In fact, it permitted us to play in two absolutely great festivals, Kaor Blues Festival and and Cognac Blues Passion. In fact, those years, I've met a fantastic UK singer called Connie Lush. Same thing, we met some great artists and sometimes we do something on stage with them. So Connie invited me to join her on the main stage of the Coral Blues Festival this year and it's a great memory too. And all of those things were just before my first album profile in 2000 2012 it was a first experience it's far from for me now because at this moment it was really blues some first compositions it was all compositions already i i did a lot of concerts with this album after that we came back in studio and continue a musical way

SPEAKER_00:

yeah and so yeah some of those uh songs on there one of them's called fire look there's a a good youtuber you playing the the world harmonica festival in germany in 2013 so

SPEAKER_01:

A great moment we had. In fact, in 2009, I came in Trossingen for the World Harmonica Festival. And at this moment, it was just to visit and to participate in workshops. For example, Howard Levy workshop and participate to jam sessions on the evening and see concerts, all the great concerts you have all the day and night there. That was the year I recorded the video Master of the Harmonica with Horner. because it was my first time they invited me to join the Horner House. So I was very honored and I'm always very honored to be part of this great music house and artistic and harmonica. Horner is one of the first world masters of harmonica. I'm really, really happy and touched to be like an ambassador for them and to become it in 2009 and after, when I came back in 2013 for the World Harmonica Festival, I was in the program. We did this concert you saw with Fire Look, this great video. This year, I was part of the jury member for the blues and jazz competition, and we did also some workshops and some great meetings. It was a really impressive event.

SPEAKER_00:

Horner used you as your image on the Golden Melody packaging.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that's right. They told me, yes, would you agree for that? I was a lot surprised and very happy and it was a huge honor for me.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. How long were you on the packaging for the Golden Melody?

SPEAKER_01:

I think they asked me around 2013, I think it was around those dates, probably 2014, something like that.

SPEAKER_00:

But are you still on the packaging now?

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, I am. It's really impressive. I receive sometimes some photos from persons who play harmonica or discover music, some people who are arriving on my website or social medias, and sometimes they say, yeah, I found you on the package of Golden melodies from Harner. I've just bought one. It's an amazing harmonica. Sometimes they send me some photos and I see those photos arriving from all around the world. So that's really impressive.

SPEAKER_00:

Another song on that first album of yours, Profile, was a song called Killer, which I believe was a name that your judo instructor gave

SPEAKER_01:

to you. Yeah, absolutely. It was a little thing to get a little bit upset before going on the tatami because I was not an upset girl. Sometimes it arrived bad things to me during the competitions of judo because I wasn't enough upset so he told me yeah you are a killer good

SPEAKER_00:

but something that people might not know about you is that you were very good at judo in fact you came second it was in a world championship for france

SPEAKER_01:

yes i won the french championships several times and the french international tournament i finished my judo career at the world championships and i finished two i was in the french national national team of judo during three years I was young in fact to stop my career but at the end I had to choose between judo and music I chose music because you can't play judo every time in your life it's a hard sport you can't make it all your life but music you can

SPEAKER_00:

yeah so I mean fantastic achievement now to you know to reach that level in judo is I'm always interested do you think that Being very physically fit helps your musical career, maybe helps your harmonica playing in some way.

SPEAKER_01:

I think the sport is a great training to go on stage because stage is a little physics too. For the breathing, it's true that making sport is a great thing in life in general way. But I think my years of French team in judo and high level sport gave me another opportunity common point with stage in fact what we learn in judo when you do competition is to be at the highest point of your performance when you go on the tatami and we say ajime the fight is running during a really small time four minutes you have to be really at the maximum of your abilities in that moment the same point with music is the moment where you are going on stage whereas a person's are telling you yes it's alright you can go and the show must go on in fact you have to be there and to really be ready

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so good preparation from that point of view. Well, seeing some videos of you when you were younger, Rochelle, you had some very impressive shoulders, I think probably came from doing judo.

SPEAKER_01:

In those years, I think I was too much more bigger than now, I think, because of sport. Everything was muscle. I didn't sweat in any clothes I had. I had some extra-sized clothes because of that for the shoulders. That was horrible. And after that, a few years after, I put again my little dresses, something like that. And I was really happy after to stop sport. In fact, I kept the use to go in my childhood school of judo a few months after quitting French team, the French team, national French team. But after that, I stopped completely sport during, I think, two or three years. I needed to change some air and do another thing, concentrate on music and not a physical performance, in fact. And after that, I've met someone from my childhood town. She is a dance teacher. And I go back on sports with dancing with her at the school Isabelle Lucky.

SPEAKER_00:

Very good. Dancing will help your performance, no doubt. You're a good leader on stage. That comes through when you're dancing around the stage. So, yeah, that'll be very useful.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, absolutely. And much more of that. It was really fun because, in fact, at the beginning, I was dancing like a judo player. So it was a little bit crazy. I needed to do another thing.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, great, great thing to achieve, though, when you were young and getting to that heights of sport. So, yeah, so after that album in 2012, as you said, you toured around quite extensively around Europe. You went to Canada as well and played in the Montreal Blues Festival and played in Thailand. So is that a good experience touring around the world there and doing lots of gigs?

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, we had the chance to make a lot of really impressive and huge concerts in the festival in Montreal. It was thousands of persons who were on the hill in front of us. It was really impressive and a great event. And it's a great memory for me. And I've never traveled so far to make a concert. So it was a unique experience. And the same, in fact, in Thailand. It was the first concert in Asia. It was a jazz national festival and heritage. So each artist were talking about some ages. For example, I was in the blues category. Some other artists were in percussive ones, other ones in the electro. You know, there was a lot of different styles. So that was a great festival for that. In Montreal, it was a blues and jazz festival, most blues one. Because of the fact there is some exchanges between France France and Canada with artists. We did another great festival in France, Blues sur Seine. We've met the persons there and there were some organizers from other festivals. The Montreal one was there. The year after, we were scheduled in Montreal.

SPEAKER_00:

And have you continued touring around in different countries in more recent years?

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, last year we were in UK, in London to make a summer camp. It was the summer camp with Greg Miller. I did a a day of workshops, conferences. We just made a concert on the evening too, but all the day was for the harmonica playing and a little bit of coaching for the persons who were already searching to make a band or technique specificities. We learned, we studied a lot of things.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I'm aware of that. I helped promote that for the harmonica organization in the UK called the, what was called the National Harmonically. So go ahead. Greg is French as well, isn't he?

SPEAKER_01:

Greg is French. In fact, he went from Poland when he was a teenager. And after that, he lives in France forever, if I can say.

SPEAKER_00:

And so in 2016, you released your second album, an EP called Cyclone.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it was a short album. We were tuning in a new style, in fact, a more actual and less older style of music. It was really axed on songs, songwriting. The compositions were much more personal. It was a really important album for me. And we are playing on stage those songs from that date. We were preparing the third album, who will, I think, be released in the next month after the dramatic events. We live for a month now, since the spring. So we will wait. After that, the album will be ready. So those songs are really the announcement of the third album.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so you've got the new album coming out later this year, is it?

SPEAKER_01:

Later this year, after the pandemic, maybe during the next summer. We don't know how much time it will take.

SPEAKER_00:

You're still recording?

SPEAKER_01:

Everything is done. We are finishing the mixing and mastering work.

SPEAKER_00:

You're moving away from maybe just playing more blues to playing more genres, playing more pop and rock, maybe appealing to a where a younger audience isn't strictly blues. So is that where the direction, certainly this Cyclone album and your new album, is it?

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, yes. In fact, the new album is in the same way than the first one. The first one was just like I said, the first album. It's like a first experience. It's less precise. The sound is less good. So in my eyes, it's really the first tries. It was really the beginning, the first beginning So it's true that I prefer the last ones, but I love also the first. It was just another style and experience. After that, I saw music with other eyes. You have the years of work behind you, and you try to search a really unique style of music. You're reading of all the references. In fact, for example, I think that there is not just one style in music. in my play and my songs. I think there is a lot of influences, blues ones, jazz ones, gospel ones, rhythm and blues ones, and all the last ones. I mean, actual musics, rock, pop, folk, the new musics, in fact, a little bit of electro too. But I think music is not just one case or one style. It's just an addition of a lot of musical and artistic influences. you have in each artist a lot of things. And all the specific choices make the unique vision of each artist.

SPEAKER_00:

And what role do you think the harmonica plays in that and in your music?

SPEAKER_01:

The harmonica is like a second voice. In fact, it's true that on the album, there is a lot of place for the singing work. It was a wish I had because I thought it was really important. But in fact, on stage, you see that harmonica harmonica and voice have exactly the same place it's just that i wished on this album to get the place to sing expression because in precedent ones there were less less vocals so i thought it was important to tell stories too but harmonica has the main role in fact it's the main instrument it's the central piece and everything around is turning around harmonica if i would describe describe I would tell it like this after it's as much expressive than vocals

SPEAKER_00:

yeah absolutely and you're a fantastic player we'll get into more into depth in your harmonica playing shortly so you're obviously a singer as well so do you and a songwriter do you write a lot of the songs yourself

SPEAKER_01:

I write the song by myself and with Philippe Herouet, who composed and realized, arranged, produced music of all these albums, the second one and the third, the next one. In fact, we work together on the song sometimes for two or three of those. I did it by myself, but all the others, we did the work together. And for example, in the short album you have, there is my first song in French. I I'm French, but I took the use to write in English because harmonica was my first influence. English music, in fact, was my first influence. So I had a wish to play it by myself and do my own songs in that style. So I needed to talk in English. French writing is not at all the same exercise. It was really the specificity of Philippe Herouet to do the songs in French. So that's his writing and my composition for this one.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, that song, if I'm pronouncing this correctly, is Horse Piste. In

SPEAKER_01:

French, Horse Piste.

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, personally, I think songs in the French language sound great. Listening as an English listener, they have a nice romantic mystique quality about them. So I think the French, there's definitely a place for French language songs, you know, on these albums as well. It sounds great.

SPEAKER_04:

De nous en laisse, nous sommes tombés à l'hésite. Moi, je conteste et plus que tout, je résiste. Fini la messe, les longs discours politiques. Et qu'on me laisse le choix de faire du artiste. Yeah,

SPEAKER_01:

thank you so much. But it's true that the two languages are important. And in the future, I will have other songs in French, I think.

SPEAKER_00:

So that is your EP, Cyclone. You also released a single.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Which came out in, is it 2020, Open Your Eyes?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, Open Your Eyes. That's a love song, a blues song for that one. A really slow blues song, in fact. But with my style. Not the traditional one. A modern blues one.

SPEAKER_00:

And so is that part of the new album, that single, or was it just released as a...

SPEAKER_01:

All those songs, The Last Sweet Angel, Cyclone, Orpist, We Can Move Mountains, and Open Your Eyes will be part of the new album. I think there will be 12 songs on the new album. To get my songs, I will tell you to go on my website... Because in fact, there is my own shop on it. It's much more easier because you buy the song directly on my website, www.rachelplast.com. And in fact, the song after is yours. You download it on your computer. And after you put it on your phone, on your computer, in your car, you do what you want. It's really the same principle that when you buy a CD, in fact. Because on Spotify, Deezer, other platforms, the default is when you are stopping paying every month on the platform, you lose all your discs and songs and everything. You lose everything. So I didn't want this for my songs and I really wished to get the numeric way with all the advantages. And we thought about it with my team from Victories Way Music. It's the label who organized everything, concerts for me, album release with Virginie Leroux. They thought that it was much more better to build an online shop directly on my website. So everything is available and it's much more easier.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I'll put a link to your website on the podcast page so people will be able to link to it from there. And as you say, you can buy your songs from there and other materials.

SPEAKER_01:

And with the pandemic, we were obliged to stay home a lot. So we had some time, even if everything was stopped. I started a new experience about harmonica. It was linked to the United in Sound live streams. by Horner so always running until the end of August it gave me the idea to prepare pedagogical videos about harmonica so on my website just close to the songs you will find another catalog of videos where you can buy some things to discover harmonica it's really for the persons who never played before and wish to discover easily

SPEAKER_00:

so you're teaching videos uh are available as you say on your website where you're teaching about bending and vibrato and people people can buy those they're quite low price and then get get some teaching directly from you from your website too

SPEAKER_01:

yes they always download the content or their on their computer and make their life after they can do it any any time in the to the in the day or during the month they they can really be free with their work and content

SPEAKER_00:

There's lots of videos of you playing around at different festivals, some of you mentioned, and playing with different people as a guest slot. So I just wanted to talk about a few of those. A song that you do very well, which is a challenging song, is Orange Blossom Special. So I had Charlie McCoy on the podcast some episodes ago. It's a song that he made famous in Harmonica. So how about Orange Blossom Special? Tell us about that song.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. I love that song. Orange Blossom Special is a piece I've learned very young when I discovered harmonica. I've never lost it during all the years. I always play it on stage.

SPEAKER_02:

so so

SPEAKER_01:

It's funny because between the first times I played this song on stage and the last one, there is a big difference. And that's like a lifeline, in fact. And the Charlie McCoy songs, it was, in fact, really impressive for me because on the last year, he came in France for a concert. I saw him. I came to his concert and met him. And that was exactly what I told him. You know, I played this Euro song during all my childhood and my harmonica life. in fact. So that was a really wonderful moment to see him on stage and to see his performance.

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely. And he, of course, played with J.J. Miltow.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Very superstitious as well. It's another video I've seen you playing on.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that's true. Superstition from Stevie Wonder. Stevie Wonder is a great influence for me. For example, he's on She Loves Me, Superstition, I Wish, Seer Duke. because harmonica is playing the harmonica part from Stevie and also saxophone once and brass once, in fact. And it was a great pleasure to play that music.

SPEAKER_00:

And some other ones as well. You clearly showed you had influence from the great harmonica players. There's a video of you doing a Sonny Boy Williamson tribute, I've Got To Go. There's videos of you doing Mellow Down Easy. So were the classic harmonica players clearly had a big influence on you?

SPEAKER_01:

So I've Got To Go, it was a Sonny Boy Williamson song and it was a tribute I made with one of my first record tables and I was a child when I did this and it was one of my first clips. For the other one, Mellow Down Easy, I met Jason Ricci in France in some festivals and it was a really great moment and meeting. I've loved a lot his album and inspired myself from his version of this song because the version of Mellow Down Easy I'm playing on stage is the Jason Ricci one. And for the other influences in harmonica and playing is Stevie Wonder, of course, Tootsie Simmons, Charlie McCoy... But Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Tina Turner, Paul Robert Johnson, Sonny Terry. Sonny Terry is a great part of my harmonica stadying. I stadied a lot his playing because it was very personal, something we've never heard before. And there's only him who plays like that.

SPEAKER_00:

So you mentioned a few female singers there. So you're a female harmonica player. We don't see many of those. Do you see yourself as an ambassador for female harmonica players?

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, why not? I don't think that so clearly. In fact, I'm very happy there is a lot of women today who are learning and playing harmonica professionally in several countries in the world. For example, I think to Andiera Sfer, who is from Brazil. She makes a great work. work on harmonica from there and so we are the first woman in the world to bring the instrument as the main part on stage and for the songs and everything so I think there is everything to develop for women in harmonica in fact I think that if I can do the image an instrument who is much more used by men because the origins of the instrument are very dark it's about cotton in USA you the slaves in fact after that it was the first times harmonica was really considered as an instrument it was the very first times it was when Horner gave some diatonic harmonica to the army of USA the story of this instrument is very dark and very heavy so I think it needs a lot of years and a lot of different things before being as popular as a guitar or piano or others. But it will come. I'm very happy to see much more persons who are taking harmonica to make a lot of styles of music and include it in every style and every type of concert type of things.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I'm sure you can help become an inspiration for female harmonica players around the world. So have you any words you'd like to say for any female harmonica players who are interested in playing and improving?

SPEAKER_01:

what I would tell to a female a woman who would like to start harmonica or a little girl is just try to play on it and do your stuff and have fun that's the main thing have fun harmonica will be the greatest instrument you can have as well as the others in fact there is not one instrument better than one another but everyone's are great and if you like harmonica if you love harmonica just do it and have fun Just

SPEAKER_00:

moving on to your playing style a little bit. play lots of fast licks, you play lots of kind of complex, rhythmical playing. So how did you develop your style of playing?

SPEAKER_01:

When I started harmonica, I started playing with single notes. After, much more years after, I tried to develop tongue blocking. And after this, when I was composing my first songs with my first album, I started to link the both techniques, really. And I think that the way I'm playing today is the result of those years of playing for searching for new things new style of playing new new ways play my own stuff and own songs and the link I did between the single note playing and the rhythmic one and the tongue blocking one is making my own style today it's like a type of choices of nuances in fact and each player will take his best points

SPEAKER_00:

yeah well you certainly have a great sound Rochelle you're very impressive You play some very fast riffs, but all very good rhythmically as well. How did you develop your ability to play fast in time? Because quite often people lose their time when they try to play too quickly, but you do it very well.

SPEAKER_01:

I didn't play so fast for a long time. In fact, it came year after year. When I did my first concerts and when I was playing, for example, 10 years ago, it was not so fast, I think. In fact, the progression is not one day you play less fast and the day after you play more fast. No, it's day after day, year after year. And the key for me to play very fast at the end, after some years of practice, is is always to work on your difficult parts and difficult music play pieces of music you want to play really slow and precise and little by little you go faster one point by one point of tempo you go faster faster faster faster faster and at the end Months after, weeks after, years after, you will see the difference. But I think it's a really long way work.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And again, it comes across, sounds great. So yeah, you've developed a really interesting and quite a unique style as well. You sound quite different than a lot of other harmonica players.

SPEAKER_01:

Very happy of that. Thanks a lot. It's a great compliment for me. Thanks a lot.

SPEAKER_00:

I think that is, you know, it maybe shows that your influences are from different sorts of music. I think, you know, it's a danger listening to all the classic harmonica players that can, people can tend to sound quite the same. You know, they're playing that same sort of blue style. And I think definitely, you know, you've developed this unique sound, which, which is, which is great. Yeah. So, so congratulations on that. I know, I know you also see improvising as being an important part of your playing. So what would you say about improvising and how you develop that?

SPEAKER_01:

On stage, we always have our own songs with theme, melodics and main stuff. But inside, you always have an improvisation part. So every night of concert is different, even if we do the same program, because we have a lot of musical parts with the musicians. So I think I developed it step by step from the times I've learned harmonica at the Utopia, where the exercise was really to do an improvisation on a new song we've never heard before and little by little I developed my own style on it because I love to make different things every time my pleasure is really to play my own songs every concert night never in the same way because of an introduction I will play more a solo I will do in the song and my musicians are always following me and we are really in the listen part of the music We play really what we love to play in the moment. So the emotion is not the same. Interpretation is evolving, in fact. So improvisation is a big part of the performance each time. Always, every evening, for example, for three months now with the live streams, I'm doing daily improvisation is the main thing. I propose to study some phrases, some exercise, some little songs sometimes. And every evening I do my own improvisation

SPEAKER_00:

on a really simple stuff. Are those live streams in French?

SPEAKER_01:

In French? It was in French because at the beginning, every country did it with Horner. I mean that, for example, there was one German, one from the UK, the other one from Brazil, the other one from Spain. So everybody did it in his native language. But after two months, when things started to changing with the pandemic, I started to make it a little bit in French and in the same time in English. I'm traducing a every time to permit English speaking persons to understand even if you don't know the French. It's all right.

SPEAKER_00:

Got to ask you about your hairstyle. So you've got this kind of sparkling blue hairstyle. So maybe tell us about your image and your glamorous hairstyle.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it's a crazy idea I had when I was a girl. I found a spray with glitters. And after that, I found some all colors glitters and I put it in with some glue for her special glue you know and so it was sparkling by everything and i i had a fix on the blue glitters for a moment so there was a crazy stuff but now it's the white hairs i love

SPEAKER_00:

so yeah well again i think you know representing the female harmonica players very well and showing maybe the men a little bit of how to uh you know improve the image a little bit so you're leading the way there on the image of the harmonica player as well which is good to see You've touched on a little bit being influenced by Toots Feelmans and Stevie Wonder. So they're largely chromatic harmonica players. Do you play any chromatic harmonica yourself?

SPEAKER_01:

Not at all. I don't play chromatic because I tried when I was a teenager. But unfortunately, I've broken a lot of reeds because I had the reflex to bend and not to push with the hand, you know, in the side of the harmonica. So I sent them to be repaired and came back and I broke them again. same way. So I said, okay, diatonic is my instrument, chromatic is really different. And in fact, the notes are not positioned in the same way. In fact, I learned a lot of songs from Toots and Stevie with my diatonic harmonica. It's another kind of work, but it's true that they are playing chromatic.

SPEAKER_00:

And a question I ask each time is, if you had 10 minutes to practice in the day, what would you spend those 10 minutes doing?

SPEAKER_01:

pushing on my record app on my phone and try to find new melodies and new tricks on the harmonica. I will just play and record while I'm playing and I will hear what I've played to see if there's something interesting.

SPEAKER_00:

So you see recording yourself as a really important part of your practice and then listen back to that.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, if I have only 10 minutes to play in the day, I will try to find a new melody, for example.

SPEAKER_00:

So if we move on to the last section now, as we're talking about gear or equipment, so I'll ask you some questions now about equipment. First question in this is, and you've already mainly answered this, is what harmony do you play? Clearly that's a golden melody. So is that still the only diatonic that you play?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it's the only one. I only play on golden melody from Horner, the red ones. But sometimes for the low keys, there is no low keys in golden melody. So I take a Thunderbird from Horner to get the low keys. A Thunderbird is one of my favorites for the low keys. But my main instrument, the only one I use is the golden melody.

SPEAKER_00:

What is it you like about the golden melody so much?

SPEAKER_01:

It's because there's a warm sound. It's really easy to play and for bendings. The characteristic, special characteristic is the holes are a little bit thinner and you don't have some loss of air by the side of the instrument. It's totally closed. So for me, it's better to get more breath. In fact, I play really gently in the instrument. It's not very hard with using a lot of breath. I don't use so much breath when I'm playing, even if I play loud and fast. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00:

And do you have a favourite key of diatonic?

SPEAKER_01:

I love B bemol, but in fact I love also A, D, C, all those ones, B, D bemol.

SPEAKER_00:

You say B flat, did you call that something different in French? Oh yes,

SPEAKER_01:

sorry, it's B flat, yes. In French it's bemol.

SPEAKER_00:

Ah, great, thank you. I never knew that, thank you. And do you play any different tunings?

SPEAKER_01:

No, not at all. It's the factory tunings, it's everything fine for me. I don't do something on the instruments i play them just from the factory but in fact the only thing i do is to reduce the space on the gap sometimes if i see there is a default but it's really rare

SPEAKER_00:

and do you play any overblows

SPEAKER_01:

yes of course when i need those I don't play overblows every time, only when I'm needing them to make the melodies or really, in my sense, give highest value to what I'm playing. The overblow is a need. If it's not needed for what I'm playing, I won't play it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, but you talked about playing, say, some songs from Toots Thielman. So you need to play some overblows to be able to play.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, of course. Yes. But in my songs, when I'm not needing overblows, I don't search to put it in my play. If it's not needed in my sense, I live my life without. But when I need them, I do them.

SPEAKER_00:

So are you a lip purser or a tongue blocker? You mentioned tongue blocking earlier on.

SPEAKER_01:

Both ones, lip purser and tongue block when I need it for rhythmic and rhythm ones. But in fact, I'm always switching between the two techniques.

SPEAKER_00:

And talking about equipment now, what amplifier do you like to use?

SPEAKER_01:

No, I don't use any amplifier. So sometimes I'm putting my harmonica on a voice microphone, like a Beyer, for example, on a Shure. For example, I put it on a guitar amp sometimes when we are recording in studio to have a special sound. But in the main part of my play, I'm just playing harmonica in a voice microphone. Yeah, but Horner just put a harp blaster, which is very interesting. I've recorded something with it, the Fly song, which is on YouTube on the last weeks. I really like it too.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, so you mentioned a couple of microphones. Any particular microphones? You mentioned a Beyer microphone.

SPEAKER_01:

It's a voice microphone, a hand microphone.

SPEAKER_00:

So do you have any particular models of Schuers or Beyers that you use?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I prefer the Shure KSM9. For the Beyer microphone, it was a T88, a special microphone who is able to take the sound of several instruments.

SPEAKER_00:

Do you use a separate microphone for your singing or do you use the same microphone?

SPEAKER_01:

I did it for a moment last year ago, but not anymore because I switched really fast between vocals and harmonica, so I really need to be comfortable with that on stage. So now I'm just playing harmonica and vocals in the same one, the Shure one.

SPEAKER_00:

That's interesting because a lot of times harmonica would have different settings than a vocal setting. You might turn down the highs. So do you keep your setup suited to vocals and you just play your harmonica through the setup as you would set up a vocal microphone.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I play harmonica through the vocal microphone set up for vocals. And the sound engineer is always the hand on his buttons to be careful of the level difference between vocals and harmonica. That's true, it's a huge work, but it's really necessary.

SPEAKER_00:

So he switches the settings maybe when you start to do a harmonica solo, does he?

SPEAKER_01:

I think he's putting a little less level when I'm playing harmonica solos and putting in the vocal level just after when I'm going back in vocals.

SPEAKER_00:

And do you use any effects pedals at all with your harmonica?

SPEAKER_01:

Not at all. No, I tried to a period, but I didn't find something who suits me. So I just preferred the natural sound.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, well, again, you certainly get a great sound. It's really interesting, again, talking to people on here. People have different setups, but quite a lot of people, you know, maybe don't use much like you're saying and get a great sound from lots of different ways, you know. So I think this idea that you have to use, you know, harmonica amplifiers and harmonica microphones, I think people like yourself show that that's not always the case. You know, you're getting a great sound without that equipment. Thank you. So last question then is just around any future plans you have. You talked about you've got the album coming out in 2021. 2020 or maybe next year depending on how things go but any other plans you know any any more touring planned or working any new album or anything else

SPEAKER_01:

yes always we are always working on new stuff and things and songs for the future but for the moment we are concentrated on the new album for the next weeks and months unfortunately for the moment the concert were all cancelled so we hope everything is is going back to normal for the next year. It starts, the event starts for the moment to come back from October. So we will see if it's possible to make it grow and report the council event in those months. But it's true that it's really frightening and it's a frightening period for everybody, I think.

SPEAKER_00:

So yeah, hopefully we'll see you back out playing again and look forward to hearing your new album, which will again be available through your website, yeah?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, everything is updated day by day and week after week on my website. All the information for touring, album, meetings, live streams and everything are on it. So it's really a good place to go.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, so thank you, Rochelle. Great to speak to you today.

SPEAKER_01:

So thanks a lot. I'm very happy to be your guest. Thanks a million for being there. And see you soon, I hope.

SPEAKER_00:

That's it for today, folks. Final word from my sponsor, the Longwolf Blues Company, providing some great effects pedals and microphones, all purpose-built for the harmonica. Be sure to check out their website. Rochelle, players out.

SPEAKER_02:

Thank you. Bye.