Formula Indie Sessions _ Interview with Balafenn
Against the current musical trends, Balafenn offers a sound full of authenticity. The band explores a rock universe that blends gentle pop undertones with raw, nu-metal-inspired energy. Proudly rooted in Rennes, they draw from a variety of cultural influences.
Balafenn pays special attention to the quality of their lyrics, sung in French, Breton, and English. More than just a band, Balafenn is a family experience built around a shared passion for music:
Julie, the mother, on drums and backing vocals;
Maïann, the daughter, on lead vocals and guitar;
Ewen, the son, on keyboard and tap dancing;
Paul, the father, on guitar and backing vocals.
Together, they give free rein to their creativity. Their debut album, Album Ier, was released in November 2023 with 12 self-produced tracks. A second album is already on the way…
What is your earliest memory connected to music?
The first and easier connection is listening. I guess we had always been listening to music. At first CDs and now streaming plateforms. It’s on quite all the time at home! Since all of us love music, we all learned to play on our side. One special remembering is that Julie had still be playing drums while she was pregnant. Perhaps it helped to convey something special?
How did your passion for creating music begin?
Paul has always compose music. He played in a band with Julie during studies. Together they developed a definite taste for creating music. Now Ewen took over: he is very creative. Most of the last tracks of Balafenn are Ewen’s ideas. Maïann is also very implicated in finding good licks or singing lines. Also, we take good time together to write the lyrics.
What’s the story behind your current music project?
It’s weird but the story relates to a complicated event: the lockdown (because of the Covid19 in march 2020 in France). We converted this bad news into opportunity. That’s when we started to play together. Without stress, only pleasure to play something. It was a kind of musical education. We told the childs there were no need for virtuosity in our project, but the right note at the right pulse. And it worked! That’s how we become a #familyband.
How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard your music before?
We would say: go listening! More seriously, we play pop rock music, and our main influence is 1990s/2000s rock. This probably influences our sound as much as our way of composing. Within Balafenn, the interplay between piano and guitar remains a distinctive feature. Just like Maïann’s childlike voice, although with time this is less and less the case, inevitably. In studio sessions, we work a lot on the arrangements of the backing vocals to bring additional consistency to the mix.
What is one thing you’ve learned that completely changed the way you make music?
The importance of playing in a complementary way when playing in a band. You have to know how to leave space for each instrument line to prevent a piece from becoming a muddy mess. It’s not as easy as it sounds!
What tools, instruments, or software are essential in your creative process?
Most of time, new tracks come from the piano or the guitar. Then we arrange rythm section and melody. We usually write the lyrics at the end of the process. We schedule an “apéro paroles” (aperitif lyrics) and we choose the theme we focus on for the lyrics. Then it’s a matter of choosing words and rhymes.
Which indie artist or song are you loving right now?
Not easy to answer, we do not listening to the same artists at the moment. It also depends on the definition of “indie”. Paul is a fan of dEUS for years. Recently, we have been listening to Neoni, Storm orchestra, RB dance company, Yonaka. But also local bands.
How have your personal experiences influenced your music and artistic vision?
Let’s just say that playing in a parent-child setting requires adaptation, in an evolving way as the children grow. We all progress together, according to each person’s abilities. In itself, that’s already quite an experience! We try to find common ground to facilitate creative work and interpretation.
What emotions or messages do you hope listeners take from your work?
As a band, we focus more on poetry than on any form of protest. That being said, we write songs in Breton, which in itself is a message.
What’s the most important lesson music has taught you so far?
Anyone can make music! It won’t be a big commercial success most of time, but anyone can play, take pleasure and share emotions.
What is a dream venue or festival you would love to perform at?
Well, one of the biggest event in Brittany is the “festival interceltique”. We saw Matmatah here last year and it was a nice rock concert inside a uge brittany culture event. So why not one day? It would be great!
If you could collaborate with any artist, past or present, who would it be and why?
After concerting, we choose Barns Courtney because he’s an artist we all quite like, and he offers modern, energetic music. We could certainly learn a lot about the recipe for hit songs from him.
Where can our listeners follow and support your music? (Website,Spotify, IG, links)
We got an Instagram and a Facebook page, our music is released on the main streaming plateforms.
https://music.apple.com/fr/artist/balafenn/1702381818
https://www.deezer.com/fr/artist/225495075
https://tidal.com/artist/41327001
https://www.qobuz.com/fr-fr/interpreter/balafenn/19423641
https://www.youtube.com/@Balafenn
https://www.instagram.com/balafenn.bzh
https://www.facebook.com/balafenn.bzh
Looking toward the future, what’s your dream for the next chapter of your musical journey?
We are working on a second album which will be called Chapter 2. We’re going to sign up for music competitions and we’re approaching people to find concert dates. Our dream is not to become famous at a high level; we are aware that fame comes at a price and that is not what we are looking for. But we try to play locally and to have good time, to create nice memories.
What do you hope listeners will discover about you along the way?
If people say they enjoy listening to our music and lyrics, then that’s cool. What we really want is for them to believe that we make music sincerely and simplicity. We give a part of ourselves, hoping it will be well received.
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