Melody's Echo Chamber lifts off

Melody’s Echo Chamber communicates with the stars – from Paris – by emitting psychedelic waves. Their sound is ultra-pop and super-chic.

Melody’s Echo Chamber may be from France, but in terms of music the project of Melody Prochet operates beyond terrestrial reality, in a cosmic in-between that owes much to the space explorations of the Broadcast and Stereolab shuttles. Launched into orbit by Kevin Parker, the psychedelic brain behind the Australian group Tame Impala, Melody’s Echo Chamber’s eponymous album circles around the stars and the dreamy voice of its singer, Melody Prochet.

Before Melody’s Echo Chamber you were involved in My Bee’s Garden. What is the difference between the two projects?
Melody Prochet: My Bee’s Garden was about the same feelings. It was just that I hadn’t yet found the right people to shape my songs. I recorded in excellent studios, but now I realise that that way of working didn’t suit me. I prefer to concentrate completely on music for an hour a day and spend the rest of my time on the beach than to get sick worrying about my songs. Kevin Parker opened my eyes in that respect. He sees music as something you have fun with. Once it gets tedious, he stops working and goes and waters the plants in the garden. That’s how my new songs came about – with enjoyment and good humour.

Your album took shape in Australia. What kind of memories do you have of the journey?
Prochet: It was conceived in Perth, the most isolated city in the world. Down there, the young people play in wild, psychedelic rock groups. They don’t know anything about fashion or trends. I lived in Australia for several months, in a little house, with all the Tame Impala musicians. Those people live like hippies. They lie around in hammocks and toast peacefully in the sun. They are cool and extremely creative. When you are with them, you feel the need to create, the desire to excel yourself.

How did you meet Kevin Parker?
Prochet: Two years ago I bought a ticket for their first Paris concert. I didn’t know them, but someone had recommended that I go. It was great; I wasn’t expecting a show like that. After the concert, I talked to Kevin Parker about effect pedals and compression systems. I took advantage of that nerdy conversation to slip him a copy of the My Bee’s Garden album. A week later he invited me to go with Tame Impala on their European tour. After that, Kevin Parker became my guru! [Smiles]

Two of the tracks on the disc are sung in French. But you would hardly notice.
Prochet: I like it when emotion is conveyed through melody. I think that sometimes tells more than the words of the songs themselves. When I write my lyrics, I don’t want people to understand them. It is a way of creating distance, of hiding personal issues. A little while ago I realised that I tended to write in English to make my songs less clear. After spending six weeks in Australia, it didn’t bother me any more to sing quite naive things in my mother tongue. I had become less inhibited. The Australians didn’t understand a word of it. For them, it was exotic. For me, it was a way of reconnecting with France.

Melody’s Echo Chamber • 8/3, 19.30, €13/16, Botanique, Koningsstraat 236 rue Royale, Sint-Joost-ten-Node/Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, 02-218.37.32, info@botanique.be, www.botanique.be