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Palatable plotte
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by JACK OATMON Fifteen years ago, at the curious age of 12, Olivier Morin and Audrey Pageau-Marcotte met at an improv class in Quebec City. To hear the smutty anecdotes in the lyrics of their current musical project, Otarie, one can only imagine the sort of conversation they might have had at the time. Whatever they said to each other, Morin still acts professionally and there’s a definite theatrical flavor to their lo-fi, calypso-influenced cabaret act, which they’ve been doing since the summer of 2006. The songs have a clever, tongue-in-cheek irreverence that belies their cheesy, sugary character. Olivier Morin: The improv has remained a sort of motor that drives our work, but it’s really the friendship that keeps it going. Audrey Pageau-Marcotte: The idea of switching things up and doing things on the fly remains from the improv. In the beginning, we were writing songs in like half an hour. OM: We’re very casual and last-minute. We show up and things get mixed up or whatever, but that’s just part of the show. AP-M: Yeah, if we mix up the words, that’s just something funny. Mirror: There’s also something theatrical about the image you project on your MySpace and in the tunes. AP-M: We’re always trying to tell a story, even if it’s totally absurd and inconsequential. There’s always something we’re trying to say. For instance, with those photos, taken by Sandrine Castella [see example, left], we wanted to make a contrast between formality and our foolishness. OM: Desecrating the elegant. We talk about sex. The songs are about that a lot, amongst other things. It’s a good source of subject matter. M: For example? AP-M: Well, in the beginning I had a lot of adventures on dates, and I told Olivier about them as a confidante. And I really wasn’t holding anything back. And sometimes those things became songs. OM: “Lazy Lover” was a bad date that was worth the trouble of singing about. It’s often the unfortunate experiences that become songs. AP-M: It’s so ridiculous that it becomes funny. OM: The subject matter is frequently quite raw, but we have a writing style that, even if the tunes are just simple and catchy, we’re not just using big fat words to talk about sex. Our style is trying to— AP-M: —to say crude things well. OM: Yes! To talk about sex, but in a smiling sort of way. Not in a degrading way. And it’s a feminine discourse as well, because often when you hear that subject matter it’s not. It’s interesting to hear Audrey singing about those things. AP-M: That’s it. It’s not vulgar. It’s stuff that everyone lives through. OM: But you don’t often hear on the radio. M: Yeah, that sort of subject is dominated in the media by these aggressive male figures. AP-M: Yeah, there was a big controversy over the use of the word “pute” being used by Omnikrom or whoever, girls getting called that. But we prefer “plotte.” OM: We’re saying it, but there’s nothing aggressive about that. AP-M: It’s pretty childish and silly. OM: I’m happy to talk about penis, fesse, crotte, pête. You can sing about that in an intelligent way, with a smile. WITH ABSTRACT ARTIMUS AT |
