Safia Nolin had, as we can guess, a last eventful year leading today to the publication of a minialbum entitled SEUM. The word, of Arabic origin, literally means “venom” and expresses an anger that is never so apparent in the superb new songs of the plaintive and soft voice. Offered in electric and acoustic versions, these songs are also the result of a long reflection on the profession she has exercised since the release of her first album. Limoilou in 2015.
“You will not agree with me so much, but in my eyes, the king of grunge was Elliott Smith”, the late American indie folk and rock singer-songwriter whose work is now cult , was soaked in alcohol and weighed down by her depression. “Him, he was destroyed. I listen to some of his songs and hear him expressing his anger in sadness, ”explains Safia to illustrate how his own anger runs through his new songs.
Upstream from the exit of SEUM, we talked about the fact that it was Safia Nolin’s grunge project, and that’s not wrong. She has accustomed us to acoustic guitars, here she is surrounded by a band, guitars plugged into effects pedals, sounds that suit him perfectly. The EP is divided into two parts, Sunset (electric, recorded in studio) and Sunrise (acoustic, recorded in parks, in an alley), but these rock versions are not shocking: the taciturn and skin-deep personality of the musician resonates louder than the guitar chords. At the very least, these enhance the bitterness that emanates from new songs, like salt in the wound.
“I have had a lot of anger over the last few years. The frustration, the feeling of injustice – not so much in relation to me personally as in a lot of things. I felt it, anger. SEUM, that’s a way of saying I was angry. “
We would be for less. The amount of hate messages she receives through social media has increased tenfold after she denounced her abuser in the summer of 2020. The musician persists and signs on Instagram, and too bad for them haters : “Social networks are the source of so many good things for me, but it’s like the source gives me electric shocks sometimes, when they become the channel through which people send me shit. That’s why I steer away from it on occasion. However, there are two reasons why I do not close my social networks: one, I do not want people to win. It’s my platform, after all. And the sad reality is that it’s pretty much my only platform today. “
And that, too, made her angry. The output of In the dark in 2018 was experienced as a failure, so good was this second disc “It was tough, testifies Safia. I had never done anything so personal in my life, I had high expectations, which seems normal to me after all the exposure I had received on the first album, but it just didn’t work out. pass. It was difficult for me – it was such a silly problem with everything that goes on in the world, but by then it had demolished me. I’m not the only one who was exhausted by the second album, but for me, it was special, because I was thrown in front of the stage super quickly. “
I try to find myself in this system in which I arrived young, green,
without experience. I have evolved since then and now I have the impression that this system does not work with me.
“From that point on, I did a lot of soul searching, I thought about the concept of success. Why does it affect me so much? Why do I always compare myself to others, why am I less successful than others? “Questioning the job, her aspirations, the way she wanted to keep in touch with the fans. The song’s 2019 release Claire, which had not been selected for In the dark, was used as a click.
“I made a clip of it that garnered over 100,000 views on YouTube. If I hadn’t taken her out, she would have died, gone. “The song can live outside the shackles of the album, a format that Safia considers today” obsolete “: since her second album, the musician has released an EP of covers (Repeats Vol. 2), a mini-album in English (xX3m0 $ 0ng$ 2 $! NG @ L0nG 2Xx), and today the songs, acoustic and electric versions, of SEUM. “I would like to release my songs when I feel like it, in my own way. But it’s hard, because the system doesn’t work like that. It is difficult to book a tour if you don’t have an album, then I chose to do a bar crawl shows. “
“I’m trying to find myself in this system in which I arrived young, green, without experience, abounds Safia. I have evolved since then and now I have the impression that this system does not work with me. To question it is a challenge, even if it’s risky, more than falling back into the cycle of planning an album, applying for grants, organizing the tour. I don’t want that anymore, I just want to be accessible. Tickets for my concerts are $ 27, but in the future I wish they were even cheaper. I just want it to be real and genuine, even if I don’t shy away from it. I want to make a simple living and experience real emotions. “
Don’t wait to see what t-shirt she’ll wear at the next ADISQ gala, she won’t be there. “I asked my record company to stop registering for the gala. I have nothing against, when my friends win a trophy, I’m happy for them, really. But I don’t fit not in there. It doesn’t do me any good. At the end of the day, what interests me most is feeling close to those who listen to and enjoy my music rather than receiving another trophy. I sound really cynical, but I’m not bitter about it all. “