GOOD PEOPLE: LORENZO P

Lorenzo P. and his paper gun in a lemon outfit. 

Happy Saturday, my little cats! 

We end this week with a new episode of good people... If you're not familiar with the site, this is a section where I introduce you to people who are dear to me, who inspire me, who have a slightly unusual background... And today I'd like to talk to you about Lorenzo Papace ( pronounced "papatché" and not "papassssse"). So who is Lorenzo P? Well, he's a UFO, a complete madman, a genius of madness. Director and composer, I first discovered Lorenzo's work around 5 years ago when he was having fun parodying the French bloggosphere with his sidekick Vincent Pianina on their site "Le petit écho malade". In each of their posts, the boys showed boundless ingenuity in caricaturing French "influencers" with finesse and a great deal of irony. I invite you to take the time to lose yourself in their archives... Since then, the boys have continued their collaboration through completely frosted videos, "super nickel" or "Le guide complet de la connaissance zéro", but above all, they work together on the production of videos for the Musée d'Orsay, as well as on other projects filled with their offbeat poetry for Arte. They create everything, from the music to the set, not forgetting the acting! For me, this duo of artists is magic, the coming together of two fantastic worlds that opens up an infinite range of creative possibilities! 

 

 

 So, a few weeks ago, I managed to get away from my daily routine to meet Lorenzo in Lyon, where he lives. He greeted me all dressed in yellow, an orange plastic skateboard under his arm and rings on all his fingers... He told me he'd dressed in lemon for the occasion, so how could I not love him right away? Lorenzo opens the doors of his home to me, and I discover before my astonished eyes that this man is just completely passionate and, above all, talented. Lorenzo is a kind of Vishnu of the arts, a composer for his band Ödland, but I think it's safe to say that this band is a brilliant pretext for creating a real universe, his playground. Lorenzo, too, is a lover of paper, and is capable of creating settings of absolute finesse to tell the fantastic stories he imagines and sets to music-a little genius, I tell you.

 

 

I love his perfectionism and his way of imagining that nothing is impossible. He's capable of setting off for months on a train tour of Europe, to take thousands of photos, as a sort of giant scouting exercise. Then, a few years later, he'd set off again, with all the members of his band, to make all the clips for their album, one clip for each country. This album is Sankta Lucia, with a total of 15 countries visited, and as many crazy films... I hope you enjoy this portrait, but thank you Lorenzo for welcoming me and showing me all your toys! 

 

•  - Important question: Can you tell us about your career?

I grew up in a village near Lyon. I started studying the piano at the age of 4. At first I didn't like it, I used to cry. When I was 12, I realized that you could communicate emotions like that, and I thought that was cool. After a Bac Scientifique, I went on to study Applied Arts, first with the Mise à niveau, then the BTS Design d'Espace, and finally the DSAA d'architecture intérieure, all in Lyon. As soon as I left school in 2008, I started freelancing, working on all sorts of jobs, big and small. I tried Paris for a while, and then came back to my hometown. Very quickly, I got the urge to create a music group, and it became my number 1 passion. 

• - Question sky is the limit": Your craziest project to date? 

Go to Bulgaria with Ödland to shoot a retro-futuristic video in the ruined former headquarters of the Communist Party (video here). It was really crazy! Bulgaria's back roads are as beautiful as they are dangerous. But it's true that a 5-week tour of Europe just camping in the wild, over 5,000 km, taking in the scenery of Venice, the Hill of Crosses in Lithuania, the cemeteries of Poland, Sissi's castle, the villages of the Czech Republic, the flea market of Budapest, the ruins of Sarajevo, the mountains of Greece, washing in swimming pools or creepy freeway service areas, to shoot the 15 clips for the Sankta Lucia album, was also my unforgettable mega-adventure!

• - "Question Scout": What advice would you give to young travelers who might want to do this kind of trip?

The best advice is Interrail. Forget comfort - we need it much less than we imagine - and have fun! If you're hot and don't have much money, here's my advice:

• . buy an unlimited ticket for 3 or 4 weeks
• . bring just a backpack and a folding bike - there's no extra charge for folded luggage.
• . sleep seated or lying on the train benches
• . plan for 7- or 8-hour overnight journeys, which force you to zig-zag across the map of Europe, but that's okay, it reinforces the feeling of being on a merry-go-round and lost.
• . visit a new town every day with your little bike and the bag strapped to the back - you're going to see a lot!
• . go to the swimming pool to wash up, and two or three times in a youth hostel if you feel like it.
• . go in pairs if you need someone to share your troubles. Two can laugh about it. But don't go in a big group. You'll look like tourists, and you'll be less in tune with the country and its people.
• . Don't wait until you've got a stable situation before you go - you'll never get away.

 

 

• "Question guiness book": How many musical instruments can you play?

The only instrument I've been classically trained to play is the piano. It opened me up to music, its secrets and its history. With all the other instruments I play, I feel like I'm tinkering, but it's fun and it makes me dream. There's also a great pleasure in working with other instrumentalists, composing for and with them, rather than trying to do everything myself. Meeting people through music is a happy experience.

• "Trick question: What's the worst gift anyone could give you?

Ahah yes, it's a trap! I hesitate between a ticket for a pilgrimage to Lourdes and a portrait of Lukashenko, President of Belarus. And at the same time I think both would make me laugh a lot. Now I'm afraid my friends will think of it.

"Unspoken question: What question (never asked) would you like to be asked?

This is the question I can't answer at all. I'm thinking but I can't see. In fact, maybe that's why we need other Homo sapiens. Doing the questions and answers by yourself isn't much fun, there's no surprise. The last woman on Earth won't have a taste for interviews.

 

 

• "Question Madame Soleil: Where do you see yourself in 10 years' time?

Impossible, but I'll play along: in Stockholm, Warsaw or Naples, with my band, trying to do what I please, in a Europe ravaged by the Extreme Right.

• "If you had to take just one thing with you on your trip, apart from your lemon outfit, what would it be?

My Praktica SLR camera! It really is my favorite travel item. I love film photography and just regret that it's getting more and more expensive.

• "Question madeleine de Proust: What is your first musical memory?

I think it's Via con me by Paolo Conte, which my mother listened to a lot. Maybe it's my imagination, but I have the impression that I was already hearing this song before I was born. In fact, I think EVERY first memory is musical. It's through sounds that we first perceive the world, and that's surely what links music to everyone's unconscious. I also remember my grandmother playing the conductor with classical music at the top of her lungs, it was great.

 

 

• "Question actualité": You've just come back from a trip to Paris for a concert. What's your next big project, a new album with Ödland, a new video with Vincent, tell us all about it?

Yes, we're preparing an album with Ödland called Comète. It's the first time we've used electronic sounds in our acoustic universe, and it's like a renewal for us. So I'm really excited! If all goes well, we'll be shooting a video in Sweden. And then, throughout May, Vincent and I will be making a stop-motion title sequence that will serve as the opening to the documentary. The Adventurers of Modern Art. It will be broadcast on Arte in November, a first for me. It puts me under a bit of stress, but a great deal of stress. I spend all my time making and filming a little paper Paris.

• "Question Peter Pan": Do you have any advice for us on how we can never lose our childlike spirit?

Never worry haha! On a more serious note, maybe we should put our passions at the center of everything, exercise our curiosity like a muscle, and above all not let ourselves be alienated by work or the way others look at us. Easier said than done, it's a form of resistance...

Thanks Lorenzo for these great moments! And see you soon on Make My Lemonade for a special paper DIY!