SiB: Soulderin' On
With a smooth, soulful and somewhat sultry air about him, Adrien Siboulet personifies his music. He sings to the ghosts of the blues with his elegiac balladry and with electrifying soundscapes, he builds a psychedelic bridge between the blues and modern sound. Siboulet’s soulful eloquence emulates the likes of Hendrix or Mayfield or Green whilst forging his very own tone on the rhythm and blues scale. At every turn the sexy instrumental textures support his eroticised lyricism. What else can you expect from an ever-so-charming Frenchman wielding an electric guitar armed with lyrics about lovemaking?
Today is Bastille Day. In typical French fashion, he stands up to greet me with the customary kiss on the cheek ‘hello’ before returning to his seat. With noteworthy supports like Cody Chestnutt, Dudley Perkins, Georgia Anne Muldrow and more recently Tricky, Adrien is surprisingly self-effacing in conversation. His relaxed demeanour makes me feel at ease; our conversation feels more like a chat between friends rather than complete strangers.
He recounts to me his familial ties to his musical beginnings. “My first ever guitar was a Spanish nylon string, a Christmas present from my French grandpa – the original SiB. I was ten. I eventually smashed it into pieces after a fight with my mum.” Always the artist, he later crafted the remaining pieces into a sculpture. His deep-rooted love for the electric guitar began with his Gibson SG, “the one my Dad bought me on my 14th birthday so we could play the blues together.” In desperate times, he sold this so that he could afford an overpriced acoustic Maton. As irony would have it, on his birthday a few years back that very guitar was stolen from him before a show at the Evelyn. “I wrote most of my songs on that guitar - it’s irreplaceable”, he melancholically recalls.
My mind struggles to comprehend why he would move from the romanticised city of Paris to a humble place like Brisbane. “My parents separated at the time,” he explains. “I was studying painting in Paris, and my Mum said to me ‘you know, you should go and spend a couple of years in Australia, check it out and live in Brisbane with your family.’” And so that he did. Since relocating to Australia, Siboulet has had stints living in Brisbane and Sydney, where he continued his studies in Fine Art. Albeit his twelve years of artistic studies, Adrien swapped his paintbrush for the guitar as his chosen means of creative expression.
He elaborates on the inspiration behind such a change. “At the time I was living in Sydney, I saw this amazing Hungarian musician, Jackie Orszaczky. He had a residency on Tuesday nights in Newtown. He’d play like all this soul music, all my favourites, like Al Green, Curtis Mayfield and all that. Young musicians and old musicians. Big band, with a horn section, percussions, keyboard, guitars, all crammed into a corner in this pub, playing just the best music. I’ve never seen any band like that. And for me, that was a moment of revelation – I had to play music with a band and one day, we’ll play with those guys.”
This revelation saw him go on to form the band iRiS with Andrew Jans-Brown, joined by session musicians on drums and bass. The band achieved relative success, gaining a support spot for the likes of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. As he recalls, “They were all very tall and skinny and they all wore suits. When they turned up at the Hordern Pavilion for the sound check they had briefcases, they looked like businessmen. I was like, ‘Man, what’s in the briefcases?’” Curious, I ask the inevitable question. “I don’t know”, he laughs. “Drugs? Guns?”
Aside from the notable supports and the two independently released EPs, iRiS’ success was relatively short-lived. “It was a sad story. Shit went down in the band at the time with the bass player – you know, drugs and ‘rock’n’roll’ stuff. By the time we got the supports with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, I knew they were going to be my last two shows ever with the band.”
Despite this, Siboulet doesn’t regret any time spent with group. “It was the best thing that happened to me, because it built my confidence up. From getting stage fright and getting anxious, to relaxing way more to the point where I can play in front of six thousand people, opening for Nick Cave. I still get nervous performing in front of a crowd, but that's what keeps you going, facing your own fears.”
Furthermore, Adrien’s musical differences with vocalist Jans-Brown reiterated to him the melodic path in which he wanted to pursue. “I thought, ‘Man, the guy can sing and he wrote pretty wacky lyrics, but if only he was a bit more black or something, a bit more bluesy, a bit more soul’.”
And so paved the way for SiB, the Melbourne-based musician’s solo venture. SiB’s debut EP launch will take place later this month, closely followed by a hectic four weeks in Los Angeles, New York and Paris to promote his music abroad. He had initially planned to record fifteen tracks in the studio, however the time consuming nature of recording meant his plans for a full-length album would have to wait. “We’re jamming in the studio. We used to just press record and play for like fourteen minutes and that would be one song. Imagine mixing fourteen minute songs with horn sections and backing vocals, three guitars, four different keyboards - it’s a head fuck.” He alternatively decided upon five tracks to release as the EP Drifting (Part One) to precede SiB’s eventual album. “I had to pick five songs for the ‘part one’ that would give a feel for what the album would be like. I thought I’d put five different styles on the EP so it would give you a bit of an idea of the different directions that I’m going with.”
Of late, Siboulet’s been lending his ear to folk music for some lyrical inspiration. “I’m trying to step away from myself a bit, to tell stories that look at where the world’s at, not just personal ‘you and I’ type conversational songs. Lately it’s been about trying to step outside that realm and see what I can come up with. But I still can’t help myself because most of the time it’s quite melancholic.” So does he think of himself as a melancholic person? “When I drink too much, yes,” he laughs.
It is this melancholy that is the motivating force in every note played or lyric written. “It’s much harder to write a happy song. I did write a song called Happy on the EP, and it was a challenge at the time. I can’t help myself - blues is always there. It’s a natural thing for me, and that’s a natural way for me to write. It all comes from the blues for me.”
“But I like the idea of songs that are uplifting in the end, when you state something totally tragic, like death or the loss of a friend or your love is gone, but you uplift that. I think there’s a healing process through the song, there’s salvation.”
Drifting (Part One) EP Launch will be held at The Toff in Town in Melbourne on August 23rd.
