Fievel Is Glauque: For Ma Clément Anything Goes But Be Careful

This interview is with Ma Clément, who is the vocalist half of the Fievel Is Glauque compositional duo, in partnership with Zach Phillips. The tandem typically eschews digital correspondence, opting to meet in either Brussels or New York when the muse is calling. Assuredly, they would appreciate the muse even more if it would purchase air fare. All About Jazz corresponded with Clément in French, so the text is a translation from both the interviewer and her. It is not always literal, of course, but maintains the tenor of the conversation. To read the preface, please use the link to the Zach Phillips part of the Fievel Is Glauque interview (read here).

All interpretations are welcome

All About Jazz: Do you think that some of your earliest musical experiences planted a seed for your interest in your voice and singing? How and when did you start singing?

Ma Clément: It seems to me that I have always been interested and attracted to voices, multi-part singing, polyphonic singing, canon singing, etc. I grew up in a house where there was relatively little music. On the other hand, I was taken to church every Sunday and singing brought me a feeling of excitement and deep joy. I don't remember when I started singing, or when I didn't sing.

AAJ: If you're also playing other instruments, how does the expressive potential of these compare to your own voice?

MC: I play the piano very poorly. There's really nothing else that comes close to the level of precision I like to have with the voice.

AAJ: Singing is an integral part of all cultures, and traditions. Which of these do you draw from—how and why?

MC: I received a fairly active religious education; my grandfather led the singing during celebrations. When we visited my grandparents, I would see him lead the congregation a cappella, guiding with his hands. It was fascinating to hear all the voices forming one, yet all distinct and singular.

AAJ: What were some of the main challenges in your development as a singer/ vocalist? Which practices, exercises, or experiences were most helpful in reaching your goals? Were there also harmful ones?

MC: In recent years, some challenges indeed came along, notably when I decided to audition for the additional choirs of the Royal Opera of Liège in 2022. I took lessons with the incredible singer Julie Gebhart for a month and a half, I felt like I was starting from scratch, singing out of tune, knowing nothing. The tour with Stereolab barely three months after this experience was also a challenge. It's almost miraculous that everything went well; I was lucky that my vocal cords held up. Last year, I lost my voice three days before our first big concert in Brussels for Les Nuits Botanique festival. It was a bit of a shock to feel the physical limits. I should be more vigilant, too bad.

AAJ: Do Intercultural collaborations push you to reinvent your role as a musician?

MC: Reinventing my role as a musician, I don't know. I can especially talk about Americans; their way of working means that I constantly find myself pushing my limits. I learn a lot in a very short time, outside of my comfort zone.

AAJ: How do you see the relationship between harmony, rhythm and melody? What effect did honing your sense of rhythm and groove have on your singing skills?

MC: Regarding my sense of rhythm, I still have a lot of room to learn, (laughs). I feel like harmony, rhythm, and melody are elements of music, but there needs to be more. I need to feel the people behind these elements.

AAJ: What are the things you hear in a voice when listening to a vocalist? What moves you in the voices of other singers? What other singers have you listened to that you find interesting? What singers in your past have been influential in your career?

MC: I don't have the right vocabulary to describe what I hear, but I'll improvise. I hear warmth, body, thickness, weight, fragility, agility, mellowness and precision. Singers with a wide vocal range and a lot of projection impress me. But that's not necessarily what moves me the most. When I was young, I listened to Sade's Diamond Life album a lot and was completely blown away by Whitney Houston's voice in the film Bodyguard. My life also changed when a friend of my parents gave me Blue Bell Knoll by the Cocteau Twins. Much later, I discovered Björk, PJ Harvey and Beyoncé, among others. Recently, I've been very inspired by Ruth Garbus and Alice George Perez, whom I've been lucky enough to have seen in concert several times. I'm in awe of their stage presence and the risks they take in concert, and I'm a fan of their music.

AAJ: What does the term jazz mean today, would you say?

MC: I don't feel qualified to try to define jazz. And I'm wary of definitions, especially those from institutions or political powers.

AAJ: Derek Bailey defined improvising as the search for material which is endlessly transformable. As of 2025, what kind of materials are particularly stimulating for you?

MC: Relationships, otherwise "Nothing makes sense and nothing goes right."

AAJ: We have a speaking voice and a singing voice. Do these feel like they are natural extensions of each other, ends on a spectrum or different in kind?

MC: I feel like there are more of them than two. Because when you have to call your boss on the phone, your voice suddenly changes. Also, whispering, or shouting, imitating animal sounds. All of this is sound produced with the vocal cords.

AAJ: From whispers to screams, from different colors to dynamics, what are the potentials and limits of your voice? How much of your vocal performance can you control? And do you want to maintain control always?

MC: I don't yet have a good idea of what I'm capable of, and yes, I'm very much in control. I know I'm lucky to be able to sing for a long time and for several days in a row without really getting tired in my voice. I just have to avoid alcohol.

AAJ: When you're writing song lyrics, do you sense or see a connection between your voice and the text? Does it need to feel and sound good or right to sing certain words? Is your writing more narrative or free expression?

MC: It's quite rare that texts or portions of texts that I've written outside of a musical context find themselves associated with a melody. So there's often a link between the voice and the text. The writing is very free and intuitive for Fievel, and more narrative in other contexts. I don't want to deliver a message, say what I think or talk about my emotions in what I write. I prefer opacity.

AAJ: "My Oubliette" (oublier—to forget—also "a place of forgetting") is interesting because it is not "Ma Oubliette" using your name or a feminine pronoun. In Murders in Rue Morgue by Edgar Allen Poe, the oubliette is a trapdoor in the ceiling, a detective story about forgetting clues already found during the investigation. What does this song represent to you?

MC: We laughed a lot when we wrote it; it was a very unexpected lyric. In the recording, the end of the arrangement has a dramatic dimension that I think is almost laughable.

AAJ: What's your perspective in singing someone else's songs versus your own? Do you enjoy that sometimes? Which songs have you sung by other artists?

MC: "I Wanna Discover You" by Shemale, "No Trespassing" by Les Roches, "Somebody Got Murdered" by The Clash, "The River," "Love Weapon, Lovin' So" by Blanche Blanche Blanche, "Sueño Otoñal," "Espiritu Burlon," "La Libélula" by Eduardo Mateo, these are the ones I remember spontaneously. When we do covers I like to try to stick as close as possible to the original.

AAJ: How has technology, such as autotune or effect processing, impacted singing? Has it been a concrete influence on your own approach? Is there a future with AI?

MC: I find all the effects, adjustments and treatments on vocals to be interesting tools to use. What bothers me is the automation and no longer making a link between the gesture and the result, as a way of absolving ourselves of responsibility. It's hard for me to imagine how AI could be part of a bright future. But probably the future will tell us.

AAJ: For recording engineers, the human voice remains a tricky element to capture. What, from your perspective, makes voices sound great on record and in a live setting?

MC: There are so many variations, and I don't have tons of experience. Rationally I would say there are physical factors, the acoustic treatment of the room, the microphone, whether the audience is dispersed or if it's a full house, etc., and there is the irrational, the energy of the take, the element of luck, too. You would have to ask a sound engineer; they would be better placed than me to discuss it.

AAJ: When listening to music, some see shapes, objects, and colors. I see words and narratives. What happens in your body when you are singing? What do you see? Do you sing with your eyes open or closed?

MC: I try to open my eyes in concert, even though my natural tendency would be to close them. Vision seems to take a back seat when I sing; it becomes a sort of secondary sense. Often I stare at a light or a point in the back of the room, or at the lyrics when we're recording in the studio.

AAJ: Once a piece is done and released, do you find it important that listeners understand it in a specific way? How do you deal with misunderstandings?

MC: There is no manual. All interpretations are welcome. So far, the only thing that has generated misunderstanding is Fievel's latest video, released in February. It's very cynical, even awkward, so absurd that it becomes funny. At least, that's what I thought, but several people didn't appreciate it at all. Even though we had no intention of upsetting anyone, I find it interesting that it caused such a strong reaction from some of the listeners. I find it more questioning when this technology is made invisible and incorporated into everyday life without being able to develop a critical perspective.

AAJ: Does Fievel Is Glauque have a mission statement even implicit or is it more of a come what may collaboration?

MC: Anything can happen. Anything goes but be careful.

AAJ: Could you conceive of being in an alternate dimension, one without music?

MC: It's hard to imagine because even though I could be in silence, I would remember all those sounds.

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