Music Feature in the Flagstaff Live
Breaking the language barrier
The linguistic and musical journey of Tucson’s Marianne Dissard
By Stephanie Flood
Published on 08/14/2008
A portrait of Tucson-based French singer Marianne Dissard will make anyone wonder who this woman is as her large, almond-brown eyes hold a fastened gaze, her lips barely hinting at a Mona Lisa smile. And after listening to her beautiful songs sung in sultry French phrases, it’s almost inevitable to be helplessly pulled into her enchanted lyrical world.
“To our loves, to confetti, to wine that gets us drunk all night,” Dissard sings (translated from French) in the song “Les Confettis,” on her album L’Entredeux. “Let’s throw ourselves, like rice confettis. Yellow, blue, confettis’ loves. Pieces of paper. Green, white, thrown, burnt papers on fire confettis.”
Her words are like smoke and clouds, cradled in melodic guitars, bass, and instrumentation that rise and fall with happy upbeats and moody down tempos, a carousel of melodies, and an industry of sound effects in the background.
The impressive lineup of musicians on L’Entredeux includes producer Joey Burns of Calexico, Dissard’s husband, French guitarist Naim Amor, and Calexico drummer John Corventino, along with many other friends she’s met along her musical journey. But that’s a little bit further up the road from where it all began.
Growing up
Dissard was born in a little village overlooking the Pyrenees Mountains. “I was coming from a small village, rural France in the south of France,” Dissard says. “In a house stuck between two cornfields. I mean, not cornfields that we have out here, not a gazillion acres of cornfields. Just a little cornfield, with a guy, you know, tending to the grapes next door.”
As a girl, she discovered her infatuation with the art of words, but didn’t discover her ability to sing until later. “I never really, even though I could sing,” Dissard told the Tucson Weekly in 2007. “What I was always in love with, from very early on, was the written word. My first memory was writing, when I was about 6 years old. And I remember being moved to tears by a sentence I read, sitting at my grandmother’s farm.”
When Dissard was around 10 years old, she began a lifelong romance with the English language. “I love singing in English, also and writing in English,” Dissard says. “It’s a very different medium. And there’s a lot more things you can do to torture the English language and make it fancy in whatever you want to say.”
When she moved to the U.S. at 16, she was able to adapt to the English phrases, idioms and accents without difficulty. L’Entredeux, her first album, is completely sung in French, but her upcoming album will be in English.
Meeting musicians
In the U.S., Dissard became involved in filmmaking and specifically, documentaries. One documentary she directed in 1994 called “Drunken Bees,” focusing on the Arizona group Giant Sand, led to the collision with Joey Burns, lead singer of Calexico, and formerly a member of Giant Sand.
From there, she recorded vocals with Calexico on a song called “Ballad of Cable Hogue” for their album Hot Rail in 2000. During that time, she also crossed paths with Paris native Naim Amor, a jazz-influenced guitarist who she later married and now collaborates with.
“It was a long time ago, and somehow, we were able to keep in touch as he was living in Paris and I was living in Tucson,” Dissard says. “And then one thing that we found to keep in touch—and get to know each other, and find something to do that would create our relationship—was what became lyrics. They were words, the way of expressing things to him, and those became songs and one album, two album, three album and onward.”
Dissard wrote the lyrics to L’Entredeux in the fall of 2004 in Tucson, where Amor contributed to three songs and Burns plotted out the melodies. The Calexico frontman had been goading her to make her own album since the two performed a spontaneous duet earlier that year.
This marked a fateful decision that led to her debut, drenched in intimate and bittersweet songs; her vocals whispering furtive words in French that sound wounded, secretive and hypnotic.
“He dared me to do an album, so I was like, ‘OK, let’s do it,’” Dissard says. “So I just kind of wrote the lyrics, and a short while afterwards, I was in his kitchen and I said, ‘OK, you asked for it, here it is.’ So he pulled out a guitar and a little tape recorder and just went at it.”
Music embodied
Now, Dissard leads a waking life consisting of music. In her home-base of Tucson, which may be verging to a new oasis of French connections, she is immersed in live music, playing music or going to parties where there is music every week.
“This summer has been absolutely incredible out here,” Dissard says. “You know, kind of not so hot, a lot of rain. People sticking around because gas is expensive, so we’re kind of stuck here anyways. The music stuff is absolutely incredible, every night. Everyone just plays with each other. We’re all learning everyone’s songs. We’re doing shows, like two or three shows a week. For me, just singing like three years ago, even, being able to play that many shows just in town has been a really great learning experience.”
Looking back, Dissard’s life has been marked with writing, filmmaking, singing and recording. But this French chanteuse only recently may have found her ideal musical instrument.
“I don’t play any instruments,” Dissard says. “I am the singer. I have never learned how to play the guitar. Although yesterday, the funny thing was, we had a party here and I played the musical saw for the first time. I tell you what; I might have found my instrument finally.”
See Marianne Dissard at the Monte Vista Lounge, 100 N. San Francisco, Fri, Aug. 15 at 10 p.m. Also performing will be Tucson’s Will Elliott and Flagstaff singer-songwriter Dave McGraw. Additionally on Friday, Dissard and Elliott will play Bookman’s, 1520 S. Riordan Ranch Road, from 6–8 p.m. Both shows are free. For more info, see www.myspace.com/mariannedissard.
The linguistic and musical journey of Tucson’s Marianne Dissard
By Stephanie Flood
Published on 08/14/2008
A portrait of Tucson-based French singer Marianne Dissard will make anyone wonder who this woman is as her large, almond-brown eyes hold a fastened gaze, her lips barely hinting at a Mona Lisa smile. And after listening to her beautiful songs sung in sultry French phrases, it’s almost inevitable to be helplessly pulled into her enchanted lyrical world.
“To our loves, to confetti, to wine that gets us drunk all night,” Dissard sings (translated from French) in the song “Les Confettis,” on her album L’Entredeux. “Let’s throw ourselves, like rice confettis. Yellow, blue, confettis’ loves. Pieces of paper. Green, white, thrown, burnt papers on fire confettis.”
Her words are like smoke and clouds, cradled in melodic guitars, bass, and instrumentation that rise and fall with happy upbeats and moody down tempos, a carousel of melodies, and an industry of sound effects in the background.
The impressive lineup of musicians on L’Entredeux includes producer Joey Burns of Calexico, Dissard’s husband, French guitarist Naim Amor, and Calexico drummer John Corventino, along with many other friends she’s met along her musical journey. But that’s a little bit further up the road from where it all began.
Growing up
Dissard was born in a little village overlooking the Pyrenees Mountains. “I was coming from a small village, rural France in the south of France,” Dissard says. “In a house stuck between two cornfields. I mean, not cornfields that we have out here, not a gazillion acres of cornfields. Just a little cornfield, with a guy, you know, tending to the grapes next door.”
As a girl, she discovered her infatuation with the art of words, but didn’t discover her ability to sing until later. “I never really, even though I could sing,” Dissard told the Tucson Weekly in 2007. “What I was always in love with, from very early on, was the written word. My first memory was writing, when I was about 6 years old. And I remember being moved to tears by a sentence I read, sitting at my grandmother’s farm.”
When Dissard was around 10 years old, she began a lifelong romance with the English language. “I love singing in English, also and writing in English,” Dissard says. “It’s a very different medium. And there’s a lot more things you can do to torture the English language and make it fancy in whatever you want to say.”
When she moved to the U.S. at 16, she was able to adapt to the English phrases, idioms and accents without difficulty. L’Entredeux, her first album, is completely sung in French, but her upcoming album will be in English.
Meeting musicians
In the U.S., Dissard became involved in filmmaking and specifically, documentaries. One documentary she directed in 1994 called “Drunken Bees,” focusing on the Arizona group Giant Sand, led to the collision with Joey Burns, lead singer of Calexico, and formerly a member of Giant Sand.
From there, she recorded vocals with Calexico on a song called “Ballad of Cable Hogue” for their album Hot Rail in 2000. During that time, she also crossed paths with Paris native Naim Amor, a jazz-influenced guitarist who she later married and now collaborates with.
“It was a long time ago, and somehow, we were able to keep in touch as he was living in Paris and I was living in Tucson,” Dissard says. “And then one thing that we found to keep in touch—and get to know each other, and find something to do that would create our relationship—was what became lyrics. They were words, the way of expressing things to him, and those became songs and one album, two album, three album and onward.”
Dissard wrote the lyrics to L’Entredeux in the fall of 2004 in Tucson, where Amor contributed to three songs and Burns plotted out the melodies. The Calexico frontman had been goading her to make her own album since the two performed a spontaneous duet earlier that year.
This marked a fateful decision that led to her debut, drenched in intimate and bittersweet songs; her vocals whispering furtive words in French that sound wounded, secretive and hypnotic.
“He dared me to do an album, so I was like, ‘OK, let’s do it,’” Dissard says. “So I just kind of wrote the lyrics, and a short while afterwards, I was in his kitchen and I said, ‘OK, you asked for it, here it is.’ So he pulled out a guitar and a little tape recorder and just went at it.”
Music embodied
Now, Dissard leads a waking life consisting of music. In her home-base of Tucson, which may be verging to a new oasis of French connections, she is immersed in live music, playing music or going to parties where there is music every week.
“This summer has been absolutely incredible out here,” Dissard says. “You know, kind of not so hot, a lot of rain. People sticking around because gas is expensive, so we’re kind of stuck here anyways. The music stuff is absolutely incredible, every night. Everyone just plays with each other. We’re all learning everyone’s songs. We’re doing shows, like two or three shows a week. For me, just singing like three years ago, even, being able to play that many shows just in town has been a really great learning experience.”
Looking back, Dissard’s life has been marked with writing, filmmaking, singing and recording. But this French chanteuse only recently may have found her ideal musical instrument.
“I don’t play any instruments,” Dissard says. “I am the singer. I have never learned how to play the guitar. Although yesterday, the funny thing was, we had a party here and I played the musical saw for the first time. I tell you what; I might have found my instrument finally.”
See Marianne Dissard at the Monte Vista Lounge, 100 N. San Francisco, Fri, Aug. 15 at 10 p.m. Also performing will be Tucson’s Will Elliott and Flagstaff singer-songwriter Dave McGraw. Additionally on Friday, Dissard and Elliott will play Bookman’s, 1520 S. Riordan Ranch Road, from 6–8 p.m. Both shows are free. For more info, see www.myspace.com/mariannedissard.