In sound and vision from the French-Israeli singer, songwriter, model and philosopher, we find the power of music and dance to free people. Petite Meller speaks at Lampoon
Born in Paris from a French mother and a Polish father, the singer and songwriter Syvan Meller, better known today with the stage name of Petite Meller, was relocated to Tel Aviv, Israel, when she was eleven years old. After a period living in Brooklyn, New York, she is now based in Los Angeles. Her debut album, Lil Empire, was released on 2016, and now she is working on her sophomore album, that has been anticipated by the single The Drummer.
Petite Meller – Music and philosophy
Petite Meller’s music is influenced by many things, first of all by philosophy. Indeed, she is a philosopher: she studied postgraduate philosophy at the Sorbonne in Paris and at the University of Tel Aviv, where she wrote a thesis about the idea of sublime and psychosis, inspired by the works of Immanuel Kant and Friedrich Schiller. Meller’s lyrics, which have multiple reading levels, reveal this deep influence.
However, the passion for music was born first: «When I was a child, my sister used to go to jazz festivals and I was left in our room with all her records. I could listen to Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker and all the jazz masters records. But there were also albums from David Bowie, Paul Simon and other great songwriters. I loved them, as I love them still today. Then I was exposed to saxophone and other instruments that attracted me. I remember myself as a kid, while I was writing in the library my first article about jazz for school».
The liberating power of music and dance in Petite Meller’s songs
She started to write songs when she was young, showing both passion and talent. «I used to record songs on my tape that my father gave me as a gift. Then as now, songs can come to my mind in every moment of my life, in every situation, during a taxi ride, for example. They arrive as a gift from God and when they arrive I have to write them down». Music was a solitary activity at the beginning, then it became something else, when Meller joined a band as a teenager.
«The name of my band was Terry Poison. We made electronic pop and we toured all over Europe. When we went to New York for the first time, I was walking around Brooklyn and I saw this guy playing saxophone, so my passion for jazz rose again to my mind. I understood that I wanted to create my own music, my own genre, starting from jazz and mixing different instruments like saxophone. So I left the band because I understood that we didn’t play my genre, what I wanted to do. They asked me to come back, but I didn’t want to. So during that period in New York City I realized that I wanted to do my own solo project and I started to write new songs and new music. I started to do my thing».
Meller considers music as a liberating force, both for the body and for the mind. «I love to dance, so I wish to make concerts where people can release. My goal is to let people be released: to release their problems, to overcome problems during the concert, to feel their emotions. Sometimes people want to cry out the pain from dancing, maybe listening to happy music but with sad lyrics. I try to take inspiration from this kind of match to write new songs».
Music can also be a way to investigate yourself. In fact, Meller discovered her roots and mixed them to create her own style. «It was like I discovered my road again. My mum is French-African, so both African music and French songs are a big influence for me, as well as the great pop songs that my dad loves. I have had a lot of influences and they are all mixed in my music».
Petite Meller: In love for cinema and travels
The world of Petite Meller is also influenced by movies and literature. «I love cinema, especially Fellini’s and Antonioni’s movies. Antonioni is my favorite film maker. I am obsessed with great classic movies, so I take inspiration from this kind of movie also for my music videos».
There is a strong bond between sound and vision, so for Meller music and videos come together from the same place. «Every time it is a specific sound that takes me to a ride, like a bongo that calls me to Africa or a flute that drives me to Mongolia. There is always a specific sound in every song of mine and it is a starting point for creating a vision. So songs and their videos are coming from the same vision. For example, my last song The Drummer is born from a drum sound, like a heartbeat».
Meller’s journeys are inner but also physical: visiting new places, seeing new faces, listening to unknown sounds during her creative process. «I want to travel to take new inputs and discover new places, people and things. I was in Russia for a video of The Drummer just a month before the war started: I had a good instinct to go there and then to go away soon. I am sensitive: I can feel things before they happen and so we went to shoot in Russia, then in Connecticut, USA. After things happen, I always try to see what their meaning is».
The Drummer: inspired by Grass’ novel
The Drummer is a song about peace, but also about finding peace of mind. It is inspired by Oskar, the main character of Günter Grass’ novel The Tin Drum. He used to beat his tin drum to make some noise and create a disturbance in order to bring attention to a cause. Maybe we need an Oskar today to bring attention to crucial causes of our times, because they are often unheard of from powerful people.
«We need an Oskar to make some noise and wake people up. My way to do it is through music, because we cannot simply stand by while the world is at war. We cannot tolerate that children live and grow up where there is war. I also grew up with a war around me and my family, in Israel, so I have always wanted, since I was a child, to create a better world: safe, peaceful, where I am always being myself, dancing and taking decisions for me and my future. This is a right that every kid should have: following his dreams and his imagination, without thinking about the tragedies of the world. As a child and as an adult, everyone should have the possibility to create his own reality according to dreams. It is a concept that I found also in quantum physics: there are so many realities and you can choose your own. Basically, I think that we need to choose how we want to live».
Art, philosophy and real life
Petite Meller faces life and music, art and creation, with a unique approach that comes from the study of philosophy but also, as she said, from some significant experiences she has had.
«Philosophy is something helpful for me, not only in writing songs and lyrics, but also in understanding the world and the reality around me. I remember that once a guy gave me something to take, it was LSD, but I didn’t know what is: that episode has been crucial for me, because it showed me a different way of looking at reality, asking myself a lot of questions about existence, life, myself, and maybe it attracted me into philosophy.
It gave me a way to think out of the box, so it was good for me as a philosopher and artist, even if it wasn’t so good for my body. Experiences of your life make you become who you are. Philosophy has always been a way to open my mind and to write songs, too. I am interested in aesthetic questions, like those from Kant, for example the idea of sublime. But I am also interested in Psychoanalysis, in particular in Lacan’s theories, that deal with the unconscious mind, and in the issue of pleasure out of pain. When I write my songs, it’s kind of a practice of pleasure out of pain».
Petite Meller: Out of stereotypes
As an artist, a performer and a model, Petite Meller seems to be confident with her look and her body. The awareness about her shape emerges from photos and videos, for example from The Drummer video, which sends a great and powerful message about diversity, inclusion and body positivity. There are many young people, girls, boys, non-binary, who change their clothes, roles, who have different looks and body shapes and they are fluid, out of stereotypes.
«One of the most powerful young people in the video is a trans girl and I felt that we were connected. I wanted to pass on to those guys that they could feel safe and free to express themselves. Me too, I like to change myself, sometimes I want to express my femininity, as if I am Brigitte Bardot, other times I feel like a little boy or even a clown. I like changing my clothes and showing different sides of my personality, also engaging people in my parallel world. Life is absurd, you can live the most disparate experiences, often when you don’t expect them. We just need to create our own reality, it is all about doing something you like. Life is done by creating».
There is no sound without vision
The power of images is a recurring theme, Meller admires the ability to capture the essence of people through photography. «I had a beautiful experience with the great photographer Pip. I met him in London and he invited me for a shoot at his house in Hollywood Hills. When he opened the doors, I felt he was treating me like Marilyn Monroe. He set the camera on top of the bed and colored all the fabrics in pink, then he shot while I was laying down there.
I realized that he was inspired by Douglas Kirkland, who was the legendary, amazing photographer that shot Marilyn in bed and he’s just died. The whole experience was intense and meaningful for me, that shooting is symbolic for me and I felt a strong connection with the photographer, who guided me in the right way to realize something like ‘Petite in bed’. We hadn’t talked before the shooting and, even if usually the set is already prepped and set up, he hadn’t prepared anything before I arrived there. it was all natural and spontaneous and I love his photos».
As her love for cinema and her strong relationship with photography evidence, visual elements are at the center in Meller’s music. «When I write a song, I imagine taking people with me for a ride. Everything always starts from an image, from a visual cue: writing a song comes together with the conception of the video. As if I write the song and video together, they come together. In my songwriting work I want to talk with people. My starting point can be simply a talk with someone or a song or a suggestion from anything.
For example, for Baby Love, I remember I was in the studio and I heard this sound of bongos: immediately they took me to Africa, I was clearly looking at some African landscape in my mind. I said that I wanted to go shooting in Africa, but first my record company told me to take a green screen. I said ‘No, I won’t use a green screen in my videos’. So I went to Africa and I am grateful for the opportunity to travel all around the world and meet people. On that occasion we invented a dance, it was a sort of public movement that we created with people».
The last album is about going deep inside oneself and get to know inner self
Another relevant topic for Petite Meller is mental health: the new album is focused on it, because it is a huge problem today. «The present seems to be faster and more schizophrenic than the past. Maybe the future will arrive soon and it will be crazy. Not all the common people can keep their mental health, stay safe and sane in this society. Sometimes it is hard looking into ourselves to understand what we feel and where we are going. I am also showing a part of me, inside me, through my music and my lyrics.
My first album, Lil Empire, was about traveling around the world, discovering places and people outside to find myself. Instead, this new album is all about going deep inside myself to know myself, trying to face problems, dealing with reality, staying sane. I say: ‘Wear your trauma proudly’. This is what I am trying to do with my music: taking something bad or wrong and helping people to release pain and going to find some spaces for peace and tranquility. My goal is helping people and myself to overcome pain and problems, keeping sanity and serenity».
Meller’s sensitivity towards the issue of mental health is also manifested in her relationship with fashion, where she applies the mantra ‘Wear your trauma proudly’. «My relationship with clothes comes from the same kind of thinking that I put on everything else in my life. I say ‘Wear your trauma proudly’ and it goes for my music, my videos and also when I am on stage, where I try to recreate the absurdity of life and I even wear some clownish stuff».
Petite Meller on wearing own trauma proudly
The love for travel and discovery also returns: «I love the folklore of countries and I am attracted by the local fashion of places that I visit. For example, I love traditional African clothes and their strong colors. When we went there to shoot the video, I would like to make something with pastel colors, but it wasn’t possible because everything has strong and bold colors: red, blue, orange. So we played with color contrasts. The blush also is part of my look: once, when I was a child, my skin was burnt from the sun and it was a kind of trauma that I recreated on my face».
On The Drummer video all the people wear classic school uniforms: «It is to say that we are all equal and each of us deserves to be as happy as any other kid. Today people on social media show that everything is good, but young people have to know that it is normal to have problems and to look for solutions, trying to be better. We all have problems, nobody is perfect. You have to be proud to show your trauma».
Kids are frank and spontaneous, Petite Meller is too. She is not afraid to express her opinion and take positions with her music and her words, also in the interviews. «I try to say what I think as a person, but to be apolitical, because as a child I was surrounded by politics. However, The Drummer’s lyrics are about these questions: there are so many problems in the world. The chorus says: ‘I can’t stop the news / but I keep trying / I’ve been looking for something new / Inside my mind’. People need to focus on the peace inside the mind, to be fine in themselves».
Petite Meller
Born in Paris from a French mother and a Polish father, relocated to Tel Aviv as a kid, Petite Meller is a singer, songwriter and model, but also a philosopher. She began her career in Israel, performing as a vocalist in the electroclash band Terry Poison. After a period in New York, she now lives in Los Angeles. Her first album, Lil Empire, was out in 2016. She is working on her second album, anticipated by the single The Drummer.
