COLORSxSTUDIOS

What is your first musical memory?

When I was seven, my mom wanted me to make music and study at the nearby music conservatory. At first, I wanted to play the drums, but the teacher seemed really angry at his students—I was quite scared of him. I started to study the trumpet because I liked the teacher more than the drum teacher.

You’re a producer as well as a musician. How does your production differ from what you’re doing on the trumpet? You could say that in both cases you’re working with instruments,  just very different ones.

I started to compose and produce on the computer when I was 14-years-old. In the beginning, I used BeatMaker to produce beats for rappers in the small town of La Rochelle in France. When I moved to Paris, I didn’t know any rappers there. I still produced beats, but didn’t have anyone to rap on them, so I started to play my trumpet over them instead.

In France, people think of the trumpet as an old instrument. I want the next generation of musicians and music lovers to say that the trumpet is cool and young.

You include your grandmother a lot in your recording process. How has she influenced your music? 

My grandmother influences my composition and music just through her joy of being alive. She’s 98-years-old and still really peppy. I’m on vacation at her house with a lot of musician friends of mine at the moment. She’s always with us when we’re playing or singing. It’s amazing to see her like this at her age.

Your project ‘Coco Charnelle’ is split into two albums that came out in 2021 and 2022. How did you know that you had enough material to make two standalone projects?

I had way too many tracks—around 35 tracks! I realized I had to split the project, because you have to really like trumpets to listen to 35 tracks of them. I wanted ‘Part 1’ to be easy listening for people who don’t really know jazz. It has more happy, rat pack style songs, whereas ‘Part 2’ consists of more constructive jazz.

How would you encourage listeners who want to get into jazz, but might not know where to start?

The word jazz can sound a bit cliché. The most important thing is to stay curious all the time. Try not to think about it like: “This kind of jazz isn’t cool,” or “This isn’t real jazz.” If you find something you enjoy, just feel it. That said, some jazz is very complicated. Like good wine, you have to study it.