Getting Candid with Ada Oda [INTERVIEW]
We’re reporting from South By Southwest Music Fest in Austin, Texas. We sat down for an interview with Ada Oda, along with 3 other performing artists including Elle Shimada, ASHY, and Bathe Alone. You can listen to interviews with all of these artists on Name 3 Songs podcast and see the full transcribed interview with Ada Oda below.
Ada Oda are a colorful and energetic pop rock band based in Brussels. We talk to Victoria and Clément about why they write their music in French but sing in Italian, and what it means to be the first band Belgium has sent to SXSW in 7 years.
Name 3 Songs: We’re here at South by Southwest, today we’re talking to Ada Oda. Hello guys, can you introduce yourselves?
Victoria: Hello, we are Ada Oda, I’m Victoria, singer of the band.
Clément: And my name is Clément and I play the bass guitar.
So South by Southwest has been around for about 30 years and it’s known for bringing artists from all over the world, including yourselves, to Austin, Texas. And it’s a festival that really highlights up -and -coming, exciting acts from all these different countries. So what drew you guys to South by Southwest to want to come here and play?
Victoria: So for us, in Belgium when we talked about SXSW everybody was like wow, that’s crazy because our country is not really represented here. So for us it was a huge opportunity to come here.
Clément: It’s even more difficult for us, because we’ve been asked [to play SXSW] because I mean if here, like an American band that you like, you’re like, hey, you’re already here, just come and play here [SXSW]. To us, it engages a lot of, bridges to cross, [we have to] take aplane and expenses. So it’s already kind of a victory to be here today to play South by Southwest. It doesn’t mean much in the sense that it doesn’t bring money in the bank for the band, but it brings a lot of credibility back home as a European act.
And as Victoria said, especially in our country, which is a small country, Belgium, it’s been some years that they could not send a band here. And so since right now the band is in a good position, we got the opportunity. I mean, a crucial part of the government. was like saying, hey, we’re going to send someone, if you guys want to apply, we can kind of support you. So it’s a special opportunity.
That’s so awesome. It seems like no matter how popular you are, where you came from. When everybody comes here, we’re all like, oh, we’re all friends, we’re all equals, we all want to connect. And I feel like that’s like a really beautiful thing that’s been happening at the festival.
Victoria: Yeah, I was not surprised [by that]. I’m very, very convinced that South by Southwest will bring us like, new friends. We had the chance to hear new music. I’d love to see the other show tomorrow, before we go home.
Clément: It’s a good thing to stay several days because it’s tough to break the ice on first contact. So you meet a band, you see them once, you see them twice and, hey, I saw you yesterday and now we can connect a bit longer.
Being in Texas, have you gone to do anything that are fun Texas things?
Clément I mean, a friend of mine is from LA, but when I told him I was going to Texas, he told me, okay, you have to go here and there. So he sent us yesterday to Lockhart.
It’s like a town that’s maybe like 45 minutes outside of Austin, but it’s like really a lot of art and like… Barbecue and just a cool place.
Clément: So did the barbecue from there.
It’s the place for barbecue. Yeah, that’s so fun. I love hearing when artists get to, because I’m from here, so it’s like when artists get to experience something that is part of my growing up. It’s just again, cultural exchange is really nice.
Clément: And we’re heading to Barton Springs tomorrow, I guess. Oh yeah, that’s great. That would be so fun. When trying to figure out dancing.. but you never know. Clément
So, I’m really curious. You guys are based in Brussels, but you’re kind of… Some of you are from France, some of you are from Italy. What is it like making music in a place that has so many different cultures in one place?
Victoria: Well, for us it was great because we were making music that is kind of more from the UK, or Western Europe, with Italian culture in it, with French people in the band, so it’s a huge mix of everything and I think it helped us in our country to be a bit different and to make the difference.
Clément: I don’t know if your question was about us growing up in Europe or here [coming to America], but already in our country we are almost exotic. Because we are in a French speaking country, we sing Italian. So yeah, I think it’s strange for us.
So did you want to sing in Italian because there’s like a rich history of rock music with Italian music or because that’s just like what you felt most comfortable singing in?
Victoria: Well… Actually I never sung in Italian before… I just never sung before.
Oh wow! That’s crazy!
Victoria: And César, he’s not here, he’s the guitarist who created the songs. And he wanted to do something different from rock and roll in French or in English. He was first thinking about Flemish, the other language in Belgium, but it didn’t work and I was really thankful because I was chosen to sing in the band because I pretended to speak Italian and I don’t really speak fluently but I said yeah yeah I’m half Italian. But actually, I learned at school so my Italian is not perfect, but I wanted to sing, you know, so I said okay I speak Italian let’s do that so yeah.
I mean you kind of mentioned this, there’s a long history of rock music like from America and from England but what was your experience growing up, your experience of rock music growing up?
Clément: I mean America is everywhere, for us the standard of music is UK and America. For me, music is in English. I grew up with English music and English speaking music. I understood nothing in English, but it’s more close to home. Even though I’m French speaking, Italian feels more home.
Yeah, that makes sense. I feel like also just as somebody who like I don’t speak Italian but I like listening to music in other languages, especially rock stuff I think it’s really cool because you can just tell that the emotion is different and I think sometimes you can tell a different story in other languages you couldn’t tell in English.
Clément: That is the way I would listen to music as a kid you know. I could not speak English. I could just feel the vibe and I think it’s… I don’t want to say a mistake but I always find it odd that so many bands, if not most, in France, in Belgium… Sorry guys. You know, you start a band and you’re like… Oh, music is in English, so we’re going to make it in English, but… I’m happy it’s not the case [for us], and I think the band wouldn’t have such an impact right now if it was in English.
It’s just interesting listening to music in another language where you can even, like you said, you don’t know what they’re saying but you can feel it.
Victoria: Yeah. And that’s what I try to do when I sing in Italian in front of French people. I tried to tell a story but with my screaming and dancing and attitude. And the audience can create a story from that.
I think even in your performance you can like tell a story. I mean and the live performance is so important to rock music when we think of that. So it was so fun when we saw you guys last night, you have so much fun on stage. You bring so much energy. So what is important to you about performing live?
Clément: I think there are two sides to it in the sense that we got to know each other after some years. For example, I arrived later on in the story of the band and we feel good together on stage so it’s not every day you have this. So we learned to feel the energy of each other at one point and so you know one moves here, I know my friend is behind me, and I know where we are in certain feelings. This part is really important but nevertheless… If César was not writing such good songs, that wouldn’t mean anything. We would just be yelling and jumping everywhere for nothing. It’s important to give something to the people and… It’s a bit of a cardio experience sometimes but I don’t want to reduce it to that because really it’s about the music. I think we prefer to perform on small stages. We want to be really close to the audience because in our music that’s what is the most important. It’s to see how the audience is reacting to the songs.
I think also like in saying how like Italian is not your language and like all that kind of stuff, it must be kind of fun playing for crowds here in America where it’s kind of like, everybody’s not in on the story. Everybody’s just vibing together.
Clément: To be fair, even just in France, most of the French people only speak French. When we play in France, it’s a really different experience than when we playin Italy, in which people sing along and know the lyrics and connect with the lyrics. In France, we’re like a small party. I mean, we are a fun band. Kind of like it was yesterday.
So when you play in other places in Europe, what is your experience playing in Europe, in different countries?
Victoria: In Italy, it’s been really different for us because the first time we played there it was the first time the audience was singing. So that felt really good because I didn’t have to sing at all (laughs). But yeah in France and in Belgium it’s really cool. We are trying to go to Spain, but we are going to Spain next month, so we are going to experience Spain.
Clément: We got a few experiences of festivals here and there, but not enough to have an idea exactly of how the other countries respond to us because we did one show. Vienna was wonderful, Austria, we played in the Netherlands. We still haven’t crossed the channel [to England], hopefully.
So also, for both of you, since, as we said, Italian’s not your language. When you’re performing this, the emotions that you’re feeling especially for singing like did Czar have to translate to you the stories or are you just kind of also going off of the feeling that you felt through it? Did he have to tell you what the songs were about?
Victoria: No, actually, he writes in French. Then he goes to Google Translate. And then I correct the Italian words. But mostly he brings the idea and then we rewrite it together in Italian. But it’s kind of t a fake Italian even though it’s correct Italian. There was an Italian guy in the crowd yesterday… he said, ‘okay, nobody writes like this in Italy. It’s so weird and I really enjoy it’ because he doesn’t like Italian music. Or the poetry of Italian music. And he likes the naive things in our lyrics because it’s a translation from French.
Oh my god, that’s so interesting. I love that he basically was just like, oh, Italian works really well for rock music, let’s do that. That’s so cool.
Victoria: Yeah, and I really like to sing in Italian, more than I like to sing in French.
Clément: I’ve yet to find a lot of rock bands in France that I like but I guess, you’ve heard of La Femme, I think they can… This is sort of an exception. From what I know, it’s kind of opening doors for people to explore other languages.
Over the past few years we’ve seen a lot of international artists who primarily don’t sing in English have success in America, K-pop bands are seeing huge success and acts like Bad Bunny and Maneskin are doing amazing. Do artists like these succeeding in the states make you feel like you have an opportunity to grow your fanbase outside of your home country?
Victoria: Maneskin was not the example that we wanted to do because they won Eurovision.
Clément: I would do Eurovision if they asked us to!!!
Victoria: That was my dream. But I think Maneskin is more mainstream and maybe that’s why their music is so accepted… Yeah, because they have a lot of songs in English and I think that also opened the door a lot more. I don’t think we are going to write in English.
I don’t think you need to. But I think there’s more music fans who are excited to explore other languages because their minds are more open now. Have you had more experience, because, you said this is the first time you’ve played in America, but are you having fans find you online who are from English-speaking countries? Have you seen that?
Victoria: I’ve seen we had a few on Instagram of people telling us to come to the UK but we didn’t have the chance to be invited we would have to do Great Escape in two months but we never received any answers.
So in the time that you have been playing music, how do you feel like you’ve grown as a musician, as a band?
Victoria: Well for me, because it was the first time a year and a half ago that I was performing on stage. Obviously, my first gig was not the same as the yesterday gig. So yeah, for me I learned everything in one and a half years. How to perform, how to, even use a microphone, I didn’t know how to be on stage, or look at the audience. The first time I was looking at my feet and I couldn’t move at all.
I think I learned a whole new job in one year and a half. So it great for me. The others are old musicians.
Clément: Still learning day by day though. It’s always a learning experience. I mean, I think it’s really great because we’ve played so many shows as this band already for the last two years that we know our shit, you know. But just the base is the fundamentals. We know how to be safe together and there are still a thousand questions that come up at each concert. We know a bit more about our limits, our bodies, our whatever. And we know about our music but still yeah, it’s nice to learn every day.
Well thank you guys so much for joining us today.
Victoria & Clément: Thank you.
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