Jil is lucky

What do we know about Jil is Lucky?
Not much. His first name it is Jil, standing for the initials of Jil Is Lucky. He is 24 years old and lives in Paris for the moment. We might have seen him on the Andes road, we might have heard him at Harlem’s All Saints Church, and thinking about it anywhere in Europe. Even a bar in India owes its name to him. For a few years, he has traveled alone the world polishing his pop, No-folk music, far from the stereotypes of the kind. Through his wanderings between Prague’s ghetto and the fiery neighborhoods of Algeria’s Sidi Bel-Abbès he found his musicians. Consequently, they follow him and assert “his” philosophy. Jil accommodates them after a long preliminary work. A musical and philosophical initiation several months at the feet of the rock of Sainte-Victoire, thus the group records its first eponymous album. A quasi religious retirement gives rise to twelve titles. Today, the group is united around its “Messiah”, ready to defend their own belief: their music. We met them in London, in the backstage of Paradise Bar.

Interview.

Why do you always have the fidgets?
Now, I’m much better... I began to play guitar at age six. With time I realized it was too early and too locking. I felt the need to concentrate on singing. It is the road who taught to me at which point to compose was vital for me. It became like an outgrowth of my mood, between joy and sadness. The trip made me understand how my guitar could help me.

Did you compose “The Wanderer” abroad?
Yeah, I did so two years ago. I was drinking tea in Prague’s ghetto when the melody and words arrived complete in my head. It’s necessary to say that I was psychologically blocked, as if I awaited something to deliver me. That summer was a true revelation. After that I returned to Paris to begin writing the album. That summer was a true sea change…

Does this song sound like an anthem to vagrancy and freedom?
Thank you! I finished it while walking in the street. Steps are often the rhythmic base that harmonizes with my mood at the moment.

Does the album transmit melancholy while leaving one happier?
On a journey, one often eats what one finds on the markets and as a result one mixes much more food. These precarious conditions of my wander made me appreciate the “bittersweet”. As a result, one feels it in certain songs. It is like breadcrumbs soaked in caramel which covering a small piece of roasted pig (a recipe I discovered in the suburbs of Shanghai which I adapted to “Supernovas”).

Are your melodies almost timeless - even traditional?
Yeah, the harmonic variations that are heard are like the color palet in one of those Bricolage shops: the pop one with the kletzmer, kletzmer with traditional, and the traditional one with the mariachi.

What three albums do you worship?
Nirvana’s « Nevermind », « Velvet and Nico », and Leonard Cohen’s « Songs from a room ».

Have you really been playing in bars since you were 12?
Yeah it’s true, I started really early. My brother wanted me to accompany him, and as a result, the owner made me enter and exit through the backdoor, to avoid police raids. He paid me in drinks like all the other musicians. I immediately understood that the public and I have much to say to each other. Since then we’ve been talking a lot…

Are the lyrics of “Don' T work” (note “Five weeks in a year, is like a second in a day”), connected to today’s revalorization of work?
5 weeks of paid vacations are an aberration for us. It seems insane to me to live only five weeks per year. To work in this society is a something we rejected immediately.

One feels a mystical side on “Paolo Majora Canamus” or “Hovering machine”. Was the use of drug by chance necessary to you?
No way, drugs were not essential to me! Though experimenting with psychotropics enabled me to better consider the various colors, beliefs and dimensions of the music. There lies my inclination towards this kind of “hallucinogenic folk”.

One feels behind this album a strong female presence?
Who is this Jane who shares a big part of the songs of the album? Jane is my soul mate. We share the songs, amongst other things…

Bravo for the album cover! What did you want to say while posing in the middle of these biomen?
First of all, thank you to Romin Favre of the In Your Hair agency. Our world is deeply religious. My brother is the muslim, the pope is on my right, the Hindu one behind, and my feet form the ninth branch of a menorah (note: this candlestick which one lights for hanouka a Jewish holiday which celebrates the lights). There are still many other symbols and in the booklet too. Each one will see there whatever he wants.

Are these devotees all together to defend the same cause, or on the contrary to defend their own parish?
These devotees are united in the surrealism of their dogma, in an irrational discourse, the war of nonsense. They are the bioman of yesteryear. I benefited from the support of the booklet to say something else. We need to take advantage of booklets, soon they will not exist…

Will your musicians play in bioman suits on March 24th at the Transitory Point?
The costumes represented the icons and served to give speech to the image. They do not have a place on the stage. Still, I will wear my boots. We will be fourteen on stage for the official album presentation…
- all of them