VICTORIA+JEAN – “BIG BILLIE”
V+J EP (2014)
Victoria+Jean
Sweden’s Victoria + Jean created huge ripples this side of the Atlantic when Indie Week Europe’s 2015 winners performed several nights during Indie Week Toronto. Their live performances have the hitting force of a tsunami, to be more accurate, and Victoria+Jean’s powerful live performances were a huge smash. This is one band that must be seen live: their power and force must be seen to be believed.
About Victoria+Jean
Thereβs really no point in playing the reference game when defining Victoria+Jean; it just wouldnβt work for them. Although Victoria sings and Jean plays guitar β like thousands of others across the globe β their first album Divine Love is from another world.
Victoria spent just enough time in Stockholm to enter this life, passed through London to get an education before she discovered Paris and got to know the backgrounds of fashion and music. Then comes Brussels, her meeting with Jean, an uncommonly talented musician and latent globetrotter. The Victoria+Jean duet is born. The world is little more than a village. Guitar cases scratch the floor of a Boeing whilst the artists have their noses stuck to the planeβs window as they fly off to Rio or New York. One day, filled to the brim with tales, images and notes, they realise that thereβs enough raw material and songs to make an album. Their first opus reflects their lives: between cities, between flights. London, Stockholm, Paris, Brussels, New Yorkβ¦ The album sleeve mentions some of todayβs greatest sound engineers, those mysterious sorcerers who toiled on some of our favourite records, including John Parish (P J Harvey), Ian Caple (Tricky, Tindersticks, Bashung), Christoffer Berg (Depeche Mode, The Knife, Fever Ray) and Rob Kirwan (U2, Depeche Mode, The Horrors), and the high priestess of mastering, Mandy Parnell. An eastern wind blows over the artwork in the form of Oleg Dou, an up and coming Russian contemporary artist.
Thereβs still a lot to do from Stockholm to Moscow, going through Brussels tooβ¦ Victoria+Jeanβs journey starts here. Divine Love. For anyone who still doubts it: love is divine.
Pierre MikaΓ―loff
SPILL VIDEO PREMIERE: WEEP WAVE – “BIRDHOUSE”
SPILL TRACK OF THE DAY: THE THIRDS – “ANTIMATTER”
SPILL TRACK OF THE DAY: TALK TIME – “YEAR OF SELF”
SPILL TRACK OF THE DAY: THE ROYAL FOUNDRY – “LOST IN YOUR HEAD”
