GLORIA / TSUNAMI ADDICTION RECORDS via email, Mars 2006

Cyber conversation with Gloria, from the Parisian label Tsunami Addiction.
We've been in touch with her for some years now and the release of Milkymee's album -which has been on the turntable for some weeks now- was a good excuse for a short update:

BabesinBoyland : Would you please present the Tsunami Addiction spiral? You seem to be quite polymorphic, with exhibitions, managements, labels.... In what way are you connected to Active Suspension?
Gloria : Tsunami-Addiction is an indie structure which is indeed involved in many varied projects and activities: artists management (dDamage, Milkymee, Hypo and Event10), we also edit a magazine: Famous, we set up exhibitions from time to time, we have released some compilation cds, such as Toxic Girls! and Boyz Revenge! and we're now working on expanding our catalogue.
Active Suspension have always been very close to us, not only because some of the artists we have been working with are the same -many of them had collaborations on T-A compilations- but we have also shared the same offices for more than two years, which made it easy to set up events together. Now we're (physically) separated, we're still trying to work on projects together, exhibitions or things like that.
I personally think that Active Suspension is the most interesting label in the French landscape. They possess pure treasures: Hypo, O.Lamm, Davide Balula, Kumi solo, Shugo Tokumaru ...

Bib : How do you choose the artists you are working with? What is your guiding line? Do you headhunt the artists or do they come knocking on your door?
Let's say I am making music in my bedroom, in a provincial town, do I have a chance to be signed on your label one day?
Gloria : There is no guiding line, we might release a rock album as well as a hip-hop album. In the absolute, I'd like to include people from any musical genre: electro, folk, rock, r'n'b, rap....
Right now, I am looking for a female r'n'b singer as well as a very good hip hop producer who could be able to come up with something like the Shystie sound, or Kelis' new album.
But of course, I might also release a lo-fi album by a girl singing, alone in her room, without anything more to it. it does not really matter, as long as we are seduced by the project.

Bib : Your last release, Milkymee's album, has been presented as a collaboration with the magazine Famous. Can you explain this collaboration? Could you present the mag? Where can we get it ?
Gloria : The Milkymee was indeed as a collaboration with our magazine, published by Capricious (an independent american publishing house). We had to publish the new issue, and Milkymee's album so we thought it would be great to add the two together. Famous is a magazine about art & culture, I would say, of free expression on a given theme. The contributors come from different fields (photographers, journalists, and so on... or even from no field in particular, or no field at all...).

The theme for next issue is "corruption." It is due in June. The format is different, depending on the artistic director's ideas and wishes (Event10).
The magazine is available in different places. The circulation is 1000 distributed by specialized libraries or galleries. It does not sell well in France. I think it's due to the freedom of the contents: people do not seem to be comfortable with this. I hope this will change. Otherwise, you can find it in Amsterdam, Berlin, Bruxelles, Nyc, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Osaka, Stockholm...

As far as Milkymee is concerned, it is a bit different: since it's an album, you can find it through the distribution networks. Find more details: http://in-shop.blogspot.com

Bib : How do you manage to make a living and carry out all your projects?

Gloria : Well, we do invest in our projects a bit, and then we're lucky enough to find some kind of patrons, such as Capricious, for example, who trust us and help us financially to realize our projects. otherwise, it would not work, of course. Besides this I started another office with a friend, it is more mainstream, more communication-based www.plateformebureau.com . That's what I live on.

Bib : Are there communities or collectives you feel close to? People you'd like to work or network with?
Gloria : I feel close to many people, and friends such as : the ooga booga store, dilettante press, active suspension, shobo shobo, best company in Amsterdam, proqm in Berlin, capricious magazine, girls like us magazine ... even if we do not all do the same thing, it's frame of mind over all.

Bib : You're singing on hypo's Karaoke Acapella, on language computer under the name reiko underwater, do you have any plans for a solo album? Why have you worked mainly as a collaborator?
Gloria : Well, I took part in these projects because I was asked to. I did it for the fun of it. I not feel like releasing a solo project at all!!! I can tell you it would be of no interest at all.

Bib : Milkymee is going to play at the Café de la Danse in Paris on April 20th, for the Les Femmes s'en Mêlent festival, is it the first time that an artist from the label is taking part in the festival? What does this festival mean to you? Are you positive to this kind of initiatives, like Ladyfests, for example?
Gloria : Yes, it is the first time we are taking part in the festival. Stéphane Amiel had come and talked to me in 2002, when the Toxic Girls! compilation had been released but nothing had come of it.

I think that nowadays this festival is very important for the French female scene, and it's really good that an artist like Milkymee was booked, because she belongs to that scene.

Yes, I am rather in favour of festivals such as Ladyfests etc... which promote feminine/feminists (?) ideas, but at the same time, I do not feel totally connected to this. I am generally more attracted to women's projects in general. however, I am not an activist, or just a latent one.

Bib : I saw that you had made a video for Solex, is there any art form you do not practice?
Gloria : ah ah ah, this Solex video! Yes, it was fun. At that time, I was only working on experimental films, film-scratching, weird superimpositions, films that gave you a headache or made you fall asleep, depending... I met Liesbeth, I wanted to ask her to make a video, especially since music was so important in my film work, so we just did it, spontaneously.

That was a phase, I probably have more obscure stuff out here and there, but I try to forget.

Bib : What are the future projects of the label?
Gloria : We're going to be working on dDamage's album (a hip hop electro album), then release Boulder dDash's (folk electro), and I am still looking for some new projects. Of course, I have a couple of ideas, but you'll be one of the first to know....

Bib : What is THE record you would have loved to release?
Gloria : I really do not know... the album I would have loved to released, I did release it, it's Milkymee's.... or else... yeah, I would have liked to release Shystie's album.