Nuit Incolore: “It was in Friborg that I spoke”

Radio Fr: At 7 years old, you started playing piano at the conservatory, you stayed there for more than 10 years. We jump to 2020, which says 2020 says Covid, says confinement. You were 19 years old, you found yourself in a small 15 square meter room during your studies. You start writing texts with the aim of externalizing your dark thoughts, you put them to music, you post them on the networks and from there, “Nuit incolore” was born, this stage name, because you composed often at night from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. And I think that’s still the case today, it seems to me that 90% of the album was composed at night?

Colorless Night: But totally, I’m too young to rest. Perhaps my only fault is not sleeping enough, but I tell myself that a career is so ephemeral that I might as well surpass myself from the start, even if it means not sleeping and not dreaming. But there you go, at least I’ll be happy with what I did and I can tell my kids about it later.

In 2022, you publish two concept albums and then the year 2023 arrives and things happened during this year. The release of this first album “La loi du Papillon” and then this single “Dépassé” which projected you to the front of the stage. Did this title completely overwhelm you? I know you like to make this little play on words.

I stopped this pun because I find it obsolete and as outdated as the single! (laughs) But in itself, it’s pretty crazy to think that it’s a song that I’m going to have to sing until the end of my life. I can already imagine myself at the EMS singing in front of everyone. I’m projecting myself far ahead anyway. It’s also crazy to think that it started from the Valais mountains and that it found resonance throughout the French-speaking world and even a little further afield. I’m very happy to show that the Swiss music scene also simply exists and that it’s not just yodeling.

November 15 is the release date of the reissue of this first album. There are several collaborations, including one with the Belgian Loïc Nottet. “We will write to each other”. How beautiful is this title, this mixture of your voices is sublime. You say that this title with Loïc Nottet was obvious. So you need to explain to us why the obvious? Why this meeting? Finally, what’s the matter between you and Loïc Nottet?

So, you should know that the people who listen to our music are a bit similar. They like depressed artists. In fact, we like to talk about melancholy, darkness and we have a few themes in common, I want to say. And we were asked a lot on the networks when were we going to do a duet, and I was interested. As we had met a few months before in the north of France, on a radio set, I sent him a little message. I said to him, would you like to be part of my reissue on a track? We start from scratch, we meet whenever you want and we make this song. So, for two nights in a studio in Belgium, we made “On s’écrira”. We’re quite proud because we managed to put everything we thought on paper, finally on music.

There is the release of the reissue of this first album on November 15, but there is also another project that you presented at the Japan Expo in Paris last July, it is your first webtoon, “La Note Noire” . To summarize quickly, it’s an online comic, but you’ll be able to talk about it much better than me!

Yes, indeed, it is a comic book, and I specify, free. It’s available to everyone, on smartphones, on computers. It can be read by scrolling, and I find that it’s a new way of reading. And you can read it everywhere, whether on the subway, at home, in bed. And I find that good because it gives a new dimension to the project. Nuit Incolore makes songs, songs can be listened to. But a webtoon can be read with the eyes and we will say that it completes the image of Nuit Incolore.

I always end these interviews with a little “Crush” moment, which is good, because it’s also the title of one of your singles! You’ve done duets with Kyo, Loïc Nottet and Mentissa. If tomorrow your record company asks you to do a duet with a Swiss artist, would your Crush be for Stephan Eicher, Bastien Baker or Nemo?

Stephan Eicher! I think he’s a bit like the father of Swiss artists. It’s always a reference when I’m abroad and we have to talk about Swiss artists. But there is also “one” Stéphane, who is currently breaking everything and whom I appreciate enormously. So there you have it, it would be with a Stéphane. (laughs)

Find the full interview with Nuit Incolore: