“The Thursday Madonnas”: flight time for the Aveyron group

Come on, let’s go with a ready-made sentence, with this famous: “No one is a prophet in his country”.
And yet it is so true, especially for the Aveyron group, “Les Madonnas du Jeudi”. A group of friends who have been meeting for eight years to play music, make compositions, and present them in public. In short, the classic journey of many groups forming, deforming, evolving and growing.

“The Thursday Madonnas” are reaching an important milestone. Not really amateurs anymore, not really semi-professional. They worked on their compositions in a collective mode where each person brings their artistic signature. They held numerous village festivals to confront the harsh reality of a fickle public.

“At these parties, on stage we give our all but as we don’t do covers of recognized pieces, people have a drink without listening to us. At first, we were paralyzed by thinking that we were bad. Salvation came from a music teacher. She explained to us that village festivals are the worst context for musicians. The solution is to play for one or two people who really listen to us. We look for them and then we only think about these people for the duration of the song. In this way, we felt pleasure”, summarizes Jules who ends with a lot of philosophy, “it’s a good school to learn”.

Be yourself

So we come back to this idea of ​​not being a prophet in your country. “We made the choice to compose, to have our own music. Titles have been released, albums too, the last of which will be offered to the public at the end of November 2024.”

To expose themselves, “The Thursday Madonnas” offer their work on the site bandcamp.com.
“We have been on the air on many radio stations in France. Thus, in Lille, Auxerre, in the Ardennes, local radio stations liked our titles to the point of presenting them to their listeners. On the other hand, in Aveyron, nothing…”

So, no one is a prophet in his country? ” I don’t know. That’s how it is. We continue to move forward with the hope of playing in beautiful venues dedicated to music. We have evolved, matured, taken a step forward but frankly it’s really hard to enter this music network. Each artist, each group protects themselves, there is no solidarity between artists but I understand it, it’s so complicated to exist so when you want to make a living from it, it’s frankly not easy. Moreover, Jules, Guilhem and Nicolas all have jobs on the side which allow them not to depend on music. “It’s random. By being more and more involved in this universe, I better understand the artists’ journey. You can release a recognized title or album then disappear because your subsequent creations are not at the level of the previous one. Can you imagine the pressure felt by the artist? » Indeed, the glitter then looks like ice crystals melting in the sun.

“I realize that creating lyrics and melodies is a special exercise. There are times when the entire creative process happens in an instant. It’s easy, clear and even magical. Then other days you want to create and you are without words, without sounds, you are even bad while you remain the same person.” This is why the trio of artists “is happy to have another job on the side. This allows us to be ourselves and offer titles that reflect our image.”

Be happy

Take pleasure, be happy while playing music, give happiness to those who listen to them, “The Thursday Madonnas” speak in their compositions of ecology, feminism, derision. Their sound is that of rhythmic French rock. One of their latest track, “Les rockeurs en carton”, quickly gets into your head.

We feel the beginning of an artistic avenue to explore, a musical reading which can give more visibility among the specialized media. “We would like to release a recognized title. You have to be honest. Progressing and improving is a necessity in order not to purr.” If it has to be broadcast on radio stations in Lille, Auxerre, or the Ardennes, “Les Madonnas du Jeudi” greedily take these escapades.

Besides, not having prophets in Aveyron, is it really that serious?