Name: Joe Bel
Nationality: French
Occupation: Singer, songwriter
Current release: Joe Bel's new album Family Tree is out via La Ruche.

If you enjoyed this Joe Bel interview and would like to know more about her music, visit her on Instagram, and Soundcloud.



Do you think that some of your earliest musical experiences planted a seed for your interest in your voice and singing? How and when did you start singing?

I think listening to a lot of music at home with my parents when I was a child definitely created something in my mind about the possibility of expressing myself through playing and singing.

They would sing songs to me all the time since the day I was born and then there would always be music playing at home. It was like a language I was hearing everyday!

If you’re also playing other instruments, how does the expressive potential of these compare to your own voice?

They are very different ways of expression and I need all of them to feel complete! But the voice is something very direct and organic, even more physical.

Playing and singing at the same time creates the perfect combination I need to express myself entirely.

Singing is an integral part of all cultures, and traditions. Which of these do you draw from – and why?

My singing culture background is a mix of a «pop» and a traditional one, mostly through main artists like the Beatles and Paul Mc Cartney, who would often use a lot of vocal harmonies and navigate through different popular singing styles such as country music, Scottish songs, classical music … The freedom they had inspire me a lot to build my own thing.



The traditional singing culture I have grown up into is the ladino culture with beautiful songs that come from Middle Ages, with Spanish and oriental melodies and inflexions that also inspire me a lot.

«Morenika» is on of these traditional songs, I sing it on my new Album Family Tree!



How do you see the relationship between harmony, rhythm and melody?

They all help each other! I love to find the perfect balance so that every aspect of the songwriting is essential and not just and accompaniment.

I often start with melody, but sometimes a rhythm leads me to a melody such as in my song «The Secret» : I had a guitar and drum part in mind and the melody came afterwards.

What are the things you hear in a voice when listening to a vocalist? What moves you in the voices of other singers?

I am sensitive to a vocalist when I feel like I meet the person through they’re voice.

Technique does not matter to me, I love to feel an authentic need in the voice, like a real necessity of expression.

How would you describe the physical sensation of singing? [Where do you feel the voice, do you have a visual sensation/ representation, is there a sense of release or tension etc …]

I think singing makes my body feel even more alive!

It’s a mix of tension and release, of control and freedom, it makes me feel more connected to my body and my sensations.


Joe Bel Interview Image by Sarah Balhadere

From whispers to screams, from different colours to dynamics, what are the potentials and limits of your voice?

I feel I have only one voice, that can be light or deeper sometimes … I always use it naturally without pushing it too far.

I’m not into technique and performance but rather softness and emotions. I think I have not explored a lot of it yet!

When youre writing song lyrics, do you sense or see a connection between your voice and the text?

It is always my voice that leads me to the lyrics: I love to sing freely until I find the right words.

Motherese may have been the origin of music, and singing is possibly the earliest form of musical expression, and culture in general. How connected is the human voice to your own sense of wellbeing, your creativity, and society as a whole?

I think the voice has an essential role in our lives, by letting emotions go and building relationships between humans. Using it in music is a mix of nature and culture to me, it is something very organic and instinctive to do, but also a controlled action, influenced by what surrounds us, what we’ve already heard.

Our voice as humans is a miracle that really amazes me!