“The baby is fine” – Liberation

2023-05-20 22:34:00

Carried by a singular mixture of R’n’B and bouzouki, the songs of this Marseillais of Greek origin speak mainly of love. And finally, as he explains, what better than a pregnant woman to illustrate this?

The belly

“It’s my girlfriend’s when she was pregnant with our son. The photo was taken during the first confinement. It was made by Emma Passera, who is a friend. It was a bit of an informal shoot. Initially, it was planned that I appear on the cover. We did some tests, and in the end, I preferred not to be on it. I found it stronger that there was no face. It’s a personal photo without being private. Plus, we’re not so used to seeing pregnant women on album covers. And it fits well with the theme of the disc, which is mainly about love. It also evokes the birth of a first album, responsibility, paternity… We can also see the shape of a vinyl record there. I think the covers are important. The music, before listening to it, we see it. It gives a sense of reading, a direction, it sets a context. And for my part, I wanted the context to be sunny, symbolic and strong. I’m very happy with it. The baby is fine.”

The place

“The photo was taken at Volonté 93, an artists’ studio in Saint-Ouen. Before getting into music, I was painting. A mixture of very realistic paintings, inspired by the Renaissance, and almost digital minimalism. I was in networks of artists’ studios, which led me to leave Marseille to come to the Paris region. I lived for some time in the Wonder workshops, in Saint-Ouen. It allowed me to have space while spending little money. Now that I earn my living more or less decently, I came back to Marseille. For all the reasons one can imagine in terms of living comfort, and to bring me closer to my family.”

The abandoned idea

“For the cover, I first thought of putting one of my paintings. But, for a few years now, I’ve only been doing music. I put painting aside, because you can’t do everything at the same time. I tried to see if things I had painted in the past might not work, but it wasn’t convincing. So I preferred to start with something new. And then the album was already sufficiently personal for me to need to put one of my works on the cover as well. I did everything on this album. I wrote it, produced it, recorded it, mixed it… The only person who intervened was Antoine Thibaudeau, for the mastering.”

Johan Papaconstantino First degree (Animal63 /Believe)