< Colleen: For The First Time, A Hypnotic Composer Sings

August 17, 2024

(SOUNDBITE OF COLLEEN SONG)

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

This music, which sounds a little bit like you dropped a broke string instrument into a swimming pool, is by Cecile Schott. She's made music under the name Colleen since 2001. Her latest album is called "Captain Of None." She recently added lyrics to her music. For over 10 years before that, she was strictly instrumental. One string instrument in particular - the viola da gamba.

CECILE SCHOTT: The way I discovered the viola da gamba was through watching a French film called "Tous Le Matin Du Monde" by French director Alain Corneau.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "TOUS LE MATIN DU MONDE")

SCHOTT: I reckon I was around 16 or 17 when I saw it.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "TOUS LE MATIN DU MONDE")

SCHOTT: And I was really, really struck by the beauty of the sound of the instrument. However, violas are expensive instruments. They're hard to find. So, you know, I could never have, you know, imagined that I would one day have one and then make the sort of music that I'm making now.

(SOUNDBITE OF COLLEEN SONG)

SCHOTT: You know, they say that the viola da gamba is the instrument that sounds the most like the human voice. I guess that's because the way that it's built, it has a boxier sound I guess, than you know, a cello, for instance. And most of all, the viola has gut strings. You know, yeah, the gut is like the part of an animal - well, actually that sounds pretty bad 'cause I'm a vegetarian so I guess (laughter) that's not good for a vegetarian to be using gut strings. But the fact that they're not metal strings just seemed to be a sound that literally resonated in the air in a different way.

(SOUNDBITE OF COLLEEN SONG)

SCHOTT: When I started to make music, you know, the natural thing was for me to make instrumental music. And I never thought, oh, there's a voice missing. Also, weirdly, at the time I thought that I didn't like female voices. I'm not sure why. But that immediately ruled out singing for me.

SIMON: But after a decade, she decided to give her music a voice, hers.

SCHOTT: I thought, OK, I'm going to try to - try and learn singing, but for about two years I sang completely the wrong way, which means I wasn't breathing properly.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CAPTAIN OF NONE")

COLLEEN: (Singing) Captain of nothing, captain of none.

SCHOTT: There is a running thread through all the lyrics and it's basically - it's about the experience of being human, of having a brain, of having a heart and how incredibly difficult and complicated it can be. It's just something that I've always been interested in.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CAPTAIN OF NONE")

COLLEEN: (Singing) Captain of none.

SCHOTT: And just to go into something that's very personal but I guess I should mention it because it's really something that has a bearing, I think, on the new lyrics, is that I had a brother who committed suicide when I was 18. He was 21. And it's not something that I often talk about, but, you know, obviously I was 18 and, you know, when something like that happens, it - you know, you really ask yourself a lot of questions about, you know, why can someone feel that bad about being alive? And so I think I was ready to try and write lyrics about trying to understand yourself, understand others, and just realizing that, you know, you never know what's in a heart. You know, that lyric.

(SOUNDBITE OF COLLEEN SONG)

COLLEEN: (Singing) You never know what's in the heart, you never know what's in the heart...

SCHOTT: You think you know people, you think you know yourself, but there are always moments in life when, you know, you're going to have a big surprise. Things are not the way they seem to be and that's always going to be the case, as far as a human is concerned.

SIMON: Cecile Schott, also known as Colleen. Her new album, "Captain Of None," is out now.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7r7zRZ6arn1%2Bpv6K60pypoqikqHx1fJFpaW9rZGg%3D