—
“The Musical’s Alchemists”, also known as TMA, is a music group from Nice. A novelty! A touch of “freshness in French rock, often rushed or mimicked from English rock”! But TMA dabbles in “everything, not limiting themselves to rock, punk, hard, or ballads.”
Chris, Alex, Joan, Yann, and Axel are 5 young alchemists who will surprise you with their personalized covers of Oasis, Noir Désir, Eric Clapton, Lenny Kravitz as well as with their original compositions: young talent with a passion for music.
Nice-Première now leaves you among the test tubes and other chemical instruments of “The Musical’s Alchemists”. Have no fear!
Nice-Première: Who are “The Music’s Alchemists”?
Chris: To us, TMA is, above all, friends who thought: “why not us?” The full group formed over time and through work. With Yann’s joining, we definitively formed the group, with friends who all have the same goals and desires. People like to say that it’s a teenage band or “an inspired group”. When we hear that, it makes us smile. But we really focus on our music. We have a good margin for progress.
Nice-Première: Why did you name your group this way?
Chris: Why not? In fact, we named the group because we found it good at McDonald’s… No, this original name has two specific reasons. First, we wanted to stand out and be ironic about young bands who think that having an English name and composing in English is the best way to succeed. It’s also a way to show that we want to mix styles, experimenting with all possible genres in our lab. And above all, TMA is quicker after all.
Nice-Première: What is its chemical composition?
Chris: The chemical composition of the group? Very different worlds… Take musicians from very opposite musical backgrounds, make them agree on a genre to follow, and it results in our music, something new, a bit of freshness in French rock often rushed or imitated from English rock (we won’t give any names). We really didn’t want to take music everyone plays, add our lyrics, and present it as a wonder.
Yoan: In physical composition, it’s classic: one singer, two guitarists, a bassist, and a drummer… do we say drummer? Sorry (laughs).
Nice-Première: Do you have a lab?
Chris: A lab? We could call our basement that. You know, rehearsing in the area is excessively expensive and not necessarily practical. We all live roughly in the same area in Nice, and there was a basement available in one of our houses (yes – no don’t get any ideas, we don’t live in mansions), we just had to make one or two adjustments, and our lab was born. It’s nice to have a space where we can play for hours without constraints; it allows us to really enjoy, work, and have fun.
Nice-Première: And what kind of experiments do you conduct there?
Chris: What kind of experiments? Take funk, metal, rock, gospel, find common traits to all these genres, mix them with French rock, and you have our experiments.
Nice-Première: What’s your magic potion?
Chris: The magic potion? Trying everything, not limiting ourselves to rock, punk, hard, or ballads. TMA is all of that at once; it’s surprising and keeps you on edge. We try to surprise as much as possible those who come to see us, to show them that we can touch everything without losing our identity.
Yoan: Our potion is also our shared passion for music; that’s what drives us.
…
Nice-Première: You mainly do covers?
Chris: We have a repertoire of covers for several reasons. We had to start somewhere, and instead of thinking inspiration would come just like that, we wanted to build a music from all our inspirations. We had to start by getting to know ourselves, understand our play. We do covers adapted to our style. This has allowed us to understand and create music that pleases everyone and excites them. Moreover, covers help a lot in composing, we know what’s been done, what can be done, and what to avoid reproducing… It’s tough to play in Nice pubs without a solid cover repertoire, our little advantage is personalizing them. The earnings help fund our demo project!
…
