We met French pop singer and actress Camélia Jordana in Paris last summer during the We Love Green where she introduced us to her side project LOST. Together with Laurent Bardainne (Pony Hoax) they wanted to focus on social and political aspects of daily life.  While preparing their first record which will be out in March on Arista/Sony, we caught up with Camélia for a long chat, explaining the origins of LOST and how she was constrained to express herself of being a witness of a declining society.

I’ve read in some interviews that it’s been a long time that you wanted to create LOST. You think it’s because you wanted to explore the music industry solo before with a band?

Honestly, I did not ask myself this question because meeting Laurent was the main trigger of LOST.  While we were making music, we asked ourselves “maybe we need to make this concrete?’ Then we decided to release it together as I didn’t want to make it in my own name as it’s a joint music project. But now LOST is more than Laurent and me as we are a group of seven and counting. Personally, I considered it to be my third record.

So LOST is to be considered as a collective project?

Yes, even if I do interviews on my own, people sometimes ask “who are the rest of the band?” LOST is my musical family that I’ve created!

You think that being a twenty-something woman of Algerian descent in France makes you a voice for an emerging generation which still has difficulties expressing themselves in today’s society? What was the key event to spark this expression?

I think it’s life and now that I’ve grown up! I’m still the same girl but since I’ve started, I’m more mature. I find it cool to see how the Arabic woman I am now can own her hair for example while doing typical French songs. I don’t feel to be a speaker as I’m not a leader of a political movement but a witness of our actual society.

You have always been part of some political and social causes in France for the last three years such as singing “Quand on n’a que l’amour” by Jacques Brel at the national memorial day for the victims of the November 2015 Paris attacks. Do you think its important for artists these days to be socially conscious and support causes?

I don’t think it’s the role of an artist to do all that. I did all these things as its who I am. My grandparents were imprisoned by the French long ago and my parents have been on the receiving side of racism, but they are now in a good place. I’m happy for that. So many bad things happened in France and the world these past three years that I can’t keep quiet! I have the chance to attract so many medias and to have an audience following me since the beginning so it was natural to express myself about all shit that happened!

You’re not afraid that your pop fans will be confused with the project LOST?

I think it been a long time that they’ve been confused haha…but I’ve never asked myself this question as I think people might understand my message even if it is in a different style. When I write a song, first I want to express things inside me then I think of how it can touch others so no I’m not afraid.

”So many bad things happened in France and the world these past three years that I can’t keep quiet!”

We discovered LOST at the We Love Green festival this summer and your performance was really poetic as you mixed several languages to express these social problems. Tell us about singing in Arabic in the set as well.

It all started when we were recording 2Fi 3lemi (Mon drapeau). We created this song in English and were like “ok we need to go in that direction’. Then we planned to put it in Arabic so I translated some words with my mum and my aunts and its fit very well. But something was wrong as singing in English and Arabic was strong after witnessing what happened in France and we are French so it was normal to include some French in the songs. Laurent is a forty-something white guy, with a family, children and me, I’m a young woman of twenty-five, single who grew up in a traditional Arabic way. But we were both connected even if we are totally different. It was normal finally to sing in France.

Do you think your next record under Camélia Jordana will have some LOST influences?

Yes, totally! I think with LOST, I can now try new things in music. Even more experimental! But I’m still proud of my new solo record.

And what’s next for LOST?

I don’t know, to be honest. Everything depends on how the project survives. But the doors are still opening! Maybe in ten years LOST will be back to support another generation, we’ll see…

Interview and 35mm photography by Ivica Mamedy