A fruitful blend of explosive rap and club-ready dream pop, the EP Jardin mainly marks the meeting of two artists with very different universes: Roméo Elvis and Oscar and the Wolf. We spoke with the latter to better understand what lies behind this ultra-festive record.
Against the wintry gloom, a record with summery sonorities. “I’ve always loved contrast,” admits the Belgian singer Oscar and the Wolf whom we meet in an intimate corner of the Quotidien studios, shortly after his appearance on the show. With Jardin, released on December 12 and conceived in total collaboration with the rapper Roméo Elvis, he delivers a seven-track release incredibly effective that you listen to as you would drink a freshly squeezed orange juice in the morning to give yourself a boost. Pure, generous energy, with groovy sounds and lyrics that soon haunt the mind.
On each track, Oscar and the Wolf interlaces his dream pop with Roméo Elvis’s raucous rap, all over electro-dance instrumentals that evoke the genre’s Belgian roots. Diametrically opposed on paper, their universes fuse with a level of ease that is as disconcerting as it is seductive. “Our initial intention was to have fun and to make music that makes us move,” explains the young singer. “But we were aware of what our union represented. Already, it’s the first time a joint project exists between two Belgian artists where one is from Flanders and the other from Wallonia. But above all, we loved this contrast between the very street side of Roméo and my more elusive and tortured side.”
If the musical pleasure is there, one also appreciates the symbolism behind this project: Jardin is also the meeting between an openly gay singer and a straight rapper. “We were mutually discouraged at the outset from doing this project together precisely because we had very different audiences,” continues Oscar and the Wolf. “But that only motivated us to work on it even more.” He speaks of Roméo as a true ally who grew up surrounded by queer people and incidentally a fervent admirer of the Drag Race franchise. In their exchanges, sexual orientation never really was a topic – but they know that it is for a portion of Roméo’s audience.
That’s why they wrote the track “M’en Ballec”, a cheeky jab at those who would view their collaboration with disapproval. In the verse, the rapper imagines what his fans would say – “Elvis tu fais un EP avec une folle” – and later underscores the relevance of this homo/hetero project: “Les communautés s’affrontent, il faut qu’on les croise”. For now, the mission bears fruit. “After our last concert at the Ancienne Belgique, his audience came to see me while mine went to meet Roméo,” enthuses Oscar and the Wolf. “I felt that we had succeeded, at least in a very small part of the world.”
A Happy Anomaly
Building a friendship with a straight musician wasn’t necessarily a given for the singer. Max – that’s his city name – recalls a troubled adolescence. “I was slapped and spat on in the streets of Brussels,” he confesses. “At school, I was bullied, even by my teachers.” Then, at 17, he falls in love and shares a secret romance with another boy who, in everyone’s eyes, identifies as straight: “It was my first love and I loved the idea of forbidden romance, perhaps because I had been influenced by Brokeback Mountain, so I told myself that it was the norm. Later, I only fell in love with straight guys but it’s something I had to deconstruct if I wanted to be happy.”
In other words, the artist experiences a conflicted relationship with heterosexual men as she grows up, but it never tainted her view of them because she had other models, more positive: “My father was always surrounded by gays because his own mother was a writer and all his friends were. Sexuality wasn’t a topic with him.” He thus never harbored hatred toward them, whereas some might generalize about the straights who harassed him.
However, in response to this traumatic period, Oscar and the Wolf acknowledges having built a shield around himself to protect him – to the point where he long struggled to sympathize with other artists in the music milieu. Roméo Elvis then presents himself as a happy anomaly. “Our friendship made me realize that it’s important to surround oneself with people who share similar experiences,” the singer stresses. “We share the same pressures, the same fears.” Just as it is essential for a queer person to have other queer people in their circle? “That’s exactly it,” he says.
In contact with one another, the two Belgians were also able to offer not only support but also different perspectives: “I helped him gain a broader view of music and to better consider the visual aspect, the performances, the storytelling. And he really pushed me to see the glass half full more. He has a childlike soul that he infuses into his music, it’s fascinating.” For us, Roméo Elvis also comes out of it with a richer sound than what he had offered until now and which contrasts with what his rap peers offer.
