‘Cultural osmosis’ is the root of my creative process, says Belly of Paris’ frontman

As Bahrain-based indie-folk band Belly of Paris prepare to perform in Dubai, British frontman Daniel Cochran tell us why he came to the region, and how his music is influenced by world literature and film.

The members of Belly of Paris come from five countries. Photo by Ankita Mamgain

Three years ago, Daniel Cochran was the frontman of By Toutatis, in his native North East England. For an indie band on the competitive scene in the United Kingdom, they were doing well, with airplay on BBC radio, a well-received debut album and a tour booked.

With his band seemingly on the verge of a breakthrough, Cochran quit and became a teacher in Saudi Arabia – not a traditional path for aspiring musicians to take.

It wasn’t creative differences that led to Cochran’s departure from a band, but a divorce.

“I was just sleepwalking through my life at the time and hadn’t really thought anything through,” he says. “I had nowhere to live and I just needed to leave the country. I applied for jobs all over the world and the first one that came up was in the Middle East. So here I am.”

He is now fronting another group, Belly of Paris, which play a similar brand of dramatic, baroque, folky music as that of By Toutatis. Based in Bahrain, where Cochran moved not long after arriving in the region, the six-piece band will be in Dubai on Friday (November 11) for a performance at The Music Room.

The band’s name, taken from Émile Zola’s book about the widening poverty gap in the French capital in the 1850s, encapsulates several of the band’s defining characteristics.

Their songs interweave literature and history, and exhibit a social conscience. There is also decadence and decay, and a willingness to walk the line of eccentricity and affectation (Cochran is, after all, a man who chose the chord organ as his main instrument).

Aware that his songs can be “a bit overdramatic”, Cochran says “cultural osmosis” is at the root of his creative process.

“When I was younger I’d go through periods of reading Russian literature and starting to wear greatcoats and smoke cigarettes – then French literature, and maybe change the brand of cigarette and wear a mac instead,” he says with a laugh.

“So the books I read and the movies I watch all kind of coalesce into this hardened ball of what’s produced. I don’t know how it works, but it’s like a machine and the output is this.”

The latest example is Belly of Paris' debut album, Peste (pronounced 'pest'), which was released on November 4.

The 10-track collection, which will be available to buy at the Dubai gig on CD and vinyl, is a beautiful and ambitious piece of work.

It is mournful and moving, backed with a confident swagger that makes it hard to believe the band have been together for less than two years.

“The album’s a series of sketches,” says Cochran. “It’s basically to do with the state of the world – fear and hatred and this rush to judgement all the time… it’s just overwhelming I suppose.

“I’m not very good at writing about things super-directly, so I tend to invent characters, or write about things through history or literature, but it’s all about things that are happening now. Human emotions and feelings don’t really change.”

With musicians hailing from Hungary (trumpeter Szabolcs Nigo), England (Cochran and guitarist Robert Prest), Palestine (keyboard player Yasmin Sharabi), India (drummer Sumit Sharma) and Argentina (bassist Carlos Villarroel), the varied backgrounds of the band members are apparent on a record that is unlike anything else coming out of the Middle East.

“We’re very keen not to change to fit in,” says Cochran. “That’s very easy to do, but I think there’s certainly scope for somebody doing something different here.”

While Cochran is happy to see the region’s indie-folk scene establish a foothold, he’s aware of the dangers when a particular niche becomes fashionable.

“It’s very difficult to build an audience here doing original music, so it’s great that people are doing it,” he says.

“You can’t knock the DIY thing. It’s great for kids, it’s great for anyone who’s feeling on the margins a bit. But it does tend to spawn a lot of pale imitations. I like artists that push a bit.”

With a show in Beirut also lined up, Cochran is pleased to showcase the new sounds live, even for a short run of gigs.

“It’s not a massive tour, you can’t really do that here,” he says, citing visa costs, red tape and permissions among the reasons. “But it’s a good end for a beginning.”

• Belly of Paris will perform at The Music Room, Majestic Hotel Tower, Bur Dubai, on Friday, November 11, from 9pm; tickets from Dh80. For more details, visit www.themusicroomdubai.com