Parallel Dance Ensemble - Artist Provocateur
Author: Karl Puschmann
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It’s said life imitates art, but for Jessica Hansell, better known as hip hop-electro rapper Coco Solid, imitation just isn’t her thing. Instead, her art is her life. It invades every facet of her existence, propels every decision she makes and defines who she is. The medium is secondary in her pursuit of the creative – she’s accomplished in the visual, written and, of course, musical fields – allowing us to be quite accurate when we describe her as a true artist. She’s travelled the world pursuing that spark which ignites the imagination and provides ideas and now, after a fairly lengthy absence, she’s back not only with a new album but also a whole new musical project. Parallel Dance Ensemble, her collaboration with producer Robin Hannibal, aka Bobbi Soxx, is about to release ‘Possessions and Obsessions’. Karl Puschmann talks to this creative chameleon.
Robin Hannibal is a producer, possessor of one of the most unique falsettos you’ll ever hear. Danish-born, he is also a lecturer at the Red Bull Music Academy in Barcelona, which is where he and Kiwi rapper Jessica Hansell (better known as Coco Solid), musically speaking, hooked up.
“We met at the academy and it was really obvious to both of us that we had a really good creative synergy going,” Hansell says. “ We just kept that up.”
Their first effort was the single Turtle Pizza Cadillacs which came out in 2009 and was the beginnings of Parallel Dance Ensemble as a unit – albeit a unit that functions somewhat differently to most.
Since that initial release they both relocated to different countries, meaning the album we are here to talk about was made in various studios around the world, and saw them actually only being in the same location together a couple of times during the whole process. This explains why the album has taken nearly two years to create and is described by Hansell as both “… a great exercise in patience,” and a … really intense and positive project”.
“He was sending me demos over the internet... and then we hooked up in Germany and did some more and then he came over to NZ,” Hansell summarises. “He’s just as bad as me though, in the sense that he has a lot of side projects and a lot of side interests. We have exactly the same ethos in that way, which I think is what attracted us to working together. Because if you’ve got something that you can share and collaborate on then you should just go for it. Make it.
“It’s probably one of my most intense bodies of work though. And that’s a lot to do with his creative practice. He’s a very meticulous producer. Me, I’m a bit more gung ho, but I learnt so much from it. It’s also been a great exercise in patience, us putting it together and also us getting it released.”
The album, which is out on German label Permanent Vacation, merges Hannibal’s dancefloor friendly, electro/disco production styles with Hansell’s coolly detached rap steez, resulting in a sound that is wholly unique, while simultaneously reminding of sounds that have come before. It’s also catchy as hell.
“This material has been coming together for a long time and I think that’s reflected in it. It sounds like a lot of love and energy and effort’s gone into it,” she says. “It’s a really cool concoction of Bobby and myself who have so many intersecting creative principles, but so many different ways of doing things as well. His musicianship is so intense and our influences were so eclectic and it’s a project that I’m really proud of because to me it doesn’t sound like much else out there. Which is a really great achievement these days. Everybody is kind of copying everybody else.”
As you would have picked up by now, the idea of copying or imitating is anathema to Hansell’s creative principles.
“I don’t want to contribute something creatively that’s already been done. I don’t want to be known to be of one particular mindset. I think there’s a lot of liberation there for me as a person and as an artist that I have so much creative freedom in any direction I can go. I’ve made it a staunch thing of mine that I would always try and force myself out of certain perceptions.
“I definitely started out wanting to do my own kind of genre and ideas, you know? I try and put that into everything I do. Try and do something that hasn’t been done. And don’t do it in a way that contributes nothing, do it in a way that makes people think. I don’t care if people fucking hate my stuff as long as they get something out of it or it causes a reaction – which it usually does.”
With that last sentence she laughs again. It’s funny because it’s true. Coco Solid could be called a true artist provocateur.
“That’s a big motivating force behind it. Just that quest to do something new, to find something new both within myself and my creative friends and unleash it and get people thinking, get people going in a new direction. I’ve always wanted to do that. Steer people in a new direction.”
But what makes this project so interesting for fans of Coco Solid is that with ‘Possessions and Obesssions’ Hansell left the music completely up to her producing partner, choosing instead to narrow her razor sharp artistic focus solely on the lyrical content and direction of the songs.
“Although I have beatmaking in my arsenal of things I love to do, for me it was not a question,” Hansell replies when asked about the songwriting process. “He is just a great producer, and instrumentalist and musician and so he definitely is in charge of that side of it. I was more passionate about the rapping and the lyrics. Lyrics are a huge part of what I’m into and why I do what I do, the opportunity to write and word things in a dynamic way. So that’s how we divided it.”
“We met at the academy and it was really obvious to both of us that we had a really good creative synergy going,” Hansell says. “ We just kept that up.”
Their first effort was the single Turtle Pizza Cadillacs which came out in 2009 and was the beginnings of Parallel Dance Ensemble as a unit – albeit a unit that functions somewhat differently to most.
Since that initial release they both relocated to different countries, meaning the album we are here to talk about was made in various studios around the world, and saw them actually only being in the same location together a couple of times during the whole process. This explains why the album has taken nearly two years to create and is described by Hansell as both “… a great exercise in patience,” and a … really intense and positive project”.
“He was sending me demos over the internet... and then we hooked up in Germany and did some more and then he came over to NZ,” Hansell summarises. “He’s just as bad as me though, in the sense that he has a lot of side projects and a lot of side interests. We have exactly the same ethos in that way, which I think is what attracted us to working together. Because if you’ve got something that you can share and collaborate on then you should just go for it. Make it.
“It’s probably one of my most intense bodies of work though. And that’s a lot to do with his creative practice. He’s a very meticulous producer. Me, I’m a bit more gung ho, but I learnt so much from it. It’s also been a great exercise in patience, us putting it together and also us getting it released.”
The album, which is out on German label Permanent Vacation, merges Hannibal’s dancefloor friendly, electro/disco production styles with Hansell’s coolly detached rap steez, resulting in a sound that is wholly unique, while simultaneously reminding of sounds that have come before. It’s also catchy as hell.
“This material has been coming together for a long time and I think that’s reflected in it. It sounds like a lot of love and energy and effort’s gone into it,” she says. “It’s a really cool concoction of Bobby and myself who have so many intersecting creative principles, but so many different ways of doing things as well. His musicianship is so intense and our influences were so eclectic and it’s a project that I’m really proud of because to me it doesn’t sound like much else out there. Which is a really great achievement these days. Everybody is kind of copying everybody else.”
As you would have picked up by now, the idea of copying or imitating is anathema to Hansell’s creative principles.
“I don’t want to contribute something creatively that’s already been done. I don’t want to be known to be of one particular mindset. I think there’s a lot of liberation there for me as a person and as an artist that I have so much creative freedom in any direction I can go. I’ve made it a staunch thing of mine that I would always try and force myself out of certain perceptions.
“I definitely started out wanting to do my own kind of genre and ideas, you know? I try and put that into everything I do. Try and do something that hasn’t been done. And don’t do it in a way that contributes nothing, do it in a way that makes people think. I don’t care if people fucking hate my stuff as long as they get something out of it or it causes a reaction – which it usually does.”
With that last sentence she laughs again. It’s funny because it’s true. Coco Solid could be called a true artist provocateur.
“That’s a big motivating force behind it. Just that quest to do something new, to find something new both within myself and my creative friends and unleash it and get people thinking, get people going in a new direction. I’ve always wanted to do that. Steer people in a new direction.”
But what makes this project so interesting for fans of Coco Solid is that with ‘Possessions and Obesssions’ Hansell left the music completely up to her producing partner, choosing instead to narrow her razor sharp artistic focus solely on the lyrical content and direction of the songs.
“Although I have beatmaking in my arsenal of things I love to do, for me it was not a question,” Hansell replies when asked about the songwriting process. “He is just a great producer, and instrumentalist and musician and so he definitely is in charge of that side of it. I was more passionate about the rapping and the lyrics. Lyrics are a huge part of what I’m into and why I do what I do, the opportunity to write and word things in a dynamic way. So that’s how we divided it.”
