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About The Sound of the Third Sex Source Público (Portugese newspaper) Issue/date 27/04/01 Author Luis Maio transcribed by José Polido & Carla Ferreira

Zita Swoon are dominated by the odd figure of Stef Kamil Carlens, a tall and thin guy with long blonde hair hanging over his shoulders and wearing eccentric clothes (sleeveless dresses, patterned trousers, belted leather jackets). But he does not look effeminate or even voluptuous - it is just difficult to say if it is a man or a woman. This ambiguity was the tonic of his presence in Portugal, first with dEUS, and later already with Zita Swoon in Lisbon and Coimbra and finally with "Plage Tattoo" a dance/theatre/music show presented in Lisbon one year and a half after the first Zita Swoon shows. The ambiguous image is something that the artist from Antwerp takes upon himself without any reservations: "I just think that the mixture between the two sexes is more interesting than its total separation. I really like the feminine intuitions and the sensibility but I also enjoy the strength and the masculine way of handling things. The truth is that my posture may seem androgynous but it isn't something which has resulted from a great deal of thought. I like the aesthetics and I would appreciate more respect for those who, like me, are placed in the middle of the scale, between both sexualities." Melancholic candour. More than a matter of image, androgyny is a philosophy of life and a way of being in music, which collides with normality. It implies a constant confrontation with the odd looks and the reprobation of others while feeding itself on that daily lived pressure. Therefore, and in spite of the search for balance and harmony, Zita Swoon's music is tendentiously gloomy. Stef is the first to admit to it in a melancholic candour speech, which in a way builds up a contrast with his exuberant presence on stage: "I tried several times to write a more positive or even a cheerful speech. But every time I try to do it I tend to fail. Because life is not only joy. There is some happiness but there's much more sadness. To me it is impossible to show only or mostly the bright side of things and I always end up by mixing happiness and sadness, ugliness and beauty." Innocence, ambiguity and the impact with the world flow into a sort of a tormented narcissism which finds expiation in Zita's music. The name of the band used to be Moondog Jr. and they debuted in 1995 with the title "Everyday I Wear A Greasy Black Feather On My Hat". They had though to change their name because a veteran blues player was already using the name Moondog. Zita means intensity and Swoon desire. By melting both of them, Zita Swoon's music is a search for an impossible plenitude, a passion for absolute enjoyment which is never free from its opposite. Hence, the sad music that is also unsettling or even intempestive, which in its inner turbulence defies any type of classification. Influences can be found in a sound which goes way beyond them. That is why the obvious connotation with glam rock must be relative. Stef says: " I loved Glam Rock because it was an extreme music, and besides there were bands like T. Rex that were making excellent songs. Glam had a visual side to it, which was almost 50 % of the show, and which I specially like to explore. But we also drink from many other sources, namely from the American rock and even from the disco sound. We are the children of 50 years of music." This need to embrace everything in a twisted fusion helps to explain Stef's departure from dEUS, the band with which he first gained international projection. "dEUS, which were mainly a project from Rudy Trouvé, have been transformed into a big band. A big band is a lifetime occupation and it was taking a lot of time from me. I prefer developing several projects." The truth is that when dEUS released "The Ideal Crash" (99), the first album without Stef, they had reached an alternative pop format, less adventurous than the one explored by Zita Swoon. Zita Swoon have divided their activity between song albums as "I Paint Pictures On A Wedding Dress" (98) or the new "Life = A Sexy Sanctuary" and soundtracks, "Music Inspired by Sunrise" a film by F. W. Murnau and "Plage Tattoo/Circumstances" (2000) for the ballet "Plage Tattoo" by the company Les Ballets C de la B. These crossing experiences with cinema and dance, the diagonal on Zita Swoon songs make them a delicacy to enlightened minorities. Stef though prefers claiming authenticity as an opposition to conceptualism: "We are more "heart" than "art rock". Art has frequently an elitist side which I don't appreciate. We can play in a theatre as well as in the street. What matters is that music is alive and I am not in any form an intellectual."

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