Mama Rosin: From Swiss lakes to Southern comfort

So it may come as a surprise to learn that Mama Rosin hail not from the bayous of the Deep South... but the shores of Lake Geneva.

Over the past five years the Swiss trio of Cyril Yeterian, his former school friend Robin Girod, and Xavier Bray have being electrifying audiences with their explosive riot of banjo, accordion, harmonica, slide guitar and drums. It’s a sound with more bite than a snapping turtle. But how did three nice boys from the Alps come to be playing voodoo rhythm and blues?

We didn’t grow up in Louisianna, and Cajun and zydeco music are not our tradition,” says guitarist, singer and melodeon player Cyril.

“We borrow this music because we love it, but we’ve always had the goal to go somewhere else with it — to take a little bit of everything we love and a lot of ourselves to create a very personal music style.”

“An important word for us is ‘gumbo’,” he goes on. “It means a blend, mix or fusion. It is about merging. And so is Mama Rosin. “Our music is a gumbo of a lot of influences.”

He added: “We are from the French-speaking part of Switzerland with no strong local musical culture, but grew up with our parents’ records collections full of ’70s rock & folk.

“We’ve always loved folk music from everywhere and were into the blues, then one day, by chance, met some Cajun music players and had no choice but to fall in love with it for the rest of our lives.”

Last year, the band released their fifth album Bye Bye Bayou, recorded under the direction of Jon Spencer, of Blues Explosion fame, in his New York studio. It’s a typically potent mix of styles, which the band are keen to distance from the modern sounds of the South. “We are deeply influenced by old Cajun and zydeco records,” says Cyril. “We rarely listen to modern Cajun bands; we usually don’t like their sound.

“It has always been hard to describe our music, but I would say ‘deep Cajun and zydeco meets garage rock ‘n’ roll’. But if you ask me the same question tomorrow my answer might change!”

It sounds at once bang up to date and deeply traditional — largely because of their use of old Cajun dialect. “We sing a blend of creolised French from Louisiana and the Caribbean, as well as French and English,” says Cyril. “We’ve never forced ourselves to do it, it just came naturally. It would have been a way bigger effort to write all our songs in English or normal French.”

For many years the band lived a self-sufficient existence on the lake shore, growing their own produce and making their own schnapps and, appropriately enough, chilli sauce.

“It’s a part our lifestyle,” says Robin. “We grow fruit and vegetables and cook and distil what we collect.”

So good is it, they have taken to selling the stuff along with the T-shirts and CDs at their shows. “The schnapps had a lot of success in Germany and the chilli sauce in UK,” says Robin. “For us it is a little way of giving a taste to our audience — something more than music. You come to see a concert, then you can cook with our sauce. Nice!”

“For the past three years, it hasn’t been possible to take care of our garden though; there has been too much touring. We do try to avoid the gap of the consumerist world, though.

“Our music comes from the grass, the roots, the floor. We don’t use any samplers or computers on stage, so for us it’s normal to have a place where we can have a good life after tours. It’s an old farm in the country; lost, but not too much. Just enough.

And, says Robin, it is more like Louisiana than one might expect.

“It is a little Cajun country,” he laughs. “Lake Geneva is beautiful but can be very dangerous. A lot of little rivers go directly to the lake, and create kind of swamp. Where we live, you can find a lot of birds and animals and nice swampy vegetation. We even have a lot of mosquitoes during the summer. We like to say we live in the Geneva bayou.”

Because of their energy and multi-instrumental talents, it’s hard to believe there are only three of them.

“We are a trio, even if we sound like a big band sometimes,” says Robin. “Each of us finds space to speak through our instruments.

“Xavier is not only a drummer, he can play harmonica at the same time, or percussion. Cyril sings high and mistreats his melodeon and I rock my guitar and banjo. Each of us has enough space to exceed the music we play.”

So adept are they at filling in, Cyril and Robin also perform as a duo — Les Frères Souchet — named after a rare duck which migrates to Lake Geneva each winter. Robin admits the experiment was born of necessity after they were abandoned by former drummer Vanina Fisher, during a gig.

“Four years ago, before a show, we couldn’t find our drummer, “ he recalls. “She got lost somewhere in the town, so we decided to begin the concert without her. I took the hi-hat, Cyril the bass drum, and we begin to play. We tried to compensate for the missing drummer — and it was perfect. “We played a fun show which was full of energy. At the end, we realised she was in the crowd. She had found the venue, seen half the show, and stayed in the audience because she enjoyed it so much!”

There has been no shortage of praise for the dynamism of their live performances. But what, I wonder, is the secret to a good show?

“It’s all about being yourself,” says Cyril. “Giving yourself, enjoying yourself, and making everyone feels like they have been invited to our kitchen for an hour or two.

“We can bring you music, food and drinks... and we will give you the mood for le bon temps roulet!”

• Mama Rosin The Jericho, Oxford, on Wednesday. Doors 8pm.
• Tickets: £10 wegottickets.com