FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM NOVEMBER 15, 2018 • BUZZ • THE QUEENS COURIER 73
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Astoria’s LiLi Roquelin’s newest album off ers a winter pick-me-up
BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELLDOMENECH
adomenech@qns.com
@AODNewz
Astoria artist and French transplant
LiLi Roquelin will release her fourth
album “Be Inspired” on Dec. 6, which
will be celebrated with a red-carpet event
and live performance at the Village’s Th e
Bitter End.
“I hope that I can inspire more women
to do this,” Roquelin said, who hopes to
uplift listeners in any way, shape or form.
On the same day the singer releases her
newest album she will also debut a documentary
fi lm off ering fans a behind the
scenes look into the work she put in to
producing the record.
“Th e whole process of the album is very
complicated,” Roquelin remarked. She
directed a total of 12 people while creating
the album — no easy feat for a female
artist with an accent in a male-dominated
industry. According to the artist’s website,
only 7 percent of all music producers
are women.
But despite Roquelin’s soft , tremoring
singing voice, the artist has grit.
Roquelin left her hometown of Toulon
to pursue an English language music
career 14 years ago. According to the
artist, there were few opportunities for
young musicians in the seaside city. But
she had known from an early age that she
would end up in New York or London.
Roquelin began singing at age 4 and
writing poetry in English at age 14.
But before landing in her dream city,
Roquelin made a stop in Cleveland, Ohio,
a state where extended family on her
mother’s side lived.
Th e young artist proved herself in the
city’s music scene there during the recording
of the alt-rock album “Neverending
Sundown” with the band Hate Dies Hard,
who then recommended here to producer
Sean Bilovecky. Roquelin and Bilovecky
co-wrote the song “I Saw You.”
Aft er three years in the Buckeye State,
Roquelin uprooted herself again and
fi nally moved to New York City.
“While in New York I do not see myself
capable of living in any other neighborhood
than Astoria,” said Roquelin, who
lived briefl y in Inwood. Like many new
Astorians, what attracted artist to the
LiLi Roquelin works on the documentary for “Be Inspired” at Pinch Recording Studios.
neighborhood was its reputation as a
melting pot.
“I am from the south of France along
the Mediterranean, so I feel more
Mediterranean than French,” Roquelin said.
Astoria’s Greek infl uence, immigrant
communities and penchant for new artists
helped the artist feel comfortable
enough to perform roughly written songs
in bars and cafes.
Like the ever-changing neighborhood
that Roquelin now calls home, the
last year has been a time of growth for
Roquelin. Her new album has a more
upbeat tone and features four songs in
French, which is unusual for the anglophile.
Ironically, a dark period of mourning
aft er a friend and fellow band mate
Sean Barringer passed away in the summer
of 2015 was the catalyst for the more
upbeat outlook on life.
Roquelin had to travel back to her
American roots — Cleveland — in order
to attend Barringer’s memorial.
“I wanted to have a music companion.
Th e ukulele is so small that I could
strum it in the car and this is when I
started learning chords on the instrument,”
Roquelin said. “Th e uke has this
little vibe to it. You can only play happy
songs and it cheered me up. It helped me
go through it.”
‘Saw Lady’ sounds bells in Astoria for troops on Vets Day
BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELLDOMENECH
adomenech@qns.com
@AODNewz
Natalia Paruz gained fame as the “Saw
Lady,” the street musician for fi nding
beautiful yet haunting sounds with a violin
bow and a common household saw.
But instead of playing her iconic saw,
Paruz used her handbells to play “Taps,”
the piece of music normally played at military
funerals on a bugle, to honor soldiers
at Astoria’s World War I memorial
on Sunday, Nov. 11. Her performance was
part of a Veterans Day ceremony honoring
the 100th anniversary of the signing of
the Armistice that ended “Th e Great War.”
“Th is was in honor of all of the soldiers,”
said Paruz. “But with a particular emphasis
on bellringers and to connect today’s
bellringers.”
Paruz decided to fi lm herself performing
aft er learning about an Anglo-German
eff ort to play thousands of church bells in
unison to commemorate the centennial.
Under the Defense of the Realm Act,
Britain curtailed the amount of church
bells could be rung during World War I
as a means to prevent signaling to enemy
soldiers or spies. So the Anglo-German
project was created to signal peace and
friendship between the two nations. It just
so happened that a large number of the
British soldiers killed during World War I
were bellringers.
“It’s our roots and I really connect to
history,” said Paruz, who said that she
wanted to do something for the 100th
anniversary but could not fi nd anything
happening in the community.
Th e Astoria artist, who has lived in the
neighborhood for 27 years, wanted to learn
more about her community’s history.
“For us it happened so long ago but for
the people that who fought ... it’s signifi -
cant,” said Paruz.
But unbeknownst to Paruz, her short
YouTube tribute would shine light on
another less known part of Astoria history:
the history of how the “Saw Lady”
came to be.
Paruz has always been artists and since
a young age had wanted to be dancer. But
a promising career was cut short one day
when while walking out of Lincoln Center.
“I was hit by a car,” said Paruz, who suffered
a massive injury to her upper back.
“Turning my head sideways is diffi cult and
turning it around, forget it.”
Aft er recuperating, Paruz’s parents took
their daughter on a trip to Austria. It was
was there that she became fascinated by
bells, having noticed that at cow bells were
sold at every souvenir shop. It was also
there that she witnessed somebody playing
a saw for the fi rst time and was immediately
fell in love.
“Th e entire instrument moves when
you play it and creates waves in the air.
It’s very physical and visual,” she said.
“It’s just like dance.”
Screenshot via YouTube
Natalia Paruz, the "Saw Lady," performed with handbells at the Astoria World War I memorial on
Nov. 11.
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