As part of the Making Tracks series of adventurous world music concerts at the National Centre for Early Music in York, tomorrow night Lo Cor de la Plana will demonstrate their singing prowess in the Occitan language to the accompaniment of an array of percussive instruments.

From a police siren to a new-born baby, a fantasy paradise to a drunken party, all of life’s dramas have a place in their music, as group founder and leader Manu Theron explains…

When were Lo Cor de la Plana formed and what does the name mean, Manu?

“The band started in 2000; its name means ‘the heart of La Plaine’, which is the area where we live and work. It’s a play on the word ‘còr’, which can mean ‘heart’ but also ‘choir’.”

How important is Marseilles to your songs?

“Marseilles is important to us in the sense that it’s the place where we live and where we work together. So this city’s atmosphere, its noisiness, its dirtiness, its loudness, its cheerfulness, its humour, its way of speaking, its accent, all of this has an influence upon us and can be found in our music, in the songs’ themes and lyrics, but also on the way we sing together.”

Your source material sometimes has a spiritual or religious theme. Can you give some examples?

“Our first album was entirely dedicated to popular religious songs of the Occitan area. We still sing this repertoire, especially when we sing in churches.

“These songs were not originally meant to be sung in churches; they express a very popular way of interpreting the sacred texts: Christ and the Saints are seen as avengers who punish the rich and save the poor, in a quite Marxist point of view.”

You grew up in Algeria. Does this have an impact on the group’s repertoire?

“Certainly, and what’s more, over the past 15 years, we’ve worked with southern Algerian traditional musicians on several occasions. The latest was in November 2010 when we stayed two weeks in the desert to build a repertoire with them.

“This encounter led to a show that’s still touring. Their main influence was the rhythms played on the bendirs, the frame drums that we use, and also in some ‘call and answer’, or ‘vocal tiling’ ways of singing that we’re very fond of.”

Does your music have a revolutionary message? Do you want political separation from Paris?

“We’re not that politicised, but the situation in France is such that the simple fact of singing in a local language makes you suspected of being an extreme right or extreme left militant or an anti-republican, and is therefore a political act in itself, so whether we like it or not, to sing in Occitan is necessarily a political commitment.

“But we’re not what you could call activists; we just sing in this language throughout the world, and we talk about it whenever people ask us questions about it, it’s the best we can do, as singers and musicians, for its survival.

“And no, we don’t want separation from Paris; we just want the actual president to be separated from power.”

Can you explain the difference between Occitan and French to an English audience?

“French is originally the local language of the Ile-de-France area, which is the area of Paris, and, like all the languages of the northern half of France, or ‘langue d’oïl’ it comes from popular Latin, but also from Celtic and ancient German, whereas Occitan, or ‘langue d’oc’, comes exclusively from Latin. To an untrained ear, it could sound a bit like Italian or Spanish, and it’s very close to Catalan.”

Do you have a new album on the way?

Yes, there is a new CD coming. We’ve already recorded several songs, and it should be issued in a few months. Our first album’s theme was religious songs, our second album was dedicated to dancing songs, and the next one will be dedicated to political songs, a mixture of traditional and original songs.”

Did you know?

Occitan (also called Provençal or Langue d’oc) is a Romance language spoken by 150,000 people in southern France.

• Lo Cor de le Plana play the National Centre for Early Music, York, tomorrow at 7.30pm. Tickets: £5 to £13 on 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk