Fred And Fred's Tip Sheet - Interview

Interview, August, 2000

IN THEIR NEW COLUMN, THE DUO BEHIND PARIS' COOLEST RECORD STORE GIVE US THE SCOOP ON WHAT'S MAKING NOISE IN EUROPE

INTERVIEW: What's the news in music from Paris?

FREDERIC SANCHEZ: There's a French artist called Mirwais who used to be one of the leaders of the group Taxi Girl, who were an important part of the French New Wave. And now he's made an incredible solo record called Production (Na[ddot{i}]ve), with one piece with Madonna singing in French. Now he's producing part of her next album. He does electronic music but with guitars--very sophisticated, very sexy, but not happy sexy. It's darker, and very international. He was also very inspired by the French singers of the '60s--and now this influence is strong again. The Belgian group Vive La F[hat{e}]te are also very inspired by that moment, as are the American group Le Tigre that we used for Marc Jacobs last season.

I: What other new albums fit this theme?

FS: Chicks On Speed have done this record just out now called Chicks on Speed Will Save Us All (Chicks on Speed Records). They're a group of German girls--all artists, not musicians--doing techno music with the influence of the B-52s. There is also a great new record titled Artists' Rifles (Rocket Girl) from a group in England called Piano Magic who are in the same vein as Stereolab; they have the same poetry. And there's also a collaboration between Sonic Youth and Brigitte Fontaine, a French singer who is really a big reference for all these groups. Fontaine is from the '60s, and she has that kind of nouvelle vague reference but much more crazy. And there's another great record from the French artist Anne Laplantine that's called Nordheim (Gooom Disques). Her music is a little childish in a way. Her voice is always very far away. She doesn't want to show herself, I guess.

I: And why does that make it interesting for you?

FR: It's an evolution of what's happened in music. Five years ago was the beginning of what they call electronica. And now it's much more melodic; there are songs again; but at the same time there's a kind of poetry inside. It's very fragile. For me, all these records really go together. It's like what's happening in fashion at the moment: Very simple dress, very individual, very personal, and very twenty-first-century. On the pulse: Fred Bladou (left) and Frederic Sanchez.