The Popopopops: the rising stars of French pop!
In a little while, this rather strange name will be on everyone’s lips. This young band, revealed at the Transmusicales de Rennes festival in 2008, is enjoying a remarkable rise in France’s burgeoning musical landscape. The Rennes-based band are preparing to release their debut album, Swell, on March 25, and agreed to answer Luxsure’s questions!
Where does the band name come from? I’m sure you’re all wondering? No ?
It comes from an NTM song and yes, everyone asks that question 🙂
Who does what? How are roles distributed within the group?
Victor and Simon compose most of the song bases together, then the four of them rearrange. Sometimes the title changes radically, sometimes not. There aren’t really any rules, and anyone can come up with something – the group is very democratic.
What are your musical influences?
There’s a lot of it, from hip-hop to big rock, techno to r’n’b. We draw on a bit of everything and we don’t close ourselves off to anything. Bands that we can all agree on are rare, but current ones include Foals, The Whitest Boy Alive and Alt-J.
How would you define your music?
We prefer people to put their own words to our music. We keep a pop format for sure, but the rhythms are sometimes inspired by hip-hop, the synths by eighties pop, the guitars are quite rock… all this makes our music rather difficult to pigeonhole.
You’re part of the excellent “Education française” compilation. What’s your relationship with the other bands in this “new scene”? “new scene”?
We know quite a few of them, we respect each other and it’s always a pleasure to share stages together.
Are you feeling nervous a few weeks before the release of your 1st album?
Yes and no, more like excitement. We can’t wait for people to hear the songs. It’s frustrating to keep it to yourself.
What themes does this 1st album address? Are there any tracks from your 2012 EP?
We’re saving the surprise for the tracklist! We talk about a lot of things, but girls, love and the complexity of social relationships are recurring themes on the album. Our relationships are a pretty inexhaustible subject!
What’s your agenda for the weeks and months ahead? Will you be touring?
We have dates coming up as we go along, many of which will be announced after the album’s release. We’re shooting clips, live sessions and preparing for the show.
Interview by Julien Tissot
“Swell” out March 25
www.myspace.fr/thepopopopopsband
@thepopopopops
Tour dates :
March 16 in Angers
March 28 in Paris
April 6 in Marseille
April 10 in Lille
Cette publication est également disponible en : Français (French)
