Since AIR and DAFT PUNK have spearheaded the dance-based revolution in French pop, everyone's been sitting up and listening again. Paris/ Rouen quartet TAHITI 80 are another name that'll be on far greater numbers of lips after their new album "Wallpaper For The Soul" is released. Keen to find out more about the band's raison d'etre, Whisperin' & Hollerin' placed a cross-channel call to singer/ guitarist XAVIER BOYER to find out more...
Hello Xavier! Certainly, the press and media in general have taken a far more positive stance on the French music scene since the likes of Air and Daft Punk have come through. Has this attention been beneficial to TAHITI 8O, or do you feel isolated from it all?
"Well, we've benefitted from the "French touch" as I call it," replies Xavier, as ever embarrassing your correspondent considerably, seeing as his English is a trillion times better than my French could ever be.
"Air and Daft Punk were the first to gain critical success outside France. I mean, previously, apart from Serge Gainsbourg, there wasn't much credible recognition for French artists outside of our own country. It's taken a long time...maybe 20 years or more...but maybe at last we've caught up."
"But then," he continues, after a pause, "TAHITI 80 are quite different again, but I like the freshness in our music and also the fact that we have elements which aren't obviously French. We're influenced by English and American music, but...made with French eyes and ears is the way I'd decribe it."
Right, but the last time around, the dear old NME described you as "totally unfashionable", along with the chestnut "alarmingly unpredictable and quite brilliant." Is it a strength to be unfashionable?
"It's always good to be different from the lot, sure" ponders Xavier.
"It's funny as we actually finished "Wallpaper For The Soul" a year ago and we were very shut off rom the scene while we were recording it. When we got back from Portland (Oregon, USA) with the master tapes, we started reading again and thought...'Oh My God, we're so apart from that' (he means the White Stripes etc - ed), so maybe it's a strange time for us."
"But you know," he finishes, "What matters for us is that our music is made from the heart and we just felt lucky to be able to make the album we wanted to make."
The album opens with the atypical, gentle and reflective title track. It's a lovely, slightly melancholic thing with subtle loops and heavily treated vocals, but it's very different from much of the band's upbeat material. Why introduce the album this way? It'll throw a lot of listeners off the scent, surely?
"It's kind of a statement," replies Xavier.
"It's not an easy track, and we could have started with a very direct song like (new single) "Soul Deep", but with the title song...it's a way of saying hello and it's like friendship...y'know, you shouldn't give everything away on your first meeting, you know what I'm saying?
Yeah, you don't want to be too obvious. There should be an element of mystery...
"Right, right," says Xavier. "We thought if people like this, then the rest of the record will be far more accessible for them."
He's right, too. The new single,"Soul Deep" is unbelievably catchy. Reminiscent of both The Boo Radleys and Style Council, with a breezy groove and brash horn section, to me it's got "hit" written all the way through it. Was it always intended as a single?
"Yeah, it was really," admits Xavier. "It always had energetic dynamics, everything with that one came easily. We had Motown very much in mind, and also Boo Radleys and Style Council, as you say. We wanted to mix and match those influences and create our own form of classic, blue-eyed soul."
OK, the single features the Urban Soul Orchestra with strings and horns in tow. Did you actually meet them and record with them. It seems customary NOT to these days?
"No, we recorded the album mostly in New York and finished it up in France," Xavier reveals.
"We went to London to add the strings, but Richard Hewson (arranger) did all the arrangements. We sent him the demos and ideas and he simply improved on them. We only had strings on a cheap keyboard and he contructed something truly incredible out of our ideas. We were there when the strings were recorded, but we were just sitting on a sofa watching them play the parts! That was all."
Anothet element of the TAHITI 80 recording process that fascinates me is that you have ERIC MATTHEWS (formerly of Cardinal and a Sub Pop recording artist in his own right) working with you in the studio. How did you hook up with him and will be you be working with him again in future?
"We wanted some trumpet on the first album "Puzzle" (2001), and our producer (Andy Chase) knew Eric," says Xavier.
"We met up, talked and it seemed we shared a number of musical ideas. When we sent him some of our songs, he was very enthusiastic. Actually, he made up his parts there and then for the songs, it was very spontaneous with him."
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"This time round we were worried whether Eric would want to work around the orchestra, but he was entirely happy to work his parts around it. He's very subtle and a special guy. Our working relationship with him is excellent. It's a small world, and it's amazing where you find like-minded people."
There are a number of moods making up "Wallpaper For The Soul", certainly, but on the whole, the sound is very up, very positive. Is this a fair refelection of TAHITI 80 collectively as people?
"Yeah, I think so," says Xavier, laughing just a little.
"It's true that we certainly try to see the good in the bad things. We are prone to melancholy sometimes, but I'd say we're pretty happy-go-lucky guys mostly."
You've (mostly) recorded your albums in New York, Xavier. Does being in city itself influence the sound of either album for you? Something like the urban feel of "The Train" on the new album would suggest so?
"Mmm...I dunno, really," Xavier considers.
"Strangely, we went out to record this album only a few months after the 9/11 tragedy and New York itself was really relaxed, we felt in no danger, whereas everywhere in Europe we went felt really fucking tense. We felt New York had a real Californian vibe. The album sounds totally different to anything I'd imagine would ever come from New York!"
At a separate tangent, I believe TAHITI 80 are getting really popular in Japan. It's a huge place for rock bands in general but do you like playing over there? Are your fans as obsessive there as we'd tend to think?
"Yeah, it's pretty intense alright," chuckles Xavier.
"People always tend to give you presents, but we have great fans eveywhere...they respect us, whatever. We might be good-looking guys, but our message is musical," he says, tongue obviously slightly in cheek.
"I mean, people DO really come for the music first. Even if it's somewhere and they haven't much English they'll try to sing along. It's very touching, actually."
Musically, there's a lot of versatility in TAHITI 80, with a lot of different instruments being brought in. Have you all played in bands prior to getting together in TAHITI 80?
"No, TAHITI 80 is our first band," says Xavier, surprising me.
"The original line-up got started around 1995, while we were still very young. We had no real experience, except for Sylvain (drummer) and we weren't taught music at school. Buying our own instruments at 16 was a good thing and we've always nurtured a playful attitude towards music."
"We keep on learning. For instance I learned piano between the two albums and it gives us more compositional variety, rather than just guitar, that and bringing in loops and so on. Pop is often very restricted in terms of rules, but we're always keen to break out."
Sure. I take your point, as the experimentation often produces cool tracks. For instance, probably my favourite track on the new album is "Fun Fair" and it really does encourage that feeling of being at a fun fair and the hurdy-gurdy atmosphere. It sounds quite a complex track, but was it easy to pull it together?
"Well, "Fun Fair" was one of three songs on the album (the others being "Wallpaper For The Soul" and "Don't Look Below") where the finished song was written on computers. That was a change for us and very exciting. We had a basic structure and went on a voyage into the unknown! It was great, the whole album was about experimenatation, which is why it was so enjoyable to make."
Yeah, and you even used a synth bass on that tune - you retro-fetishists!!
"I know!!" Xavier howls with laughter.
"It's funny as we bought the synths before we went into the studio and didn't even know how they worked at the time. But that's the thing about music and technology at the moment...you can complement classic '60s things with '80s stuff and even more contemporary things. That's the framework for TAHITI 80. Who knows where we'll take it next!"
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