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Hushpuppies take a blind music test
Second album: Silence is Golden
Paris
23/11/2007 -
The Doors - 20th Century Fox
The Doors! (They instantly cry in unison. Hushpuppies: 1 RFI Musique: 0)
RFI Musique: So, first question, are keyboards important in the Hushpuppies’ sound?
Franck (drummer): It’s all part of our sixties influences. When we started playing together our role models were basically bands who used a lot of organ. We loved that sound and I don’t think we could ever have imagined doing anything else ourselves. That influence is still very much there. But don’t get me wrong, Silence is Golden isn’t just a sixties revival thing!
Wilfried (keyboard-player): Keyboards make all the difference. The thing is, very few rock bands in France actually use them. My job as keyboard-player is to smooth the rough edges and open things up in terms of harmony. I hate keyboards brought up front as a solo instrument. My job in Hushpuppies is to be the back-up. I’m a sort of second guitar, I guess. And one of the biggest compliments I get when we come off stage is someone coming up and saying, "I didn’t hear you at all on such and such a song. But man, the guitarist, he was awesome! How did he get such a big sound on his own?"
Pink Floyd - Shine on You Crazy Diamonds
Guillaume (the group’s bassist, quick off the mark! Hushpuppies:2 RFI Musique: 0): Pink Floyd!
Cyrille (guitarist): Pink Floyd are definitely one of our influences, but mostly their psychedelic period with Syd Barret!
Do you have any French influences at all?
Guillaume: Well, there’s Gainsbourg. But everyone cites him, so it’s not much of a reference. Gainsbourg’s almost got to the point where he’s not French any more because just about every Anglo-Saxon band claims to have been influenced by him! When we started out AS Dragon were a big motivation for us. We thought they were just incredible. Seeing them live on stage was always a big kick!
Franck: Musically speaking, AS Dragon were the only French band we ever wanted to be like.
Dionysos - Berceuse hip hop du docteur Madeleine
(They’re stumped! The album’s only been out two days and they’re struggling! Looks like Hushpuppies: 2 RFI Musique: 1 - but then they recognise the lead singer’s distinctive accent and it’s Hushpuppies: 3 RFI Musique: 0)
Cyrille: I think we all agree that Dionysos are the best rock band singing in French on the current scene!
Dionysos are like Hushpuppies in that you’re both very much live bands. Has spending so much of your time out on the road affected the way you write your material?
Franck: Well, we write our material collectively and that means we need to have all five of us together in the studio. That’s obviously very difficult when you’re out on tour. When we get three days off in a row, we get together and set up our equipment, but then before you know it it’s time to head off again - and you realise your rough drafts are still exactly that, rough drafts!
Cyrille: I think that’s one of our greatest strengths as well, though, going for long periods at a time without writing anything at all. When we got together to start work on this album we were really buzzing with ideas. I think our recent tour taught us a lot when it comes to listening to one another and playing together. And if there’s one big difference between this second album and the first it’s that there’s a greater sense of balance this time round. It’s funny, but some songs only seem to fall into place ages after you start working on them. Take Hot Shot, for instance, that started out as a complete catastrophe! We messed around with it for four or five months, thinking "We don’t want this! But hang on, there’s something good here. But what?" We only got what we wanted out of it right at the last minute.
Wilfried: The other big difference with the first album is that with this album we’ve tried to come up with songs we wouldn’t get tired of listening to over and over again at home. We’ve tried to be a bit more subtle this time round!
Bertrand Burgalat – Gris métal
Guillaume: Burgalat! (Hushpuppies: 4 RFI Musique: 0)
Franck: Tricatel was one of the first labels we really identified with.
Cyrille: Burgalat and Hushpuppies are like two different tangents of the sixties scene. We’re more down and dirty garage while Burgalat is closer to the whole Burt Bacharach film music thing. He’s going off in a whole different direction from us.
Babyshambles - Delivery
(All together): The Eagles? Scorpions? The Kinks?
Cyrille: Babyshambles! Pete Doherty’s group!
(And at Hushpuppies: 5, RFI Musique: 0, the group launch into a great debate about the quality of the track…)
Cyrille: You know, what we’re trying to denounce on our single Bad Taste and Gold on the Doors [Ed.: with its chorus line “I want my Kate Moss”*] is the way other things have come to take precedence over the music. How did Pete Doherty get to be a rock icon? By taking a lot of drugs and going out with Kate Moss, not for his talents as a musician! It’s got to the point where what the tabloids say is more important than the actual records - and the tabloids have eaten Doherty up and spat him out! Bad Taste and Gold on the Doors is being marketed as a "digital single." Does that mean it won’t come out in record stores?
Olivier (vocalist): Yes, it will. An EP of remixes is due out some time soon. It’s taking a while to get them all together, though. We’ve already got one by Cucumber, a mate of ours from Avignon, who’s done this “jerk” version of the song with lots of Hammond organ. It’s not bad at all! We’ve also contacted a few electro artists to remix our songs because that could open up a whole new audience who wouldn’t usually listen to our work. Having an interesting remix is always a good calling card when it comes to breaking into the U.K. market!
The Film - Can You Touch Me
Guillaume (first to answer again!): The Film! (Hushpuppies: 6, RFI Musique: 0)
Can You Touch Me was used as the soundtrack for a TV ad, just like two tracks from Hushpuppies’ last album…
Olivier: Yeah, there’s a big demand these days. Ad directors are starting to approach rock bands who aren’t that well-known because the Rolling Stones are too expensive! It’s like a new media to get your work known. For a group like us singing in English, French radio is pretty inaccessible. But when the whole of France was sitting there listening to one of our songs for a deodorant in one of the ad breaks during the World Cup, then even though the song didn’t have Hushpuppies written all over it, people were still getting to know our stuff and that’s important.
Cyrille: This is one of the rare ways we can make money, too. I honestly don’t know whether the group would still exist as we do if it weren’t for the money from ads. Ads and concerts are our only means of survival!
Guillaume: That doesn’t mean we base our songwriting on that, though. In fact, looking at the songs on the new album, I’d be hard pushed to say what could actually be used in an ad!*Doherty’s ex-girlfriend
Ludovic Basque
Translation : Julie Street
30/08/2007 -
