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Tahiti Boy's Parisian pop
Good Children Go to Heaven
Paris
18/06/2008 -
"I like singing about naïve love, about silly, foolish love, lovers who are a bit clumsy and prepared to make fools of themselves. There's nothing tongue-in-cheek or ironic about my album. My songs are intended to be taken at face value. I'm a genuine romantic!" declares Tahiti Boy, a small, bearded, meek and mild individual who does not strike one as your average Parisian. In fact, Tahiti Boy turns out to be so nice, polite and unassuming that it's difficult to believe it's not an act! Take one listen to his debut album, Good Children Go to Heaven, though and you'll realise that this is a man with his finger firmly on the music pulse - yet someone who is not afraid to be himself! At a time when other artists are trying to spice up their careers performing guest duets with porn stars or recording yet another cover of a dancefloor hit, Tahiti Boy simply invites his girlfriend, Audrey, up on stage to sing Not Only For The Weekend, a disarmingly simple but effective teen ballad.
So why, you may ask, is there suddenly such a buzz in trendy circles about a music that is distinctly un-trendy? Tahiti Boy claims he has the answer. "Let's face it," he says, "even guys who play rock and electro and who are into the idea of pumping out a really massive sound are still moved by a good melody. I think all of us have that in us somewhere, I don't know whether it's from childhood or adolescence but it's there… Daft Punk's album 'Discovery' was a feat of electronic programming, but in my eyes that doesn't stop it being a pop masterpiece. It's got proper melodies and verse-chorus structures and everyone can sing along to a track like 'Harder, Better, Faster.' It's really pop!"
Running into Paul McCartney
On his debut album, Tahiti Boy shows that he is a master of carefully-crafted melodies and songs which prove impossible to get out of your head after a first listen. Good Children Go to Heaven is full of tracks that slip gently under your skin and others like You Make Me Blush that make the hair on the back of your neck stand up listening to its plaintive lead vocals and sweet, soul backing. But, make no mistake about it, Tahiti Boy's debut offering is not all about gentle teen ditties. Other tracks such as When I Miss You and 1973 are pure dance gems, proving that pop can turn up the tempo when it has to. "What I like about the term 'pop'," says Tahiti Boy, "is that there really is a popular dimension to it. For me, The Beatles weren't 'popular' because they became international superstars, but because their music is so varied that everyone can find something they like in it. If you're into hard rock you can listen to 'Helter Skelter', if you like ballads there's 'She’s Leaving Home' and if you like pure mainstream music there's 'Let it Be.'"
With its rounded bass, its nifty flutes and its pure pop-sounding organ, Tahiti Boy's debut album has a resolutely '60s feel to it. And you'd be forgiven for thinking you hear Paul McCartney sneaking in a few vocals on a song like When I Speak. Back in his pre-Tahiti Boy days, young David was working in a musical instrument store in Brooklyn when, one day, the former Beatle walked in. And the French popster is still kicking himself that he didn't have an album to give Sir Paul at the time.
Life in the Big Apple
Tahiti Boy may only just have put the finishing touches to his debut album, but he claims he has been "chewing over ideas for songs" from an early age, picking out his first compositions on piano or guitar. After completing his 'baccalauréat', young David went on to study English and sociology at a Paris university "without much conviction." He spent most of his spare time as a student, setting up a small, independent record label with Gaspard ? (a future member of Justice). Deciding that music was to be his vocation rather than a simple hobby, David proved his musical talent winning a place at the prestigious Julliard School in New York. He spent four "unforgettable" years hanging out in Brooklyn, where he got right into the music scene, playing sax with the Afro-beat outfit Antibalas for a year and working as a keyboard-player for electro-rap artist Mike Ladd.
Tahiti Boy's debut album is infused with a certain nostalgia for his New York days including tracks such as That Song, a moody duet with Tunde Adebimpe and the 'post-rock' sounding Brooklyn. So, one wonders, if life was so marvellous over in the Big Apple, why did Tahiti Boy come home? "It gets pretty tiring running around trying to get work visas all the time," he admits, "U.S. borders are well and truly shut to foreigners these days. But, believe me, there's not a single day that goes by when I don't check the price of flights!"
Tahiti Boy worked hard on his return to France, throwing himself into a six-month tour with Mike Ladd and guesting on various projects with other artists. But the time finally came to concentrate on his own compositions. Recruiting a team of some of the best pop musicians the French capital has to offer (including members of Tanger and Syd Matters), Tahiti Boy got together a backing band known as The Palmtree Family and went into the studio to record his debut album. And, he believes, there could not have been a better time to release it.
"I'm really happy about the whole buzz on the electro scene right now," he says, "It's definitely put France back on the music map and everyone gets to benefit from that. That doesn't mean that I like everything that's released, but I think it's a good thing on the whole. It opens doors for all of us and gives us all more street cred. We're a Parisian band and we're proud of it. We don't have to be ashamed of our origins!" Take one listen to Good Children Go to Heaven and even the most doubting musical Thomas will have to admit that, yes, Paris can finally be proud of its pop!
Ludovic Basque
Translation : Julie Street
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