Zak Laughed

The pop-folk prodigy

Paris 

10/09/2009 - 

There's been an underground buzz around Zak Laughed for a couple of years now. But the 15-year-old prodigy from Clermont-Ferrand has just hit the mainstream with his first album, The Last Memories of My Old House. This catchy pop-folk debut showcases Zak's boyish vocals and his precocious songwriting talent.

With a baseball cap pulled down over his floppy fringe, Zak Laughed (his stage name is a literal translation of his real name Zacharie*) looks like a typical American teenager. Like so many other French adolescents today, one might remark, only this French youngster grew up steeped in American culture. "I spent pretty much my entire childhood listening to Dad's record collection," Zak explains, "My Dad was really passionate about music and I grew up listening to Dylan and The Velvet Underground. I was also into American films and American literature, reading as much Kerouac as I could get my hands on."

Zak got his first ukulele when he was eleven and he instantly put the gift to good use, writing his first songs on it. The budding young songwriter went on to make a life-changing encounter thanks to his father, a professional photographer. Zak accompanied his father on a trip to Morocco and ended up rubbing shoulders with Mathias Malzieu, lead singer and songwriter of Dionysos (one of the rare French bands to feature on Zak's list of influences.) "Dionysos were off doing this artistic residency in Morocco before they went out on tour and my father went over to photograph them," Zak recounts, "Anyway, I got to play my first songs to them and Mathias encouraged me to start composing."

The Clermont-Ferrand scene

Zak's second big chance in life was to have grown up in Clermont-Ferrand (the capital of the Auvergne region) which has become a hotbed of new music talent in recent years producing the likes of Cocoon, The Elderberries and The Delano Orchestra. A local music venue known as the "Coopérative de Mai" has played an important role in scouting out this new talent and Zak owes his first major concert to the "Coopé", performing there with hip young pop-folk duo Cocoon for the Fête de la Musique in 2007. "I'd only done one mini gig before that in my life, so it was pretty crazy playing in front of a huge crowd at La Coopé!" he says.

When it came to forming his backing band, the Hobos Company, Zak kept things local, too, teaming up with his brother and a bunch of Clermont-Ferrand friends. Denis Clavaizolle (renowned for his work with Murat and Cocoon) was brought in to produce Zak's debut album. Displaying remarkable maturity for a 15-year-old, Zak concentrated hard in the studio, largely ignoring the buzz around his acoustic folk reworking of a Strokes song (released as a single on cult British indie label Rough Trade).

The Last Memories of My Old House, which took over a year to record, contains a wealth of pop-folk gems ranging from the light, upbeat single Each Day to moody, mature offerings such as Travelling Cat which, according to Zak was inspired by Eels, "my absolute role models when it comes to songwriting." Zak has an undoubted ear for melody, but the strength of his first album lies in his extraordinarily fresh, boyish vocals, the fact that his voice has not yet broken making his English folk songs sound even more innocent and naive.

"I really wanted to get into the studio before my voice breaks," Zak admits, "Otherwise the songs I'd written as a kid would have been distorted." The fifteen-year-old prodigy is rumoured to be an impressive live act, but for the moment he has his head down, thinking about a follow-up album. All Zak will say about this second album for now is, "Expect it to be very different from the first!" Especially, we might add, if his voice breaks in the interim! 

* "Zach a ri" in French!

Zak Laughed The Last Memories of My Old House (3ème Bureau/Wagram) 2009

Concert at La Maroquinerie, Paris, 30 September 2009

 

Jérôme   Pichon

Translation : Julie  Street