Special report

Ooh la L.A., French music goes to L.A.

Cocoon, Sébastien Tellier & co. in California

Los Angeles 

28/09/2009 - 

French music arrived in California in style with the "Ooh la L.A." festival (23 - 25 September), showcasing a host of contemporary French artists in Los Angeles. As organisers whip up support to make the festival an annual fixture, RFI Musique spoke to one of this year's opening acts, Cocoon.

All aspiring stars dream of seeing their name up in lights in Hollywood. And that fantasy just became reality for a group of French musicians at the Henry Fonda Music Box. French music touched down in L.A. on 23 September for three consecutive nights with performances from Cocoon, Sébastien Tellier, The Dø and Nouvelle Vague together with Gonzales, a Canada-born pianist now based in Paris. The flamboyant showman, who took to the stage dressed in a black satin dressing-gown, told RFI Musique that he considered himself to be different from the rest of the "little Frenchy" line-up. "I've already toured pretty extensively," Gonzales pointed out, "and I've been making albums for twelve years now!"

Other members of the French landing party were considerably more impressed by their U.S. debut. Cocoon, a young pop-folk duo from Clermont-Ferrand, kicked off the "Ooh la L.A." festival, taking to the stage before Gonzales and Sébastien Tellier. "This really is a dream come true," Cocoon's singer/guitarist Mark Daumail confessed as he and singer/keyboard-player Morgane Imbeaud hesitantly launched into their set. The audience was pretty sparse on the ground, but Mark and Morgane were smiling backstage post-show. "There were plenty of people in the audience who knew the words," enthused Mark, although when pressed he admitted, "OK, they were French!"

French fans accounted for the majority of the audience at the Music Box that night, despite the fact that the "Ooh la L.A." festival received widespread coverage in the American media. Sylvain Taillet, who masterminded the festival and who happens to be the artistic director at French record label Barclay, came up with the brilliant idea of getting the event promoted by Golden Voice (the company behind Coachella, the cult rock festival in the Palm Springs desert.)

French electro dandy Sébastien Tellier managed to draw a more eclectic crowd at "Ooh la L.A.", perhaps thanks to his recent airplay on American radio or the fact that his CDs are currently on sale in trendy American Apparel clothes shops (the clothing label is based in L.A.) David, a 29-year-old American in the audience proclaimed he was there because "I'm into French electro in general" but 44-year-old Meg was more specific. She discovered Tellier, the bearded French electro wonder, at Coachella and claimed he was "perfect, so we came back to see him again!" Tellier, sporting his usual dark glasses on stage, took his "electro bad boy" status to extremes at "Ooh la L.A.", indulging in an act of Gainsbourg-style provocation and openly drinking on stage. Opinions on his set were mitigated. 

The second night of "Ooh la L.A." kicked off with "half punky, half funky" French chanteuse SoKo (called in to replace Emilie Simon who cancelled her State-side show after a death in the family.) Once again, the audience was rather thin on the ground, proving all the difficulty of attracting local music fans from a state that spawned American music greats ranging from The Doors and Rage Against the Machine to Jeff Buckley and hip hop heroes Cypress Hill and Dr Dre. SoKo managed to win over the crowd, nevertheless, thanks to her vibrant mix of on-stage energy and witty sarcasm that went down extremely well with Americans.

French-Finnish duo The Dø fared significantly less well at "Ooh la L.A." despite being one of the most eagerly-awaited acts. Olivia B. Merilahti (singer/guitarist) and Dan Levy (bass) quit the stage after just four songs, having experienced a series of sound problems. The pair shuffled dispiritedly off stage, mumbling something along the lines of "shit happens!" and left Nouvelle Vague to save the night with their new wave lounge. 

Laureen Ortiz. 

3 questions to Cocoon: RFI Musique: What's it like for a young duo from the Auvergne to end up playing in Hollywood? Mark Daumail: I feel like a little kid setting foot in the U.S. for the first time - and it's just incredible! It's like "wow!" now we've played our first notes in America, the land of my favourite songwriters: Sufjan Stevens and Elliott Smith. It's not all about L.A. for me, though. My big dream is Michigan and faraway places up north. L.A. is a really vibrant, bustling place but God it's ugly! It's not that different from Clermont-Ferrand, in fact… L.A. is just a starting-point for Cocoon. After this, we're heading off to do three other concerts in Chicago, New York and Washington. The Music Box wasn't exactly packed out for your concert. Do you think it's going to be hard to export your sound despite the fact that you sing in English and your music is clearly influenced by American folk? Our fanbase is really back home in France where we have no trouble selling 1,000 or 2,000 tickets for a show. Right now, we have our sights set on Europe and Japan. Personally, I'd love to play in Tokyo. But we've had a break in the States nevertheless. We're distributed on the American label Minty Fresh and Urban Outfitters just got in touch with us… Interestingly enough, Sébastien Tellier is distributed over here by another leading fashion brand, American Apparel. What do you think about the music & fashion link-up? Well, why not? We wouldn't care if we had to sell our records at the supermarket meat counter! What counts is getting your music out there and reaching people at a time when record sales are down. Things aren't as bad as all that, though. There's still money to be made in the music industry and French production is boosted by the "intermittents"* system. *a special unemployment allowance for actors and musicians