Nouvelle Vague

Thu 10th Jun, 2010 in Features

Have you seen Planet Terror?The Robert Rodriguez half of the Grindhouse double feature with Quentin Tarintino? Tarintino plays a prison guard in Planet Terror who is intending to do bad things to Miss McGowan’s character, as he is taunting her he walks over to a cassette machine and hits play a jaunty, lounge-a-fied version of the Dead Kennedy’s Too Drunk To Fuck starts to play, and acts as a soundtrack to a pretty nasty, if altogether ‘grindhousey’ scene. That is the first place many people heard French band Nouvelle Vague.

Started as a side project by Olivier Libaux and Marc Collin in 2004 after Collin had been revisiting many of the new wave bands he loved from the 1980s and ruing the fact that these songs were not revered the way songs by The Beatles or Bacharach are.

“They are great songs. Robert Smith & New Order wrote really beautiful pop songs.” In order to prove the strength of these songs he decided to do covers of these new wave songs in a very different style. He remembered reading a book about Boss Nova music and how that term could be translated into English as ‘new wave’ – surely this was a sign! So they had a frame work, Bossa Nova versions of new wave songs.

The extra sugar in their sound comes from getting a series of French chanteuses (there are fifteen over the three cd’s listed on their website). Many of these singers had never heard the originals, making them able to sing these songs with a completely fresh perspective.

The resulting self titled debut (released in 2004) included songs by Joy Division, The Cure, Dead Kennedy’s and The Clash amongst others and was loungey, exotic, sexy, amusing and very, very groovy. I asked Olivier which ladies will be joining them on their Australian tour that starts this week at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival.

“We’re bringing on this tour “our” natural born Australian lead singer Phoebe Killdeer. Pheobe was with us from 2005 to 2008, before leaving to concentrate on the release of her solo career. The other female singer is Mareva Galanter is our permanent “French” singer, and has released two great albums of her own. She replaces Mélanie Pain who is working nowadays on her solo career. Both Phoebe and Mareva are great persons, getting on well together, and creating a good duet on stage, so I guess you will enjoy the shows.”

The use of your Kennedy’s cover in Planet Terror caused a controversy mainly because Jello Biafra was opposed to any DK song being used as the soundtrack to a (potential) rape scene. I asked Olivier what he knew of what actually went down.

“It’s true that Planet Terror has been a great opportunity for people to discover some of NV’s stuff. When we first heard that Quentin Tarantino was going to use our cover in a movie, we were very happy, as we are great fans! Before watching Planet Terror we heard some stories about Jello Biafra being not happy with the use of this song in this movie, particularly because it was a “rape” scene, etc. I was quite uncomfortable with that idea too…Then I actually watched the movie – and it is a great B movie, full of zombies, gore scenes, and extravagance – and I really loved it. After all, the character played by Quentin Tarantino in the scene was completely ridiculous, and was funnily destroyed at the end by the heroin, so all that sounded fair to me.

Obviously, I understood Jello’s reaction to the scene – and simply thought “the most important thing is Jello Biafra being happy with our cover, the use of the song in a movie is “collateral”...We then heard that Jello was happy with our version, but not with the use of the song in the movie. We are trying to get in touch with Jello, as we would love to work with him, a bit like we’ve worked with great original people on “NV3”.”

Their second album Bande A Part covered New Order, Yazoo, Blondie, Buzzcocks and Bauhaus and introduced elements of reggae and ska into the mix. Their method of working is an interesting one too. They rarely go back to the originals before recording their versions, just going for the feel or essence of the songs without being too fussy about the details. The result is often a song people know with a subverted context, and crazy new Latin beats. Songs that started life as frantic punk songs are presented by Nouvelle Vague as smouldering torch songs, mambo-rific ditties and re-vamped with a cha-cha beat.

As mentioned, on their latest album NV3 they have a bunch of guest vocalist from the original bands making appearance. Ian McCulloch from Echo & the Bunnymen duets on All My Colours. Terry Hall of the Specials and Fun Boy Three duets with Marina Celeste on Our Lips Are Sealed, a huge hit for the Go-Go’s but written by Hall. Martin Gore from Depeche Mode adds vocals to Master & Servant and Barry Adamson turns up doing Magazine’s Parade. How did this come about?

“We’ve had so much feedback – far more than expected when we were starting Nouvelle Vague. It seems that a lot of punk and new wave bands have been happy with the way we have covered their songs. Maybe because we were bringing a new approach to the original song, and were in a way “creative” with their stuff – I would not know. Anyway, it’s fantastic to be accepted by these great bands. We decided to contact some original people for NV3. For example, we knew that Martin Gore was happy with our first album as we had read an article in the Boston Globe in 2005. It was the same with Ian McCulloch. We decided to contact some of their managements, presenting the idea of a “cover featuring the original artist/writer”. And we were very welcomed!”

Did your guests have much input into which songs you did together?
“The original artists did not actually interfere with the song we were wishing to pick. The only one who said something was Ian McCulloch – who would have been happy with Bring on the Dancing Horses too. We felt that these people were confident in us – even if not knowing us – and letting us decide of the song, arrangement and production. Which was obviously great!”

The latest album NV3 has 80s songs that are a bit more obscure, your version of Heaven by The Psychedelic Furs is sensational. Does having a big fan base give you more room to pick less well known songs?

“I guess our point is still to celebrate, when possible, some of the greatest (even if not famous, or quite forgotten) bands of the 80’s. Obviously, Depeche Mode, U2 or the Cure are long time superstars, and very influential. But bands like Echo and the Bunnymen, or Magazine, were delivering such good albums at this time. Even now, listening to them is still a thrill. So if Nouvelle Vague can bring some new listeners to these kinds of bands – instead of U2 who is playing in stadiums – it still sounds fair! 80’s music (especially punk, post-punk and New Wave) was so full of new bands and creativity. Some bands have managed to find their way to a huge success, but many others (like The Bunnymen or the Psychedelic Furs) sort of gave up before they could meet a big success. We, as great fans of this period in music, try to celebrate every great band, from the most successful to the most obscure”.

Nouvelle Vague tour:
Friday 11th June – Adelaide Cabaret Festival
Saturday 12th June – Adelaide Cabaret Festival
Sunday 13th June – Adelaide Cabaret Festival
Monday 14th June – The Brisbane Power House
Wednesday 16th June – The Factory Theatre, Sydney
Thursday 17th June – The Prince Bandroom, Melbourne

For more old New Wave treats check out ‘Bring on the Old Wave