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NOUVELLE VAGUE
The prettiest cover band in the land
By DAVID DAY
del.ico.us
reddit!
Nouvelle Vague began as a simple idea: Take the most-revered punk songs and turn them into lite, summertime bossa nova fair.Courtesy of a few sultry female voices (who had never heard the songs themselves), the resulting self-titled debut became a phenomenon. For their latest album, 3, producers and arrangers Marc Collin and Olivier Libaux enlisted the help of some of the original writers, so Martin Gore sings on "Master and Servant" and Ian McCulloch sings on "All My Colours." We spoke with Libaux from his flat in Paris.
I'VE BEEN A FAN SINCE YOUR DEBUT. DID YOU EVER THINK IT WOULD GO ON SO LONG?
To tell you the truth, we didn't know that it would and could last that long, you know? We recorded the first album without any expectation for the future. We were focusing on those kind of covers, and we were thinking that it would interest only new wave fans. Since 2004, we have checked that our audience when we play live is pretty young. Most of the time, it's made of girls and young women, who obviously were not really concerned with Joy Division or The Clash in the '80s. So, it's a funny thing.
ON 3, YOU HAVE GUESTS FOR THE FIRST TIME. DID ANY OF THOSE ARTISTS APPROACH YOU OR DID YOU ASK THEM?
No, we asked them. These people are the original; we are the cover of them. The funny thing that happened in time was that Depeche Mode, The Stranglers, The Cure and everybody were very keen on what we were doing. The first time we played in Boston is the first time we heard about someone talking about Nouvelle Vague. It was in the Boston Globe, and there was a short interview of Martin Gore telling the journalist that he was listening to our album all the time. So we thought we should try to contact Depeche Mode management and ask if there was any chance that Martin would be interested in collaborating with us. And since then, we've heard some nice words from basically every band we have covered, even the Dead Kennedys.
HOW DO YOU FIND THE VOCALISTS? THEY'RE ALL BEAUTIFUL WOMEN.
It's a matter of listening to every demo we receive. We check many MySpace pages. It's also because we work with female singers, but these women are sometimes pregnant. For example, Melanie Pain, who is one of our regular performers, she is pregnant and can't play with us anymore. We are very often contacted by people because we are Nouvelle Vague and people know that we always search for new singers.
HOW DO YOU DECIDE WHAT SONGS TO PLAY?
It's a mix. Obviously, we have many favorite songs. We never listen back to records of the '80s. We use our memory. It's a very important point. If you remember a song 25 years after hearing it 100 times a day, it means something to you. But we work with our memories instead of listening back to records. The second is this: As we are Nouvelle Vague, we must also pick songs with a chance to exist with a totally different background, arrangement and everything. Can it be sung by a woman if it was sung by a man 25 years ago? So we play with two things. Mix of favorites and we must pick a song ... don't know the word in English ... that will work with the Nouvelle Vague process.
NOUVELLE VAGUE
SUNDAY 1.24.10
SOMERVILLE THEATRE
55 DAVIS SQ.
SOMERVILLE
7:30PM/ALL AGES/$29
617.931.2000
SOMERVILLETHEATREONLINE.COM
NOUVELLESVAGUES.COM
