“I’ve always wanted to make music, but now it’s too late,” says Julie to Pierre, sitting at their flatmate’s dining room table. “Why would it be too late?” replied Pierre, tapping his fingers on the wooden table in a jerky rhythm.

That’s how Pierre got back behind his drum kit, the faithful accomplice of so many hours of fun, in a damp 10m2 room with Julie, who was determined to apply her sound skills to writing music but still had to learn how to play an instrument. And it was with a great deal of patience that the first tracks began to take shape. They created, threw everything away and started again, dozens of times.

Julie draws on memories of concerts she attended as a sound engineer. All the knowledge she had accumulated without realizing it was being awakened. The first stages of the writing process were both wonderful moments and laborious ones.

Pierre, born into a family of music lovers with a dentist mother who forced her patients to listen to classical music to ease the pain, has been a drummer for years. Deep down inside, he had a desire for something more. He wanted to write his own music and now was the time. It turns out he has a sharp sense of effective melody and can often unblock stagnant compositions by singing completely absurd things that often lead to the heady melody that solves everything.

Their working methods are diametrically opposed. Pierre starts off with dense, intense ideas, sets no limits and clears the way step by step. Julie, on the other hand, starts from a void, from nothing, and gradually adds one note or another, but always with care. And when Pierre has trimmed enough and Julie has sown enough, they find themselves on fertile ground synonymous with fields of possibilities.

Chaton Laveur is born. How to make the duo consistent live without the use of computers or backing tracks? Pierre suggested playing the drums with one hand and the Moog with the other. Julie is thinking about the problem of sound. How can two people cover the sound spectrum? Her bass becomes a bass guitar, two bass strings, two guitar strings on two separate amps with two separate mics. These options gave the group a definitely minimalist identity, which they embellished with loopers, freezers and effects of all kinds. 

The diverse influences of the project give it a subtle blend of Kraut and Pop, from Beak to Stereolab via Low and Blonde Redhead. All sung in French. “We’re not from the school of French singers who want the words to be understood in concert at all cost. The vocals are just another instrument which, like everything else in this project, is used to help the music find its own way. 

With the creative process complete, it’s now time to meet with the audience and, once the initial stress is over, the duo feels right at home on stage. The perfect osmosis between two people who know each other so well invites the audience to take part in the journey. Authentic live experience, analogue sounds and raw repetitive rhythms make for an intoxicating, sincere and spontaneous moment. After a series of first Belgian dates (opening for Girls in Hawaii, Peter Kernel, Robbing Millions,… finalists of Du F dans le texte,…), the duo is preparing for the next stage, the release of their first album:

 “Etat Sauvage” with JauneOrange records due 12 April 2024. 

This is the condensed version of a rich adventure between two beings learning to tame each other, starting from nothing and perhaps ending up somewhere, putting the naivety of first drafts at the service of minimalism and, like wild animals, working on instinct.