Les Molies + Sun Plexus. Photography : Stéphanie Gaillard

Thanks so much to Renaud Sachet for the interview! I had written about Les Molies (and forgive me for spelling their name with two Ls then!) earlier this year. I was very curious about this band that featured people that were in important bands in France, and people that were very involved in the music scene like Renaud, running labels, blogging and more. Thanks to social media Renaud got in touch and was up for doing an interview and tell the story behind this amazing 90s Strasbourg band. Many great anecdotes and details here, I felt transported to that time period in France… I am sure you all will enjoy!

++ Hi Renaud! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! How are you? Are you still involved with music?

Always, yes. After I retired from the Herzfeld label – which I co-founded and managed since 2002 – in 2011, I distanced myself a little from the music world. I needed to refocus on what I really wanted to do. Little by little, I began to enjoy listening to records again, and naturally I signed up for the new Section 26 webzine project (a site set up by ex-editors of the famous Magic magazine-, which welcomed me with open arms. At the same time, I relaunched a fanzine in paper form, Langue Pendue, focusing on French-language musical trends, a cassette label of the same name, and then another fanzine, Groupie. We’ll talk more about this later, but I also relaunched my first label, Antimatière, the label I ran before Herzfeld and which I had stopped, in particular to help a young band from my home town Strasbourg, Sinaïve. Last year, I open my own blog called l’Arrière-magasin (it means the back store).

++ Let’s go back in time. What are your first music memories? Do you remember what your first instrument was? How did you learn to play it? What sort of music did you listen to at home while growing up?

My first musical memory? Perhaps the sound that came out of the radio that my father constantly listened to in our kitchen, on Europe n°1 station. I used to pirate hit parades with a tape recorder and make my own compilations. These are tapes I’ve lost, and I’d love to listen to them again, but it’s no longer possible. When a song would start, I’d switch on the recording, but I’d always miss the beginning and the end of the song would be covered by the DJ’s voice! I’d also listen to the records playing in my older brother’s room. He bought records every week. The whole history of rock, reggae, funk, chanson française… As for instruments, I think the first time I touched a guitar was my cousin’s, a first-rate electric guitar.

++ Had you been in other bands before Les Molies? What about the other band members? Did these bands release anything?

Yes, I was still in Belfort, my hometown, and with some friends from high school, we formed a band called the Steeds (from The Avengers british series). We recorded half a dozen songs on a tape recorder in the music classroom of the school where my father and mother worked as teachers. I wrote the songs in French and my friends played their instruments. I didn’t know that we had to play in rhythm, I didn’t know that we had to tune our instruments. It was funny because I didn’t want to be provocative, to scream, I wanted us to be very pop, but our incompetence made us sound very strange, it was art brut. Then in 1989, in Strasbourg where I moved, I met some guys in University and put a band together, Boys In The Radiator, with a lot of noisy pop influences. We even had been to London and gave Creation headquarters a demo tape – spoiler : they didn’t sign us ! I quit to focus on Les Molies.

++ Where were you from originally?

Belfort, East of France. Then I moved to Strasbourg to study History.

++ How was Strasbourg at the time of Molies? Were there any bands that you liked? Were there any good record stores? Or what about the pubs or venues to go check out up and coming bands?

To tell the truth, in the beginning I didn’t go out much, I didn’t go to bars or concert halls. We were young, so there was a strong (fragile) gang feeling. We used to rehearse at a friend’s house in a village near Strasbourg. We kept to ourselves. For other reasons, I was connected to other people who made music, like Sun Plexus, KG, le Plus Simple Appareil. They played a very different kind of music from the Molies, but the connections were made and we experienced a lot of things together in a very happy way. They were the groups I felt close to in Strasbourg, even if there were plenty of others.

++ Were there any other good bands in your area?

In Strasbourg, there was an important group called Kat Onoma (Rodolphe Burger and Philippe Poirier’s band). When I arrived in Strasbourg, I saw them in concert on Place Kléber for the Fête de la Musique. They were the kings of the town, and well known outside. But we didn’t really have any role models in the city; we were mostly obsessed with England and the United States. For the record, later on with Herzfeld, we worked with Roméo Poirier, Philippe Poirier’s son, and then with Philippe himself, from whom we released a very fine album.

++ How was the band put together? How was the recruiting process?

For the Molies, we met in a record store and later at concerts. We kept running into each other and became friends. We were mostly music fans and record buyers whose hobby was to make music, to look like our favorite bands. There was a sort of illusion that we were musicians, even though none of us really wanted to make a living out of it. We rehearsed once a week, a little more when we had a gig. We also made fanzines and exchanged letters with other bands like us in France.

++ Was there any lineup changes?

Not really. The band was pretty stable and didn’t last long anyway. Just enough time to record an album and play a dozen concerts. Anyway, Jacques Speyser (our drummer) soon moved to Nice. We recorded a second album, which wasn’t released immediately after the first. And the band stopped after a concert with Laurent (Sun Plexus) on drums, Emilie (Casino, a young band we like a lot at that time) on keyboards and Rodolphe on guitars.

++ One question I have about the lineup is about the Yoesslé sisters. How did they join the band? And how was playing with a couple of sisters?

Régine and Jacqueline were among our group of friends. I really wanted to play with them, Régine played a bit of guitar and Jacqueline sang. I really saw the band as an extension of our friendship, and it was natural to welcome everyone, whatever their skills. It was the chemistry of the group that was important, not selecting the “best musicians”. Otherwise, I’d never have played in a band myself ! An amused friend of mine used to say: “The Molies is a band made up of musicians who play instruments they know nothing about”. I used to spend all my time with Jacqueline and Régine, and I didn’t see why any activity should have taken place without them. Quite simply.

++ How was the creative process for you? Where did you usually practice?

It was very simple: during the week, in my room, I’d find a series of chords, sing a melody, write lyrics in elementary school English, and roughly structure the song. On Saturdays, we’d meet at Jacques’ place and I’d play my songs alone, and the others would decide whether or not to do the song. Then we’d play the song together, and each of us would imagine their parts.

++ What’s the story behind the band’s name? Why sometimes with one L and other times with two Ls?

It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of Pastels. The Molies come from the song Holy Moly. As for the number of Ls, it’s a mixture of indecision on our part and mistakes on the part of our interlocutors! The hesitation also came from the fact that I also really liked Molly Ringwald in the film Breakfast Club, so that’s where our name came from too.

++ And who would you say were the influences of the band?

Great question! I think I simply wanted to sound like the Jesus & Mary Chain, the Pastels, the BMX Bandits… I wanted us to sound like all the bands I listened to. Afterwards, between fantasy and reality, there is a gulf. We mostly sounded like friends who play together once a week, we lived in our imagination. Looking back, I think the important thing was that we were doing something together. That was my reason, to be with my friends, all the time and to do something together that was related to our passion.

++ Are there more songs recorded by the band? Unreleased ones?

Nothing anymore !

++ My favourite song of yours is “It’s Playtime”, wondering if you could tell me what inspired this song? What’s the story behind it?

It is the second song by Les Molies, after Cha Cha Charlie. It’s Valérie who sings. She was my girlfriend at the time. The song is a children’s song. We were obsessed with childhood at that time, Truffaut’s 400 Coups, and this writer who was also a clown, I forgot his name, he wrote taking the place of a child. It was our influences. We were obsessed also with short songs, one-minute song like Over My Shoulder from The Pastels. It was just before we split with Valérie and before the Molies became a real band. Jacques recorded it on his 4-tracks.

++ If you were to choose your favorite Les Molies song, which one would that be and why?

Mexico Toronto is my favourite one. I like the way Jacques is drumming, the great bass line by Franck, the Farfisa part by a friend of us, Franceso Rees (who is a jazz drummer), my singing is cool, Jacqueline’s one too, even the lyrics are weird in a cool way, it’s nonsense but cool nonsense !

++ What about gigs? Did you play many?

I’d say that wasn’t our primary concern. We weren’t looking to play, we were waiting to be called up. When we were called, 2 or 3 times a year, we thought about it for 1 week before saying yes! I don’t think I really liked that. I was stressed for days beforehand. I didn’t really enjoy playing in front of an audience, but that may have happened once or twice. But once it was over, it was a relief. That’s one of the reasons I told myself I wasn’t a real musician. Not a musician at all.

++ And what were the best gigs that you remember? Any anecdotes you can share?

Perhaps the concert that touched me the most was the one we did as support act for Les Pastels in Colmar. I don’t need to say why, but we were lucky enough to play on their equipment, because the organisers didn’t really want us to play, I think it was Stephen who asked us to do it. The organisers said: “OK, you can play but you can’t do the sound check, we’ll do it during the first song”. When I think back on it, it’s funny because that night I said to myself: “Blimey, we’re playing in front of people who speak English, they’re going to realise that my lyrics are so rubbish”. What’s more, it was the Pastels! We also played in Paris, we opened for David Kilgour at Théâtre Dunois, thanks to Morvan Boury who was an important person in music underground (he is now one of a heads of Sony, something like that !). Our album just came out, and that same evening we found out that our album had been reviewed in Les Inrockuptibles, and we even met a journalist from the paper. But he didn’t dare tell us too much, but we understood that the review was bad. I was really depressed. The next day, we bought the paper and it was the case. One of our first concerts was one in the basement of Babouin 1er, a record shop in Strasbourg. The place was great, Jacqueline and Régine had put aluminum foil on the walls and there were about thirty people there. And then our reformation concert in 2006, no stress, just the pleasure of playing the old songs again, without any pressure. I just loved it, maybe for the first time !

++ And were there any bad ones?

I don’t think we ever had any good concerts. We were such amateurs, we didn’t rehearse much. It was always like a first concert.

++ When and why did Les Molies stop making music? Were any of you involved in any other projects afterwards? I know some of you were in Buggy and Herzfeld Orchestra, how would you compare them to Les Molies?

We stopped playing together around 1997. Jacques, our drummer, moved to Nice, and Franck, our bassist, was doing his military service. I had embarked on the adventure of a label, Antimatière. And in 2000, I started another band, Buggy, with Jacques and Franck who had moved back to Strasbourg and Rodolphe and Stephan (now known as Solaris Great Confusion). Then Jacques and Franck dropped Buggy to form Original Folks and the three of us continued with Rodolphe and Stephan. In fact, right from the start I didn’t really want to make music, but I was going through a difficult time in my life. One thing led to another and I started writing songs again, some of them from the Molies days, some of them new, and then I started learning new chords and playing guitar more. We recorded an album which was released on Herzfeld, a label I co-founded. Then another, but with a completely different line-up, notably with Cécile Aubriet, a friend from Belfort with whom I’d played in my very first band, the Steeds! It all came full circle! I was also doing side projects, one called Wong Rest. which was a sort of new inspiration, one called the Herzfeld Orchestra which brought together all the musicians from the label (I only appeared on the first album) and another called Luneville, with only toy/electronic instruments. That was my last musical venture in 2011.

++ Was there any interest from the radio? TV?

Not really!

++ What about the press? Did they give you any attention?

It was simple, our friends who were doing fanzines sometimes interviewed us, otherwise we were happy when we talked about our demos in Les Inrocks and Magic.

Playing with Les Pastels, opening for Diabologum, that was already a lot for us. Maybe I can tell you a funny story : with Sun Plexus, we came up with the idea of playing together on the same stage, but not one after the other. We wanted something that would blend our two worlds, and get away from a kind of competition. So one evening we shared a stage at La Laiterie in Strasbourg: we played at the same time, each group at one end of the stage. Les Molies played 3 songs, then Sun Plexus 3 songs, then we had to play a cover of the other band. Then we’d play a song and a passage from that song would be played by the other group, then we’d have to play one of our songs BUT on the other group’s instruments, and so on, lots of games like that between the two bands. We finished with a song on one chord by the two bands together, played until the audience had completely left (it lasted 2h40!!). We did the same thing again, but with 3 groups, Le Plus Simple Appareil and us surrounding the audience, we formed a triangle. In short, it was great fun. For the anecdote: Sun Plexus did this experiment again with the group Drey, one of whose members joined the group Electric Electric. Strangely enough, Electric Electric created a concert with 4 groups surrounding the audience with 3 other groups, Pneu, Papier Tigre and Marvin. They now give concerts under the name of La Colonie de Vacances, and are very popular in France. We always wonder where the idea came from !

++ One thing that caught my attention from the liner notes on Bandcamp for “Super Slow Mo” is that it says you collect all sorts of things. That you have a big collection of tapes and CDRs. Even vintage toys and zines. I want to pick your brain and ask about any obscure French bands that were amazing that for a reason or another remain in total obscurity?

Yes, I’m not that big a collector, and I change my obsession every 6 months, so it’s all over the place! But it’s true that my cellar is a veritable Ali Baba’s cave. As I get older, I start emptying it little by little!

For an obscure band that I rediscovered when I was doing my fanzine Anorak pop et noisy pop en France 1990-1994, it’s Daisy Age with the song Hier. I think I’d give everything we did with the Molies for just one song like that, beautiful, great sound, noisy lo fi, perfect French lyrics.

++ That is not all. You also run a label, a blog and write for the Section 26 webzine. Where do you get time? Tell me a bit about your writings, what are the differences from the Section 26 collabs and your own blog? What can people find in them?

As I said above, I relaunched Antimatière in 2023 to release an EP by Sinaïve, a group of young people from Strasbourg whom I adore. I also have a cassette label which is more a sort of contemporary French-language archive of all the styles I like. My universe has obviously opened up with age. The label is called Langue Pendue. Right now I’m going to be releasing a compilation cassette of bands from the French label Another Record. I’ve also released a cassette of dance hall from Martinique, a cassette of the legendary journalist Everett True aka The Legend! who does covers in French, young LGBT people from La Réunion, one of the best band in France Paris Banlieue, a trio of 3 young girls… It’s a « Spanish inn », Langue Pendue! For Section 26, I also write about the French scene, and my blog is an in-depth look at the subject, I try to be regular, always with the aim of writing a contemporary history, I’m a failed history student, I’m trying to get my revenge!

++ And your label has been releasing quality bands including the wonderful Sinaïve. What is coming up next for the label?

Yes, it’s a bit pretentious, but Sinaïve and Paris Banlieue are really genius, with them I’ve released my two favourite French bands of the last 10 years. It’s no coincidence that both bands were spotted by Japanese shop Big Love in Tokyo. Paris Banlieue were supported by Monorail in Glasgow and Stephen Pastel. And the Sinaïve album we’ve just released has garnered rave reviews in all the French press: Libération, les Inrocks, Rock&Folk, Magic…, it’s rare to get such unanimous praise. I don’t really know for the future releases.

++ Aside from music, what other hobbies do you have? Maybe follow a football team?

My musical activity is important and public. I keep a few other hobbies to myself, it’s my « jardin secret » !

++ I’ve never been to Strasbourg, I’d love to go, it looks amazing, so I want to ask a local. What do you suggest checking out in your town, like what are the sights one shouldn’t miss? Or the traditional food or drinks that you love that I should try?

Strasbourg is a beautiful city, very green with lots of cycle paths. It’s also a reasonable size, and you can stroll around for hours. It’s the place to do that. On Friday night, Sinaïve played at the Perle beer factory for Pop Moderne‘s release party, and it’s a really good beer. And like all French cities, you have to try its culinary heritage, the sauerkraut, the baekhof…

++ Anything else you’d like to add?

Merci beaucoup pour l’intérêt que tu portes à ma « carrière » !