Thanks so much to Jimmy and Gérôme for the interview! I discovered the Nantes band Nos Etés Trop Courts on the OVVK Archives Bandcamp that Jimmy runs and it was quite a surprise! I had interviewed Jimmy about his band Les Autres in the past and wasn’t aware he had been involved in this cool sounding band before Les Autres. So I immediately asked if he was up for a 2nd interview! He asked Gérôme to join too and now thanks to them and this interview I have a better picture of the Nantes scene and the band! Hope you enjoy!
++ Hi Jimmy and Gérôme! Thanks so much for being for this interview! How are you? How is France at the moment? Have things relaxed a bit now? Are there any plans for this summer?
Gérôme: It is of course a strange period but it’s ok. Thank you interviewing us on Nos Etés Trop Courts. Some people were glad to see that our “Sunshine demo EP” from January 1992 was out, particularly Nantes indie pop underground people. We are honored to see that some people from other countries enjoy the music we made during the golden period of the shoegaze movement.
++ Last time I talked with Jimmy about Les Autres. I wasn’t aware then about this Nantes band that came before. Was wondering then if you both had been involved in other bands prior to Nos Etés Trop Courts?
Gérôme: It’s fascinating because I never talked about that with Jimmy. l played in a few new wave/4AD style bands before Nos Etés Trop Courts. The first one, Ramsesghom that I began in 1989 (I was 19 years old) played some Joy Division, The Cure early albums and Sisters Of Mercy covers. The second, Abecurria, in 1990 was more into And Also The Trees and Cocteau Twins stuffs, the reason whythere was a loud bass played with a mediator (like the one I played in the second demo of Nos Etes Trop Courts) and some aerial guitars with delay. But Nos EtésTrop Courts which started in the first months of 1991 was my first real coherent and harmonious music experience.
Nos Etés Trop Courts was still playing when I started another band, Crash, in January 1992 which would be the more successful band I would be in (like Jimmy with Les Autres). Jimmy re-released the first (July 1992) demo of Crash in OVVK last year. When we originally released it, it was broadcasted on a national radio show, had been reviewed in Les Inrockuptibles, a national magazine dedicated to indie music. Tracks from this demo were also featured on various International indie pop cassette. compilations: https://ovvkarchives.bandcamp.com/album/demo-1.
Between 1992 and 1996, Crash was more into Swervedriver, Dinosaur Jr or even Mudhoney pop core scene. Here is a German indie pop compilation from 1994 (Garage Flowers) with some tracks by Les Autres (with Jimmy) and Crash (with me): .
https://www.discogs.com/fr/Various-Garage-Flowers/release/4354533
In 1994, I started another band with Pascal and Pat’ (From San July), which was more into dissonant pop and post rock, Snowfan. And in 1996 I also made a side project, a hardcore skate band called Nosegrab.
Jimmy: Nos Etes Trop Courts was my first real experience in a band even if I made some rehearsals before with two girls under the moniker Chrysalide (there are no recordings from that band and believe me, only the name of the band was nice haha).
A bit before Nos Etés Trop Courts I started to write songs on the bass influenced by various bass players such as Simon Gallup of The Cure, Peter hook of New Order and most of all at that time Ian Masters of Pale Saints especially the bass chords. Some of those songs ended up being played by the band such as Nos Etés Trop Courts, Waiting (renamed Leaves Return To Dust after I left the band), Y’A Des Jours Sans and Only Of The Night. But on the 4 track recorder we recorded the first demo, I recorded more songs, some of which I had planned for Nos Etés Trop Courts before leaving the band and songs that I had recorded up to 1992-1993 when I joined Les Autres. I’ll release them soon on Ovvk Recordings under the moniker Diaphane which was the name I originally suggested for the band but it was rejected by some of the members. These demos are “rough” and unfinished versions. Diaphane was an indie pop project strongly influenced by The Cure, The Sundays, New Order, The Wedding Present, The Lavender Faction(…) and even The Field Mice in a certain way. I plan to call the demos Indie Pop Themes as they all are instrumentals.
++ I did ask Jimmy about this last time, but would love to hear from Gérôme. What are your first musical memories? What was the first instrument did you get and how?
Gérôme: I was born in may 1970. My first musical shock was when I was 14, the San Francisco Bay Area thrash metal guitar sound (Metallica, Slayer, Exodus…). But a few years later, the shoegaze scene was really fascinating because there was some loud noisy guitars with heavenly voices. Really chaotic noisy panorama landscapes with beautiful melodic voices. With Jim’ and other friends we saw Lush and Pale Saints in Nantes, January 1990. It was their first gig outside England. We loved that so much. A revelation.
++ Who else was in Nos Etés Trop Courts? And how did the recruiting process work?
Gérôme: In February 1990, I saw an ad pinned on a wall notice board for student in the hall of the faculty of literature “noisy pop band seeks guitarist”. That’s how it worked back then, before the Internet. I called the phone number when I got home. The group had been founded a few months earlier by Pascal and Jimmy (who had met each other through classified ads), then Marielle began to sing, then Guillaume, the drummer joined them. We rehearsed in a school, Guillaume’s father was the supervisor so we had access to the premises. I arrived a week or two after Marielle started singing. This line up is the one on the first 4-track demo (recorded in June and July 1991) which was just released here: https://ovvkarchives.bandcamp.com/album/sunset-demo-ep
Then (for the 1991-1992 academic year) the group continued but Marielle went to study in Lille and was replaced by Fabrice (who later released records under the name of River). Jimmy also left at that time because he was starting university in Rennes (where he will meet Les Autres). That’s why I play the bass on the second demo (in addition to the guitar).
++ How was Nantes back then? Were there any bands that you liked? What were the good record stores? Or what about the pubs or venues to go check out up and coming bands?
Gérôme: Nantes was starting to get really hyped in the early 1990s. There was an indie pop group that played a lot called The Little Rabbits. We saw them in Nantes in April 1991 opening for The Pastels and then in January 1992 with Lucie Vacarme and The Boo Radleys.
There was also a young woman who was probably around 17 or 18yrs old, she published some cool fanzines, released various cassette compilations from the Sarah indie pop scene (she knew Matt and Clare). She also released minimalist pop singers from Nantes like Katerine or Dominique A. and knew musicians from the Scottish pop scene (BMX Bandits, Teenage Fanclub, The Vaselines, Captain America…). Here you can read an interview (in French) I did with her more than 20 years ago: https://section-26.fr/les-anoraks-sages/.
In Nantes, some musicians started to play shoegaze a few months after Nos Etés Trop Courts, bands like 1000 Spirales, San July or RIP. There was also a cool club, “Le Floride”, the DJ, Laurent, was the manager of the “Little Rabbits” he also had a radio show and would launch a few years later the esteemed vinyl record store “Black & Noir”.
If readers want to know more on the local scene and hear local indie pop bands of that era, there’s na 8 hour radio program I made on Jet FM (a local station from Nantes).It’s a retrospective of indie pop bands from Nantes (1989-2012) : http://jetfm.fr/site/Vendredi-25-mars-de-13h-a-18h-en.html
There’s a cassette compilation, “Biscuits Nantais”, featuring various bands from Nantes mid 90’s indie pop scene (featuring a track by me under the moniker Norb’urt) : https://www.discogs.com/fr/Various-Biscuits-Nantais/release/12190640
I also wrote in the fanzine “Les Jolies Melodies” edited in Nantes by Franck Vergeade, who is now music Editor in chief of the national magazine Les Inrockuptibles, but it was in 1993-1994 and Nos Etés Trop Courts had already split at that time.
++ What’s the story behind the band’s name?
Gérôme: I realize I don’t know much about that. I joined the band, partied with the musicians of the band (Marielle, Jimmy Pascal with other friends), but I don’t know anything about the lyrics either. I wasn’t involved in the writing of the lyrics. However, I know that “Nos Etés Trop Courts” was taken from a poem by Charles Baudelaire called “Chant d’Automne”. A beautiful text, a bit sad and nostalgic, full of spleen, like the lyrics Marielle used to write.
++ How was the creative process for you? Where did you usually practice?
Gérôme: The first few months (early 1991) Jimmy would bring in basslines and we would build songs around it. Everyone did what they wanted, listening to the others. Guillaume had played in a funk band before coming with us,so we sometimes tried to ask him for baggy sound rhythms and patterns. Secondly, after a few months, I started to bring songs composed on my guitar, with a grid of chords and melodies. For example, on the second demo (Sunshine EP), late 1991, you can hear the difference between the first two tracks that Jimmy composed on the bass and the next two that I composed on the guitar. Pascal had good ideas for arrangements. Then, especially the second year, Pascal also brought some songs.
++ And who would you say were influences in the sound of the band?
Gérôme: At that time,we were really into the shoegaze news. Each month we discovered new Eps (especially Pascal). We liked Slowdive, Ride or My Bloody Valentine of course, but also The Field Mice and other bands from Sarah records, Pale Saints, Lush, Chapterhouse, Teenage Fanclub, or even Swervedriver or Aspidistra. I remember Jimmy was very fond of The Wedding Present and Talk Talk. I also listened to Jesus & Mary Chain and discovered the old albums by the Velvet Underground (I first heard about the Velvet Underground with Joy Division’s “Sister Ray” cover on the live album Still).
We were also really into the New Order first albums and The Cure (especially Faith and Desintegration). You can hear the influence on my Y’A Des Jours Sans guitar melody.
At that time there was an incredible label in Nantes called Lithium Records. We liked its bands, especially Candle and Lucie Vacarme. We also appreciated the minimalist singers’ wave (mainly in Nantes), Dominique A., Katerine, M. de Foursaings or Yann Savel.
Jimmy: I think that the two main influences are Pale Saints for the bass style and The Field Mice for the way of balancing the drum machine with the bass line and guitar chords. There’s also a bit of early Ride influences on the track Nos Etés Trop Courts. I love the guitar parts that Gérôme plays on Only Of The Night, it reminds me of The Cure in their Faith period. And when I wrote the bass line of Waiting (aka Leaves Return To Dust) I remember being influenced by several bass lines by The Sundays: Can’t Be Sure, Hideous Town, Skin & Bones…
++ I am only aware of the second demo of the band that is up on Bandcamp. Do tell me about the 1st demo. Do you plan uploading it? What songs were on it? Where and who recorded it?
Gérôme: The first demo was recorded in June 1991 by Jimmy with his 4 track cassette recorder and his old drum machine. Pascal was doing his national service. I think he was not here, so there is only my guitar.
On the first demo Jimmy’s bass is amazing, really huge.It’s a rough analogue sound but I love it. I try a lot of different things on the guitar. “Nos Etés Trop Courts” is orthodox shoegaze, but with a clear guitar sound for the chorus, “Y’A Des Jours Sans” is influenced by New Order and “Only of the Night” is more, mellow, eery, atmospheric.
It’s Marielle singing. Marielle had no singing experience in fact, her amateur performances (she sometimes sang out of tune) were precisely what we defended. We also liked (what we heard about) the texts of Marielle, very personal and fragile, like the ones of Y’A Des Jours Sans where she explains that some days, she is depressed and does not want to get up. Pascal said that was “authentic “ indie pop and at that time I was learning what were lo-fi, DiY attitude and underground subculture. I remember it was a revelation when Pascal, Marielle and Jimmy saw the Pastels in concert. They were shy and friendly, with a rough sound. Pascal enjoyed their show a lot. At some stage I would always play a wrong note in the guitar chorus of Nos Etés Trop Courts, right at the end of the track. My friend Jérôme (the future lead singer of the band Crash) would make a point of telling us, but Pascal would then reply “We don’t care, we play what we want”. That always stayed with me.
Jimmy: Yes, they were recorded in my bedroom at my parents. There is a first demo version of Nos Etés Trop Courts, an instrumental rehearsal version of Leaves Return To Dust (working title: Waiting), Y’A Des Jours Sans and Only Of The Night (two unreleased songs). Marielle is on vocals and wrote the lyrics.
And so yes after you sent us the questions for the interview we released it here: https://ovvkarchives.bandcamp.com/album/sunset-demo-ep
++ The second demo is titled “Sunshine EP” and has two girls on the cover. I find them very familiar but can’t figure out who are they… do tell!
Gérôme: We all had 4 cassette tracks recorders and drum machines at the time. Pascal had just bought a new drum machine and had offered to manage the recording. I thought it was a good idea (besides he recorded other pop bands in the years that followed). He had a half-hollow guitar. We can hear the subtle feedback he made at the end of “Walk Of Nones”;-).
++ Was there any other demo tapes?
No. Only rehearsal recordings
++ And normally these demo tapes you released, were they mostly for promotion purposes, to send to radio and magazines? or did you perhaps sell them to fans?
Jimmy: I think we recorded the first demo for fun. At the time we recorded it we didn’t plan to find gigs or try to have a review in a fanzine or a magazine. Also, we didn’t have a manager, we were real beginners.
++ Are there more recordings by the band? Unreleased songs?
Jimmy: The last unreleased songs are on Demo #1 and so there are some songs that I started when I was still in the band that I will release under the moniker Diaphane.
++ I think my favourite song of yours might as well be “Leaves Return to Dust”, so what’s the story behind it?
Jimmy: I can’t tell you about the lyrics, we’d have to ask Fabrice but when I wrote it on the bass I was deeply influenced by The Sundays, listen to their first album, it’s obvious 😉
++ If you were to choose your favorite Nos Etés Trop Courts song, which one would that be and why?
Jimmy: Leaves Return To Dust is probably my fav too. I think that my second fav would be Only Of The Night. Probably because I didn’t even remember that one until Gérôme told me recently he had it on a cassette. Even though I always remembered the bass line, I forgot we demoed it and didn’t hear it in 28 years. I can tell you it’s fantastic to discover a song that you wrote almost 30 years earlier!
There’s something very touching on this first demo because it’s really naïve, you can hear clearly that we’re beginners. But still, you can feel that we got the hang of writing and I love this dark/melancholic mood hesitating between a light Indie Pop mood and a darker Post-Punk / Cold Wave one.
Gérôme: My favourite song is Nos Etés Trop Courts.
++ What about gigs? Did you play many?
Jimmy: When I was in the band, we played only one outdoor gig during the national French music day (Fête de La Musique), the 21st of June 1991. But as Gérôme said they played with the second line-up in the local Club called Melody Maker in 1992.
++ And what were the best gigs you remember? Any anecdotes you can share?
Jimmy: Sadly, I don’t have a good memory of that period. I think that the best anecdote is that we would almost all have amazing musical experiences with Les Autres and Crash a few years after that, opening for great bands such as The Wedding Present or The House Of Love.
++ And were there any bad ones?
Jimmy: Hopefully, no bad ones as far as I can remember 😉
++ Looking back in retrospective, what would you say was the biggest highlight for the band?
Jimmy: Probably to play in this small but hype local club, Melody Maker.
Gérôme: Or probably being an underground band, but in the popular music avant-garde of that time, playing shoegaze at the same time as Ride or Slowdive edited their first album.
++ Never visited Nantes but would love to go one day, maybe I can ask for some suggestions? Like what are the sights I shouldn’t miss? Or the traditional food or drinks I should try?
Jimmy: In my last interview for Les Autres you were supposed to try crêpes in French Brittany, remember Roque? Did you try?
To be honest this part of the Atlantic coast is not the best place in France when it comes to landscapes.
But if you go a bit further north-west and you visit French Brittany, which I think you did in the past Roque, the coast is beautiful in many parts and there are really nice small islands.
You could also go to this village where Gauguin and other impressionists stayed at the end of the 19th century: Pont-Aven. There’s a nice little impressionists museum. Also in Carnac you could see what is probably the biggest site of menhirs (standing stone) in the world and which is contemporary to Stonehenge.
In Nantes the main thing is the Castle of the Dukes of Brittany. In Nantes, Anne de Bretagne was the last Duchess of the independent Brittany (connected to Great Britain) until she married the King of France (16th Century).
Gérôme: I Love Nantes and the people from Brittany. It deserves to be known!
++ Lastly one non-music question, one about football. Do you support Nantes or Rennes?
Jimmy: Neither Nantes nor Rennes. I’m personally against professional sport which is in my opinion one of the strongest tools for mainstream-corporate culture to alienate people. Sorry to be that serious on that matter 😉
Gérôme: The only thing I like about football is to be with friends watching games. But you must be a connoisseur, because there is indeed the Breton derby Rennes vs Nantes.
++ Anything else you’d like to add?
Jimmy: Just thanks again for your support and what you do Roque to keep alive the spirit of independent music of those years !
Gérôme: I’d like to add 2 things:
The first one is that if Nos Etés Trop Courts has produced almost nothing, most of its musicians did a lot of things afterwards. Marielle worked in music. First at the Olympic, the main concert hall venue in Nantes, then she started a business of booking bands and managing others.
Pascal played in several bands (Crash, Snowfan, Hafner, Newell…) and started an indie record label, Cindie. He began with a cassette compilation titled Ces Chères Têtes Blondes :
https://www.discogs.com/fr/Various-Ces-Ch%C3%A8res-T%C3%AAtes-Blondes/release/2259390
Then he released singles and albums.
Jimmy played in Les Autres, and I played in Crash, then wrote in Magic RPM Magazine and became a sociologist studying music. Crash and Les Autres had a lot of press, made records and concert gigs.
Fabrice released several vinyl singles as River:
https://www.discogs.com/fr/artist/379522-River-5
The second one is that Nos Etés Trop Courts was a band that lasted a short time. Formed in January 1991, and died in June 1992. We have never been to a professional studio but spent very little time outside of rehearsals saving a few titles on 4 cassette tracks. These tapes were never shown outside of the band’s 20-plus fans until Jimmy released them on Ovvk Recordings. The first demo was recorded in June 1991 at Jimmy’s. The second demo, Sunshine EP” was recorded in October 1991 by Pascal and I. Jimmy and Marielle had just moved to other cities for their studies. We continued to hang out with them, but Fabrice came to sing after we met him. He put his voice on our music on January 1992. This second demo, Sunshine EP, was really in the wave I think.
https://ovvkarchives.bandcamp.com/track/nos-etes-trop-courts
It has the sound of the time. It is part of the history of indie pop. But we did not realise it counted at the time. Pascal didn’t like Fabrice’s way of singing that much, he thought his way of singing was too technical, too professional, too clean. For Fabrice, it was a revelation to play with us. He listened to things like Front 242 or Depeche Mode before he met us. He heard shoegazing music with us for the first time and was enthusiastic when he first heard that kind of sound. Because we did not realise the precursor dimension of compositions like Leaves return to dust or Nos Etés Trop Court. We did not broadcast these recordings at the time and we did few concerts. We had not shown them on compilations even though people today tell us it was great. And your reaction confirms it to us. That’s life anyway.
Have a nice day and thank you for your support!
Thanks to Sonia Stewart for the English correction.
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