Masculin Feminin -- Paris in the Spring
I am the new George Gershwin, the composer of the next American in Paris. It’s March 25th, 1997 -- a year ago from
the day I write this. Spring’s in the air, you know what I’m saying. There’s magic everywhere. When you’re young,
and bla bla bla ... I’m in Paris briefly, on the way to meet a friend at Les Deux Magots -- I’d read about it in
an article, and it was the first place I could think of when a meeting spot had to be arranged. Little did I know,
the distance I’d have to walk from the train station to get there. Walking in the Paris streets, the biggest, most
wonderful melodies burst into my mind. Two young French girls approach me, and start talking to me. They flirt
a little, make fun of my attempts at French, try to mock the Yankee accent, and I think they might like me, but
then they ask for money. From the little I know of French girls, they have an amazing way of putting you down,
and making it feel like a compliment. Like, on the Chunnel train from London a few hours earlier, I sat in my seat
next to a sweet smelling, classy, and elegant French lady. She looked around, smiled at me, and in a sweet voice
said, ‘There’s lots of empty seats back there. You can go lie down, if you want.’ So her and me wasn’t to be --
at least, not in 1997. Plans get made, and almost as often they fall through. I was supposed to spend days in Paris,
but only got to spend a few hours. Taking the train out of Paris, the full moon shone gold, and I talked to my
friend, pretending I was Marlowe in Heart of Darkness surrounded by intent listeners as I told my life’s story.
It’s always a pleasure to write an article on a group, when their songs involve four of life’s finest things –
Spring, Paris, movies, and love. I meet Spring not when I’m in Paris, but three weeks later in a little restaurant
on one of the cobblestone side streets deep in the centre of Madrid. They’re a good looking bunch of people --
immaculately dressed and blessed with the intelligence and good manners that are nowhere in the world more abundant
than in France. Quite out of character -- it is after all before nine o’clock -- I’m more than a little tipsy,
but no one seems to mind too much my bad jokes about French tendencies towards sexual deviancy and incest – I know
these facts through my encounters with the French cinema. Alex, the singer, is the one I talk to mostly. She has
‘big green eyes, dark hair and perfect lips.’ Jean Baptiste, the acoustic guitarist, ‘has got some Italian origins.’
Francois, the bassist, is ‘young and always happy, and some of his friends say he looks like the young Marlon Brando.’
Michelle is Alex’s sister, playing keyboards and percussion. ‘She’s got dark hair and big brown eyes.’ Christophe
is the manager, and works for a French magazine called Magic. Everyone seems to share an affinity for fashion,
old movies, and more than anything else fine pop music new and old.
Pressed for the closest comparison I could think of for the Spring blueprint, I’d refer you to Moose’s classic
song, "I Wanted To See You To See If I Wanted You." It’s a wall of sound constructed from acoustic guitars
with lyrics about smoking your last cigarette and looking for love in dreams. Or else, what with Alex’s pretty
vocals especially, I’m reminded of the Francoise Hardy-type song that gets played throughout Jean Luc Godard’s
mid-1960s classic movie, Masculin Feminin. Says Alex, "From 60's pop to post-punk. Personally, for example,
I started doing music because of The Fall and Lawrence (Felt/Denim) and of what they meant to me. Since then, I
have been having ideas I cannot avoid expressing through music. When you grow up listening to different kinds of
music, you just cannot deny the multiple faces and moods dawning into you. There is not a lot you can do apart
from learning to respect the contradictions that mould your own personality and perception. It is healthy not to
be deaf to what provides you some emotion, whatever the song is about, let it be groovy, punk or country. Spring
was born as we were trying to make some connections between some feelings from different angles. It's like singing
‘I'm an anarchist’ through a very funky deep soul music, or ‘I'm broke and bed-sitting and thinkin' all day long’
through a happy melodious Latin song. It's not meant to be arrogant -- we just wanna express ourselves. We just
can't help doing music. It's like being able to breath: it's suffocating whenever we can't make music. There should
never be a distinction between who you are and what you do."
Fittingly, their first song appeared on a compilation on Icerink, the label run by Saint Etienne’s Bob Stanley
-- both groups share a cool and romantic demeanor. The single most important influence on any songwriter is always
going to be love. On any day, it’s a fair bet that nine out of the top ten songs on the radio are going to be about
love. My favorite Spring song is naturally "L.O.V.E." It’s the last song on their first album from 1995,
Tokyo Drifter, which borrows its name from a 1960s Japanese gangster film. It’s one of the most beautiful, tender
songs about love lost that I’ve heard. Andre Breton once wrote, "If I place love above everything, it is because
for me it is the most desperate, the most despairing state of affairs imaginable." And that’s what this song
is -- the desperation of never ever being able to hold hands with a lover again, to never dance again, to never
be together again. Never ever. And that’s a long long time. A love affair is the most fragile thing there is. In
a split second, a relationship can start or come apart. And Paris -- ‘a city of pleasures and amusements where
four-fifths of the people die of grief’ -- contains a few of love’s secrets, I’m sure.
Says Alex, "Paris is one of the most beautiful cities. There's this really romantic atmosphere, especially
in spring and summer. But I think Paris has more charms for someone who just spends a few days or a few weeks.
In that case, you've only got the time to discover all its charms and beauty. But Paris is also one of the most
boring cities you can live in. You know, there's all this big buzz about the french/Parisian groove thing. And
there's nothing to do, nowhere to go. There are just one or two interesting clubs, one or two really nice bars
where you really want to hang around." When I ask about the best thing to do in Paris on a date, Francois
answers, "It doesn't matter whether you are in Paris or not to do the best thing(s) you can do," and
the rest of the group agrees.
Spring has found the most success not in Paris, but in Spain. Their releases come out on Elefant, Spain’s biggest
independent label. So far, they’ve released two short albums, and a slew of singles, including one called Chante
En Espagnol, in which they sing popular Spanish songs past in tribute to the country that has blessed them. "Madrid
has stolen a bit of our soul," says Alex. "It's not only because the people who trust in us live over
there. It's also because of the atmosphere, it makes us feel alive! And this atmosphere is partly made by the people
we know. So I suppose we know the right people. Madrid is a fantastic city -- we love the architecture, these enigmatic
little streets. We love the bars and the way Spanish people live, the rhythm they give to a normal day -- there
is a sensuality which doesn't exist anywhere else in Europe. Anyway, it's fair enough to associate music with a
place. When you write a song, anything can influence you. It could be a person you see on the subway, a conversation
you hear in a bar. It could be a thought you have while you are walking down a street."
Spring’s press releases from Elefant are idyllic and fine bits of writing. They represent one more reason to look
forward to the next Spring release. On Tokyo Drifter, it reads, "an angel voice surrounded by 12 string acoustic
guitars and vibes, cabasa and crystalline electric chords. It’s a record about love, dreamy atmospheres and cool
attitudes, continental feelings and impossible meetings. It’s the definitive soundtrack for late nights, when you
drink wine and smoke cigarettes. Songs to chill out to or fall in love with. And here you are, left on your own,
with this impression that Spring will never end." On their summer 1995 meeting with Javi Pez in San Sebastian
-- apparently, a renowned Spanish DJ, musician, remixer, etc. -- the press release reads, "It was love at
first sight: they danced together at the finest clubs in town, they swam in the northern beaches and walked by
this precious city, chatting about music, sunny afternoons and lonely beaches in Southern France." Wow! Wouldn’t
you just love to collaborate with Spring?
The collaboration in question Pez resulted in Spring’s 1997 mini-album, Out of Time. The result is Spring’s grace
and highly defined sense of style with bigger, stranger arrangements. The music doesn’t skip through styles, like
annoying genre-jumping projects, but much more impressively simultaneously reminds one of everything from Esquivel
or Tipsy, to acid jazz, to Latin jazz, to Bacharach. "Puerto Habana" in particular succeeds in reminding
me of some way cool collaborations between Frank Sinatra and Antonio Carlos Jobim. Says Alex, "This is a fantastic
record and a really great compliment! In Spring, some of us have been 60's-Top Of The Pop music-bred. Jobim, Sinatra
definitely. Bossa nova and crooners were like Sunday-family-lunchtime-soundtracks. Jobim and Stan Getz were my
parents' favourite artists. And everything you've been listening to as a kid, as far as you can remember the tune
or the lyrics, is part of your musical origins. We just inherit our past and whatever we do is a reflection of
who we are from since we were born to nowadays."
Collaborations have played a very important role in Spring’s discography. Alex has sung on the Moose song "Regulo
7," and Moose’s K.J. McKillop did a nice little voiceover in French on Spring’s "Matinees." Says
Alex, "We've always been into collaborations, since the very start of Spring. We just cannot help it. But
we come to it in a very natural way, just because we want to spend some time with someone whose personality and
music we like a lot. It’s always as simple as that. Obviously, these people have brought something to Spring. That
was another idea. We are into electronic stuff, we are into dancey kind of things, programmings or samplings. But
we need them to achieve what we wanted, obviously. But, all these collaborations have more to see with friendship
and pleasure than anything else. For example, the "Out Of Time" LP came very naturally. One day, we were
talking with Pez and thought : ‘Hey why don't we do something together.’ For me, it was interesting to be confronted
with beats and loops and try to write pop melodies, try to write arrangements. For Pez, it was interesting to be
confronted to a pop format, to a proper song, in a way, if you know what I mean. You know, it's like mixing different
colours together to create another one. That's why I love abstract hip hop so much. This music is powerful and
brings good vibes into you because these musicians and producers do mix together things that are not meant to be
mixed up together." With Spanish remixers Indurain and Extra Lucid at work on the "Be My Star" single,
Spring seemed incredibly well suited to the smooth beats, taking abstract hip-hop into a breezy Mediterranean context.
Not to be forgotten is the role of the art department in Spring’s sleeves. Of the designs by Eric Perez at Magic
Design/4UMAN, Alex says, "We feel so lucky to work with a guy like that or Eric Pérez who designs all
our sleeves. Eric is like a member of the band: his work is so important in the perception of Spring LPs and moods."
On Spring’s debut single, "Something Beginning," the cover has a movie still of a man giving a woman
a foot massage. On the back cover of Tokyo Drifter, a man and woman prepare to embrace in front of the closed blinds
of a bedroom window. And "Be My Star" has a picture of a young girl’s face with blue eyeliner and nice
eyelashes and an orange flower pressed between her lips.
Spring’s elegant songs remind me of European movies. Like for instance, those beautiful scenes in Jean Luc Godard’s
Breathless at the end of the day on the Champs Elysees with the cool jazzy soundtrack. Despite a song called "Matinees,"
Alex says, "For my part, I wouldn't go to cinemas. I don't feel comfortable in those places. I'm too self
conscious and it frightens me. What I love to do is, when alone at home, watching videos of Ingmar Bergman's or
Michelangelo Antonioni's movies. These directors had a really big impact on me. They know how to turn a story full
of violence and of strange, weird and cruel characters into a beautiful and peaceful paintings, which I found fascinating.
We always like the idea of a visual feeling given by a musical piece. But it's not something we work on. I mean,
we never think, ‘Yeah, let's try to create a cinematic ambiance.’ You know what I mean? But, obviously, as we really
like 60s movies and soundtracks, all these things have an influence when we try and write songs. Anyway, image
is quite important -- image as in videos and sleeves. Do you know there is a video for the song "Chuck It
Up"? It's a real strange story. We didn't know at all the guy who made it. He is called Tuyi and we only met
him when we went to Mallorca, a month ago. He worked on the video without knowing us and he did something so close
to what we like it was incredible. Just before we went on stage, he shows us the video and that moment was amazing
: it's one of our best souvenirs. The story, the characters suit the song so well! The guy is really talented."
Subsequently, I’ve heard that the video has to be modified for American purposes, because it includes the use of
guns.
If it’s true that we all want to live in movies, to crash the love boat into everyday life, then Spring, when everything
is in bloom, is definitely the time that I think I have to make a change. The French situationist Raoul Vaneigem
once wrote that ‘to be in love is to live in a different world.’ To be in love is where the cinema, where Spring
should begin. In Jean Luc Godard’s Masculin Feminin, the characters sit in a Paris -- ‘where everyone wants to
be an actor and no one a spectator’ -- cinema, idling away the afternoon, and the voiceover goes, "We’d often
go to the movies. We’d shiver as the screen lit up. But more often we’d be disappointed. The images flickered.
Marilyn Monroe looked terribly old. It saddened us. It wasn’t the film we dreamed, the film we all carried in our
hearts; the film we wanted to make, and secretly wanted to live." But ultimately, after a winter spent complaining,
at some point, you have to take some kind of initiative. More than any other season, Spring is the time of year
in which I become painfully aware that life must be better orchestrated.
‘Just improvise’ is the advice the Marvelettes gave in their late-1960s hit, "When You’re Young and in Love."
You can’t let your youth slip away. You only have a few years to be young and in love. Now is the hour! Something
is needed immediately. One must exhaust the second, the minute, the hour for all it is worth. To live in happiness
and love everyday blessed by heaven above. To escape the passing of Time, to lose the ability to see Time. To taste
the sweetest delights you’ll ever know, and then taste them again and again. Today’s pleasure is made twice as
sweet by the memory of yesterday’s pleasure. Their effects add together, amplified from here until eternity. The
more you’ve loved in the past, the more you’ll love in the future. So take back the night, take back the day, and
embrace it. Take one bold step away from death and towards life. Promise to never be reassured that age offers
wisdom, cause it might very well be worth nothing. Creep, creep, every day, flip the syllables around, and make
a real life record like all time high. Light the flame. And strut, strut, strut. Show your stuff, cause you know
what’s going on, boy, girl. Shine, cause this is your hour on the stage. Be a player, and resound resound resound.
The double wound of a useless knowledge is that you have spent so many years acquiring it at the expense of life
itself. One looks around one day, and realizes one’s youth is gone, one’s eyesight is faltering, one’s physical
coordination and fitness are far inferior to what they once were ... never let it happen! Find the life that is
overflowing, wild and wonderful. The truth, when it comes to human endeavor for knowledge, is something more like
a child blowing up a balloon -- its space expands and expands until finally it explodes, and the project has to
be started all over again. While the space inside the balloon, which is like human knowledge, is like a single
second compared to all eternity, when compared to the space inhabited by the universe, and this is the knowledge
of the Gods. So burst the bubble, and find the breasts that flow, and reclaim your life for the rest of your life.
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Older articles can be found in The Archives
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