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.
++ What instruments did each of you play in the band?
There was Franck Marxer on bass and Jacques Speyser on drums (they played in Stephen’s Library at the time, and later formed the core of the band Original Folks and Marxer). Régine played rhythm guitar and Jacqueline sang. I played rhythm guitar and sang.
++ 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.
++ The band released an album in 1994 on Cornflakes Zoo. It was called “Kumcat” I suppose a play on words on Kumquat?
Yes, a democratic problem, if I dare say. I wanted the record to be called Kung Fu, but the others found the title too strange. So they thought of Kumquat, and I don’t remember why, it became Kumcat. We weren’t very good at language!
++ How did you end up working with Cornflakes Zoo? How was your relationship with the label?
The Cornflakes Zoo label, set up by Stéphane Teynié in Bordeaux, had released the 45 rpm of Stephen’s Library. As Jacques and Franck were in the Molies, Stéphane offered us an album. It was very courageous of him, for a band that never played in concert. We had good relations, but as said, the history of the band is so short… We were also far away, there was no internet, relationships were fragmented, episodic, but always friendly. The record had little feedback, I think Stéphane didn’t sell many, he must have been disappointed by our involvement especially.
++ Was there interest from any other labels? Perhaps a big one at some point?
Ahaha no. It was clear that we were not a band that could inspire confidence in the industry! We were a totally amateur band.
++ The album was recorded at Downtown Studio by Didier Houbre. How was that experience? Did it take a long time to record? What did Didier bring to your music? Did you record during the day or night? Beer and pizza diet?
I don’t remember much about the recording. Except that the place smelt of soup (it was in a former Knorr factory) and we had a good laugh. We also met Rodolphe who used to play in a hardcore band, but who came along to our recordings out of curiosity. He played guitars on stage with us and on the recordings for the second album. I remember a really nice moment too, at the end of the second recording session when the others drove off to their villages and I was waiting for the bus back to the centre of Strasbourg. Everything was quiet, and the snow started to fall just as I found myself alone. Like in a movie, really. Looking back, we had no experience, no real idea of how we wanted to sound, and if we gave ideas, Didier Houbre, who had experience, told us it wasn’t right. But he was older than us and had influences that weren’t ours. I think we should have recorded ourselves on a 4-track. I’m in awe of a band from that era, a band of Toulouse I discovered very late in life, Daisy Age. They had the sound I had in mind at the time, they sang in French, that’s how I would have liked us to sound, like the group Daisy Age on their song Hier.
++ Another interesting bit about the record is that the artwork was made by Philippe Roure, a well-known designer. How did this collaboration happen?
To be honest, I don’t really like this cover, it’s awful. I mean, the basic idea, I can’t remember who’s responsible for that (me ? ahaha). But I had a set of black and white photos I’d taken when I was a kid (the living room you see) on the cover with the TV, that’s my parents’ living room. These photos are great, we should have used them as they are. The astronaut, the horrible logo, the lousy typography, you can see that it was the beginning of Photoshop or whatever. We should have done something much simpler, like our music, like the Sarah Records covers, simple forms, b/w photos, that would have suited us better.
++ Prior to this record you had appeared on a few compilations. You were, for example, on the legendary “Heol Daou”. I believe you were part of the fanzine people at the time. How did this system of compilations and fanzines in France work? Was it a tight-knit scene?
Yes, that was brilliant! Can you believe it, ending up on the same cassette as Katerine and Dominique A! Yes, we were part of the small French pop world. Toulouse, Bordeaux, Nantes, Paris, Strasbourg… It was Jacques who got in touch with Anne Moyon, Katerine’s sweetheart at the time. She was very active. She produced these cassettes. We wrote to each other and exchanged demo tapes. It was great, very amateur, without ambition, but generous. I think we were all a bit alike, not very organised, a bit of a dilettante. It’s a shame, for example, we couldn’t manage to put together small tours when, with a bit of hard work, we could have. But it was a very nice spirit, for example, someone had organised a football tournament near Nantes, with a party afterwards. I think the Katerine and Little Rabbits team won easily. At this moment we also met the genius Monsieur de Foursaings who visited us at the camping in his old car. This person was kind, seems to come from a Nouvelle Vague movie. What a beautiful souvenir. The great thing is that we’ve kept in touch even now, with Martial who runs a record shop in Bordeaux (Total Heaven), with Fred who also runs a record shop in Paris (Pop Culture), with the people in Limoges (Anorak), with Alban who lives in Paris (he was in Les Garçons Ordinaires)…
++ On the “Ces Chères Têtes Blondes” you included a cover of Melody Dog’s “Cha Cha Charlie”. How did you end up picking a song by that not that well-known band? Were there any other options you considered at the time?
So it’s not a Melody Dog cover, but a musical setting of a poem by Pat Laureate of Melody Dog. This poem was in the fanzine Pastelism. On the Molies’ second album, I also set to music another poem by Pat Laureate, Car Boot Sales. I feel a bit like a thief now because I didn’t ask her opinion, her permission even. I apologise to you, Pat, if I’ve damaged your poems a bit with my rather lame chords. Read these wonderful and funny poems instead of listening to Molies songs!
+ Another cover you did is “J’en ferais bien mon 4 heures” by Les Calamités. I love that band! Would you say they were the best French 80s indiepop band or is there anyone that could beat them?
Yes, I always liked Les Calamités. I’m a little ashamed to have butchered this song there too. I never let Isabelle from Les Calamités listen to it when I had the chance to meet her a few years ago when I wrote the liner notes for the reissue of the complete Calamités for the Born Bad label. It’s a wonderful memory, I loved writing about their story during months and talking with almost everyone involved in their story. I thank Isabelle, Odile and Born Bad for this adventure.
++ And speaking of covers you did a version of “Jesus Sucks” by The Jesus and Mary Chain for a tribute compilation. I suppose you were big fans of the band. I wonder if you record or play live any other covers?
Jesus Suck wasn’t a very good cover either ! Given my level of incompetence, the covers were more like bottles in the sea. On stage, we also covered Diabologum, their song with Dominique A. There is a cover that I like that I did with Rémy from KG who was a real musician, Retiens la nuit by Johnny Hallyday (actually a song by Aznavour I think). I listen to this one again with pleasure.
++ You continue to put out songs on compilations up to 1997 but no other records get released. Why was that?
It’s just that the band didn’t play anymore after 1997. I think our last show was opening for Diabologum on their #3 tour. I might as well tell you that I understood that times were changing and that it wasn’t a bad idea to stop. Their concert was incredible. The songs on the compilations were just old stuff.
++ But of course, you were actually recording a second album with Rémy Bux aka KG. These recordings are now on Bandcamp as “Super Slow Mo”. Was the album titled that way back then? Was there going to be more songs recorded or was it always 7 tracks? I guess in a nutshell, how complete is the album that got released on tape by Scum Yr Earth?
So what appeared on ScumYrEarth are the last songs that we recorded one summer at Shotgun Gallery. In 1996 or 1995 I think. There too we were not serious, it was very hot, we were playing with waterguns all day long. Rémy (KG, Sun Plexus) who was recording us lost his patience sometimes. He was right. We invited everyone who came to the studio to play guitar and synth parts. It was a bit of a constant party. Here too, by listening, we can realize that we did not have a global vision or direction. I wanted a Galaxie 500 song, a Pavement song, a Stereolab song, well they sounded like that in my head, but not really in reality. But I still really like these recordings. Our first album should have been recorded this way. I love Mexico-Toronto and this coda with the Farfisa, I wanted this loop to last 10 minutes, but the others didn’t want it! I’m super happy that the record was released on Michel Wisniewski’s label. It’s completely incongruous since he only releases super experimental things, but in a way we were very expérimental ! The last song (Everybody’s Looking Good Today) was recorded in 2005-2006 for a reunion concert with the original line-up, Franck, Jacques, Jacqueline and Régine. It was for a Herzfeld party (Herzfeld was a new collective label I was involved in). We rehearsed as before, it was a good moment, a way of coming full circle.
++ And yeah, what sparked you to release these songs after so many years?
It was just a proposal from Michel, I jumped at it, found this title « Super Slo-mo » (or did Michel, I don’t rememeber) without telling anyone, I really wanted these songs to be published, it happened like a dream, he told me about it, a week later he had the songs, the cassette was released a month later with a beautiful cover by his friend artist.
++ One of the songs caught my attention, “Mexico-Toronto” where you even mention Acapulco. I do wonder, if you ever did this trip, from Mexico to Toronto, or what inspired this track?
It’s just my imagination. I don’t remember where it came from. No more memories. I know that I was talking about extraterrestrial life, I was under X-Files influences !
