Can you imagine living in a world where only you believe in the magic of great music? Or playing music with an energy and pop sensibility, only to be told it’s time to grow up and give up childish things? Thank goodness for the French band The Wendy Darlings, who charmed us with their music and will make you believe as well. Ignoring the prevailing winds in France and the dearth of good popular music in our world, they fashion a tale of sugar kisses and pixie dust. Prepare to jump out the window and fly while being introduced to our new favorite band.

TDOA : Would you like to know how clueless we are in America? Were perplexed by the fact that you’re a French band, but your songs and MySpace page are in English. Please pardon our ignorance and explain.

WD: In fact, 99% of the bands we listen to are English-speaking and our songs are also in English because the French language has less musicality than English. And it’s very hard to play pop songs when the lyrics are in French. John Lennon used to say that “French pop is like English wine”. In fact, only a few geniuses in the sixties like Serge Gainsbourg, Jacques Dutronc or Françoise Hardy succeeded in making great pop songs in French.

About our MySpace, there is an explanation. In our opinion, we are deeply convinced that there is no real “indie pop” audience in France and that nobody here is really interested in it. French people seem genetically programmed not to understand pop. Of course, there are a few people who enjoy and listen to indie pop music and play in indie pop bands in France, but they feel very lonely. In fact, it seems that most French people expect music to be very ambitious, serious, deep, tormented, lyrical etc. That’s why so many people in our country like Radiohead, Portishead, Jeff Buckley etc. They think that pop is superficial, immature and not serious. But in fact that’s what we like to be: superficial, immature and not serious. vWe are here for fun before all!

Also, it is also a fact that only a few French people pay interest to our music. Most of the webzines that have interviewed us are English or American and only English or American labels have contacted us (Marineville Records, Lost Music Records, Series Two Records). We did our best gigs in London and Bristol because we really felt that people there share the same idea of pop music. In England, we just felt that we were at home. We long to go back there asap!

TDOA : Was there a feeling that you needed to make English versions of the songs available to get noticed in England and the U.S. and do you ever feel a bit of resentment over this? We’ve interviewed British bands who’re huge in China and other countries without having to record their music in the native language of another country !

WD : No. The fact is, that we are all involved in the English-speaking culture (music, films etc.). Also, Suzy lived 4 years in New Jersey when she was a kid, while Sylvain’s girlfriend is from Australia and he goes there every summer.
We don’t feel any resentment at all about singing in English. We just feel ridiculous when we sing in French. In fact we don’t even try. English was obvious for us. As we already said, only a few bands are able to play pop songs with French lyrics. When I think about it, the only good pop bands who sing in French I know are Doggy, a wonderful band from Limoges and La Position du tireur couché, a great band from our city. They are very talented.

TDOA: Can you talk about your influences? Do you mind the comparisons to bands like The Primitives or would you prefer to be known without being tied to another older band?

WD : In fact we all listen to a lot of different bands, but globally we are influenced by 50’s and 60’s pop, 80’s indie pop and 90’s indie rock. And we have a kind of fascination for trios.

I think we all agree that we want to play energetic music based on pop melodies. We like fuzzy guitars, punchy drums and short songs. We would like to sound like a garage/punk band trying to do pop songs. A kind of “punk rock for sissies”, to quote the Bartlebees.

When we started to play in 2006, we were influenced by The Vaselines, Sonic Youth, Pixies, Violent Femmes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs first album, Garageland, Pavement, The Jesus and Mary chain, My Bloody Valentine, The Rentals, Screamfeeder, but we also love bands like The Clean, Henry’s Dress, The Primitives, C86 pop, Slumberland Records…

TDOA : Shortly after his election, we used to ask European band about their feeling on Obama’s presidential election. George Bush made such an effort to alienate the French government, so we wonder what you think the perception of Obama is now in France?

WD : We think that Obama’s election is a very important event. The first, black president in all western history! This is a victory in itself for humanity. We think Obama has a very good image in France. He seems to be a tolerant, smart and wise man. President Bush and his administration were simply scary! They made a lot of mistakes, which brought more instability in the post-9/11 world and they lied in the face of the world. Their reaction to terrorism was the worst strategy. But we knew that a lot of people in America were opposed to him and to the war in Iraq and stuff. We never made the confusion between American people and their leaders. We simply hope that Obama won’t be paralysed by conservative inertia and that people will have the courage to help him change the world. We were scared to see people calling him “communist” when he tried to reform the health system. We don’t understand that !
To talk about France, our actual President represents everything we hate : arrogance, demagogy, etc.. French people have chosen the same kind of President that US people have just rejected. In fact, we would like to exchange our President for yours.

TDOA : We love the live videos of the bands. Can you talk about the live experience for people that are coming to see you for the first time? What’s a typical TWD show like?

WD : Thanks! Playing live is very important to us. It’s like a way to let out steam and get our kicks! We compensate lack of technical skills with energy! A good concert is one when we have fun on stage. Once, during the song “Suffer Girl”, a group of girls with cowboy hats in the audience improvised a choreography. We also played in Bristol with Tim Burton’s “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure” behind our backs. Fantastic show, thanks to Matthew and Heather from Big Pink Cake!
We are not after a perfect performance where nothing happens. On the opposite, we like when unexpected things happen!

TDOA : Please tell us about the songwriting process for The Wendy Darlings. Do most of your songs come out of rehearsals or is there one person in the band that generally writes a melody that forms the basis for your music?

WD : Beer + jam session = song. No, in fact most of the time we find riffs in “jam sessions”. We record everything on tape. Then we often combine different riffs together and work at home on the lyrics and arrangements. Sometimes we also propose a riff we found at home and we improvise on it. We get rid of a lot of stuff because we prefer to have only a few songs that really please us than dozens that are only “quite good” to our eyes.
We don’t know much about music theory, so we try to find things that sounds good.

TDOA : Are there any plans to come to America and play any festivals like SXSW? Does the French government do anything to support and fund bands like yourselves?

WD : If someone pays us the plane ticket and find us gigs, we would love to come. But we haven’t got enough money. In France, the government can help musicians in their project and give subventions. We also have a system that gives “indemnities” to artists to help them live when they don’t have tour dates, etc. A lot of American musicians are surprised by this and see France as a kind of heaven for musicians!

TDOA : How supportive of “indie/alternative” music is the French media?

WD : Not at all. French radio is complete rubbish and there is no real indie pop audience or venues in France. One of the only pop platforms we know is Anorak Records in Limoges. They have a wonderful pop fanzine called “Anorak City” which promotes indie pop. But, I guess they feel a bit lonely. There are a few good indie pop bands in France, but not a real scene like in England and America. It’s strange, because there are a lot of opportunities to play gigs in France when you are a “mainstream” pop band or when you are a ultra-underground-experimental band, but it is really harder for an indie pop band.

TDOA : How did you come to be connected with Series Two Records? Do you want to sign with a major label or do you prefer the freedom of working with smaller labels?

WD : We met Series Two Records via MySpace. We’re really not looking for a major label and we wouldn’t interest them anyway. We are not “bankable”. Our only goal is to play as much as possible and continue to record songs we like, and play with bands we like.
We would be glad to be on a “real” cd label or a vinyl label, but we are extremely happy to be on Trev’s ex-label Lostmusic Records and to know Series Two records because it has helped us a lot. Without Trev we would never have had the opportunity to play in England, which was a dream! So thank you Trev!! And thank you Chris for discovering us.

TDOA : What’s next for the band? Recording, touring…..

WD : We are back in our practice room for new songs and we are a bit rusty. We have a few concerts soon in our area, so we’ll have to work! A really nice girl in England told us that she could book us some gigs in the UK next Spring. We are really excited ! Our plan would be to do 4 or 5 dates in the UK in spring 2010. So we hope it will be ok !
We would also love to do a 7 inch one day.
We also wanted to say that Suzy and I (Baptiste/ drums) are finalizing our indie pop paper fanzine (in French) and a compilation of bands we love. It is called SUCK MY POP. Here is the link to our myspace : http://www.myspace.com/suckmypoprecords

To learn more about the band and proclaim your undying love, visit their MySpace page.  In England you can purchase their record thru Lostmusic Records.  We believe you Wendy Darling.  Now convince the world!

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Tags: Music, The Wendy Darlings