Recreating 1980s classics in bossa nova style isn’t easy – just ask French musical collective Nouvelle Vague. But, with the imminent release of their third album, NV3, the group continues to craft laid-back, loungy versions of early punk and new wave songs. We spoke with mastermind Olivier Lebaux about his cadre of vocalists, his love of new wave music, and featuring original artists on covers of their previous work on NV3.
Nouvelle Vague – Master & Commander
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Nouvelle Vague, as the name implies, focuses on creating bossa nova-ish versions of important 1970s to 1980s new wave and punk songs. What drove you to selecting these sets of songs? How do you choose the particular tracks from such a rich genre of music?
Olivier Lebaux:
We have been great fans of the punk/post punk/new wave period in music in the 80’s – we were teenagers at this time. We then turned into musicians, producers, on the French scene along the 90’s. We started Nouvelle Vague on a simple (but a bit crazy) idea: try a cover of “Love Will Tear Us Apart” in bossa nova. It then appeared this idea was so good that it was worth [it] to record some other new wave songs. We selected “our” songs because they had been favourites of ours in the 80’s, and also we were thinking they would work in a bossa nova version. We then have kept on working the same, and I think nowadays we have recorded around covers of 50 different great new wave songs.
Is the singer of each track familiar with the original material? Do you find a big difference in your new version depending on the singer’s knowledge of the original band?
OL:
While recording the 1st album, we happened to work with female singers like Eloisia, a Brasilian girl who didn’t know (never heard about them) Joy Division or, for example, Camille, who told us that The Clash’s music was her parents music, and that she was not interested in it! We realized how strong that matter was, as these girls were going to sing our covers being not afraid of any myth. These past years, we have sometimes obviously recorded some versions with girls who happened to know the original. Thing is, even having already heard the original, these girls were still very spontaneous, fresh and creative (it was still “their parents music” in a way).
Do the singers in the Nouvelle Vague family enjoy translating punk and new wave into a more laid-back sound? How do most of them get involved with the group?
OL:
Our singers love the versions they are doing, that’s for sure. I think they re-create the songs their own way. Thing is we show them the songs only using my acoustic guitar (it’s made on purpose) so they can discover the song as if it was a new one, written by Marc or I the night before. The girls then get the lyrics, we talk together and explain our ideas about the new version, and all that happens after that is really a matter of creativity.
How did featuring artists from the original songs come about on NV3? Who are some of the artists from the 70s and 80s that you are looking forward to collaborating with in the future?
OL:
We used to know that some people of the new wave era were appreciating Nouvelle Vague, Martin Gore for example. Since then, working on Nouvelle Vague 1 and Bande a Part, we were just developing our way of doing covers, and were often hearing good feedback from some new original people. Before starting the recording of NV3, we thought it would maybe the right time to contact some original performers/artists, and propose them to collaborate with us on covers. We selected a short list of names – Martin Gore, David Byrne, Ian Mc Culloch, etc. We had a good feedback from everyone: some were keen on the idea and would find a way to record together. Some others – like David Byrne for example – were too busy at this period, so [he] could not find anytime to work with us, but anyway told us that our cover was great. We could obviously contact some people in the future – our list was only made of 9 names this time – we will certainly do [it] if a song or another deserves it.
What are their responses to hearing their music transformed to a very different style? Any criticism from Johnny Rotten (for “God Save the Queen”), sometimes he can be pretty opinionated!
OL:
To tell you the truth, we have never heard about Johnny Rotten – as we have heard about many other original artists. His silence could be positive, but it also could be quite negative. Who knows? Our position anyway has always been to cover these artists with a lot of love and respect, I guess – while listening to our stuff – that these people can feel we are fans of them.
Do you see Nouvelle Vague writing any new songs in the future, or just digging out gems from the past and reinventing them? What direction do you see the group going? I’d love to hear Nouvelle Vague take on the Stooges’ “Gimme Danger.”
OL:
Well, Nouvelle Vague – as said in its name – is dedicated to covers of new wave (the name translates to “new wave” in French) , so original material is not really the purpose of this band. To tell you the truth, we are releasing our own songs under our own names, on other projects. So Nouvelle Vague is dedicated to new wave. We have anyway many ideas, so maybe we could move into other directions one of these days, we still don’t know.
PS: The Stooges were the fathers of punk, so your idea is sounding good to me!