Introducing // Frànçois and the Atlas Mountains

Frànçois Marry and his Atlas Mountains have been creating quite a stir over the past few weeks. A triumphant slot opening up for Electrelane at London’s XOYO was swiftly followed by a support slot on the UK tour of King Creosote and Jon Hopkins. And if those aren’t accolades enough to stir you into wanting to listen to this group, then perhaps the fact that Frànçois and the Atlas Mountains are the first ever French signing to indie giant Domino will make you pay attention. We caught up with the mind behind the music, Frànçois Marry ahead of his show with Electrelane to find out who he was, where he came from and how it was that he speaks such astonishingly good English.

So Frànçois, we hear that you are the first French act to sign to Domino…

“I believe so, yes…Yeah, it’s pretty good! I didn’t really realise. I hope I got signed for my music more than the fact that I’m French, but it seemed to be a big deal in France – much bigger than I first expected, people were really impressed. I think in France, people don’t realise that Domino is an indie label. Even though it’s a big indie label, people see it as a major, so I think it had a big impact in France.”

Have things been moving quickly since then?

“Yeah, we played a festival called Le Printemps de Bourges which is a festival where all of the new bands play, and the announcement of the signing was made just before the festival. We drew a lot of attention, so yeah – awesome. We’re really excited! I’m very excited, it’s funny because I really feel like… I’ve been doing the DIY thing for quite a long time and it’s always been very exciting, but at the same time it’s been a bit of a struggle, obviously, and now I feel like… there’s a bit more security.”

You’ve been making music for quite a while now, so how would you sum up what you’ve been doing so far?

“I’ve practised this answer in French a lot, but not in English! In France, we’ve found a thing where we say we’re like Jacques Prévert, who was an old French poet and Talking Heads because that speaks to people in France. I don’t think it would be very accurate for a British audience. But it’s a mixture of French ‘chanson’ – a kind of song which is based on the lyrics – there’s a lot of that, it’s a mix of that and modern music. I lived in Bristol for 6 years so I was really into all the electronic music that was there.”

What took you to Bristol?

“My English teacher in France really liked me, and she found me a job as a French assistant at Bristol Cathedral School. I worked there for four years, and I had a bit of spare time so I started recording and playing shows in little cafes and places like that, and released some 7-inches. Then I got called to play with Camera Obscura, so I did a bit of touring with them although I never recorded with them, just touring. Initially, I chose Bristol because I really liked some bands from there – obviously, the most well known are Massive Attack and Portishead, but I really liked bands like Minority Shock as well, I really love them. Zun Zun Egui too are good friends – the music scene there is very inspiring. I think Zun Zun Egui is the best example of what’s good about Bristol, because it’s music that takes a long time to be made. They’ve been around for a long time as well, pretty much the same as I’ve been, and they took the time to make it feel right before it came out. I think that’s a quality of Bristol, people really take the time to get things right.”

The new album then, E Volo Love – how long did it take to make and how did you go about it?

“It took one year, and they’re songs we’ve had for a long time. When we recorded the previous album, Plaine Inondable, I didn’t have much going on for my own projects. I was playing with Camera Obscura a lot, but I didn’t have much going on myself. The previous album was made at home, but the new one has kind of gathered a bit of the energy of the tour. It felt like I wanted to have a more direct sound this time. Someone described the last album as being a bit impressionistic… the new album is less impressionistic! There’s more colour to it and direct pictures, there are less soundscapes. I guess it’s just poppier.

We recorded it in one week, with a drummer from Bristol, so there was a bit of a mixed team of British and French. We recorded next to a church in France in my hometown, a very comfortable, old place with old stones. They say that they built all of the cathedrals in France according to where there were cavities in the ground that lets the energy rise, like stonemasonry. It’s related to using sticks to find springs, you know? So maybe there was a bit of that energy in the album!”

Could you feel that as you were recording?

“It’s the old stone, you know, I’ve always avoided recording in studios – partly because I need time, and partly because I take time until the playing feels right. Usually, I need an environment that feels natural, not sterile. And Domino were really open to that way of doing it, and I know that some artists like Movietone that they’ve released in the past, would record stuff on the beach, or in holiday cottages and stuff. So it’s good to be on a label that supports that. It’s amazing having a label that’s really enthusaistic about the music side of things. The more I look into it, the more I realise how lucky I am…

So we recorded the body of the album in a week, then we did a lot of touring. So we ‘let the dough rise’! And then we came back and listened to it, then I asked some friends if they wanted to do some violin parts and stuff – it’s all friend based. It took so long because I waited for people to be available.”

Having had a lot of experience of playing shows in both France and throughout the UK, what have you noticed to be the biggest difference between the two countries?

“I’ve always found the French crowd more difficult. When I was a student in France, in La Rochelle, so in 2003, I was very frustrated with the type of music that was around. Then I moved to the UK and I was very excited about the DIY scene, and it felt like there was room for it in the UK. People were into buying vinyl and going to cafes to listen to music. I remember being really surprised at the thought of people putting on all dayers in pubs and stuff, because that’s something I thought wouldn’t work in France. But there’s more of a culture of going out to shows here in the UK, so people hear more, people buy albums more… In France, it can be hard for people to understand when music starts sounding a bit weird, when pop music starts to be a bit too experimental and perhaps the crowd that likes it is a bit intellectual and elitist. There’s less of that here. There still is a bit, but…”

A final question – are you excited about getting the album out?

“It feels like an ongoing process. I don’t feel like I’m passing a degree, or anything like that, I feel like things will carry on naturally in one way or another. The only thing I want is the people that work with me – they’ve invested a lot of time and trust, so I want to make sure that they’re happy with the way things are going. But for myself, I’ll find a way to carry on doing what I’m doing one way or another. It’s very exciting, but I don’t have any targets, or goals or anything. Then everything that happens is good news!”

http://soundcloud.com/gomesemaia/francois-the-atlas-mountain

Frànçois and the Atlas Mountains’ album E Volo Love is due out in the UK in January via Domino. It’ll be out in France from October, where the band will be touring with Anna Calvi click here for the dates.