Le Couleur Q&A
published on February 15, 2017
I took the chance to chat with Montreal based electro/disco band Le Couleur about the French language in disco, their songwriting process and how being based in Montreal has influenced them.
What makes the French language work so well with electro disco sound?
Because french is probably the sexiest language in the world and you make it fit to another sexy thing : Disco music! What a perfect match of sexiness! The textures, the grooves as well as the intentions behind this music are made to make people dance and/or..fuck!
I found English is way more rhythmic than any other language. You already have a very rhythmic music or beat on the background so you don’t necessarily need the same for your vocal. French is more lyrical and brings you sensuality.
Just think about one of the most popular disco song – Le Freak by Chic. (« Le Freak, c’est chic ») and it’s from an american band.
What inspires you in the songwriting process?
Hum! Probably the same than the majority : Love and sex! But Laurence likes to put in context her relationship with objects or locations and make it sounds like it would be with another human being. For instance, ‘Femme’ is talking about her and her car (she’s so in love with it that she can’t believe she has to let it go…). But when you listen to the song it could be between 2 people. We like to mix gender, put confusion and let the listener decides his own stories. We’re not only talking to straight or gay people, French or English, young or old. It’s not that accurate and that’s why our fan base is made up of different types of people.
What do you look for in a synthesizer sound?
It’s « rareness ». We usually layer several vintage synth sounds together to make one and unique sound. We’re using instruments that were manufactured 30-40 years ago. A lot of people have already recorded all of them so we try to be a bit more original. We usually have something is our mind when we’re looking for a sound. It doesn’t too long to build it since we our machine quite well. But sometime (often), we’re inspired by a sound and a whole song can be composed right away because of it.
What do you enjoy about playing music live?
Just make people dance and have fun.
How do you think being a band in Montreal has affected your group?
Being able to make music! It’s well known, the rent are cheap. So you can live more humbly and not working crazy hours to just pay your apartment and then don’t make music. We’re all able to live of our art and I couldn’t tell the same if we would be in New York, for instance.