La Femme play The Echoplex on Oct. 23, Beach Goth Festival at The Observatory
Oct. 25, at the Bardot
Oct. 27 and the Soda Bar Oct. 28.
Photo by: Alessio Boni
French punk rock band, La Femme, is coming to the U.S. with a stop in LA bringing their unique sound that has been described as hypnotic and synthetic. La Femme’s influences in their music by groups like Kraftwerk, Velvet Underground and other similar artists can be heard when they play The Echoplex on Oct. 23, Beach Goth Festival at The Observatory Oct. 25, at the Bardot Oct. 27 and a final SoCal show in San Diego at the Soda Bar Oct. 28.
La Femme released their very first EP in 2010. The OC Concert Guide got to interview the band about their origin, upcoming fall tour, inspirations and hitting the French digital charts at #1. Their deluxe edition of “Psycho Tropical Berlin” tape comes out Oct. 20 on Burger Records.
OCCG: How did you come up with the name La Femme? Why did you guys decide to call yourselves that?
LF: We was looking for a name, and the name of La Femme sounds aesthetically nice for us , like the woman are aesthetically.
OCCG: What musicians have inspired your music?
LF: A bunch, but the first song of la femme (sur la planche, telegraph) were like a cross between the cold wave / early electronic music of the 80’s, inspired by band like kraftwerk, deux, x-ray pop, and 60’s music, surf, early rock and roll, french yéyé like gainsbourg, or françoise hardy.
OCCG: How do you cope when things aren’t going how you hoped?
LF: Everything can’t be easy all the time, there is some period like in the recording of the album, where we was a bit lost, we was don’t know if we get the good sound, so sometime it’s difficult but in this period, you had to keep your mind focus , and think about what are you doing: it’s for the good cause, it’s art, and the goal it’s to make great art.
OCCG: What are you most excited about in regards to your upcoming Fall tour?
LF: We are excited to go back in USA, because we have always good time and good friends over there , for the music, it’s a great country, the grandma listen Elvis like in france they listen accordion or musette ! so it’s always good for the brain and the soul also we going to brazil for the first time, we are excited to go play beach volley on the beach with underwear.
OCCG: Your debut album hit #1 on the French digital charts. How did you react as soon as you found that out? we was happy to see that there is good reaction for the album , because we work a lot on it, so it’s cool, although, that can be more, but that could be less to.
OCCG: What do you want your fans to gain out of your music? What is your ultimate purpose?
LF: We want that people have fun and dance at the gig, and that they don’t care about everything, and when they listen the music in their headphone, we want that they travel far, forgot the problem about the real life, and follow the music, and fly over the ground ! for me, i want to feel the music all my life, and i don’t want to getting sick about this, because when I’m into music, it’s one of the best sensation that the life could bring me, so i think i prefer that 1,000 people listen my music, then i like what i do, and i feel the good vibes, than if 100,000,000 people listen it, but i getting sick of music, alone in my fucking hotel bedroom and to much work, and no time to look at the world around me.
OCCG: What is the deluxe edition of “Psycho Tropical Berlin” all about?
LF: It’s the same track of PTB with bonus, there is some little demo that we did on garage band, and other tracks, we did this to bring new stuff, when the album was coming out in England.
OCCG: What are you most looking forward to your show at Echoplex on October 23 in LA?
LF: We hope like everyone will be like in the 60’s, with flower shirt, and let’s start an orgy!
OCCG: Where do your next step will take you as far as your music career goes?
LF: We just continue what we did no: produce music, video, and do gigs, and try to go deeper into our art!