Garvin on the sofa

Grenoble Life talks to Garvin, Grenoble’s premier Franco-Welsh-Scots rock band, about their musical background and development as a band..
Garvin are Calumn Mackay, Vincent Thourigny and Gareth Powell. They were in conversation with James Dalrymple of Grenoble Life.

GL: What are your musical backgrounds? What other bands have you been in and what kind of music did you play ?

Gareth: I played in cover bands at first – starting gigging when I was about 16, and then slogged at the original music scene in the UK. I got to do many gigs and tours with a few semi-known bands when I lived in Wales, but I am still in touch with the guys. and I get to play impromptu gigs with them all from time to time. A few of them are in a band called the Storys from Swansea, who are tasting success and touring with big names. While they played in Monaco last year, they asked me to replace their guitarist, Dai Smith, who’d got sick. I played a gig in the Globe in Monaco, and the day after, in front of 68 thousand people (no shit!) opening for Celine Dion in Ajax stadium, Amsterdam.. A pretty surreal affair. I had song notes and chords written on a piece of paper at my feet as there wasn’t any time to learn or rehearse them. It was like ‘extreme deping’..
I’d love to do big shows like that with Garvin – that would be the “mutts”.
Vince: I am basically self-taught. I could hardly play the guitar when I joined my first group at 16, but I’ve never stopped since. For the last few years I worked on solo projects and did many live shows using a loop-sampler to create multi-layered live song arrangements, but I can say that playing in a band is a real pleasure, especially given the high potential of this group. I’m not really interested in talking about what I used to do, instead I’m much more interested in talking about what we are going to do!
Calumn: I’ve played in bands since I was 14, starting on piano then drums. I joined a cult punk/new wave band called the Scars. After our first single Adultery/Horrorshow, we played regularly in London and toured with bands like The Human League, The Rezillos, Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Cure. After three singles and with an imminent album looming, bizarrely, I decided to go back to college instead…
In 2005 I met up again with the Scars to do a cameo spot with Lemon Jelly, who had sampled a big chunk of one of our singles “Horrorshow” and got charted in the UK. It was great to get up on stage at the London Lemon Jelly concert which was broadcast live on BBC radio.
I moved to France in 1995 and met Gareth through a mutual friend. I joined the Garvin duo in summer 2009 after jamming at a couple of their acoustic gigs at the Druids in Grenoble. There’s great energy in the group as well as a comfortable ambience. Very strong creativity too, and the door is always open to any new ideas and adventures – the way it should be!

GL: Please can each member of the band name three bands/artists that have influenced them the most.

Calumn: Difficult to say. I like a large spectrum of music, although in my formative years I liked The Doors, original Ultravox, and I still like Carol King.
Gareth: I’d have to say people like Jeff Beck, Adrian Belew, Robert Fripp are notable guitar influences; and Liz Frazer, David Sylvian, Neil Hannon (the Divine Comedy), as vocal influences. General music influences are bands like The Cocteau Twins, Man, Yes, Supertramp Jeff Buckley, Bjork, Tori Amos, Zeppelin, Massive attack,, it’s an endless list now that I’m thinking about it,.. but you did say only three didn’t you.. oops sorry!
Vince: I think my musical development and appreciation was deeply influenced by The Beatles. I learned to play, sing and compose listening to their music. I used to attempt to reproduce their techniques on my own recordings. King Crimson was also a revelation for me in my formative years. I have great admiration for a more recent discovery, Joseph Arthur, a New-York singer/songwriter and all-round artist.

GL: For the British members of the band: how has living in France influenced your approach to music ?

Calumn: I don’t think is has affected me really, although I’m probably more open to French music than I otherwise would’ve been. Media moves so fast these days - so for the mainstream I’m probably listening to the same music here as I would be in the UK… We live in a bit of a bubble with access to UK TV and radio at home.
Gareth: There was an initial shock at going from a three to four night per week gig rate in the UK to zero – it was like going back to the bedroom to play guitar again, which was not what I’d imagined. I fortunately found an association who share-owned a recording studio in town. After persuading them to let me join them I spent a long time writing and recording songs mainly on my own. It got me into producing music and also allowed me to develop a few new things, like singing.. so I don’t consider it as wasted time, even if it was a bit of an implosion in some respects. Having a studio of my own is fantastic and has now become a luxury I couldn’t live without.
The other good thing is that along the way, I met Calumn and Vince.

GL: For the French member of the band: how has playing with Brits influenced your approach to music ?

Vince: To be honest, I’ve never really listened to much French music or bands. I’ve always been more attentive and influenced by British or American bands since adolescence. That’s probably why I get on so well with Gareth and Calumn, as our common language is the music which I feel very at home with.

GL: Any plans to record a full length CD or EP ?

Calumn: Absolutely.
Gareth: Yes (sigh) – we are very productive so it’s hard to keep up with the creativity level in the studio, and completely finish everything – we have enough songs for at least three or four full albums already; all at different stages of completion. Vince hit on the idea recently of producing multiple mini-albums that we can continue to produce and sell at gigs or elsewhere.. But it would be great to let somebody else do all the mixing stuff. Stay tuned…