A Quick chat with PAPOOZ
We caught up with wonderful Armand (half of Papooz), after their wild Oslo show and discussed music, fashion and visuals. All the good stuff…
We’ve started a Papooz fan club and are currently taking applications, send them our way…
We first heard you through ’Ann Wants to Dance'. Was that your first ‘hit’?
Yeah! It felt really good... It’s a gentle light. That song made us famous enough to be able to tour and defend our first LP on stage. It’s nice to be able to touch so many different people through a song, all thanks to the internet!
You describe your sound as 'Tropical Groove', which I am a fan of. How did you end up producing music that sounded like this? Who were your influences when you were younger?
It’s a bit of a joke really. We both always loved the great pop classics (from the Velvet Underground to Steely Dan) & the Bossa Nova culture (Jobim, Jorge Ben, João Gilberto, Caetano Veloso etc…). In our first LP we tried to join both of these influences in our music, crafting a good pop song with an island kinda groove.
The music videos to accompany your songs always look so fun to shoot. Do you have a big team behind you?
We always have an idea at first and try to materialise it with someone we love. We had the opportunity to work with some really cool cats; Soko, Daniel Brereton… The latest video for ‘You and I’ was shot by my girlfriend, Victoria Lafaurie. She’s also the one in charge of all the drawings that we put out.
This isn't about your music but we couldn't resist... how would you describe your fashion style? Where do you look for most of your clothes & who are your style icons?
We both like vintage clothes but Ulysse really, really likes them. He’s more extravagant than me. I guess we both dig the menswear classics from the 60’s to now. A good suit, a white t-shirt, some sneakers…. et le tour est joué, (“and that’s it!”). As for fashion icons, I’d say: Fred Astaire, Brian Ferry, David Bowie, John Lennon and most of the musicians from the 20th century...
This week you played a show at Oslo Hackney. How was that for you?
It was mental! The place was packed and the audience went wild and sung along with us for the entire show.
Your second EP, 'Night Sketches' came out about a month ago. Can you tell us a bit about the recording process?
It’s been produced by Adrien ‘Butter Smooth’ Durand, a really great french producer at the head of a band called Bon Voyage Organisation. We recorded most of the tracks with a live band at La Frette recording studio & did some overdubs in another Parisiean studio afterward (studio Delta). It’s an album about Night Life.
What's next for Papooz?
A little break! There’s lots of music now out there as we just released our LP. We might come back to London before summer, but if not then see you in fall…
Listen to 'Night Sketches' here and find their social media channels @papoozband.