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 Daisybox is a French quartet, offering a blend of Pop and Indie Rock.
Daisybox is already 10 years old and band members Anne-Lise Pernotte, Olivier and Samuel Nicolas and Leo Vasco
are half way through a tour, celebrating such an important milestone.
However, somewhat putting a damper on the celebrations is the very recent announcement that guitarist Leo will be leaving the band at the end of the current tour.
I am very curious to know what such a decision means to Daisybox’s future, as a live band and as far as a third album is concerned.
I meet up with bassist Anne-Lise, vocalist and song writer Olivier and drummer Sam to dissect the past 10 years, look up to the future and talk about their very dignified refusal to write songs in English, which would make for a wider commercial success.
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 Florence: Bonsoir!
Daisybox is 10 years old which is longer than the length of a lot of marriages.
What have been the most crucial times, most important moments of the last decade?
Olivier: There has been a lot of interesting turning points for us.
10 years ago was the arrival of Leo, before that it was just the three of us, and we do consider 1996 ‘the beginning’. It was also a period of bigger gigs such as opening for Echobelly in december 1997.
We also very proudly self-produced an EP.
Another crucial time for us was supporting very popular French band Indochine during their tour of 1999/2000 and again in 2002 and that was a perfect showcase to A&R guys and we eventually got signed in 2000.
In 2002 we released our first LP ‘Organic’ and in 2005 ‘Diagnostic’.
Florence: That’s obviously looking back on the good times!
You’ve only been signed to a record label since 2000, so surely there must have been many a struggle prior to that gesture of acceptance?
Olivier: Somewhat not really!
In France, to spend years and years unsigned and yet perfectly functioning as a live band, self-producing and selling records is totally acceptable.
Unfortunately there is this kind of disease where labels wait for a kind of sound, a kind of music to be very popular and coming from the States or the UK, before they start looking for a French band with a similar sound.
Florence: Ultimately this means that French Rock/ Pop could never be seen as innovative!
Olivier: Here in France, we grow up with the same musical influences as, let’s say, someone growing up in England.
If we form a band, we will have more or less the same vision and often a similar sound, however French record companies and the music press will wait for an English or American phenomenon before they decide to look for a French version of the same thing to sign up.
It may look like the artists are always one step behind from across the Channel, only that’s not always the case. The record companies are the ones dragging their feet.
Right now the A&R guys are looking for a French Bloc Party, which probably already exists and has being touring small venues for the last year, but it could be 2 or 3 years before they get signed.
Florence: However when you finally got signed, in 2000, what did it mean to you?
Did life get easier? Bigger financial rewards?
Olivier: Like a lot of other bands we were impatiently waiting for that day, full of hopes. With hindsight we realised that it wasn’t the most important step in the band’s life. We did exist before being signed, touring and selling records but obviously on a much smaller scale.
Daisybox wasn’t born the day we got a record deal, the day we finally got some radio play, and this goes for hundred of other bands.
Being signed meant better working and financial conditions, and being accepted by the press and for that we’re very grateful.
However we still feel the need to help ourselves, as pre-2000, we constantly look outwardly.
We’ve just toured Mexico, we’re getting some radio play in Australia....
We don’t necessarily want to sell billions of Cds but we understand that we need more than the French market.
 Florence: So in 1996 Daisybox is officially born with the arrival of Leo.
Daisybox is signed in 2000 and you release two albums in 2002 and 2005.
Interestingly and maybe worryingly you’ve gone full circle as you’ve just announced Leo’s departure from the band.
The fans will want to know how this decision will affect Daisybox.
Is going back to being a trio an option or will you be looking for a new guitarist?
Olivier: Firstly, I need to say that this was a totally amicable decision.
After ten years, Leo needs to move on to pastures new, maybe sound engineering or producing, and that’s fine with us.
However, Anne-lise, Sam and myself intent to carry on. Right now we feel confident and comfortable as a trio.
We want to write a third record.
Anne-lise: I think that musically we have a lot more to achieve.
We still feel the need to write songs as we have so much more to say. We’re not done yet!
Sam: Somehow we feel excited by this change. Maybe reborn.
With a very strong desire to write new songs to match this newly found virginity!
Florence: Are we talking about a new musical direction?
Olivier: We will need to write differently in order to adapt to our new situation.
The spirit of Daisybox will survive anyhow, but technically and musically things will inevitably change and we totally embrace that.
Also we can admit that right now the future seems a little blurry.
Florence: There are more live dates coming up for Daisybox, aren’t there?
Olivier: Yes and importantly April 1st in Charleroi, Belgium, in a beautiful theatre. That’s to officially mark our ten years.
Belgium is a real crossroad culturally and one of the first countries to have given us a chance.
We have invited a lot of our friends to support us.
Sam: Notably, Sam Semple, an English artist of immense talent.
Florence: I know that you are very popular in other French speaking neighbouring countries, not just Belgium but also Switzerland.
Most French bands will write in English, hoping to open more doors and appeal to a much wider market.
You still write in French.
Do you think that singing in English would amount to you sacrificing your artistic integrity for commercial success?
Olivier: This is a very vast subject.
Having always listened to English music and being very influenced by it, at first without asking any questions we started writing in English.
For a French artist it’s almost easier to write in English. You can hide behind the language, as long as it’s rhyming the audience doesn’t always ask for much more.
We quickly realised that it would be an interesting challenge for us to try and use the French language the way we can use English. Bearing in mind that French is much harder.
We wanted to do ‘English Pop’ but with a French text.
Florence: French doesn’t lend itself easily to Pop frivolities.
An important difference between French Rock/Pop and English or American, is that a French artist will concentrate on the text and sometimes neglect the melody while an Anglo-Saxon artist will write stunning music while the lyrics can be very poor or mindlessly repetitive.
But a good melody is what travels best.
Somehow you have managed to combine the best of both world and it can’t be easy.
Olivier: We didn’t want to do French Rock’ but Rock in French!
French Rock is a genre in itself, born with bands like Noir Desir and has dozens of imitators. We just don’t want to subscribe to that.
Writing in your own language, you need to be able to stand by what you say, you need to choose the words carefully, there is nowhere to hide. It’s much harder which makes us prouder that we took that path.
The English and American producers we worked with, have often said: ” such and such track would be great in English, we could really make a hit of that ”, but to us that’s derogatory. Nobody would dare ask Radiohead to sing in French in order to get some airplay on French radios. We have English and American fans and they like the songs the way they are.
A song is a whole concept that we refuse to change to adapt to a wider market.
However that said, one day we might write in English, but such song would be conceived that way from the start.
Florence: Finally it says a lot of the English or American culture for not accepting and playing a lot of non-English songs.
Tell me about some of your influences.
Olivier: We’re all fans of the Beatles, Velvet Underground, the Stooges, the Cure, Depeche Mode, my Bloody Valentine...
Personally I really loved the Sex Pistols, the Stone Roses and the LAs.
Sam: Nirvana, the Smashing Pumpkins.
Anne-Lise: A lot of Brit pop, especially Blur, who have totally gone over that phenomenon.
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