Get Back Guinozzi! is a crazily-named French duo, split between Paris and London, made up of multi-instrumentalist Frédéric Landini and vocalist Èglantine Gouzy. Their debut album, Carpet Madness, is a quirky indie-pop record influenced by post-punk, reggae, and West African pop. Gouzy is also an accomplished solo artist, having released a great electro-pop record, Boamaster, in 2006.
Interview: 5 September 2009
When did you first start making music?
“I first started to discover electronic music when I was at the Fine Arts School of Paris. First I tried sculpture and drawings, but I found music was an amazing way for me to experiment. I started to make short, one-minute, electronic tracks that I would talk over. They were like musical short-stories, surrealistic. And, then, I met Fred, the other half of Get Back Guinozzi! one year later, and we started to make music together. Not for this band project, but working on my solo projects, or weird stuff like music for gardens, for museums, for art installations.”
Was it immediately clear that music was your most expressive medium?
“Not really. It was more that when I finished art school, about eight years ago, it wasn’t so easy to carry on with sculpture, because you need a big studio. But music, I had my small equipment, a four-track recorder, and I didn’t need so much space. And I had the awareness that I could really invent stories and songs and soundtracks.”
The first time I heard your music was on [Monika Enterprise's] 4 Women No Cry compile. Was that close to your beginnings?
“That was the first thing. I’d started to send out my demos to labels in France, but nobody was interested in my stuff. It was in French, but a little bit weird lyrics; and it was half songs, half electronics. Maybe it didn’t fit into anyone’s format. But a friend of mine in Berlin assured me that my stuff was good, so he gave my demos to them.”
Have people in other countries always responded more to your music than in France?
“Yeah, but, I must admit, I never really listened to many French artists; I’ve never much been into this realistic way of writing. I was really into my own kind of songwriting, and I assumed that it was a bit weird, and that no one else would like it. So in France, no surprise to me. But when my friend in Berlin, or Fat Cat [Records] from UK, when they were so much into it, it was such a surprise.”
Why?
“Because they didn’t understand the stories. At first, I didn’t consider myself a proper musician, because I started with electronic music, and I didn’t have a musical background. I thought of myself as a person writing stories. That people who didn’t understand them would still like them seemed strange to me.”
But Mathieu Boogaerts, who I love, was on your album, though. Isn't he famous enough in France to garner you some extra attention?
“Well, Boamaster never came out in France. It was only released on an Irish label, based in Dublin. Of course I played shows in France, but having Mathieu Boogaerts on my record didn’t make a difference. He is just as an old friend of mine from childhood, who I ask to work on one of my tracks.”
Do you still play solo?
“For the moment, I’m really into the Get Back Guinozzi! project, and it's a lot of work. It’s not exclusive, I’m going to do my own project for Fat Cat, but when they contact me, I was on a solo project in the jungle in India, so I just sent them the Get Back Guinozzi! demo.”
Why were you recording in the jungles of India?
“Boamaster was sort of a compile of a lot of tracks that I had done, recorded in my home-studio, during a period of three years. So, I wanted to do something completely different; to not be inside at my place, to record in an intense period of time. I decided to make a pop-songs album in a remote place in the jungle; to be in different conditions, to not see anyone for, like, three months. I wanted to be on an adventure, a bit like Indiana Jones. That’s why I decided to go there. I wanted to record the animals. Of course, it was so noisy I couldn’t record without the animals even if I wanted. I had a lot of problems with my sound equipment because of the weather, because there was a monsoon. But I still have the recordings. One day you will hear them.”
How different was it recording there?
“It was completely different. It was a great experience; quite hard sometimes, because there was nothing around; no restaurant, no pub, nothing. After 6 o’clock in the afternoon, it was a bit boring. But, I think that’s when things happened for my imagination; I became a bit mad.”
How does Get Back Guinozzi! relate to your solo work?
“Well, with the Get Back Guinozzi! project, Frédéric wrote the music; I wrote the lyrics, the vocal melodies. So it's different. I’ve known Fred for nine years, now, and he’s always been a music partner for me, so it was really natural and spontaneous to work together. We’d always wanted to work on a special project together for a long time, but we didn’t know when, and we had no strategy. One day, he sent me one track, an instrumental, via the internet; I just simply wrote some lyrics, and sent it back. We hadn’t talked about it before, it was just really fresh the way that it begins. The whole project was really fresh.”
Why did you decide to sing in English?
“It was just my simple reaction to the music Fred sent to me. It was so pop! It’s a bit hard to write or to sing French pop music; it was just so natural to write and sing in English, even if my English is not so good.”
Are your English lyrics different to the lyrics you write in French?
“I don’t think so. As I told you, the way I write in French is a bit surrealistic; it’s not about my daily life or anything, it has many levels. So, sometimes it’s a bit obscure, even for French people. I think maybe I do the same in English.”
The Get Back Guinozzi! album really reminds me of old post-punk, Rough Trade records. Especially this band Weekend, do you know them?
“Ah, yeah, I love it. Young Marble Giants is quite big to me, especially the way [Alison Statton] sings. Colossal Youth was very, very important for me and Frédéric; the way it’s so very, very simple. But, also, I love the Slits, and we love The Cure or The Smiths, The Feelies, and African pop music. It’s a big melting pot.”
