Reference Points: Lescop

As we’ve previously reported, October brings with it the inaugual UK edition of French festival OohLaLA!, extending the event’s celebrating of modern French music to these shores. Ahead of his performance at the festival, we caught up with one of the acts leading the invasion – 34 year-old Mathieu Peudupin, better know as Lescop.

Part of the Pop Noire troupe also featuring Savages and Johnny Hostile, Lescop’s taut take on noirish new-wave is a typically chic and stylish twist on the influences it wears proudly. Brooding and mysterious, his first album prowls with an enigmatic intelligence, hovering between an uncanny familiarity and elusive unknowability. In this week’s Reference Points, we seek to find out more about what fuels the Lescop spark, by finding out three songs that Lescop wouldn’t exist without.

Eddie Cochran – ‘Skinny Jim’

The first song I fell in love with was a rock n’ roll song – Eddie Cochran’s ‘Skinny Jim’. I was something like 5 years old. It was some kind of revelation for me – I wanted to be him! The funny thing is that everyone sees me as a “cold-wave singer”, but in the first place, I wanted to be a rock n’ roll singer – and sing something like: “Weeeeell Jim got charm, he got class, all the women love him oh yeah yeah yeaaaah…” But I realised after that was impossible for me! But I learned something from it: that everything is in the attitude. No matter what you say, it’s how you say it, or sing it, that matters…

The Doors – ‘Riders On the Storm’

After that, I became a Doors fan. Completely. Here was another Jim who had charm and class, although not that skinny at the end of his life… Anyway – his voice and lyrics just sounded so great! I didn’t understand them when I was 14 years old, but it was clear to me they were deep and poetic. It was another thing to learn: that you don’t necessarily need to understand the lyrics to know they’re good, you can hear it just from the voice of the singer. If that makes you feel good, then they are. In England, people always ask me about my lyrics – what are they talking about because they’re written in French etc… but I reply that it’s not really important. Everything is in the vibe, and in any case, even French people have different interpretations of my lyrics! So just forget about it.

Blumfeld - ‘Verstärker’

And as an example, here’s a German band that I really love. My German isn’t good enough, and I don’t really understand their lyrics, but they sound so great! I’m crazy about that song – the atmosphere, and the way it goes around and around. The song is a perfect circle. Like every good song. I wish I could write something like that. A song can become so important in someone’s life, and that’s so inspiring. And not necessarily just for musicians. I think that’s the reason why I write songs – because they can be both simple and important.

Lescop’s debut album is out now on Pop Noire. He plays OohLaLA! festival on the 24th October at Village Underground. To see the trailer for the festival, head here, and for tickets, head here. For more about the acts playing the festival, check out our Best Fit mixtape.