Seen from the large exterior gate, the premises of the independent press group So Press look like a small fortress hidden in the 18e Parisian district. At the end of a courtyard, modern and spacious offices house various magazines (So Foot, Society…), production companies, an advertising agency… At the heart of this hive of trendy young executives, we come face to face with two relaxed-looking seniors, Julien Garnier and Julien Gaulier, the guitar-voice duo of Hey Hey My My.
In these places, also resides the Vietnam music label, which Julien Gaulier has been managing for four years. His office is next to that of the founder of the label and president of So Press, Franck Annese, boss always wearing a cap and notorious rock lover – it’s not for nothing that one of his reviews is called Doolittle, name taken from a Pixies album. Hey Hey My My’s new album, High Life, is also released under the Vietnam banner.
However, if we go back four years, when Julien Gaulier took up his duties for the label, Hey Hey My My (HHMM) is a bit of ancient history. The two Juliens, songwriters and performers, released two albums between 2007 and 2010, then disappeared into the wild for ten years.
Let’s go back in time: the two friends of Parisian origin met during their studies in Bordeaux in 1998, in a school of management and management. Boredom sets in during lessons, the desire also to do something else with their lives. These are the beginnings of computer music, and the two friends take advantage of their free time to “tinker”. ” Right away, I saw that Julien composed with his guitar, while the majority of the students only played covers, remembers Julien Garnier, glasses and well-trimmed gray beard. With the few chords he knew, he was already able to write his own songs. That’s what immediately appealed to me about him. » Back in the capital, the two formed a punk rock group, British Hawaii, in 2005, while at the same time composing more woody songs, destined to become those of their album Hey Hey My Myreleased in 2007.
playful melody
The charm of this first opus with well-constructed melodies also lies in its artisanal spirit. “It was really a collection of demossays Julien Gaulier, of a more talkative nature than his partner, when we recorded it, we redid some things, but not everything. We kept what we had tinkered with. » En plein revival pop folk Illustrated by American bands like Fleet Foxes, Midlake or Devendra Banhart, the record enjoyed great success at the time with the emergence of other French bands like Cocoon, Moriarty, H-Burns… The influences of HHMM tend, as for they, towards the pastoral woodwork of a Neil Young – the name of their group is inspired by an emblematic song of the Canadian rocker – except for one detail, lighter and detached vocal harmonies. The success of the album allows them to accumulate sixty dates in France. They appear in 2010 in the film 8 times standingby Xabi Molia, with Julie Gayet and Denis Podalydès, where several of their songs accompany the soundtrack.
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