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Au Revoir Simone
HQ: Brooklyn, NYNOW PLAYING: The Bird Of Music (Our Secret Record Company) WHY YOU SHOULD KNOW 'EM: All you garage rock enthusiasts better hold steady because this trio of Brooklyn brunettes' dreamy, keyboard-based, indie-pop could give you a run for your euros. YOU LIKE? YOU'LL LIKE: The Postal Service / Camera Obscura / Stereolab No matter how normal a band might seem, existential director David Lynch (Twin Peaks, Mulholland Dr.) can change that. When a New York City bookstore approached local trio Au Revoir Simone-Erika Forster (vocals/keyboards), Annie Hart (vocals/keyboards) and Heather D'Angelo (vocals/drum machine/keyboard)-to support the quirky filmmaker's book reading, naturally they got a little nervous. After all, these three easygoing, 20-somethings have been playing dreamy indie pop in their Brooklyn bubble since 2003, borrowing their name from a line in Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. (Which is admittedly better than their first choice, Triple Keyboard Action.) However, due to time constrictions, Lynch only heard the band right before the reading. No matter: Immediately charmed by their sound, he worked his movie magic and turned them into believers. "He was so cute," says an exuberant and spectacled Hart, while seated in a Brooklyn café with her bandmates. "He was like, 'I'm your biggest fan...' He's been such a positive and inspiring figure in our lives since we met him." "He invited us out for drinks in Paris," adds Forster, recounting their European rendezvous. "While we were there having pre-show champagne, he kind of reiterated some of the stuff he told us the night we met: 'You guys have something so special. Keep rockin'. Keep working hard and don't worry about anything negative that happens.'" Luckily for the band, things have only been on the up and up. Since self-releasing their 2005 mini-album, Verses Of Comfort, Assurance And Salvation, the trio formed their own record label, Our Secret Record Company, recorded a full-length, The Bird Of Music, and took to the road in order to take over the world-despite the fact that D'Angelo jokes the band are "strangers in our own country." But with songs on Grey's Anatomy and a tour with We Are Scientists, that's changing, too. Even better, U.S. fans are slowly learning the band's name, which is a huge relief for Forster, whose routine of "It's 'Goodbye in French,' Simone" doesn't seem to go over that well with inevitably puzzled concertgoers. Growing musically alongside their popularity, the trio dove into lush instrumentation on The Bird Of Music. Not wanting to sound cold and "clinical," as Hart puts it, Au Revoir Simone concentrated on making their instruments breathe more alongside their curled-lip coos. For example, the hand claps and strings on "Stars" transform the obtuse lyrics penned by D'Angelo-a one-time astrophysics major-into a playfully sincere and possibly successful pickup line ( "You make me wanna measure stars in the backyard with a calculator and a ruler, baby.") No wonder someone like David Lynch could dig the contrast between simple beats and deep lyrics. "That was the whole idea," says Hart. "What would happen if we had nice girls playing dope keyboards, but, like, playing pop songs?" "There's just something so cute about little keyboards, too," adds D'Angelo, laughing. And we couldn't agree more. -Kory Grow Record company website: oursecretrecordcompany.com |
