Anna van Riel

Garvin on the sofa

Grenoble Life talks to , Grenoble’s premier Franco-Welsh-Scots rock band, about their musical background and development as a band; and streams two of their songs especially for you!

Garvin are Calumn Mackay, Vincent Thourigny and Gareth Powell. They were in conversation with James Dalrymple of Grenoble Life.

Listen to Spellbound confused by Garvin:

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Listen to Same Crusade by Garvin:

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Grenoble Life: On tracks like Spellbound Confused and Same Crusade I hear an emotive guitar-led pop that I associate with British alt-rock. However, tracks like Vocation seem to have a more reggae flavour, and there are occasional flutters of latin-sounding guitar in a number of your songs. Is there a ‘Garvin sound’?

Calumn: We like to experiment with different instruments, bringing different sounds to the table depending on the feel of the song. For instance, I sometimes use electronic Roland V-drums instead of, or as well as, my traditional acoustic drum kit. Also, as each of us dabbles with song writing in different ways, we are not fixed to a single approach.

Gareth: I think there is a certain Garvin ‘sound’ since vocal textures and playing styles are idiosyncratic. As far as our musical and composition style is concerned though, we have a consciously open-minded approach which is incredibly inspirational – no restrictions. Also, we like the surprise element in music.

I suppose we have to keep an eye on not going too far off the track, but we just aren’t thinking like that. We’re enjoying exploring and mixing up styles.

Vince: The group’s sound is moulded from each of the band member’s influences as we compose. The fact that we all participate collectively in the composition of the songs, as well as the inherent chemistry developed when we’re playing, means that the resulting sound tends to be one and our own. We like to experiment and explore new horizons, which undoubtedly add to the flavour of Garvin’s music.

GL: What are your musical backgrounds? What other bands have you been in and what kind of music did you play?

Calumn: I’ve played in bands since I was 14, starting on piano then moving quickly onto drums. After a few school/student bands, I joined a cult punk/new wave band called the Scars. After our first single Adultery/Horrorshow, we played regularly in London and toured with bands like The Human League, The Rezillos, Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Cure. I took a year out of school to decide whether I wanted to be a full time musician. After three singles and with an imminent album looming, bizarrely, I decided to go to college instead.

In 2005 I met up again with the Scars to do a cameo spot with Lemon Jelly, who had sampled a big chunk of Horrorshow, on a single which charted in the UK. I took a cut-down V-drum kit in a suitcase on a plane to Edinburgh and then to London for the short five minute appearances. It was great to get up on a stage in front of 4000 people and the London concert was broadcast live on BBC radio. Paul from the Scars managed to purchase the rights of the Scars recordings back from EMI and released a limited edition CD. There are apparently still Scars fans out there!

While a student in Edinburgh I joined Blues n Trouble (amongst other bands) and connected with the blues for the first time. BnT went on to release tons of albums, tour extensively and are still going now. I’ll be doing a guest spot in a band with their original guitarist at the RockBeir festival in Venlo this summer.

Later I lived in London and answered an ad in Melody Maker for a blues band called the Pinetops Boogiemen. We had regular gigs in south east London pubs and also in a few nice venues like the Half Moon on Herne Hill. We still meet up every couple of years to record a CD, but we have had no commercial success. It was a fantastic experience though and we are all life long friends.

I moved to France in 1995 and met Gareth through a mutual friend. We played in various line ups, gigging now and again and recording occasionally. Our last group, XL5, was a 1970s-style British rock band.

I’ve also been playing in the King Billies blues band for a couple of years and am part of the Lou Pelaya Celtic association where I occasionally play drums and acoustic guitar (badly).

I joined the Garvin duo in summer 2009 after jamming at a couple of their pub gigs at the Druids bar in Grenoble. There’s great energy and stamina in the group as well as a comfortable chemistry. Very strong creativity too, and the door is always open to any new ideas and adventures – the way it should be!

Gareth:My first gig in Swansea Students Union was at age 16; a terrifying experience – lost a lot of weight in the three or four days leading up to it. Then played in cover bands and slogged at the original music scene in the UK. I got to do many gigs and European tours with a few semi-known rock bands when I lived in Wales, and even after coming to France to live. I am still in touch with the guys in my last UK band, and I get to play impromptu gigs with them from time to time. They currently have a band called the Storys from Swansea, who achieved some success and tour regularly with big names. While they played in Monaco last year, they asked me to replace their guitarist who’d had a bit of a nervous breakdown. I played a gig in the Globe in Monaco, and the day after in front of 50 thousand people opening for (cringe…) Celine Dion in Ajax stadium, Amsterdam. That was surreal – I had song notes and chords written on a piece of paper at my feet.

I’d love to do big shows like that with Garvin – that would be the “mutts”… though preferably supporting U2 or Kings of Leon instead of Celine!

Vince: I am basically self-taught. I could hardly play the guitar when I joined my first group at 16, but I’ve never stopped since. For the last few years I worked on solo projects and did many live shows using a loop-sampler to create multi-layered live song arrangements, but I can say that playing in a band is a real pleasure, especially given the high potential of this group. I’m not really interested in talking about what I used to do, instead I’m much more interested in talking about what we are going to do!

GL: Please can each member of the band name three bands/artists that have influenced them the most.

Calumn: Difficult to say. I like a large spectrum of music, although in my formative years I liked The Doors, original Ultravox, and I still like Carol King.

Gareth:I’d have to say people like Jeff Beck, Adrian Belew, Robert Fripp are notable guitar influences; and David Sylvian, Cy Curnin, The Divine Comedy, as vocal influences. General music/composition influences are bands like The Cocteau Twins, Kings of Lyon, Jeff Buckley, Interpol, Bjork, Led Zeppelin, or anything new that comes along and blows me away.

Vince: I think my musical development and appreciation was deeply influenced by The Beatles. I learned to play, sing and compose listening to their music. I used to attempt to reproduce their techniques on my own recordings. King Crimson was also a revelation for me in my formative years. I have great admiration for a more recent discovery, Joseph Arthur, a New-York singer/songwriter and all-round artist.

GL: What facilities are there for new bands in Grenoble to get together and jam?

Gareth:There are rehearsal places and some associations that try to nurture this around the town, but we aren’t the best guys to ask since we are fortunate enough to have our own studio that is also adequate for rehearsing live sets. And we definitely jam a lot …

GL: In your view what are some of the best bars and pubs to watch live music in Grenoble?

Calumn: I’m not really sure there are any decent venues for groups. We tend to be squashed into corners in bars and I usually have to leave most of my drum kit behind most of the time. Salle EVE is pretty good.

Gareth: Le Bobine is gaining a good reputation. There does seem to be a response in progress to the local Grenoble musicians’ plight of having embarrassingly few venues for such a cosmopolitan city. It’s still difficult to play locally regularly enough for a new group to build a following. For a few months we played fortnightly residencies in Druids Pub, an Irish bar in Grenoble, which was good but a bit tight under the arms.

GL: For the British members of the band: how has living in France influenced your approach to music?

Calumn: I don’t think is has affected me really, although I’m probably more open to French music than I otherwise would’ve been. Media moves so fast these days so for the mainstream I’m probably listening to the same music here than I would be in the UK. Also we live in a bit of a bubble with access to UK TV and radio at home.

Gareth: There was an initial shock at going from a three to four night per week gig rate in the UK to zero – it was like going back to the bedroom to play guitar again, which was not what I’d imagined. I fortunately found an association who share-owned a recording studio (Studio 33) in town. After persuading them to let me join them I spent a long time writing and recording songs mainly on my own. It taught me about producing music and also allowed me to develop a few things, like singing, so I don’t consider it as wasted time, even if it was a bit of an implosion in some respects. The other good thing is it was how I met Calumn. The immediate accessibility of a studio has now become a luxury that I couldn’t live without.

GL: For the French member of the band: how has playing with Brits influenced your approach to music?

Vince: To be honest, I’ve never really listened to much French music or bands. I’ve always been more attentive and influenced by British or American bands since adolescence. That’s probably why I get on so well with Gareth and Calumn, as our common language is the music which I feel very at home with.

GL: Are there any other local bands that you can recommend to Grenoble Life readers?

Gareth: There are a few authentic Anglophone things like Barefoot Iano, an Australian multi-talent, and a guy called Neil Dixon from Chambery, that sound excellent, that Grenoble Life readers should try to check out.

Vince: Huh? No – just Garvin [laughs]! In fact, I’m not very aware about the local scene in Grenoble. I know there are many bands and quite a few good ones out there, but there are not many places to see band play…

GL: Any plans to record a full length CD or EP?

Calumn: Absolutely.

Gareth:Yes (sigh) – we are very productive so it’s hard to keep up with the creativity level in the studio, and completely finish everything – we have enough songs for at least three or four full albums already; all at different stages of completion. Vince hit on the idea recently of producing multiple mini-albums that we can continue to produce and sell at gigs or elsewhere. We have also a six-song CD recorded live in session at Radio Campus for and Le Son de Garage programmes – this is one of the mini-albums.

GL: Where can we see you play next?

Gareth:We’re pretty busy all through June and July – more gigs coming in every week, so best to checkout the events section on our site or our facebook page if you’re that way inclined.

Vince: We’re doing three or four private concerts/fêtes that aren’t open to the general public in June, but we’ll be at Zélées Bar (Grenoble) on Thursday 17th June, and on the 21st we headline at Tullins for the music festival. Also, on July 1st we’re playing at the Magellan Bar (Voiron).

Garvin