GALO: You’ve talked about hearing Cajun music for the first time at a French music festival. What sort of music were you playing before this moment, and how does it continue to affect your music today?

MR: Robin played in rock ‘n’ roll bands before…I mean, we played together some sailor songs. We used to meet every week in Geneva in some pubs, and just sing songs and drink all night long, and that was really a cool period. And we played also a little bit of Irish music, or things like this, more into the punk style. And one day, when we discovered the Cajun Zydeco music, we were blown out, like we thought, ‘okay, this is the most powerful music that exists on earth,’ and so we decided to go there.

But we already had this feeling about all this amazing music, the folk music from around the world, so we were mostly playing rock ‘n’ roll and traditional Irish and sailor songs.

GALO: A fact that might come as a surprise to people who are just becoming familiar with your sound is that you’re Swiss. What’s it like coming to American roots music from a totally non-American background and outlook? What do you think your international perspective adds to your take on this traditional American music?

MR: The thing is, should every Swiss band have a kind of yodel, alp horn touch, you know? I don’t think so. And the other thing is, we grew up in Geneva, and Geneva is the French-speaking side of Switzerland. There is no specific traditional music or folk background here, so we grew up with just the record collection of our parents. And in the record collection of our parents, there were all these ’70s rock bands; there were recordings of Neil Young, all this American music we love. And so, it has been really natural. I could say I have the feeling, except the French music like the old Serge Gainsbourg and all that stuff, we love [it] too. We, as young guys, were already wide open to the American culture, [the] music culture, as I think most of European people [were too]; everybody listens to that. So then, why not? I think what’s great about us is that we don’t try to imitate anything. It was really clear from the beginning we couldn’t play as good as a real Cajun guy or a guy from anywhere. We have no specific music, it’s an experiment. And that’s why we try to go on creating original music. And I think we couldn’t have done it if we were from the States, or specifically from Louisiana. But maybe one day we will yodel on one song.

GALO: It seems like a white, European band writing the music of such a specific American heritage might attract criticism for being outsiders, or for being too presumptuous with their adoption of this material. Have you experienced any criticism like this? What have been the biggest challenges in adopting a musical style so foreign to your own background and how have you moved past them?

MR: We’ve always been kind of outsiders. But not in a bad way, more in exciting the curiosity of people. And I think we are so deeply in love with music in general, we listen to every kind of music, but we just hate commercial music, etc. So if anybody from Louisiana listens to us when journalists ask us these questions, I have a feeling we [will bring] some good publicity to all this. You know, we really defend the way the music has been played. I’m quite proud, as we got really interested in something so few people know in Europe. So, in a way, even if we don’t play exactly the general, traditional music from the South of the United States, we talk a lot about it; we [helped it to become] discovered by a lot of people.

GALO: Personally, where do you see overlap between your music and traditional songs of the Cajun music genre? Where do you see the most distinct differences?

MR: The main difference is from the early beginning of the band. We’ve never played with a bass player, and for us, the waltzing bass lines on every Cajun song, modern Cajun songs, are something that prevents the dancer. The main difference, I think, is maybe to our music you cannot really dance the traditional Cajun dances. We stopped to write songs in the Cajun tradition, so we still use the same instruments, but we don’t necessarily play traditional Cajun. It’s other songs, like rock ‘n’ roll songs, but with their instruments. I think that would be the main difference. And having no bass player, it’s also really huge difference from traditional Cajun Zydeco.

GALO: You mention, again in Hickling’s Guardian article, an old Creole man hugging you and thanking you for “keeping our music alive.” Do you see yourselves more as a continuation of Cajun music tradition, or as artists who draw from it for inspiration? In other words, are you Cajun musicians, or rock ‘n’ rollers with a Cajun-influenced sound?

MR: I think we don’t pretend to be a continuation of Cajun music. We let the press decide what they think about us, about that kind of question. Our feeling is that we are situated in the music universe and we have a lot of influences, and one of the main things of our music is the South Louisiana Cajun and Zydeco style. But I wouldn’t say we pretend to be the continuation of the past. I think we [are] really focused on the old Cajun and Zydeco style, like from the ’30s to the ’60s and ’70s, and then this is one of the influences we have, and we mix with a lot of other ones, so we really don’t pretend to be something in the Cajun music history. I like to say I love this music, and we do it another way than the people in Louisiana [do it] now, but I wouldn’t say it’s another branch from the tree, or if I say that, I would have the feeling of [having] too much self-esteem. That’s why I say, I let other people decide what we are.

GALO: In many of your tracks, take “Sorry Ti Monde” for example, you use Creole dialect in your lyrics. I’m curious how French audiences, in particular, have responded to songs that include this dialect, since France is known for being especially devoted to preserving the purity and authenticity of its language. Have you encountered any unusual reactions to the more old-fashioned, non-European, French you use in your lyrics?

MR: That’s a hard question, because compared to other countries, France is not the country where we tour the most. But to say there [are] a lot of people taking care of French lyrics in France is totally right. We are really particular. But then, we are not the first ones at all to [do] that, like playing with the French language. Serge Gainsbourg already [did that] in the ’50s and ’60s, he played, as a poet, with language. He introduced some English lyrics in French, he mixed, he invented some words, and he was really just one of the first guys to do that in music. And then we have other examples, like European examples. There is a Belgian singer, really famous in Europe called Arno, who also sings with a really strange accent, and mixes French language with sometimes such an accent that you cannot really understand if it’s French or not. And there’s another one, a French [singer] from the ’80s called Charlélie Couture, who also had a really strange accent and mixed all that. So, we have a feeling that we’re not the first ones to do that, and we are confident that French audience already heard bands not singing all in French and [they] like them. So, we think, ‘okay, maybe the people who like only French songs and French singers, they won’t like us at all because we really [are] too free in the mix and the blends of different influences.’

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