Nouvelle Vague

…we need to try something different. But I don’t know what.

story by Garin Pirnia

One of the most unique musical projects to manifest in the past few years is Parisian producers Marc Collin and Olivier Libaux’s Nouvelle Vague. Employing a wide variety of international female singers, they record covers of some of the late-‘70s and ‘80’s most enduring new wave and punk songs, but pepper their music with an easy breezy ‘60s-style bossa nova sound. Their 2004 debut self-titled record features Nouvelle’s singers doing a downtempo version of Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart”, The Dead Kennedys’ punk anthem “Too Drunk to Fuck” and Modern English’s cloying “Melt With You.” Never before have the likes of such legendary artists been covered in such an original way — and on one disc. After the surprise success of the record, Collin and Libaux continued the Nouvelle Vague project with their sophomore record, Bande a Part, which features covers of Blondie, Heaven 17 and U2. The tradition continued onto last year’s aptly titled 3 — which, for the first time, features some of the original artists dueting with the Nouvelle singers who are covering their masterpieces. Chicago Innerview rang up Collin in Paris to discuss his thoughts related to his latest brainchild.

“It was a fantastic period and I think now we can really understand it; it was so creative,” says Collin about what drew him to the French new wave period. It’s true that many of the artists of that time period will never surface their genius again, yet Collin has helped to keep it alive. Collin knew most of the singers he brought on for his records, and reportedly hired girls who’d never heard the original songs. “On the first album, I was surprised they didn’t know The Clash,” he says. “It was a good thing because it brought a real freshness to the project.”

Throughout three albums, Nouvelle Vague has covered a wide variety of ‘80s hits as well as lesser-known songs like Lords of the New Church’s “Dance With Me” and some German band called Grauzone. “We’re trying to choose song selections that are our favorite songs from that period, and also we wanted to represent most of the most important bands,” he says. “We got ideas from lyrics and stories of the bands.”

Since Nouvelle Vague utilizes a lot of songs that most people have never heard of, listening to the band has allowed fans to discover some long forgotten and more unknown nuggets from those past genres. Collin has been traveling the world with Nouvelle Vague for the past few years and is constantly surprised by how much of the audience doesn’t realize that their songs are covers. “We had an audience in some countries like in Eastern Europe and South America where a lot of girls, they didn’t recognize the original cover,” he says. “They were there because they saw the video for ‘Dance With Me’ on YouTube.”

For their live shows, Collin brings along a backing band as well as two singers. One he describes as being shy and French, the other is a little more uninhibited. During the recording process, Collin sings the songs and then ruminates over which singer should sing which cover. “I sing the songs myself,” he says, “and after I’m thinking, ‘who can sing this? What kind of voice?’”

Collin says he’s never received negative feedback from the original artists that he covers and that most of them like the covers observed on Nouvelle’s latest record. Martin Gore of Depeche Mode duets on a twangy cover of “Master and Servant” and Ian McCulloch of Echo and the Bunnymen sings on Nouvelle’s version of “All My Colours.” Collin wants to continue the project, but is currently stumped as to what direction the band should take for the future. “I think we have to change the concept,” he says. “I think I need to have another idea. For sure, we can do the ‘90s, but we need to try something different. But I don’t know what.”

Nouvelle Vague :: Lincoln Hall :: January 29.