“I’ve listened to pop all my life," says Roger Tellier-Craig, filling us in on the gaps between his rather wonderful new psych pop project Pas Chic Chic and regular work as paid up member of Quebec’s legendary post rock collective. “I discovered Scott Walker’s early stuff right before I joined the Godspeed! crew, and I’ve been obsessed with his oeuvre ever since.”

Au Contraire, the debut album released soon on Semprini Records, is awash with vintage Farsifa organs, the brightest of bright beat pop drums, and boy/girl harmonies as routedly sixties as they are strangely fresh. “Her and I go way back,” says Tellier-Craig about vocal spar Marie-Douce. “We’ve been friends for years and we have a monthly DJ night here at the Casa del Popolo called Nao Identificado.“

Oh yes, and it’s all sung in French. “Are you implying that French Pop still exists?” remarks drummer Eric Fillion.
“When I was 20 I discovered the music of Serge Gainsbourg, Brigitte Fontaine and Françoise Hardy.” Explains Tellier-Craig, ”This had quite an impact on me as I had always thought francophone music was bad and cheesy. I had this very strong impulse to one day make francophone music that would be rooted in the 60’s tradition of Gainsbourg, but try and infuse it with more of a modernist approach to production. On the last Fly Pan Am record, N’Ecoutez Pas, I started integrating elements of this idea but quickly realized I’d have to actually start a whole new band to fully explore this.

“I definitely looked to France as an influence more than the music made here, this might be because the French have a lot more of a history, they’ve been around as a cultural identity for way longer than Quebecois culture who are still trying to define themselves. I wanted to create something that was clearly identifiable as francophone but that could reach out internationally, in the same way the sounds of Os Mutantes, Erkin Koray or Gainsbourg speak to people from all around the world and not exclusively to those who understand the same language. I was hoping to create something that could speak as music in itself."