With their funk-tinged latest single, ‘Fantasy‘, dropping this week on their own Paradis imprint, we asked French duo Juveniles to put together a moodboard of the things that inspire their neon-bathed, electro-pop. From formative influences in David Bowie and Jack Kerouac, through to contemporary sources of creative stimulation such as Ryan McGinley and Alpine, here’s the fresh-from-the-oven recipe for Jean-Sylvain le Gouic and Thibaut Doray’s bubbling pop cuts.
1. David Bowie
“He’s been there forever, always reinventing himself and always writing such beautiful songs. I have the French vinyl edition of Heroes with the verses in French: it’s really disturbing. I’m not a huge fan of the last record, though ‘Where Are We Now?’ is a powerful song.
In ‘We Are Young‘, when the chorus goes, “Let us play like David said,” it’s a direct homage to ‘Starman‘.”
2. Hal Hartley
“Trust Me is a great movie; Adrienne Shelly and Martin Donovan’s impersonation of these weird misfits falling in love is simply stunning. Our second single, ‘Ambitions‘, was strongly influenced by his short film Ambition.”
3. Jack Kerouac – On the Road
‘I’ve been doing all my life after people who interest me, because the only people for me are the mad
ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same
time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow
roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight
pop and everybody goes “Aww”.’
“We took these words as a motto very early on.”
4. Traveling
“One of the best aspects of being in a band is definitely going places. Coming across different cultures makes you understand your ethnocentrism better.” [Photo: Ousseynou Cissé]
5. Toto – ‘Hold the Line’
“Toto by Toto was Thibaut’s first record he bought when he was like 10 years old and I’m pretty sure it has been a major subconscious influence on his drum playing ever since. You can hear it distinctively on ‘Strangers‘; this ternary FM hard rock feeling.”
6. Alpine – ‘Hands’
“This video has been in all my music video moodboards. When I first saw it it reminded me of Kynodontas and it’s surrealist atmosphere and visual aesthetics got stuck in my mind for ages. We ended up working with the director Luci on our video for ‘Strangers’.”
7. Vintage Gear Ads
“Ads were just so much better back in the day.”
8. Larry Clark
“Larry Clark and Harmony Korine also always fill our moodboards. I used to be a skater back in my Marseilles days so I’ll go for Wassup Rockers.”
9. Ryan McGinley – Animals
“Also a big visual reference…”
- Alex Cull
Juveniles’ latest single, ‘Fantasy’, is available now on Paradis.
