CARRÉ is a musical trio based out of Los Angeles, made up of members Keveen Baudouin, Jules de Gasperis, and Julien Boyé. Their name translates to ‘square’ in English, and nods back to their French roots. This reviewer learned that CARRÉ is less of a title than a symbol: the square shape marks their effort to disengage from form while retaining inspiration from its sharp angles and lines.
CARRÉ’s hit This is not a band features clashing beats, and a gritty bassline. Fusing multiple genres (think: electronic, indie, punk, synth) some listeners may, like this reviewer, find they can’t get the track out of their heads. It feels more like a journey than a three minute song.
You too may agree that their new single Urgency takes listeners even deeper into their web of sound.
Here, Picture This Post (PTP) asks members of CARRÉ – Keveen Baudouin (KB) and Jules de Gasperis (JG) to talk about their music.
(PTP) What is it about the square shape in particular that speaks to your band’s journey?
(KB) I believe that every being is born and raised under a certain assumption that life is binary. It’s the base of it all: life/death, black/white, right/wrong, male/female, 0/1, rich/poor... Evolution takes you out of those patterns throughout your journey. The square represents that pattern, that comfort zone, reminds us where we all come from and how much room we have left to create our own reality.
(JG) Yes, also the geometry of the square evokes the angular aspect of our music, the tightness of the patterns, the rigidity of the electronic loops. And of course we’re trying to go beyond, to create fluidity within that frame.
Do you have a specific piece of theory or art that spoke to you and triggered this type of musical journey?
(KB) I fell in love with a painting called Binary Thinking from Peter Halley years ago that uses squares to represent the conception of positive and negative polarity and the Freudian idea that unconscious forces shape someone’s behavior.
(JG) For me a lot of inspiration comes from spirituality, as you disengage from the grasp of the ego and the result-oriented type of mindset, you really start tapping into a greater source of inspiration, where abstraction is not an issue and you tune in to something bigger than us.
On that note, what are your favourite books?
(KB) Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley is a pretty impactful one; Writings from Terrence McKenna on distortion of reality La nausée from Sartre.
(JG) Narcissus And Goldmund by Hermann Hesse, The Seer by Lars Muhl.
And what sort of music do you tend to listen to?
(KB) Pretty much anything from electronic, rock, pop to hip hop at times or jazz, all the way to gyspsy music and old Delta blues.
What drew each of you towards Los Angeles initially?
(KB) We have different paths that led us to this city, that brought us to California in a general sense. But the main thing that drew each of us here, I think I can speak for both of us that live in Los Angeles (one member, Julien, is still based out of Paris) is freedom, on an individual aspect. Freedom to express yourself and to be yourself without any limit and/or judgment.
Are there parallels with the music you produce and the sprawling, burning, and sometimes isolating lifestyle that is pervasive in Los Angeles? Does it motivate your music in some way?
(KB) Probably. There is a certain sense of isolation that we probably all feel at times, and definitely felt when we first moved, both coming from Paris and its sensory overload lifestyle. Californian life shaped our music, shapes our life, for sure and still is. The beauty of being in the middle of a jungle while being able to enjoy calm and peace, nature knocking at your door, is priceless.
How does the music scene in France differ from the scene in the USA?
(KB) There always is great music coming out of France but at times there’s an overwhelming sense of copy and lack of risks built into the frustration of French modern culture, that deprives you to really create as the core of the word. The US has that nonchalant ‘f*** you’ engraved in its art and we love it.
(JG) Yes I agree, music is always so linked to the environment it’s created in, and even though we’re happy to have French roots after many years it felt like Paris was not conducive to free creation, and to me a lot of its inhabitants are living in anxiety and stress on a daily basis so I was really happy to make the move.
And how much of your music is impacted by your French roots, if at all?
(KB) The electronic aspect of our music is rooted in France but in Europe as a larger perspective of it too. Just the way we work together is framed by our education in a way, you cannot really take that out of us. The music sounds like it I think.
(JG) I remember just a while after I moved to LA and opened my studio, I had more and more people hitting me up to work with me and mentioning this French sound that I was making – it really surprised my because I never actually listened to a lot of French music, back there most of my influences were Anglo-Saxon so I thought it was quite funny!
Do you miss anything about France that you can’t get in the USA?
(JG) Not necessarily missing anything specific. The way of life is nice in Europe, people know how to appreciate simple things and down times. But you can find it here in your own community and the burst of Los Angeles is greater than what could ever be missing from France.
How do you think the self isolation measures in California, or just the surreal experience of living through a pandemic will impact your music in the future?
(KB) It’s impacting the new songs lyric-wise for sure already. It will change everyone, art will evolve too, it’s undeniable. I’m excited to see where this whole thing will take us all.
(JG) Definitely, there is no turning back to the old ways humans were living I think. To me it’s almost like the Earth is forcing us to evolve and think about our lifestyle, because without something as drastic as COVID-19 we would be too lazy to make a change. It’s always like that with human nature, always got to wait for the last moment if you really want to leap forward. So in a way there’s a lot of positive changes in that pandemic, and art will surely benefit from it.
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Images courtesy of Carre.
About the Author:
Theressa Malone is a writer / recent Comparative Literature graduate from the University of California, Berkeley. She worked for various small press publications in the Bay Area before returning to her hometown in New Zealand. There, as well as writing for Picture this Post, she is the founder, designer, and editor at Milly: an international literary magazine publishing essays, short prose and poetry that aims to showcase the unique literary ecosystem in Aotearoa. You can find her at Milly Magazine.
