Issue 29 / Dec 2012/Jan 2013

12
Bido Lito! Dec 2012 / Jan 2013
Words: Naters Philip
Illustration: Graham Cheal
In last month’s Bido Lito!
Dansette column we waxed
lyrical about one of our current
favourite, and for now lesser known,
Liverpool lovelies on the folk pop
scene. This month,
Naters
Philip
has
the
pleasure of roaming
a
comfortable
word
count
and expanding
into the world
of adverbs in
order to tempt
you into loving
NON, MONSIEUR
as much as she
does. This will be
easy.
Unlike many of our
musical geniuses, Non,
Monsieur are not intent on
restricting themselves to the
realms of obscurity at the
point of contrition. Not a bit of
it. When I meet Craig Lamb (Vocals,
Percussion) and David Mooney (Guitar),
clad in suits with pocket watches and hip
flasks, they are keen to tell me everything
about themselves, both as a band, and also
as people. Naturally, trying to understand the
characters behind the music is where I start and
they’re the first band to genuinely shock me with an
answer as Craig beams, “We’re radiographers.” Well of course.
“This all started because we worked together, we actually
listened to a lot of Crystal Castles and thought about doing
some electro stuff but when we went for a jam we were going
through a folky time with Jay Jay Pistolet and Simon & Garfunkel,
so we decided to go with it!”
Every exclamation mark is a true testament to Craig’s
effervescent personality; he’s wonderfully excitable about, well
everything and you’ll feel that seeping through when listening
to the first song they recorded together, I Wish We Were Young.
It’s impossible not to beam when listening to his tangents,
and simultaneously it’s as easy to wonder how on earth they get
any music written at all. Craig explains they practise regimentally
and are complete perfectionists, “Those samples of Picturebook
[the band’s new single] I sent you are so far from done – it nearly
killed me to let you have them!”
In fact the boys recently spent some time in the studio to
record an EP, to give their old four-track machine a rest. But
in the style of a true perfectionist Craig assures me that, “The
engineer was bloody useless and they won’t let me mix the
Gig Guide and Ticket Shop live at www.bidolito.co.uk
tracks at all!” So back to their four-track
they went to record If Only To Be With
You. Another pretty little ditty with husky,
stripped-back vocals and an antiquated
quality to set them apart from other bands
on the folk market.
Folk pop might actually be the perfect
phrase for these two, not only as musicians
but as friends. Dave,
who is as
charmingly
soft
spoken as Craig is exuberant,
seems a bit more folk than pop. As he’s the shy
one I was interested to glean some more about his music
background, and it seems that folk pop may actually be the
antithesis of his usual music taste. He talks much of his love for
Metallica (hey, someone has to) and classic rock favourites Thin
Lizzy. He tells us, “I was in a band with the bassist out of The
La’s – we didn’t have a name and we played one gig. It was more
like Foo Fighters stuff and because of uni I wanted to put things
on the back burner.” Which, by the sounds of it, was probably
for the best.
It’s a pesky necessity bands are faced with: The Name, and
it was a problem plaguing our boys, too. So when I ask why
French, Craig comes into his own: “Things just look sexy in
French! English words are dead dull, I spent so much time on
Babbel French, trying to come up with something that made
sense. But honestly, Non, Monsieur sounds so much better than
No, Mister – I’m a fan of the antiquity it has and I want that
across all of the stuff we do with our music.”
It’s a good enough reason as any, and sets their name apart from
others on the current Liverpool music scene. But what of the folk
genre: where do they
sit
within that? The boys explain that
they see folk music as something quite
individual, as Craig reels, “It’s a different thing:
when you play acoustic instruments or go to an
acoustic gig, you don’t see the same thing five times
over, it
isn’t like reggae or ska.” They herald Slow Club as one of their
biggest folk influences: “That first album is delightful; it’s
like two people just want to make nice songs together,
which is so lovely.”
And perhaps there’s something to that:
do you have to be so damn artistically
tortured in order to make excellent
music, or is there room for a bit of nice?
Surely, it doesn’t have to exclusively
be a paradoxical experiment,
perpetually lost up the arse of a
character in Pan’s Labyrinth.
Sometimes, it has to be
okay for it to be as
simple as, “I was
listening to Jay Jay
Pistolet’s Only To
Be Young Again
and
thought
the notion of it
was really sweet
and decided to rewrite
the chorus, from
my point of view.” Craig cites
this as the creative process
for I Wish We Were Young, and
gives a nod to professional poet Mark
Grist (@montygristo) as the fuel for this
particular inspiration.
All of their hard work and frustration over
recording saw its first live outing at the start of November
at Lime Street’s, The Head Of Steam. An interesting choice of
venue for a first outing but the band assure me the night was
faultless and, for a first gig, surprisingly well received.
I can’t say I’m surprised though, Non, Monsieur’s songs are
designed to chirp you up and actually leave you with little choice
in the matter. Songs like I Wish We Were Young are the kind to
grab everyone; even if you decide you hate it you’ll probably
be caught listening to it on your own while your head does
happy little bobs in time. Luckily you’ll get an opportunity to
fall for their infectious energy and dulcet tones soon enough as
they’re playing support for Admiral Fallow at The Kazimier on 4th
December. Craig’s rocket-fuelled personality mixed with David’s
‘Tim from The Office’ sense of humour leaves me to describe
their music in one sentence: Non, Monsieur are like a relaxing
Sunday afternoon, eating an entire bag of Skittles and washing
them down with a bourbon whiskey. J’aime beaucoup.
For a free download go to nonmonsieur.bandcamp.com
@nonmonsieur