Band of the Day: Charly&Faust

Predominantly French psych/indie/folk-rockers Charly&Faust decided to take the group approach to our questions with all of the band throwing in their 2 Centimes (remember them?). So, who are Charly and Faust? And all the others? Read on to find out…

Simple things first – where are you guys from?

CH: I am from Brittany, France!

Faust: I am from France, born in Normandy. I grew up in Paris and now I’m based in LA.

NL: Niederschaeffolsheim, France.

Charly: Born in Paris, France. Living in LA now. I feel like I’m from everywhere and nowhere. Citizen of the world!

ER: I’m from Switzerland.

JF: I am from France!

How did you meet?

NL: On Tinder

Faust: Charly and I met in Paris a few years ago through a friend in common, music was definitely a connection.

Charly: We met the rest of the family (Nathan Lorber (keys), Eric Reymond (bass, backing vocals), Coralie Hervé (drums), Jefferson Fichou (lead guitars)) in LA at the Musicians’ Institute.

ER: I met Coralie first on the first day of school and later she introduced me to the band because they were seeking a bass player.

CH : I met Charly at the Musicians Institute when she was searching for musicians. Around the same time I played a song with Eric the first day of school so we stayed in touch and here we are.

JF: I’ve met everybody at school in Hollywood.

How long have you been playing as a band?

Charly: As a full band with the actual formation, six months. But Faust and I started to work on our first song almost two years ago.

Faust : For Charly&Faust it’s been more than a year, we are practicing every week since then.

CH : I joined the band in October 2016 so it’s been a year now.

ER: Same as Coralie.

JF: Four months.

NL: Three months (I’m the latest addition to the family).

Before you get sick of being asked… where does the band name come from?

Charly: Charly&Faust is simply the two nicknames of Faustine Hornok and I, Marie Weill!

Faust: *laughs* well Marie’s stage name has always have been Charly, and my first name is Faustine so my nickname is Faust. We just thought that it sounded nice and united!

What are your influences?

Faust: Many artist influences me in art and music. I have listened to a lot of 70s music since I was very young as my dad and grandpa were big fans of this generation. The 70s are in my veins.

JF: I like classic rock and modern pop.

Charly: Tracy Chapman, Patty Smith, The Who, etc.

ER : Radiohead, Jack White, Vulfpeck, and so on. I have a lot of influences.

CH : I’m a big fan of Nightwish, a symphonic metal band, and I really like this genre.

NL: Alcohol and nicotine mostly.

Describe your music. What makes you unique?

NL: Subliminal messages – if you play our songs in reverse, it turns out to be KFC radio ads.

JF: We all come from different musical backgrounds so our music is a combination of multiple influences. It’s mainly pop/indie/rock driven but you can hear some psychedelic and electronic music elements in the songs.

ER: The duality of the vocals, the two voices just connect perfectly together, and the mix of influences we put into the music.

Charly: Our friendship and the fact that we are all from different musical universes makes us unique!

Faust: We are this indie folk rock band and with the synthesizer we bring a small touch of indie pop. It’s a mix of generations. One day someone told me that our music was making them think about the 70s and 2010s. I think we bring the modern to the vintage!

Do you have any particular lyrical themes?

Faust: All our songs have a lyrical theme: love, broken heart, humanity, cruelty, society, melancholy.

Charly: Life! What we experienced in our lives, our feelings, our emotions.

What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?

Charly: In our shows we tried to bring you to another world, to our world! Go check our live shows on YouTube and let us know if we are doing this job correctly! We played a good amount of shows. I don’t know how many. Do you count how many times you get the chance to have sex with someone? Same for shows. I don’t know!

ER: Strong and energetic. I don’t know actually *laughing and counting in his head*. I would say not enough.

CH: We have played some shows in the LA area.

Faust: We deliver to our audience different messages with passion, love and emotion. For now we are trying to play one show per month.

JF: We’ve played about a dozen shows since the beginning of the year. If you wonder what are we like on stage, come to our next gig ;)

NL: Several. All of them were terrific.

What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?

Faust: Watching Iggy Pop destroy his guitar on stage! That was wild!

Charly: Ben Harper singing acapella in a huge stadium in France!

NL: Playing sober (never again)!

What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?

Faust: I’m a singer and songwriter so my instruments are my pen, my mic – Sennheiser e935 – and my voice!

CH: For me most of the time the kit is already set. I have to bring my snare and my pedal. For the cymbals, I always bring my Soultone’s which I’m really proud of.

Charly: My mic is a Sure Beta 58 and my guitar a Fender Stratocaster.

NL: Yamaha / M-Audio / Macbook.

JF: I play an American Fender Strat mainly and sometimes a Vigier Excalibur. I use Marshall Amps and Boss pedals.

ER: I use a Fender Jaguar bass. It’s the first bass I ever got and it was a gift from my parents. For the amp, I use the Micro-VR stack from Ampeg, but I wish to bring back from Switzerland my Terror Bass 500 head from Orange and PF-410HLF cabinet from Ampeg. I miss this combination.

What are your plans for 2017?

Charly: Continue to play music and develop the band. New songs, more shows, etc.

CH: Continue to make some new music and maybe a music video.

NL: Getting ready for 2018!

ER: Playing the most we can and a secret project in progress.

Faust: We are gonna play a show at The Mint LA on November 30th! And then keep writing songs for the new year!

If you were second on a three-band bill, which band would you love to be supporting and which band would you choose to open for you? A chance to plug someone you’ve toured with, or a mate’s band we’ve not heard of before!

Faust: I know so many talented artists that I’d love to tour with. It’s hard to choose. To open for us, I would say Buddhi De Mal! This guy is a really talented songwriter.

NL: Opening: GG Allin. Supporting: Norah Jones.

ER: I would die to open for Radiohead or Vulfpeck. I know it’s not really the same music, but come on, Radiohead or Vulfpeck! And to play with us, I would say Polymorph. It’s the band Nathan and I played with for two gigs as a sub. There are an incredible jam band and it would be awesome to be able to play with them.

JF: I would love to open for a big pop band name like The 1975. We all know a lot of bands around town so we would have at least ten bands to potentially open for us.

Charly: I would love to open for Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zero and to open for us, I would love to get No Small Children – even if we should be the one opening for them. We had the chance to play with them at The Mint LA last June and these girls are awesome! Definitely go check them out!

Charly&Faust: official | facebook | instagram | youtube

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