Frédéric Dechavanne – Paris – Uber Rock Interview Exclusive
Written by Mark Ashby
Sunday, 07 April 2013 04:00
Paris may be a new name on the AOR scene, but they trace their roots back almost three decades, to the boyhood friendship of the band’s key personnel: vocalist and keyboard player Frédéric Dechavanne and guitarist Sébastien Montet.
Now, the pair – with some pretty illustrious help, including Italian uber-producer Alessandro Del Vecchio (best known for his work with Lionville, Hardline and Issa), guitarist Robert Säll and vocalist Steve Newman have finally got their act together to release their debut album, ‘Only One Life’.
Uber Rock’s Mark Ashby resists the urge to found a parptastic new band named after his own home town as he talks to frontman Dechavanne to find out the story behind the band who namecheck the likes of FM, Desmond Child and Toto as major influences…
First of all, why did you decide to call the band after the city where you were born and grew up?
To be honest with, you it was Gregor Klee (owner of Avenue of Allies) who came up with the idea of a band name with Paris in it – because of where we come from. With Sébastien, we wanted something short and catchy so we said ok, but it has to be just “Paris” then. And it’s the perfect band name for us: we can relate to it, it sounds great, everyone around the world knows Paris, the city’s a mix of history and modernity… and it’s just who we are – you can’t deny where you come from and we’re proud of it. There is this tradition of city names in our music style: Chicago, Boston, Rio and, more recently, Houston… so it’s fun to keep the tradition alive.
Yourself and Sébastien have known each other for a very long time and played together in a band in the late 1980s: what first attracted two young men growing up in the suburbs of Paris to AOR music?
As teenagers the very first LPs we bought were those of AC/DC, Iron Maiden, Scorpions… but our favourite tracks on them have always been the more melodic songs. Both of us were naturally attracted by great vocal harmonies and catchy riffs, so when we listened to Def Leppard’s ‘Pyromania’ for the very first time, or FM’s ‘Indiscreet’, we were just blown away. From that moment on we never stopped looking for new bands and we fell in love with Journey’s ‘Raised on Radio’ and Night Ranger’s ‘Big Life’, to name a few. We spent a real fortune in CD stores, especially the Virgin Megastore on the Champs Elysées: then, they had many imports and rarities! We listen to everything from west coast to melodic hard rock – but our true love has always been what is now called AOR.
What bands influenced you in those early days?
Oh man, so many! We were lucky to live the golden era of the late 80’s: of course, there was FM, Survivor, Journey, then Bad English, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Starship, etc… Songwriters like Diane Warren or Desmond Child had a big influence on us as well. Albums like Robin Beck’s ‘Trouble or Nothing’, Tim Feehan’s ‘Full Contact, and Michael Bolton’s ‘Soul Provider’ were simply amazing. There was Toto, of course, and then Giant, Richard Marx, Winger, Danger Danger – and so many more!
There is a gap of nearly 20 years in your musical CV: what were you up to in that period?
I was overseas most of the time. I worked many years in hotels and resorts around the world as a sport instructor and then as a piano-bar entertainer. Those jobs took me everywhere from the Caribbean to Scandinavia, Dubai, the USA… and finally Germany. So I never stopped playing music and singing, almost every night actually. Neither did Sébastien: he regularly got together with other friends to make music during that period.
You had kept in touch with Sébastien during that time: what sparked the two of you to get back together in terms of songwriting?
We’ve been best friends since the youngest of ages; so whenever I came back to Paris between two contracts we loved to hang out together again, share music and laughs. We understand each other so well and we always kept that perfect synergy between us, so I didn’t even think for one second of another guitar player when I started writing songs again after setting up my home studio. Sébastien always knows what to play: he’s so talented and he cares about the song, when so many just want to show off. After I settled down in Germany and started writing songs again, we just got excited like if we never had stopped making music together.
Can you tell us a little bit about the other members of the band and how you went about recruiting them?
I was in contact with Alessandro Del Vecchio to [ask him to] produce our album shortly before Firefest 2011. Sébastien and I went to Nottingham, and we saw Ale with Anna Portalupi (bass) and Alessandro Mori (drums) on stage supporting Mitch Malloy. The great Mario Percudani was there too – but, of course, we didn’t need another guitar player for the album. Their performance that night was so outstanding, there was no doubt in our mind who would play on the album then, and Alessandro Del Vecchio made it all possible. Anna and Alessandro Mori did a fantastic job. We’d love to play Firefest someday with that great team of musicians… that’d be something!
You now live in Germany, and Anna and Alessandro are both Italian: did you all get together at any stage or was the album all recorded using modern technology?
Most of the album has been recorded in Alessandro Del Vecchio’s brand new studio near Milan last year. I spent a total of four weeks there, working every day on the songs with Alessandro. Anna was there too, while Alessandro Mori recorded the drums in his own studio nearby. Sébastien joined us in Italy to track down his guitar parts and I recorded my vocals at the end. Then I came back to Italy a few weeks later to do the background vocals with Alessandro.
Robert Säll (Work Of Art, W.E.T.) makes a guest appearance on the album: how did that come about and what was it like for you to work with someone so prominent in the melodic rock scene?
I wrote down only two names for guest appearances – Steve Newman and Robert Säll. We’ve been big fans of Work of Art and Newman, and having them on the album is an easy way to tell the fans what our music [is about], especially for a first album. All the credit goes to Alessandro that they accepted to be involved in the project. Robert is very successful and he deserves every bit of it, nevertheless he remains very humble. We got a chance to meet with both Steve and Robert last year in Nottingham, and they have something in common, which goes beyond talent: they are both extremely kind and easy going. They’re just great guys.”
Are those early influences from your formative years as a musician still at play, or are there any more modern influences that have shaped the Paris sound of today?
The early influences from the 80s are still there, no doubt about it: they are our musical DNA. Sure, we are influenced by the new releases too. There’s a positive evolution in terms of sounds and styles right now: good AOR / melodic rock is coming back with Work of Art, W.E.T., Newman, Hardline, Wigelius, Lionville, H.E.A.T., etc… It’s a very exciting time to release our album. If we all keep on producing quality records like that, there are brighter days to come for all of us, despite the slump in CD sales, because the fan base around the world is growing.
Some of the songs featured on ‘Only One Life’ date back almost 20 years, to when yourself and Sébastien first worked together: have you adapted them in any way, or would anyone familiar with the original songs still recognise them today?
We started the project with a demo CD including 11 brand new songs in the summer of 2011. By the time we planned the recording sessions with Alessandro a few months later, we had a couple of new songs that definitely had to be on the album, like ‘Longer Than I Care To Remember’ or ‘South Of Love’. Then, one day we decided to look back to the past – more for fun actually. We listened to our old songs and we found that many had real potential. ‘Dancing On The Edge’ was one of them: it ended up very close to the original – but not many people got a chance to listen to it 20 years ago! The same happened with ‘America’ and ‘Every Time You Walk Away’.
And we’re proceeding the same way for the second album: we have great new songs, and we are rearranging a few songs from our old catalogue – it’s so much fun. Look how great Issa’s ‘Can’t Stop’ (also produced by Alessandro Del Vecchio) or Sunstorm’s ‘Emotional Fire’ are with songs written in the 80s…
Is the album’s title, ‘Only One Life’, sum up how you and the band feel – we only have one life so we might as well get on with it?
Absolutely! We didn’t want to use a song title for the album, so we took that line out of ‘Longer Than I Care To Remember’. Releasing an album was something Sébastien and I just had to do, at least once in our life. For various reasons it didn’t happen in our early 20’s – but like we say: better late than never… if you need to do something in your life, then do it! That’s what ‘Longer Than I Care to Remember’ is all about: enjoy your life, and don’t wait endlessly for people if they’re too scared to follow you.”
‘Only One Life’ is issued on Avenue Of Allies on April 12th. Expect to see a review on Uber Rock very soon.
Photos courtesy of Silmarile Photographes
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Paris-official/119011491619131
