Interview: Tahiti Boy & The Palmtree Family.

Being a fan of Piña colada, tanning & happy music as a substitute for pills, I knew I had to lend 'Good Children Go To Heaven' some ears, especially after being recommended to me by the likes of Flairs, YaYaYa & Metronomy many times & I'm so glad I did.

Drenched in brine & pop, Tahiti Boy & The Palmtree Family have made available again a record for a multi generational groupies & fans of real-music-making-bands from The Beach Boys & Blur to most recently Vampire Weekend – that kind of a record you'd buy 2 of, one to listen to and another to frame.

Tahiti Boy & The Palmtree Family is a seven piece band that constructs organic pop out of real instruments for people with real facial expressions and character depth. – every one of us needs to take a break from the covered in rubber, nylon & plastic electro & Nu-rave hype inflation & take a second to inhale the wooden musk.

● 1973
● Blood In Your Eyes
● You Make Me Blush
● When I Miss You
● Brooklyn

I had a nice talk with 'Tahiti Boy' and trust me; the stuff he told me is something you'd want to know all about! So get your self a plate of white chocolate cookies and a glass of warm chocolate milk… make yourself comfortable… & ready, steady….. Read.
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Good day ‘Tahiti Boy’ – you look quite pale for someone who spends time under palm trees in the summer... I must say the indie white boy look looks good on you… introduce your real-self & tell us briefly about your musical background?

Hi there! Well, yeah, I’m a very pale guy, because the palmtrees always prevent me from getting burned… And thanks for noticing my look; I have about 15 beautiful assistants working on it on a day to day basis. Well, my nickname is David, but my real name is Tahiti Boy. I play piano, keyboards, organ, I can sing too, and I do have some knowledge in saxophone. I also do productions for other artists (now working on Tacteel’s album) and I write arrangements for other bands. I’ve had the chance to record or play live with a lot of people, from Antipop Consortium to Mike Ladd, some member of Tv On The Radio to Lio (famous French 80’s icon), Money Mark, and some big free jazz guys like David Murray. And more people I don’t even remember who… Like Scenario Rock, Poney Poney, Flairs, Syd matters, Teki Latex, Gaspard from Justice etc… You know, the Parisian scene! I’ll be working on a soundtrack this fall, and I’m very excited about it.

Soundtrack?

Yeah, a young man names Claude Zidi Jr, whose father is a famous film maker in France, is about to shoot his 1rst movie called Fashion Week, and he hired me to write the soundtrack. I can do whatever I want, so it should be a lot of fun. I’ve started writing some pieces for it already, I think we’ll be recording it around December.

Cool! Alright, It always starts like this, for some reason I think that every band’s name must have a meaning and an event of origin… what’s yours?

Mmm, well, “Family” is a tribute to my idol, Sly Stone and his band the “Family Stone”. The Tahiti Boy thing is just because I used to have dreadlocks (hey, we all make mistakes, ‘aight ?) so I guess I looked like a famous cartoon character…

(Laughing).. Well white boys should stick to the curly & the sleek only, that's one of nature's rules – anyhow, let’s blow the confusion cloud away and clear this out - are you a band or are you a collective? Both maybe?

We’re a 100% band. We all play together, we just have 2 guests on the album : my girlfriend Audrey, and Tunde Adebimpe from Tv On The Radio. Everyone else is a band member. Sometimes, like in every group, one has to be replaced for one show, but that only happened twice, so… Yeah, we’re a regular band with people who have other bands.

So, how many are children are there in the Palmtree Family & what is your music making mechanism?

We’re 7 people. I play piano and sing, there are 2 guitars and vocals, 1 drummer, 1 bass player, 1 cello, and 1 percussion/flute player. I write everything myself, and I have the arrangements in mind, and then, when we rehearse the songs, if someone has an idea, he’s always welcome to try it. If it sounds better than mine, then he wins ! We’re like the United Nations, and I’m the United States, you know…
I got to admit though, your complicated structure causes some difficulty in understanding the ingredients of Tahiti Boy & The Palmtree Family which I would usually ignore to avoid the migraines but when flashy names and super stars are involved then decoding and digging is a must, so would you be kind and fill us in?

Sure! Well, me! I’m very famous; you can see my face on posters all around Times Square and Hollywood Blvd (Laughing Frantically). Ok, let’s say they might not all be famous, but you may know the followings: Antoine (guitar / vocals) is the soul of Poney Poney, Jonathan (guitar / vocals) is the soul of Syd Matters, Didier (bass) plays with famous French band Tanger and the huuuuuge singer called “Christpohe”. Jean, our drummer, plays with a whole lot of bands, like Constance Verluca, Hopper etc… Also, Tunde Adebimpe from TV On The Radio.

Before we start talking music, I was wondering how a band like yours made it big in France when all the songs are in English (Usually labels there insist on them being in French)!? You think you would’ve gotten the same reaction and success if you’ve gone all French?

Dude, we’d be huge now if the album was in French! So we just do it the way we like, I’m not sure how big we’ll make it here, but we’ll be fine as far as the buzz is going and the gigs are going well. I think the best thing for us to make it here would be to get credibility abroad and then come back. I mean, that’s just an idea, if you have a solution, thanks for letting me know! héhéhé…

Coming form France I’m sure you realize the whole music stream has shifted towards electro, where Artificial has become the new Original - with kids & hipsters thirsty for noise and distortion when you’re album is very clean and basic (true indie) if I may say… sort of like the pureness ‘Whitest Boy Alive’ & ‘Vampire Weekend’ have! Weren’t you afraid your efforts would get smothered by the electro inflation when everyone are distracted by Justice?

Not at all, I actually enjoy our position a lot. It might be cooler to be some kind of outsider, like “the unexpected band playing unexpected music” or something like that. Plus I love electronic music, so I don’t feel like there’s some fashion shit taking room from some other music. And I’ve noticed that despite the success electro people get, there’s always a spot for Vampire Weekend, MGMT, Feist or even us, who knows? We’re respected a lot by everyone on the electronic scene, and part of that comes from the fact that our music is different from theirs.

But even though they have made it big and caused a huge buzz in the Blogosphere – doesn’t it bother you when the media compare Tahiti Boy & The Palmtree Family to Vampire Weekend, when their music is fundamentally based on African popular music while yours is more basic indie rock with a tropical twist (I think the only resemblance between you two is the fact that both of you focus on live instrumentations, but that's about it)… and exactly what can we call your music style?

I think the comparison also comes from the taste we all have for cool melodies. I mean, we write songs people can sing along… Our music is deeply pop, in both sense : pop like UK pop, The Zombies, The Beatles, very colorful etc… and also pop meaning popular : gathering the people singing a melody that could be easy to remember, you know, music with choruses and verses, catchy lyrics and happiness at the end. In that way, even though I totally see your point with the Vampire Weekend thing, we can be assimilated to them with no shame. The goal of their music, just like ours, is to entertain.

I must say the multi-instrumentation structure of your pieces raises the quality bar high and categorizes you under the league of bands that makes real music! I mean your album has everything flutes, tambourines, weird wooden mouth organ, percussions, mandoline, bass, drums, tube, guitar, banjo, piano, Wurlitzer, Rhodes, organs, arp solina & saxophone! Which explains why there are a lot of external people involved and the inflation of the band members’ number… but wouldn’t all that cause a bit of a difficulty live? Like you need a lot of people to perform different songs!?

Actually, we, the 7 members of the family, are able to play all that. What I mean is that we don’t need to have guests to play more instruments, we do all that live. Sometimes we have my friend Eric on sax, but he comes mostly as a friend. We did a release party in May, where we wrote arrangements for a full string section and a brass section. It was great, but too much work for one show only… Also, all the musicians can switch instruments. That’s what we’ll do on stage soon - Didier and Jonathan can play keyboards and organ, Vincent can play drums, Thomas (our cello player) can take a guitar etc… then I could just sing, not always play piano myself. And it’s always cool to see that a guy can play another instrument… Girls love it. And we love girls. We’re crooners, you know. The only reason why the album is so delicate is to get them chicks at the shows (Laughs)!

I like how 'Good Children Go To Heaven' balances melancholy with optimism, some instrumental pieces within the tracks have great power on projecting some feelings! Plus, the lyrics almost always seem to be talking about a situation between 2 of the opposite sexes. Are there any personal experiences involved with the songs?

Mmmm, yes and no. I mean, obviously, the love songs are partly taken from experiences we’ve all had, you know, like “You Make Me Blush” or “That Song”. “Brooklyn” is a love song dedicated to my beloved Brooklyn… But then, you know, you just make the words go together for the song, so you have to make it different – and look better I guess – so the song ends up not being what you where gonna say… But that’s okay, that’s part of the game !

One of the tracks ‘Blood In Your eyes’ - for some reason gives me flavor blisters of Gorillaz style & I know this might sound stupid but.. I was thinking that this kind of project is something you’d usually find Damon Albarn involved in - not that this is relevant to the question but whom or what was Tahiti Boy inspired by?

That’s funny. You’re not the 1st one to mention Damon Albarn. I like him a lot, even better in Blur than Gorillaz. Well, obviously I’ve always admired the big historical bands like The Beatles, The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones, Bowie, The Zombies etc… But a lot of black music too; like the whole Motown thing, Stax, Ike & Tina, and even jazz. Coltrane is one of my idols. I love hip hop – I still get to play a lot of hip hop, and produce it as well. My all time favorites are Public Enemy, Wu Tang, KRS One, A Tribe Called Quest, NWA etc… I like the new school as well. I think Kanye is the best these days.

I'm impressed that every bit of everything in your music is well thought of… even when it comes to the choir on ‘Time’ & ‘When I Miss You’... instead of hiring a choir you actually had people and bands come in to fill in. Like Da Brasilians, Domingo, Gush, Cosmo Brown, My Girlfriend Is Better Than Yours, Tacteel, Guilaume de Maria from Château Marmont, Choc, Cocosuma… tell us about that!

Well, I guess it was easier to ask bands that I know to come down to the studio and do it. I would I have to pay a real choir, whereas those guys know how bad the economy is for such a project, so it was way cooler to hang out with them a few hours, record a bunch of takes having beers etc… than getting a bunch of professional cats waiting to get paid. Plus I’m happy to have them all written down on the cover. It’s a way for me to thank them again. Some of them have been invited on stage with us to perform the songs at the release party, like Da Brasilians, Gush, Cosmo Brown, Choc etc… First they are friends who can sing. Then they play in bands. The whole “all star” crew is less important to me than having people I like on the record. The same as the original musicians, Didier is my step brother, I went to school with Antoine, Vincent was my roommate in year 2000 etc… You know what I mean; we’re just a bunch of old friends who happen to play music together.

Yeah I understand & I think the whole band-playing-in-their-parents-garage-for-fun energy is present! Another thing… Tunde from ‘TV on the Radio’ laid his vocals on ‘That Song’... who else sang on which songs – and is it true that most of the recording happened at Tunde’s place?

Well, all the other people are the ones you mentioned in the choirs, in the previous question. The recording of “That Song” took place at Tunde’s crib, only that. The rest was recorded in a Parisian suburb, in a studio called Mellow Workshop. We did all the vocals (apart from Tunde) at the label’s studio in Paris, with some overdubs of brass and strings. It was mixed there as well, by the great Angy, who’s our own Georges Martin. He also plays bass in Château Marmont. See, Angy is the man.
I like how Tahiti Boy & The Palmtree Family brought a lot of different people form different labels into one project – Arcade Mode, Because Music, Interscope… did you know from the beginning that this project was going to be a product of a huge team work... Or it just kind of led to that? I mean like... was Tahiti Boy & The Palmtree Family meant to be what it is today?

That’s a good question. Not all those guys were involved though. We happened to work with people who work themselves with these labels, so we had to ask for some permissions sometimes, that’s all. - The family members were the only people involved in the artistic development of the band. Those record companies are only thanked because they gave us more paperwork I guess. But they were all nice enough to let us do what we ask them.

Arcade Mode was different. They released our 1st song called “She Was Mine” about a year ago. It was one side of the great collector blue 7’ series, mixed by the great Vicarious Bliss. Very nice release, that one.

I don’t know what the band was meant to be where it is now, but I knew I wanted to be in a band with these guys, and I knew I had a lot of music to be written. Since we thought it was pretty cool, we felt that the group should be signed somewhere to release an album. I think we are strong because even though there are a lot of people in good bands involved, we still had to rehearse hard and play the same shit hole places in order to get an audience. Now I see that we get more and more people’s attention, so we’ll have a bit more expectations for the second album. I picture it more “Motown”, but not like Amy Whinehouse, more like some voodoo kind of thing, more obsessive, with a bit of New Orleans in it.

Be confident that your efforts are being well appreciated, because usually I find bands through friends & Blogs, but this time the recommendations actually came directly from Flairs & Ya Ya Ya (of Bitchee Bitchee Ya Ya Ya) – Also Metronomy are huge fans!

Well, I’m very proud that those great guys talk about us. Flairs actually replaced our bass player once, and he might do it again sometimes, when Didier cannot be with us. Ya Ya Ya came up on stage with us a few times, so we ended up playing 4 hands pianos, it was very fun. He’s a great guy, and we just met after I saw one of his band’s live, they are killers! Metronomy mentioned us, saying they really liked it. It means a lot to me because I love their music too. I’ve had the chance to meet Joseph, the leader, a couple times, that’s all. I didn’t even know he had the record…

Is there any way I can bribe you into exposing the real identity of Ya Ya Ya? It's killing me that till this day I haven't figured who he & Bitchee Bitchee really are!

(Loud Laugh) Sorry man, I promised him and the band not to say a single thing about who they are. Nothing against you, that’s just their thing…

I was talking to Ya Ya Ya the other day & he told me you have covered a Justice songs! Which one... and can I have it??

Yeah, we recorded a cover and a new arrangement of Justice’s Valentine…. - Ya Ya Ya told you that? I hope he didn’t tell you that you could have it! It’s kept secret like gold until Gaspard and Xavier decide to do something with it. Sorry man… hopefully it will be released somewhere sometimes. - BUT… we’re getting ready to release an EP sometimes in the fall, with a cover of “1973” by Para One, another cover of “Blood In Your Eyes” by Zombie Zombie, and Justice will make a new mix/edit of “Brooklyn”.

God that sounds like a kick ass EP & since we are talking about Justice - while going through the album booklet I noticed you thanked Gaspard Augé & Xavier de Rosay! Also you mentioned Pedro & Amandine… & ‘SoMe’ who's done a drawing for the front cover… you got lots of friends from Ed Banger Rec. huh! Where do all these fall into your equation?

Yeah, well, Gaspard and I have been friend since we’re 18 I think. With him, Antoine (Poney Poney) and some other friends (Choc, who also sings on the record) we put together a tiny record label called Musclorecords. Our releases, mostly 2 compilations, are now very hard to find. I guess they’re collectible items now - you can find Justice’s 1st song, this band Dallax (with SoMe), Poney Poney, myself… It’s called “Hit’s Up To You”, so cheap, but kind of fun though.

I’ve met Xavier a bit later, when we actually all met him (including Gaspard). SoMe went to school with Gaspard, he became quickly friend with Gaspard’s friends, so…

Pedro is not a friend, but I know him well, and he’s always been supporting us a lot. I mean, I went to see him bunch of times when I had questions about anything, he’d always be there for me, with good advises and contacts. And Amandine’s our number 1 fan…

Gaspard and Xavier have not been involved in the making of the album, even though Xavier had a title for it that we ended up not using this time. But they've always been supporting us, coming to the shows etc... And as I said, they’re working on the song called “Brooklyn”, I don’t even know exactly what they have in mind, I just let them do…

Ooooh we know the faux Eurovision “Hit’s Up To You”, the Justice track 'Sure You Will' has been on almost every Blog I know since someone discovered it! It's funny that it has been around since 2003… & what was Xavier's suggestion for the album title? I heard it was initially going to be called 'You Make Me Blush'!! By the way your band should've been called 'Tahiti Boy, The Palmtree Family & Their Friends' (laughs/joking)!

Well, I’m not gonna tell you Xavier’s idea for the album, we might use it one day… But yeah, 1st I was gonna call it “You Make Me Blush”, but I didn’t want one song to be underlined more than the others, so this title quickly disappeared.

This whole “& Their Friends” think is totally wrong, sorry my man ! We’re Tahiti Boy & The Palmtree family, once again NOT A COLLECTIVE !!! We have friends on a few songs, but this is not like some Pavarotti & friend shit, this is not a tribute, and I don’t have my friends do a few stuffs with us for the sake of having them. If they’re here, it’s because at some point their skill was needed. We all have plenty of friends, but the ones on the record are always here for a reason. Remember that we’re 7 people and only 7 people. When we rehearse, we’re 7, when we tour we’re 7, when we do promo where’re 7, but sometimes you need something, like this choire thing. How are you gonna do that by yourself ? Remember this is no tribute band, no Devendra Banhart hippie shit, no I’m From Barcelona hippie shit either. We’re a regular band.

Well Said!

*Head over to their MySpace to find out how you can get yourself a copy of 'Good Children Go To Heaven'!