Born out boredom in the city of Paris, experimental electronic / rock band Bracco sure know how to put on a show. If you have the opportunity to see them live, you’ll find Baptiste occasionally shredding on the guitar, inhaling his microphone and stripping down to his underwear; while Loren masterminds in front of an array of synths making noises that shouldn’t sound right together… but absolutely do. The French duo have two albums out, their first ‘Grave’ released in 2019 and their second ‘Dromonia’ released in 2022. But that isn’t all for the twosome, because according to Bracco they are working on their next – aiming to be released in 2026. I sat down with them in the green room before one of their shows to get to know a little bit more.
How did you two meet / start playing music together?
Baptiste: We were quite bored, and we were working in the same bar in Paris and we decided to go on unemployment. So we had a lot of time like this and we wanted to use it to do music.
Are you (Loren) based in Brussels?
Loren: Yes. I am from South of France, but I used to live in Paris for 10 years. I moved to Brussels 6/7 years ago.
How long have you been playing together?
Baptiste: It’s been forever.
Loren: 8 years.
Baptiste: I think almost 9 years actually. It started off with rehearsal stuff and talking about making music in 2016.
What’s this year been like for you?
Baptiste: We’ve been touring quite a lot… like crazy. Around France, Europe. We’ve never been to the USA because it’s too complicated to go and play in the States. It’s too expensive. You get used to playing in Europe, everything gets paid, you get a salary and stuff. They asked us a few months ago to come and play in New York for some festival and we refused it. It was going to be too expensive because you have to have visa to say you’re working; you have to get instruments and stuff. It’s too complicated.
Yea, it’s a shame because your music and sound would really resonate in New York.
Baptiste: I would love to because when you’re French or when you’re from Europe, all the cultural stuff in the USA… the mentality in the States. You’re working more. I always saw that in the US or in England, people are not necessarily more talented, but they’re doing better stuff because they’re working way more. I also wanted to try to play in England or in the States just to check where we are in the scene.
All of my friends are poor in New York. They’re struggling and they’re bartenders and servers or graphic designers, which is awesome and cool and respected but they do music because they love it.
Baptiste: But you have to really strive to get something. Even Mark, our song engineer, he’s doing a lot of studio recording and he always tell me, when you record with somebody from the States, they worked so much harder. Because they have nothing.
A lot of your lyrics are in English?
Baptiste: All of them.
I noticed that actually with quite a few French bands.
Baptiste: It’s just a periodistic colonization by the States. After the Second World War. You listen to English music, so you write in English. It wouldn’t be natural to sing in French. French is a hard language to write songs. You have to be a real poet to write in French. You have to have a deep mind to write in French. Sometimes I think in English when it’s about music.
Are there any songs that you love performing live? Both of you.
Loren: I think it’s the same.
Baptiste: Ah yea. It’s ‘Tune’. It’s a song from the first album. It’s quite strange because we always thought it was the most perfect song we could have made in the way we do music. It’s like, once you do that song, you are kind of bored to do more songs because you have this song that’s perfect.
Do you find that that’s your fans favorite song too?
Loren: No no.
Baptiste: Not at all. It’s just our favorite.
Loren: No, because the record of this song is very bad. I think the best record is on video, like 360 degree video, the first we made and some live performance.
Do you know what song is maybe your fans favorite to see?
Baptiste: The singles, “Fribourg’.
Loren: or ‘I Love You’
Are there any French bands that you can recommend to our readers?
Baptiste: Yeah, they would love Brian’s Magic Tears. They would love that. It’s very 90s. I guess in New York they love 90s stuff.
Loren: Oklou.
What stage are you at in your next record?
Baptiste: Hard to say. Just trying to catch up and meet to play music. It’s been like four years. We’ve been touring very hard, so this year we want to seize the fact that we have a free time.
Do you have any pre or post-show rituals?
Baptiste: Drinking a lot of alcohol.
Before or after?
Loren: Both.
Baptiste: Before and after.
Do you like to go out after a show?
Baptiste: We like to go out after. We take a lot of stuff until the daytime comes.
Loren: But we do it also the day before the show.
It’s my pre and post-show ritual too.
Baptiste: Who doesn’t like drugs!