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Artist Interviews
Q&A: Ou Est Le Swimming Pool
By CMU Editorial | Published on Thursday 14 January 2010
Ou Est Le Swimming Pool are an electro-pop three piece hailing from north London. Formed in 2008 by Charles Haddon, Joe Hutchinson and Caan Capan, the band have built up a reputation for their exciting live shows and have shared stages with the likes of Mr Hudson, Cypress Hill and Reverend And The Makers, as well as playing at last year’s Glastonbury festival.
Their debut single ‘Dance The Way I Feel’ gained support from Radio 1 and shows off their infectious electro-pop sound, influenced by the likes of Pet Shop Boys and Duran Duran. Ahead of the band’s showcase gig at Eurosonic Noorderslaag this Friday, we caught up with Charles to ask the Same Six.
Q1 How did you start out making music?
It all started when a producer friend of ours lent us an old synth. Joseph and I had never really played with anything like it before, but we gave it a go. Within the hour we had an awful cover of Rihanna’s song ‘Umbrella’. It ended up getting played by a DJ in a major London club, so we thought: “Let’s make something good”. We wrote a few songs, brought in Caan on some vocals and started from there.
Q2 What inspired your latest album?
The album, which is our debut, is based on pretty simple things. It’s just “having fun” and “love” really. The two most important things in the world.
Q3 What process do you go through in creating a track?
The tracks start in a few different ways. One way is to start with the drum pattern and see what synth lines or chords take your fancy. Then just play around with some vocals/lyrics until it works. Another way is to really go back to basics and write it on the piano. That’s where most of the more emotional songs come from.
Q4 Which artists influence your work?
There are lots of different artists from different times really. But to name a few: Liasons Dangereuses, Mark Morrison, Cyndi Lauper, Collie Budz, Debbie Deb, Supersystem, Test Icicles, Laid Back, etc.
Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
Don’t be scared, it is actually that good.
Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest album, and for the future?
To create music that people love and share. And to create an album that fights for world peace.
MORE>> www.myspace.com/ouestleswimmingpool
