If you dig strange library sounds, weird prog, 70s Art Rock and more importantly, FRENCH MUSIC! (I'm resisting the urge to use the word 'frog')... then this new series of cassette compilation tapes called FRANCE BIZARRE will hit all the perfect notes! Volume 1 made such a strong impression that I wanted to learn more about the person behind this new series of compilation tapes. Flo, who also plays in the mighty MEURTRIÈRES, kindly obliged.
Hello Flo! Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. Before we delve into FRANCE BIZARRE, I’d like you to introduce yourself… what’s your background? Your personal tastes, the relationship you have with music in general?
Hi Max! My name is Florian but I usually answer to my alias Flo Spector, a nickname I was given a very long time ago by some friends with a very special sense of humour. I’m about to turn 40, in one month to be precise, with no specific existential dread in mind. I’m an unskilled worker. I’m a young dad. I was born and raised in the countryside in the 80s and 90s, which means, if we want to move on to our main topic, that I had limited access to music, compared with today’s offer, and far more limited than it would have been had I grown up in the city. But I think I was rather lucky: my family was into music and I had an uncle who was a professional Jazz drummer. He was a Maoist activist doing fanzines and setting up gigs in Bourg-En-Bresse in the 70s, and he booked the very best musicians of the time like MAGMA, Brigitte Fontaine, Areski and so forth. My uncle always has a story to tell and I may have to press him with questions one of these days just like you’re doing now. My parents were also quite open to music. I grew up hearing Otis Redding or THE BEATLES and I got from my dad’s respectably-sized collection some LPs by THE CLASH, LED ZEPPELIN or PINK FLOYD. In the 80s, my sister was into Rock and New Wave big time, making me some tapes along the way, and I could also count on my mates’ older brothers for Metal, Punk and Hardcore… looking back, my access to music wasn’t that limited, come to think of it. I came out of the 90s as a diehard MUDHONEY fan, a band that led me to Garage, obscure Punk and Hardcore, and 70s Hard Rock. At this time of my life though, there was nothing that would point in the way of my creating the FRANCE BIZARRE compilations, apart from having an uncle into French underground music in the 70s. The defining moment came when I moved to Lyon. Finally, I could flip through record bins. At the time my tastes became more refined and I found out I had this profuse, overreaching passion for (almost) all musical genres. In Lyon, I stumbled upon the Punk-Hardcore DIY scene and I quickly realized that, if I wanted things to happen, I had to do it myself or by associating with people who shared the same disease… We set up some gigs, created record labels, bands, put out some records or fanzines, organized some tours. These things still exist if you know where to look inside the cracks. My relationship with music is extremely shifting or changing, but powered forever by a truly lasting passion. I think I’ll never have my fill. A band leads me to another, which brings me to a whole scene, style, country or city. I’m also an avid reader of books and encyclopedia of music, and from these sources I unravel most of the threads that will lead me to my next obsession. Finally, what I enjoy the most, is crate digging and buying an LP or a 7’’ just because of some line-up, a date, small clues, something that will have my sixth sense resonate with the object and my brain telling me: « this is the one ». Lots of bad picks obviously, but sometimes it pays.
Hi Max! My name is Florian but I usually answer to my alias Flo Spector, a nickname I was given a very long time ago by some friends with a very special sense of humour. I’m about to turn 40, in one month to be precise, with no specific existential dread in mind. I’m an unskilled worker. I’m a young dad. I was born and raised in the countryside in the 80s and 90s, which means, if we want to move on to our main topic, that I had limited access to music, compared with today’s offer, and far more limited than it would have been had I grown up in the city. But I think I was rather lucky: my family was into music and I had an uncle who was a professional Jazz drummer. He was a Maoist activist doing fanzines and setting up gigs in Bourg-En-Bresse in the 70s, and he booked the very best musicians of the time like MAGMA, Brigitte Fontaine, Areski and so forth. My uncle always has a story to tell and I may have to press him with questions one of these days just like you’re doing now. My parents were also quite open to music. I grew up hearing Otis Redding or THE BEATLES and I got from my dad’s respectably-sized collection some LPs by THE CLASH, LED ZEPPELIN or PINK FLOYD. In the 80s, my sister was into Rock and New Wave big time, making me some tapes along the way, and I could also count on my mates’ older brothers for Metal, Punk and Hardcore… looking back, my access to music wasn’t that limited, come to think of it. I came out of the 90s as a diehard MUDHONEY fan, a band that led me to Garage, obscure Punk and Hardcore, and 70s Hard Rock. At this time of my life though, there was nothing that would point in the way of my creating the FRANCE BIZARRE compilations, apart from having an uncle into French underground music in the 70s. The defining moment came when I moved to Lyon. Finally, I could flip through record bins. At the time my tastes became more refined and I found out I had this profuse, overreaching passion for (almost) all musical genres. In Lyon, I stumbled upon the Punk-Hardcore DIY scene and I quickly realized that, if I wanted things to happen, I had to do it myself or by associating with people who shared the same disease… We set up some gigs, created record labels, bands, put out some records or fanzines, organized some tours. These things still exist if you know where to look inside the cracks. My relationship with music is extremely shifting or changing, but powered forever by a truly lasting passion. I think I’ll never have my fill. A band leads me to another, which brings me to a whole scene, style, country or city. I’m also an avid reader of books and encyclopedia of music, and from these sources I unravel most of the threads that will lead me to my next obsession. Finally, what I enjoy the most, is crate digging and buying an LP or a 7’’ just because of some line-up, a date, small clues, something that will have my sixth sense resonate with the object and my brain telling me: « this is the one ». Lots of bad picks obviously, but sometimes it pays.
