The New Now

You Say You Want A French Revolution? Introducing: Revolver

A moniker like Revolver has hard-rock connotations--blame the metal magazine by that title, or maybe Slash and Weiland's "Velvet" supergroup. But the sweet and playful French trio by that name has much more in common with the Beatles, whose quirky masterpiece Revolver is one of their top influences. Anyway, despite their mild and mellow sound, these Parisian popsters have made a major impact with their delightful debut album, Music For A While.

Classically trained musicians Christophe Musset, Ambroise Willaume, and Jérémie Arcache's quiet vibe was actually born out of circumstance: Rehearsing in Paris's notoriously stacked-on-top-of-each-other, tissue-paper-walled apartments, the boys didn't exactly have the ability to crank their amps to 11, lest they disturb their cranky neighbors. Their first gigs were also in tiny, informal spaces, like watering holes and friends' living rooms, and so their quite literally christened "pop de chambre," or chamber-pop, style of music was created for practical reasons.

Using the rich musicality they culled from their classical studies but inspired mainly by great English-language pop melodicists (Crosby, Stills & Nash, Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel, Elliott Smith, and of course the Fab Four), Revolver issued the EP Pop de Chambre in 2008, followed by their whimsical full-length debut, which has finally been released in the States to critical acclaim by Francophiles and audiophiles alike.

So Revolver recently journeyed to Yahoo! Music for their first-ever interview in the U.S., and we were very honored to serve as their Stateside welcome committee. To be honest, we were a little worried that there'd be a language barrier that would hinder the interview process, but we soon learned that these fellows are as charming and comfortable speaking English as they are singing it--and, frankly, they were way more articulate than some shall-remain-nameless Yanks who've visited our studio.

You say you want a French revolution? Then watch Revolver's American debut below!

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