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Few artists can break down language barriers and find success, yet Yelle, a French Pop Artiste, can certainly state that claim as she has done just that. Her music, despite being sung entirely in French, has gone global and specifically infecting English speaking countries with her sound, yes sound. Listen to her album Pop-Up and you’ll understand. The electro-pop sounds make you euphoric and you can’t help but dance. Her live show takes the energy of the album and multiplies it by a 1000, giving you a feeling that you’ve just enter an aerobics session. So it was a great pleasure to have a chance to interview her last month, touching on topics such as how the group started, musical and fashion influences and a host of other topics.

Killahbeez: Hi Yelle, thanks for taking the time and doing this interview with us.

Yelle: No prob!

KB: So for those who are new fans of Yelle, can you breakdown how the group formed with you, GrandMarnier and Tepr and why the group decided on the name Yelle?

Yelle: I met GrandMarnier first and we became good friends. We decided to do music together in 2005 and we chose the name Yelle at the beginning for “you enjoy life” and it was just YEL, but then we decided to feminize it with one more L and E! Tepr met GrandMarnier because he used to be a journalist and he was writing an article about GM’s previous band. We asked him to join us on stage and for the album in 2006.

KB: Your album, Pop-Up, has a fun and playful sound to it, how do you translate that to the stage and bring that energy out?

Yelle: The live show is like an extra power of the album. It’s like a DJ set with the energy of instruments (GM on the drums, Tepr on keyboards, me singing and hitting my floor tom). Performing live is what we prefer; we are a rock band when we are on stage!

KB: [laughter]. Yeah I couldn’t agree more.

KB: Writing for this album, how much of the lyrics are about your life and how much of it is just about a 25 year old girl (which you happen to be as well) living life and having fun?

Yelle: With GM (GrandMarnier) we find the theme in our life, in my real 25years old girl life! Of course it’s funny to imagine some stories but it’s always apart of reality!

KB: So do you feel that singing in French has been a barrier at all to breaking into the North American market, or do you feel like good music is good music and people don’t necessarily care about the language?

Yelle: It’s maybe exotic for English speaking people to listen French songs. But yes the music is very important and if the people are curious they’ll try to find the translation of the songs. It’s not a barrier, we have this particularity and it’s cool!

KB: Yeah I was definitely initially drawn to the energy of the music before diving into the lyrics a bit more.

KB: How would you describe your sound? I mean in some songs there are times when it definitely sounds like you are rapping, yet maintaining a pop/electro vibe.

Yelle: We did a real electro pop album with some fantasy sounds. I think I’m more a singer than a rapper; my rap is so old school! I discovered the rap music with Warren G and Snoop Dogg when I was a teenager and yes I like that!

KB: You mentioned Snoop Dogg and Warren G, who or what else influences your music and sound?

Yelle: I’m a big fan of pop music with Madonna, Blur, Prince, and more and I was listening lots of rock bands and French singer when I was young, with my parents. Then I had a crush on Daft Punk, with my bro.

KB: Speaking of Daft Punk, a lot of French artists, such as Daft Punk, Justice, DJ Mehdi, SebastiAn and including yourselves, are getting a lot of recognition in the US. Do you feel like each of you are influencing one another with your sounds?

Yelle: It’s not the same sound, and not the same crew. We appreciate them but we can’t say they are an influence, except Daft Punk, for sure, cause they do have songs, you know what I mean, it’s not only about sound, it’s about songs. But we are from the same generation yes, and we all watched the Fresh Prince!

KB: [laughter]

KB: So changing topics here, in all your pictures and in all your videos you’re so well dressed. Who or what influences your fashion sense? Any favorite designers or pieces of clothing that you can’t live without?

Yelle: I like to play with my outfits for a long time! I like to wear colors but black and white stuffs too! I just like to have fun with my style like in my life so I’m a big fan of designers like Jeremy Scott, Andrea Crews, JP Lespagnard or JC de Castelbajac who are really into pop art, they have lots of fun in the way to dress people! I’m a big fan of bags and shoes!

KB: Would you ever think of starting your own clothing line?

Yelle: We have some merch on tour and on a web site call www.recreation-center.com! Creating a clothing line is one of our project, yes.

KB: Going back to the topic of music, Tell us a bit about your experience at Coachella, what was it like performing at such a huge festival? Do you prefer big venues or smaller more intimate venues?

Yelle: Playing in Coachella was totally crazy and amazing!! We were a little bit nervous cause we were playing at the same slot of Portishead but the crowd was there, they were dancing and screaming, it was a very good night for us! We like to play sometimes in little venue to be closed from people but it’s really intense and fun to be on a huge stage too!

KB: What’s next for Yelle, any other projects or collaborations that you can talk about?

Yelle: Katy Perry just asked us for a remix, we did it, but now we really want to focus on the next album. Can’t wait to go back in studio and work.

KB: Anything else you want to say to your fans that read this?

Yelle: We love you!

www.myspace.com/iloveyelle
www.killahbeez.com

Yearly one of the world’s largest and most festive art fairs, Miami’s Art Basel 2008, hosts a slew of tributes to music from December 4th to the 7th. First came the annual kick-off event, “Art Loves Music,” with a free concert after sunset on the beach. Last year, Art Basel made music headlines as the leathery Iggy Pop strutted onstage and got the crowd into an uproar. Thus while this year, for many it seemed like a recession special when they announced the French indie pop star Yelle was performing, onstage the young star provoked everyone to join in a frisky, electronic dance party.

Mostly though, all of Miami Basel was a haven for music this year. Pharrell Williams strutted around the NY Times party cool and calm like, gasp, a civilian. MSTRKFRT and Chromeo performed a late night show during the week that attracted throngs of locals and some Baselites, while The Gossip rocked all over town, headlining various magazine and gallery parties. On the art front, there was a whole exhibit called “Speaker Box,” devoted to showing how sound waves into becoming a source of energy or language. Meanwhile, in cooperation with Art Radio WPS1.org, artists Federico Diaz built a futuristic beach deck, constructed to represent sound waves. In the center of the white structure was a broadcast booth, called the Art Sound Lounge, curated by David Weinstein. Especially at night when the monument glowed and people lounged on the hill-like terrain with cocktails in hand, all signs seemed to prove that indeed “Art Loves Music.”

Yelle, merely hearing the name makes me conjure up images of Julie Budet aka Yelle gyrating her hips in those lovely red shorts in the video “Je Veux Te Voir”, moisturizing up her legs in “A Cause des Garcons” and not to be forgotten the brief boobie flash in the video “Ce Jeu”. Honestly, I’m not a pervert. I just have a massive crush on her, someone I like to call “wifey” she just don’t know it yet. So when a few of us Killahbeez heads were invited on Tuesday by Sealed With A Kiss to check her out I was definitely stoked at the opportunity.

Arriving at 10:30ish, we were right on schedule and quickly grabbed a few shots, before seeing the lights being dimmed and the fans quickly rushing towards the stage. The lights came on and there in front of me was “wifey”…errr I mean Yelle with Grandmarnier and Tepr. The synths kick in, followed by drums, the instrumental had people going nuts and everyone that didn’t already make their way to the dance floor did so at this point. A few moments later Yelle starts singing the lyrics to “Tristesse / Joie”, there’s one part of the song around the 3:50 mark where the beat goes down and builds back up, seeing that live was crazy as the build-up came and hit it’s peak everybody wilded out. As the song ended, she thanked Vancouver for having her and in her adorable French accent asked the crowd “Are you ready to DANCE!” a resounding hell yeah was shouted back.

The up tempo song “Mal Poli” would be the next song we were treated to. Watching her dancing across the stage back and forth was quite a site. She was ass shaking and getting the crowd to do the same, it was infectious and there was no possible way that you could not dance. Yelle kept the pace by going straight into “85A” before going into “Dans Ta Vraie Vie”, which has a very Missy Elliot-esque feel to it.

This lead to her taking a quick water break or maybe it was for the crowd to take a water break so that we could keep up. In any case the break ended with her asking the crowd if we knew “Je Veux Te Voir”, and the crowd cheered. The song is a controversial one as it disses Cuizinier, a member of the Parisian hip-hop group TTC, the song also was originally titled “Short Dick Cuizi” and was the song that blew her up on MySpace. From there she went into the third single from the album Pop-Up, “Ce Jeu”, which is easily one of my favorite tracks. At this point I noticed everyone is soaked in sweat, myself included, it felt like we were all in an aerobic class, a hot sexy French aerobic class.

She ran through a list of most of her songs while maintaining the same energetic pace throughout her set. “Les Femmes”, which is the next single from what I’ve read and an interesting one at that, as it talks about a possible lesbian romance. Part of the chorus says, “If the guys don’t open their hearts to me, I feel that I will go see somewhere else, there where all is beauty and full of sweetness, the woman”, quite a sensual song.

As this song ended she would let the crowd know that the next song was their last. She then asked everyone to sing along to “À Cause des Garçons”. I can’t say enough about her dancing on stage as she really just puts it all out there and seems to almost try to translate her songs through her dancing for the audience. The song started out as the original and towards the end of it they played Tepr’s remixed version of it, which has harder drums driving the track as well as a more techno feel to it. Fans would come to find out that this wasn’t the last song as she stated and performed three more songs, ending on another Tepr remix, this time for the song “Je Veux Te Voir”.

The concert was an incredible one and as I mentioned above, it felt like an aerobic workout with the amount of dancing going on. I wasn’t sure what to expect before going into the show but I came out totally amazed at how well she was able to maintain the crowds attention and control us at will. When she spoke, everyone was in an “awwwwww she’s so adorable” state, as her thick French accent made her sound so cute and loveable and not to mention sexy. I would definitely recommend everyone to go check her out when she hits your city, definitely worth the money. Thanks again to Sealed with a Kiss promotions for the hook-up, be sure to check out their upcoming shows at www.sealedwithakisspresents.com.

Photos from the concert seen at our Flickr site.

Below is her set list, but I must warn you, I maybe missing a song or two because I know at one point I was just staring at her through my camera lens. I wasn’t even taking pictures just staring.

Yelle Set list
Tristesse / Joie
Mal Poli
85A
Dans Ta Vraie Vie
Je Veux Te Voir
Ce Jeu
Jogging
Les Femmes
À Cause des Garçons (Tepr Remix)
Mon Meilleur Ami
Je Veux Te Voir (Tepr Remix)

Full North American Tour Stops
Dallas, TX House Of Blues (October 7)
Austin, TX The Mohawk (October 8 )
Miami, FL Polish American Club (October 10)
Orlando, FL The Social (October 11)
Washington, DC 9:30 Club (October 13)
New York, NY Webster Hall (October 14)
Boston, MA The Roxy (October 15)
Detroit, MI The Magic Stick (October 20)
Chicago, IL Logan Square Auditorium (October 21)
Milwaukee, WI Turner Hall (October 22)
Denver, CO Ogden Theatre (October 24)
Salt Lake City, UT Urban Lounge (October 25)
Seattle, WA Neumos (October 27)
Vancouver, BC Commodore Ballroom (October 28)
Portland, OR Berbati’s (October 29)
San Francisco, CA Mezzanine (October 31)
Los Angeles, CA Henry Fonda Theatre (November 1)
San Diego, CA Beauty Bar (November 2)