Hello, All You Happy People est un florilège de 14 titres que John Moran alias Mondello vient de faire paraitre ce mois de février 2019 ; le petit bijou regroupe des chansons écrites pendant ces décennies passées. Vingt ans de power-pop irradient ses compositions diverses et denses issues de son petit carnet, jamais jusqu'alors diffusées et qui regroupées en keepsake DIY, mettent outrageusement en valeur le style indie-pop. Intriguée, j'ai souhaité questionner John qui vit à Little Rock en Arkansas. Je le remercie sincèrement pour sa générosité et l'amusement partagé. Interview joint à la chronique.
Hello, All You Happy People nous replonge dans une époque pas si lointaine, sautillante, ensoleillée, celle de la fausse innocence, des airs de campus un peu sixties, un peu low-fi, qui trottent dans la tête et n'en sortent plus. Mondello Music, en retenue élégante, délivre son univers chatoyant garni de peines de coeur et de joies, de courtoisie bubblegum et de notes tourbillantes pour un revival de ses compositions. Il arrive à brûle pourpoint avec le son éraillé des micros, émouvant de sincérité, l'énervement concentré dans la saturation, la beauté noble de l'indie-pop qui surplombe la musique électronique. On chante et on sourit avec John qui concentre dans ce touchant disque l'impétueuse aventure des radios pirates, l'âme de High Fidelity ou d'Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, des Belle and Sebastian, Fountains of Wayne, des fanzines, C86, Sarah Records...
Le premier titre Sherilyn est un bonbon! Ses guitares festives, ses clap-hands, son refrain hyper catchy, le Moog acidulé, sa batterie appliquée dessinent le fameux coeur qui même malmené ne cesse de bondir comme sur They Say They Don't Believe It et son parfum assumé pour la pop chatoyante. La basse et la guitare électrique forment une merveille sur Not for Lack of Trying où le chant et les contre-chants sont délicieusement entêtants. L'alliage de sensibilité et de simplicité sur le tempo tourbillonnant qui habillent Heather Martin incitent vivement à danser. Les guitares fantastiques de The Girl with Half a Mind enchainent, endiablées, spontanées et étirent le plaisir, impossible à contenir à l'écoute des tambourins psychédéliques de Around in Circles. Là, même le glockenspiel est survolté. You Do You me ramène aux premiers Weezer ou The Rentals avec son énergie débordante et éclaboussante lâchant une mélodie aguicheuse et gaillarde, suivie des harmonies envoûtantes de l'épris Not About to Let you Know où le moog taquine les guitares mugissantes.
La déclaration enfiévrée Stack of Bibles est pétaradante de guitares et d'excellents claviers eighties, idem pour Go Away, April (Don't Go Away) et son parfum power-pop efficace. La vitaminée et sucrée mélodie de Don't Say Anything Bad about My Baby souffle des notes obsédantes, puissamment tirées par les guitares. La voix de John lumineuse et joyeuse sur Tonight accompagne un joli tour de force pop avec son rythme ascensionnel quand Genie, I See That Now fait rougeoyer une mélancolie romantique aux allures surannées charmantes. Pour couronner le tout, le poppeux Do You Believe in Love finit de redorer le blason de l'indie-pop. L'allégresse dansante, le coeur vibrant omni-présent dans les mélopées décomplexées, les arrangements entrainants, les renforts de guitares addictifs, les rebondissements du Moog, les tambourins, glockenspiels, la batterie ardente, le chant franc et ouvert de John forment un disque phare du genre, magnifique. Parce que Hello, All You Happy People rend simplement heureux, je classe Mondello Music dans le top 10 des meilleures découvertes 2019.
MondelloMusicDo you remember the first songs you heard when you were a child and do you sometimes put them in your stereo (kind of Madeleine de Proust)?
When I was a child, my favorite album was probably a four-LP compilation of rock ’n roll songs from the 1950s and 1960s that my parents had — so the first songs I can remember really enjoying were a mix from those eras, like The Silhouettes’ “Get a Job,” Bobby Day’s “Rockin’ Robin,” Chuck Berry’s “Maybelline,” the Del-Vikings’ “Come Go with Me” … I wouldn’t say that I often find myself listening to songs of that vintage much these days, but when one happens to come on the radio, I still think they’re fantastic — and they definitely do “take me back”!
When did you learn to play guitar and what kind of song did you practice then?
I first tried to learn the guitar when I was maybe twelve or thirteen, and I was never much good at it (nor very disciplined at practicing) so I gave it up … until ten or so years later, when I picked it up anew in my 20s and — although I never did get very good at it — I learned to love it by (as so many did, I’m sure) playing Beatles songs, which probably constituted 90% of my “practice.”
(In fact, I still have the fake book I used to play out of: I’ll put a picture of it below. A friend of mine gave it to me — I think he might have actually gotten it South Korea, as you can maybe see from the characters on the cover. [The lyrics are all in English, mind you.] You can certainly tell that it’s seen a lot of use in its 25 years, ha!)
What are these last years the bands you listened to the most? The gig that impressed you the most or the one you would have loved to see?
For the longest time, my favorite band has been Superdrag, and I’d say that probably the shows of theirs that I’ve seen are the ones I recall most fondly — I saw them twice here in Little Rock, in fact (they originated in Knoxville, Tennessee). They’ve been broken up for a while, but I continue to follow their former lead singer, John Davis, in his solo career and with his other bands, like The Lees of Memory.
As far as any gigs that I wish I could have seen, I’ve actually been very lucky: When I think about my all-time favorite groups from when I was younger — like R.E.M., The Ramones, The Replacements, The Smiths — I had the opportunity to see them all (well, Morrissey solo) … albeit not necessarily in the ideal venues! (R.E.M. was an “arena band” by the time I got to see them.) But, happily, I have no proverbial “white whale” that got away!
As for my my music-listening habits in the last few years, I’ve got to say that they’ve been terribly unfocused: Sometimes I think that the convenience of streaming music has given me a short attention span! Seems like I don’t follow specific bands as closely as I once did, and I don’t listen to albums anymore, so much as I do just singles.
My number one criteria is always whether a song is catchy or not, so I like a lot of stuff that I think my friends probably think is commercial dreck, like “Call Me, Maybe,” or that sort of thing, ha! Off the top of my head, when I try to think of what I’ve most enjoyed listening to recently, random individual titles occur to me, like “Motion Sickness” by Phoebe Bridgers, “In Common with You” by The Speedways, and “Yellow Cloud” by Trixie Mattel. (Quite the hodgepodge, I know!)
I was very excited to hear Tegan and Sara’s new song — I’ve always been a big fan of theirs, but I didn’t love the direction of their last few records … so I’m happy to hear the guitars are back! (That reminds me that one of my favorite CDs from the past couple of years is probably Charly Bliss’s first record. I’m happy that their follow-up seems to be getting them some well-deserved attention, but I have to say that I still prefer the first!)
And I still stubbornly remain a Matthew Sweet fan — I dutifully went out and bought his last two CDs: He’s one of the few artists left that I make a point to get every release from. (As far as other lifetime favorite performers, they would include Sloan, My Bloody Valentine, that dog., Belle & Sebastian, Cheap Trick, and The Format … even though that last one only made two full albums, they’re brilliant!)
I really love the twee and indie-pop spirit of the entire album Hello, All You Happy People, the 14 songs. I read that one of them is very fresh, could you light us about it and tell more about it?
I greatly appreciate the kind words — that’s so nice of you!
Back when I was in my 20s — which was a lo-o-ong time ago! — I was briefly in a couple of bands, but I ended up not pursuing music seriously as a profession. I did keep writing songs, though — although I had a terrible habit of never actually finishing any of them. So, about two years ago, I got this idea in my head that I should dig through all my old songs, sort out the best of them (“best” being a relative term)—and then actually finish and record them! (Which turned out to take me a lot longer than I thought I would … probably because I was doing it all by myself, ha!)
I used to stay many months in Little Rock many years ago and really loved the aera, the lakes, the gorgeous and very kind people there, the soul of the american south. Could you describe your city for people who don't know it or have a sort of blurry idea of this beautiful region and in which way it can influence you in the writing process?
Wow, that’s such a funny coincidence that you’ve been in Little Rock, yourself! In my own case, having been born and raised here, it almost makes it hard for me to describe it, just because it’s like my “default.” (Sort of like how all the pictures you hang on your wall, you eventually become so accustomed to that you’re hardly even aware of them anymore.) And it doesn’t help that I’m such an indoors person, that so much of the city’s scenic charms are lost on me! (And another thing that doesn’t help is that I can be, generally, a pretty unobservant person. Like, whenever I talk with someone, say, about taking a road trip from Place A to Place B, and they say, “Oh, that’s such a pretty drive!”—I never have any idea what they’re talking about, because I’m always just in a zone behind the wheel, watching the car in front of me.)
All of which is my long way of saying, I guess my idea of Arkansas is pretty blurry, as well! (I am, of course, happy that it made a good impression on you: Yes, the people are nice! I would hate, though, for the Little Rock tourism department to hear what a terrible job I did of publicizing my home city!)
Do you have a song amongst the 14 that you like the most?
Probably “The Girl with Half a Mind,” even though it’s not very representative of what the rest of the songs sound like. I’m realizing, of course, that the songs that I think are the best don’t ever seem to be the ones that other people like — and that the ones that you think are just throwaways turn out to be the most popular! (But, I guess everyone who’s ever written more than two songs has probably made that same observation, ha!)
I really enjoy Heather Martin, Sherilyn, The Girl with Half a Mind, Go Away April (Don't Go Away) and Don't Say Anything Bad about My Baby. Do you really have so much girls around you John? Seriously? Are you a pop star heartbreaker? ;)
Oh, gosh — so far from it! It’s very funny, though, because I’ve been waiting for someone to point that out and give me a bit of well-deserved teasing over it, and you’re the first to do so. I can only say that I’ve always had a fondness for songs with girls’ names in the titles and since — as I mentioned — this a collection of tunes that’s accumulated over twenty-plus years, it just happened that a lot of the ones that I thought were most promising had titles like that.
(And I would also point out that — except for “Don’t Say Anything…” — none of those other songs is about a particularly good relationship: The narrator’s either been dumped or just about to be dumped in at least three of them, lol! So, more heartbroken than heartbreaker!)
(But thank you for the very kind words — I’m certainly glad you enjoyed them!)
The last one : Do you know some french singer, french music?
I’m so embarrassed to have to admit that I am untravelled both literally (I’ve never been out of the U.S., like I mentioned) and in terms of my musical taste — I feel like such an “Ugly American”! I have to confess that, except for soundtracks from 1970s Italian movies, I am very poorly educated about international music.
And it’s funny you should ask because, just two weeks ago, I happened to be reading a recent issue of Shindig magazine (with Francoise Hardy on the cover) that was all about French pop music, and I remember thinking to myself, “I really need to learn more about this music; it sounds great!” (If only that had been a few months ago, instead, I might have been able to give a less provincial answer!)
Would there be any suggestions you might make — if you wanted to give someone with a taste for catchy, power-pop-y music (like me) a “crash course” in the French artists that you think they’d most appreciate?
Oui ! Here they are...French oldies songs help to discover the romantic and the charming french way of life as do some new bands too like Air, Phoenix, Jean-Louis Murat or Bertrand Burgalat. The classic ones i recommend are Serge Gainsbourg, Michel Polnareff, Georges Brassens, Daniel Darc, Boris Vian, Jean Bart and Françoise Hardy.
