The tenacious spirit felt in Her‘s debut album, released on 30 March 2018, is the result of lead singer, Victor Solf’s emotional journey of losing founding member and close friend, Simon Carpentier. In every possible meaning, the self-titled LP is a tribute to their decade-long career. In that time, the two accomplished a lot together, including having a track, Five Minutes, featured on an iPhone commercial – catapulting their career. Most of Simon’s work was already completed for the album, of which Victor made sure to maintain for its release.
“Most of the tracks were done, but there was a little bit of work on vocals or background vocals here and there,” he goes on. “It was very important to keep Simon’s vocals, vision, and guitar intact though. That’s what I did”
During a recent live performance, Victor’s stage presence was full of high energy and love towards his fellow bandmates. The band, based in Paris, have played famous spots like the Bataclan and are continuing to develop their next chapter. The music Victor and Simon created is a wonderful mixture of soul, funk, and rock, providing a hard to beat baseline for musical experimentation and expansion.
“We’re all about mixing the soul sounds of the 60s with a more modern electronic sound. To find our own sound,” says Solf. He cites Otis Redding and Marvin Gaye alongside contemporary artists like FKA Twigs and James Blake as being sonic influences on him and Carpentier – a mash up of old and new, analogue and digital, classic and contemporary. The mellow groove of “Blossom Roses”, for example, uses electronic production but creates an organic-feeling soundscape. This mixed approach to creating and recording was there throughout the creation of the album.” – The Line of Best Fit
You can hear the debut album below – opening with We Choose which is the last song Victor and Simon co-wrote, followed by photos from Her’s live show.
Shot on iPhone by Mitchell H. from Jezzika Chung on Vimeo.
