The brainchild of Loughborough-born, Paris-based artist Rory McCarthy who for many years has been playing guitar/bass/synth/percussion on record and live for kindred spirits including Connan Mockasin, Mac DeMarco, Beck, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Metronomy.
The debut infinite bisous record, w/ love, was released earlier this year. A gentle, dreamy work of lo-fi psychedelic pop, this woozy wonder has been described as “delicate, funk-infused billows of pure romance”. In the run-up to his first ever Nottingham, show at Spanky Van Dykes on Thursday 19 October, infinite bisous answered a few questions for LeftLion...
A gentleman called Mattia on Bandcamp asserts that your album w/ love "must have been written to make love and shed tears to". Is Mattia correct? Was it?
Well, there were plenty of tears shed around the time I made the record, but I didn’t mean to pass that on to others. Most of the album is about heartbreak or death, so it’s funny to me most people see it as a sexy album.
When were the songs written? Were they written in Paris, or in any particular space or time?
I wrote the majority of ‘w/ love’ in 2012, I think. I was in the middle of France with my brother and one of my best friends, making another album called a year in your garden by column, but my life was strange at the time, so I had lots to write about. Then I came home and my life got stranger, I finished it in my studio in Charnwood, dick ark.
Who will join you in the Infinite Bisous live band on this tour?
My band is constantly shifting slightly, back and forth between people I love to play with in different combinations. But they’re always my friends. This time there’s a few boys from tasty morsels and a couple a lads from Manchester. Love em all.
What are your plans for the future?
I’m going to try to release a new record next year. It’s pretty much finished, but I’m very slow at the releasing part.
You design your record sleeves and make prints - do you find making art contributes to your music-making?
I couldn’t let somebody else do it. I’m a control freak and my boundaries for what art (music videos, cover art etc.) works and doesn’t work with the music is so restrictive that it’s easier for me to do it. I also think making a record is the whole thing: the tracklist, artwork, videos, photos, drum sound, lyrics, I love thinking of all that at once.
What is your favourite Infinite Bisous song to perform?
I always liked naughty tears, we often open with that. It was my favourite from the record and I play less on that song, so I get to hear my band more and they sound hot.
Your music seems to be very personal, and your live shows often involve you taking your top off...is that a way of bringing that closeness and honesty to the live performance? Did you just decide to whip your shirt off one night?
It came about because, as you say, music is personal, and to stand in front of 300, 3000, 30 or 3 people, you can feel very exposed and vulnerable, which you should. After touring for a while I started to feel safe, like it was normal. That made me very frustrated and bored. So then I realised that standing in front of that many people literally ‘exposed’ made me feel even more vulnerable. Once you feel like everyone is judging you (they are), you have something to prove.
You're part of the tasty morsels collective, where people can find a whole library of music for free. How did tasty morsels come about? For someone coming to it for the first time, where would you recommend one's tasty morsels journey should start?
tasty morsels was a discussion I had with one of my best friends, I think we were excited that all of our friends were making great music, and at the same time disappointed that by the time a label had gotten involved, and their music had been transformed into a comprehendible album, it had lost its feeling. So we wanted something direct where there was no overarching concept, seriousness or importance to ‘releasing’ music. If there’s something we liked, we could just put it online and it’s added to the library, people can have it if they want, but it’s mostly a place for us to store the things we think are worth storing.
If you’re a first timer, just go on tastymorsels.org and see which one you fancy, download a few, they’re all pretty different. I always say h hunt playin piano for dad is my top tip, so let’s go for alecs pierce harbour music, a church piano album.
What’s the tastiest dish you cook?
I dig my risotto. My chana masala is pretty hot too.
As well being a bona fide indie rock superstar, Mac DeMarco, seems to be a totally hilarious goofball. How did you meet Mac? Do you have a favourite funny Mac moment?
Mac is Bart Simpson. He spends most the time in the van lighting his farts, giving himself a boner to see if it freaks you out, or watching Dr Pimple Popper. And he’s the most successful of my friends. So there ya go. I love Mac and his whole band, they’re very real, lovely people.
How did you end up playing on stage with Beck?
I played bass with him on a tour he did in Europe, I think it was through Charlotte Gainsbourg, who I had played for before and he had recorded with. I had never heard his music before playing with him, but I was with my friend Harry in my studio dick ark when the label called. I asked him "Beck is good right?" he said "Yeah, it’s Beck", so i did it. I had to learn 27 songs in 2 days and I didn’t have an instrument with me.
In the summer you played a headline show in Brooklyn, supported by Connan Mockasin doing stand-up and Andrew Van Wyngarden (from MGMT) playing records. How did that go?
Connan’s comedy show lasted an hour. It was phenomenal. I loved that show. I have a version of the band in the US (Andrew Van Wyngarden was playing bass with us, as well as records) and it was a totally different style of playing to my UK band. That’s why I like having a changing band. It was the first time I noticed people singing the verses of album tracks at an infinite bisous show, which was funny and cute.
Are you related to Kevin Parker (of Tame Impala)?
No, I think Kev’s just as pissed off he gets compared to me as I am to him, so we finally took a photo together to piss on the fire, ya know just saying ‘we get it btw’. Didn’t really work. Still annoying. I got paparazzi’d at a festival with his ex-girlfriend Melody once, that was funny.
You have played some pretty wild shows with Connan Mockasin - last summer at the Meltdown festival, for instance, you ended up being joined on stage by James Blake, Dave Okumu from The Invisible and half the audience. Do you have a favourite show with Connan? Why was it particularly memorable?
That stage invasion was too hectic for me, it stressed me out. All your cables get unplugged and you’ve got people taking selfies with you. I burnt my setlist in the middle of the stage, in my head it was a defiant piece-de-resistance to say, 'if everyone’s up here, everybody down there can’t enjoy the show'. But in actual fact I think it just pissed off the people from the venue.
My favourite show with Connan is between La Cigale in Paris - which was just a kind of milestone for us as a band - and a show in an old porno cinema in Copenhagen, the first and only time we’d played in Copenhagen, and I’ve never played to a more respectful crowd, felt like they’d been waiting years to hear those songs. Loved it.
What is the most important thing you have learned from Connan Mockasin?
To listen to what you hear in your head and the follow the idea.
Do you miss anything about the UK?
Me Mum n' Dad.
infinite bisous supported by Caius Burns (a rare solo performance by the singer/guitarist from Kagoule) and the electronica of GIANT HEAD will play at Spanky Van Dyke’s on Thursday 19 October 2017. Facebook event. Tickets are £6 in advance, £8 on the door and are available from Forever Records and online.
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