Collective. Etymology: from the Latin collectus, gathered, assembled. Adjective: which brings together, assembles, involves a number of people. Noun: a ‘collective’ is a group of people with a shared aim. Here, the shared aim is obvious: music, escape, travel and friendship. We Are Match, five French boys with an average age of 25, decided to dedicate their lives to music and their collective project.

 

It all began in August 2012 in a Normandy farm in the middle of nowhere. Gwen, Aurélien, Paco and Simon began to play together and did not stop for a week. Some of them had known each other since elementary school, others since junior high, others from college. Their respective families expected them to all get ‘real’ jobs, so they went to Paris and studied subjects that had nothing at all to do with music. Some of them were roommates. They met all the time and shared ideas… and the creative urge became irresistible. After their week in Normandy, they spent a few days in the studio and asked Jim, one of their friends, to be their drummer. A Fab Five was formed. They called themselves We Are Match because, despite their different temperaments, they were absolutely, totally compatible. “We Are Match Made in Heaven,” say the young American girls in love. They find that very funny.

 

Nobody is limited to a single, unique role in We Are Match. No front man has been chosen. They write as a collective, their recording sessions are symbiotic and their concerts fusional. Since the band’s first appearance on stage at the International in 2013, every venue has been packed. The Inrocks Lab recognized their talent, naming them the winners of its 2013 competition. With all this encouragement, the boys in We Are Match decided to make an album. All living together in the same house, called La Louvière (Wolf House as they nickname it) deep in the forest, they set up their dream studio and filled it with all the instruments they had collected over the years in their individual apartments.

 

Their first album is entitled Shores. The members of We Are Match grew up with records that took them on a journey without leaving the room. Today, they want to do the same for others: carry away their listeners, take them to different places, ask them questions and sometimes shake them up a little. Their alternative pop draws its inspiration from the magical realism of Jorge Luis Borges’s books and Marc Chagall’s paintings. Fantasy meets emotion; every track tells its own story and portrays a different character. So do We Are Match make music where the hero is you? Certainly, given that the aim here is to counter ambient solitude and increasingly routine individualism. Halfway between melancholy and hope, some of its tracks upbeat and others more thoughtful, Shores firmly rejects systematic defeat.

 

With no facile elation, We are Match offer their own take on what pop should be in 2015: sincere, electronic and organic too, and fueled with self-taught passion. They have had no traditional musical training. Instead, they draw on multiple influences. First of all, graphic novels and movies by Stanley Kubrick, Wes Anderson, David Fincher and Spike Jonze. Then records – often concept albums – ranging from Gorillaz’s Demon Days to Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of The Moon or Sergeant Pepper, along with extraordinary artists such as Nine Inch Nails, Radiohead, Beirut and Grizzly Bear (a shared love for all We Are Match’s musicians). They grew up listening to English-language music, but their lyrics are naturally filled with naïve, disquieting French poetry. Given the acclaim the group has won – both from the public (more fans appear every day) and the trade (the FAIR chose them for its 2015 selection) – their combination of high standards and lighthearted approach is definitely a winning formula. Fond of experimenting, We Are Match have successfully applied the language of prog to open, melodic pop – a pop that still sees the world through a child eye.