The Stars And Psychs: Sudden Death of Stars Interviewed

French revivalists Sudden Death of Stars are quietly yet assuredly leading the way in bringing the psych back into pop. Or should that be the other way round? We went all the way to Rennes to investigate

Feature by Colm McAuliffe | 01 Mar 2014

The Breton city of Rennes is steeped in medieval histories, a haven of Celtic and Roman influences and rich in mystic folklores and sagas. If ever a city was to propagate itself as a hotbed of psychedelic sounds in thrall to the recent and distant past, this beautiful French outpost fits the bill. Famously, the city boasts two simultaneous festivals, renowned for their idiosyncrasy and penchant for attracting ‘the next big thing.’ And during their respective 2013 editions, Trans Musicales and Bar-En-Trans festivals peppered a striking number of local psychedelic treats throughout the programming of both festivals with the local Sudden Death of Stars rising highest above the parapet. 

Of course, the fact that SDOS are signed to Tjinder Singh and Ben Ayres' ultra-hip label Ample Play is a contributing factor but listen to the sextet’s debut album Getting Up, Close Down and recent Christmas 7" What Is Winter Good For? and you encounter a band certainly familiar with their Brian Jonestown Massacre records but also muscling up to the vintage dark folk tales of Comus or even the galloping psych jangle of The Feelies, mumbled vocals intact. Dreamy melodies abetted with organ trills, stabs of sitar and often magnificent facial hair mould into a deceptively gentle calibration of celestial sounds. Despite their relative youth, SDOS are a band fully formed with sitar at the ready and are on the verge of releasing their second album proper on Ample Play later this year. The Skinny met the band’s frontman Goulwen Ory on a disarmingly sunny winter morning in Rennes, the band having played to a sell-out audience the previous evening as part of the aforementioned Bar-En-Trans music festival.

“We were lucky [to end up on Ample Play records],” reflects Goulwen. “Tjinder [Singh] from Cornershop and his wife Maria were on holidays in Brittany and they were looking for bands or gigs to see on their trip. They came across a festival where we were on the programme. Tjinder liked the description of our band, he thought it sounded interesting but they couldn’t make it to the show because they had to go back to London! Instead, they met us in Rennes during the holidays where we talked and that was it! That was November 2012.”

Sudden Death of Stars originated in Rennes but it took a little bit of time before they found their feet as purveyors of psych pop. ““We started in 2009, five years ago,” reflects Goulwen. “There were three of us, a drummer, me and a twelve string guitarist. We tried to do something really pop with a girl singing but it didn’t work out. I was just playing guitar. We brought three people into the band to replace her and I realised the songs I was bringing to the band now were in a different style to before. It was during our second recording session for the album we had the song Supernovae and at first there was no sitar. But when we heard how it sounds, we realised ‘there has to be a sitar on this!’ So, by talking to each other, it turned out that Xavier, our drummer, had a co-worker whose boyfriend was playing sitar! Easy! And you don’t see sitar on stage every time.”


"We are not professionals; we tour once a year!" – Goulwen Ory


It took the band two years to make their debut album which was initially released on French label Close Up before Ample Play took the reins, with the vinyl copies completely selling out on release. Witnessing the band play on home turf, the audience is swelled by noisy and occasionally boorish friends of the band, suggesting they are something of a big draw in their native France. “I think we are really famous in Rennes because we have a lot of friends!” laughs Goulwen. “I think our name rings a bell in France but not so much in other countries as it’s so difficult to get people to see our shows. There are lots of bands in Rennes but not really in the same form of music as us. There is quite a small scene in France, you have maybe ten groups as part of the scene here. We can really identify with these bands. For us, Brian Jonestown Massacre was definitely an influence but at the beginning, it was more The Warlocks and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. There is also a strong pop thing in the band, a definite 1960s influence.”

Like many of their contemporaries at home, Sudden Death of Stars choose to sing not in their native French but English. This can often go either way but luckily, Goulwen is quite the impressionist – or is it mere impressionism? Why not sing in his native language? “It’s more easy to write lyrics in English than in French – which you might not believe when you hear me talking!” he says. “But it’s true, I’m not used to listening to French music, we’re more used to hearing English-speaking music. That’s natural for us to sing in English. It is considered acceptable, there are more French bands who sing in English than in French, in all kinds of music. “

2014 is gearing up to be a pivotal year for the band. Their next album is due along with bouts of heavy touring as Sudden Death of Stars return to the UK in March and have just been announced as one of the acts playing the increasingly influential Liverpool Psychedelic Festival in September, alongside such luminaries as Goat, Teeth of the Sea and the mighty Gnod. Goulwen is rather confident about the band’s live appeal. “The first time we played in London was with [Damo Suzuki’s] Reverb Conspiracy last year and the second time was just as a support. Both gigs were really great, in fact they were perfect. But you know we are not professionals, we tour once a year! We toured last November. The next album is coming out on 10 March. Ample Play are really involved in what we are doing, they do lots of promotional work for us. Ample Play is a seal of quality.”

Playing Edinburgh's Wee Red Bar on 1 Mar; Glasgow's Old Hairdresser's on 2 Mar and Manchester's Band on the Wall with Hypnotic Eye on 4 Mar. All Unrevealed Parts Of The Unknown is released on 10 Mar via Ample Play http://facebook.com/suddendeathofstars