With just the briefest look at Francois Virot’s website you will instinctively know that this young musician from Lyon, France literally lives for his music. Whether he is busking on the streets of the bohemian Parisian district, Chateau Rouge, or promoting his first solo album Yes Or No, his commitment to his art shines through.
Francois is without doubt a rarity in a world of over-produced, over-hyped, trend-driven music. There is an authentic honesty within his songs that borders on vulnerability. If he sings of suffering, it certainly has more than a hint of credibility about it.
His music is genuine, a street art, performed with a quirky passion and vibrancy that separates him from many of his contemporaries. And despite being in his early twenties, Francois claims to have been making music for as long as he can remember. He plays the drums in the ballistic noise pop trio Clara Clara, alongside his brother Charles. And he is nearly always on the road, either with the band or on his own.
Being part of the Internet generation, he has released countless demos and samples, along a journey that has now brought him here to the release of his first album.
Francois wears his art on his sleeve as it is the only way for an artist to survive the passion that performing in his homeland often provokes. He combines joy and vibrancy with a mature melancholy. He can sound wise beyond his years, as though the music he has absorbed and lived for has indelibly altered his world view.
In album's stripped-down opener, “Not The One,” as well as the standout track, "Dummies," there is something quite beautiful to behold. Another exceptional song is "Yes Sun," a song so fragile it feels as though someone is going to come along and stomp on it.
.jpg?t=20120209092158)
Article comments