There are so many faces to rock music today. There's a huge clump of bands that stick to the same aesthetic as their peers in an attempt to break through, and then there's bands like the French Kicks, who maintain a distinct sound without becoming inaccessible, to try and do the same thing. Huge fame? Not necessary. Getting into public consciousness? Sure, why not? At this moment, the band had been setting up to play in the Media Club, a bar that holds less than 200 people at its peak. There's definitely some room to grow, and the French Kicks wouldn't mind taking that room. As his bandmates loaded gear in, singer/drummer Nick Stumpf and I headed to the back room to talk. Stumpf stretched his tall frame, which moments ago proved to be of substantial enough height to make simply standing on the stage in the low-ceilinged room a challenge, across a couch and looked thoroughly relaxed.

We began to talk about the band's following. Many of their current fans are old stand-bys, people who have been alongside them since their inception to the music world. As with just about any regional band that starts to make waves through the industry, no matter how big those waves are, original fans invariably find something to gripe about. In the case of the French Kicks, one thing that has become a topic of discussion is the album cover art on the latest disc, Trial of the Century. The album features a bare female midsection and the underside of one breast, diagonally across the front against a yellow background. It's striking and slightly abstract (some people have debated over just what body part that is), but alongside previous album art, some fans seem to think they've turned down a strange path with this one. Those people battle with others who think the cover art is very daring and vibrant.

"No it was not our aim [to create a stir with the artwork]. We just liked it, decided to use it… it's always fine when there's a stir," says Stumpf. One astute message board patron had mentioned that album packaging will save the music industry and that the lack of art inside the album might have an adverse affect on its sales. So what does the band think about that possibility? "Well, people are definitely downloading [the album]. We found a site where you can download the whole thing, at least one, and uh, we played shows before it came out and people already knew all the songs, so it was clear that that had been happening. But there's nothing anybody can do about that… it's nice to be selling records for a variety of reasons, but the main point theoretically is for people to have the record, enjoy the record. I mean, we're trying to make a living but I'm glad that people are bothering to download it if they like it."

Trial of the Century was released through Startime International records, a small label that's also home to indie darlings the likes of Ambulance Ltd, the Natural History, and of course in the past, the Walkmen. Already since the release in early May 2004, this album has had a boom period, selling more units in two weeks than any other band in Startime's brief history. I asked about how the band feels being on an indie label right now. "I've never been on a bigger label, so I don't really know, but I guess it has advantages, you know. We don't have the same sort of bottom line pressure that major label bands have I guess. So that's an advantage, but then again, there's not a whole lot of money for when we do want money for things, it's not really there so it's sort of a give and take kind of thing." Elaborating a bit, Stumpf mentions that the band has no immediate plans to jump ship for a bigger label in the near future. "It depends on what happens with this record and who's interested and we'll just have to see what our options are. I don't think we're chasing anything down particularly. We'll just see what kind of interest there is. Cross that bridge when we come to it."

Heading out live this year, the band tried a slightly different set-up. In the past, Stumpf has been the lead vocalist and the drummer, even during shows. While singing drummers aren't completely uncommon these days, it's definitely a challenging role to play. So they decided to swap over, get a live drummer, and give Stumpf a kick at the vocals-only can. The French Kicks gave this line-up a test run with a month-long residency even before the new album came out. I asked Stumpf how the residency went, and how he was enjoying being a singer now. "I like [only singing live]. I mean, for live purposes I think it makes a lot more sense. I think [drumming and singing] was definitely a cool thing that I liked doing and it was a unique thing to see happening probably, but I think we did all we could do musically with that formula… it takes a lot of wind, you know, more breath to do both at the same time. But I couldn't really sing as well as I'd like to be able to sing, and I couldn't really focus on playing the drums either so it was kind of like limiting both arenas." The residence, played in a venue of about 300 capacity, was often littered with a hometown crowd of friends, but regardless of the difficulty of objective opinions, Stumpf feels the new material and set up went over well.

Sticking with live shows, we discuss all-ages gigs. The show in Vancouver was at a club, like many of the shows on that late-spring tour, but fans of the band often request more all-ages gigs. "We like to do them actually. The thing is that it's hard. Clubs don't like to do them 'cause there's no bar. They don't make as much money off of them. So it's hard to get a club to do it. But on this tour, we've been doing as much of it as possible. And when we can't, we try do it 18 and up." He goes on to describe the vibe in the room when there's a younger audience. "Younger crowds are generally, more… you know, if there's kids, it's relatively new, being at shows. As we all remember, it's really fun to go to shows when you're 14 or 15. But older crowds, they've seen everything."

Age aside, the French Kicks have played in front of a lot of other bands' crowds in the last little while. From what I've seen, these new audiences react quite favourably to the band, and they've made plenty of new fans, particularly on a recent tour with the Walkmen. "I've always felt that we've been able to go in front of a lot of different crowds and toured with a lot of different bands that have their own fans and their own vibe or whatever, and I've felt that we've always been able to translate, I think we translate into a lot of different… you know I feel confident enough that we can get in front of pretty much anybody and they're gonna react to it in some way or another. And I think that has happened when we've done supporting tours that we've done." Neither them in front of another band's crowd, or one of their opening bands in front of their crowd, have seemed to draw a poor reaction from those in front of the stage. "The only vibe that I personally sort of feel slightly uncomfortable in is like seriously purist indie shows where people will be pissed off if you're playing pop music... but we don't play too many of those."

So there we have it. The French Kicks are proving universal appeal, live adaptability, and a water-under-the-bridge attitude towards any slight pothole in their musical road. With the attitudes they have, they should have no problems growing to fill up that extra space.

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By Andy Scheffler
Photos : Andy Scheffler
Published : June 23, 2004.