Paris With a Parisian

The musical journeys of Rover, a French sound adventure…

With a magistral first album, Rover proves that good music is not the priviledge of the English world.

You might think of David Bowie, Brian Wilson or Interpol when you listen to Rover for the first time. And you will be right, as these are the giants on which he builts his songs. But not anyone can reach this level of talent, and it took Rover a lot of roving to get there…

Thimotée Régnier, the real name of Rover, was born in 1981 in a French expat household. Travelling and living in leading cities in different continents will of course broaden his own world and open him to all kinds of influences. On a side note, he lived in New York City as off age 7, and he attended school in the lycée français there, which is an excellent school, and where he was in the same prom than the future members of the Strokes! The guy was born under a good star…

Later on he started fooling around with music, and more precisely with a punk-rock band called the New Government, that rocked the casba in all the Middle-East when he was living in Beyrouth, Lebanon. And everything was fine until his visa died on him and he got kicked out of Lebanon…

At an age and in a country -France- where it is not easy for people to know what to do with their lives, he decided to retreat in a lost abode in Brittany. There, surrounded by musical instruments, like Hamlet, he wondered about life and fate, and made a stunning discovery: his voice was interesting. Actually, his voice seemed to be willing to cover much more octaves than most voices, with an amazing tonal range. And so he started fooling around with his voice and all the instruments. Alone. And he recorded it. Alone.

Back in Paris, it didn’t took much for the music industry to find out that there was a gem revealed with Rover. His first LP is released in 2012, and it is bluffing. In fact, until my friend Lionel told me that Rover was French, it never occured to me that such a sound could come from a country fellow…

Because we are dealing with a sound that is to be found only in England and America. No French touch here, but excellent music that Bowie or Arcade Fire could have released. The melodies are complex, the arrangements are breathtaking, and the voice… The voice of Rover floats around sometimes playing in Hell, sometimes flying in Heaven, always perfectly placed, with a certain je-ne-sais-quoi of uncertainty and approximation. The result is splendid: a consistent effort, visiting different spheres, from love to the Beyrouth bombings, and always facing demanding expectations.

That’s why you must listen to Rover. Maintenant. And later also….

Aqualast, by Rover: Aqualast