For Mont-de-Marsan, France-based rock band The Inspector Cluzo, the concept of “less is more” not only applies to the music they create but also to the way they live their lives. The duo of Laurent Lacrouts and Mathieu Jourdain liked the phrase so much that they decided to name their latest album, released earlier this year, Less Is More.
During a recent interview with SWT, Jourdain said that blues music is a major inspiration for them, describing the concept of “less is more” as the “mojo” of the style.
“It’s about making as much music and notes with [only] a few,” he says.
The duo is also concerned with protecting the environment, whether they’re making music and touring around the globe or working on their organic-based farm.
“We try to do as much as we can with less because we don’t want to have too big of an impact on the environment,” says Jourdain. “When we go on tour, we’re only two, three or four maximum traveling in the minivan. We have everything in the van. We keep it simple like that so that we lower all impact we could have on the planet.”
“And same thing on the farm, we use agro-ecology techniques because this is really virtuous for the environment. It preserves the ecosystem in which you live. So, for us, we don’t need more. We have enough, so enough that you don’t need more. So less is more.”
According to a press release, “Conceptually, the album is deeply rooted in the philosophies of Henry David Thoreau and Guy Debord, and echoes the band’s commitment to sustainability, both on their farm and in their music industry.”
Since forming in 2008, the Gascon organic farming duo has played over 1,300 shows in 67 countries. Lately, they’ve had an eventful time touring behind their new music, including opening for Neil Young during his recent European tour. Says the band via press release, “It’s a childhood dream come true. He’s been our idol since we were kids, and he still is.”
As you may suspect, the band gets its name from the bumbling detective Inspector Clouseau character in the Pink Panther films.
On July 30, the band will return to the U.S. in support of Clutch. You can find all tour dates here.
SWT caught up with Jourdain to discuss music, farming, and their intersection.
What music have you been digging lately?
So different things because a friend of ours was here at the farm. He’s from Nashville, Tennessee, and he made us listen to some funk music. He was the band leader of the Dynamites featuring Charles Walker.
We also try to listen to new music every Friday and check out some new bands. Like there’s an English band called Bad Nerves, there’s another band called False Heads. And we also listen to XRDS, Clarksdale, Mississippi Radio. Very, very good. All blues, all genres of blues, and we love that.
The new album is the band’s 10th album. What does it mean to reach that milestone?
When we look back, we see, ‘wow, that’s the 10th album already within almost 18 years.’ So, we all are kind of proud. We are happy about being able to keep going because we are like a self-founded band, all DIY, it’s our label. We are like our own booking agent also, even though we have now a big booking agency in the UK, handling some stuff here and there. We’ve done everything by ourselves since the beginning. So, we’re pretty happy to be still alive and being able to put out new records in this very massively industrialized music business. Because for bands like us, it’s hard to live and to have a spot in the industry because everything is trusted by the big corps, like the big labels, the big managements, and the big booking agencies.
But we are still here, and we have good tools lined up, so we cannot complain so far. But when we want to release an album, we’re still asking ourselves, “Okay, should we put out this record now because it will imply this, that, and that to fight? And are we going to be able to sell enough to balance the costs? Is it too chaotic worldwide?” Because we heard about COVID, all the wars in the world, and climate change. We’re also farmers; we run a farm. For us, the main thing is to keep on handling and running the farm because the farm feeds us because of the work we do at the farm. So, we are wondering if we can still go on, but so far, no complaints. The album is out, we have some dates coming, so we’ll see what’s going on in two, three years from now.
The band recorded the album with Vance Powell in Nashville last year. What was it like going over there and recording with him?
As I’ve just told you, we were wondering if we should put out a new record or not. And we had the chance that Vance Powell came to visit us at the farm, and we had this conversation and asked, “is it relevant to record a new album and release it?” And he said, “Of course man…it’ll work. So, he convinced us to work on the new album. We made a straight album, no arrangements, only because we are a duo. So, we say, “Okay, let’s keep it simple.” Drums, that’s it, no percussion, no strings, no nothing. Whereas we used that in some other records. So, we did that.
We rehearsed and wrote the songs; we’ve been doing that for two years. We arrived at the studio well prepared, and we could track the album within four days only. And then Vince could mix it in three days, and we had our brand-new record. So that was easy at that, even though it was a lot of rehearsing. So, it’s made organic, no backing track, no computers, just drums, guitar, maybe some second guitars here, some second vocals here, but that’s it. And Vince did the rest; I mean, the bass, the massive sound, because he’s the analog guy.
How did being in Nashville influence the sound?
Nashville did not influence the sound, but Vince did because he has his own way of working, and he knows how to make a sound big with not a lot, because he knows how to treat the sound and how to feel the space. And thanks to him, we succeeded in reaching that kind of level. Vance lives and has his studio in Nashville. It’s really because of him more than because of Nashville, even though we like the Nashville vibe because it’s all about music labels, booking a lot of musicians. We’re really friends with Tyler Bryant and others, and all those guys live in Nashville now. So, when we go there, we feel at home.
Did you get a chance to go to Nashville and check out stuff?
Yeah, we had a chance, had one or two days off, and Diana, Vince’s wife, took us on a cave tour. I think it’s like a three-hour drive from Nashville and still in Tennessee. That was fun. We hung out with some friends, also.
It sounds like the band was pretty dialed in for the recordings, doing everything live in just four days. Can you describe the atmosphere of the recording sessions and what you were looking to capture?
Yeah, so in Nashville, so we’ve known the studio for some years now because the first time we met Vance was in 2015 when he mixed our album called Rock Farmers. So, we knew about the vibe. Vance is really good at taking the best version of yourself to do that. He makes you feel comfortable. I don’t know if you’ve seen some of his recording rooms. It’s beautiful with some lights here and there. It’s nice, you feel good in that, with some carpets and paintings here and there. He’s got very good instruments. But when we come there…I only take my [drum] sticks and Laurent brings his guitars, and there we have fabulous amps, fabulous drums. So, it’s really easy. We set up everything in the same room…so that we can see each other and be in the same vibe.
And then Vince comes here with his assistant who is very nice also, it’s really a friendly relationship now. So, he puts mics on the whole thing, and then, let’s go, let’s do three takes per song, more or less, sometimes only one. And then, okay, we’ll show the best. And then we do some tweaks here and there, maybe a second guitar and vocals, we change them sometimes around, plugging them into other amps to have another type of sound, and that’s it. We have the sound, and we did all the songs one by one without finishing all the songs. And then we went back on it for a second guitar or vocal, depending on the atmosphere. But I think that was it. And then we had a lunch break, and Vince is kind of a foodie guy, also like us. We’re French, so obviously, and we feed ourselves at the farm, so we only have good products. So, he knows where to take us for lunch. We’ll feel very, very, very comfortable. So maybe you can listen to that feeling in the album.
It sounds like you tried to make it as live as you could.
Exactly.
I imagine it’s easier to translate those to the live stage.
Oh yeah, exactly. Especially in this album, we wanted to do not a live album, but an album recorded live so that when we go on tour and we play those songs live, you have pretty much the same thing. Compared to the previous Horizon album, where we added some string arrangements. Obviously, on stage we don’t take strings unless we want to do it special. We did that for Brothers In Ideals [- We The People Of The Soil – Unplugged]. This record was only acoustic, so we brought some friends to play with us, but on [the new] album, it’s only drums and guitars, so we can reproduce exactly the same song, and it will sound exactly the same on the album. It would be a mistake to try to make a live album in a studio because you don’t have the crowd, and the crowd makes the difference. And so that’s why it’s different. And what we like to do in Inspector Cluzo is to sometimes jam a little bit on the song. So, this song is not exactly the same as the studio version. We can play a little bit longer at a solo or add a few different things because it has to interact with the audience. So, we make sure we can do this.
Lyrically, the album is a concept album and takes a look at the philosophies of Henry David Thoreau and Guy Debord. What spawned the idea to make it a concept album and draw from those individuals?
We’ve been influenced mainly by those two philosophers, especially Thoreau. He went for a year or more to live in the woods by himself and then wrote a book called Walden. He also wrote a book called Civil Disobedience. And we are kind of influenced by Guy in what we are doing at the farm, for example, because we all think about post-growth philosophy, and it leads to less is more, as the title of the album. We are influenced by that in addition to what we experience at the farm.
It seems like there’s a lot of overlap between what you do on the farm and in the music industry.
Yes, true. Because we have to live and exist within a big, industrialized world. So, in the industry of farming, you have big corporations in the food industry, especially in the States, it’s all held by the big aggro industry. So, there is no room for farmers like us to sell directly to consumers. And that’s the same in the music. So, if you want to go and play a gig, if you are totally independent, you won’t be able to play wherever you want if you don’t belong to a big corporation. So, you have to fight. We meet the fights in both worlds. It gives us the material for us to write new lyrics, and it gives us energy to fight and to play. Rock and roll is made for that.
What song surprised you the most in how it turned out after writing and recording it?
One in particular? I would say “The Journeyman”, because we recorded it with only one microphone. The microphone was in the studio hallway. We had to mix ourselves the old-fashioned way, and it sounds very good.
What was the inspiration behind the song “CATFARM”?
So “Catfarm” is, I would say, the funniest on the album. It deals with our cat here at the farm because when she was young, she was totally crazy, jumping everywhere on the table, climbing on the walls. So, we made fun of her, and it inspired the song “Catfarm”. And it was a big challenge with Laurent to play reggae without bass because we are only drums and guitar, no bass. And the challenge was to play reggae without a bass, which is actually played by Laurent playing the guitar in the same time. He plays the lower chords, the lower strings. We did it, and it was okay; it works. So that’s a funny song. And also on the verses, the vibe is like J.J. Cale.
It sounds like the farming you do is very unique. Can you talk a little about what differentiates your form of organic farming from traditional?
We’re not an industrial farm, so indeed we use agroecology techniques. So, we are more on the organic path of farming. We don’t use chemicals and stuff like that. It’s a global system which you grow like cereals, for example, to feed your animals, who are going to shit on the hay you’ve just taken from the fields, and this hay with the shit, and you’ll put the organic manure back in the fields, and that will fertilize the fields. And we do the same at the vegetable garden also, where we use this compost to fertilize the vegetables that we are going to eat, and the leftovers are brought back to the compost and then decomposed and then fertilize the whole thing.
We use animals also to take care of the fields because we have some sheep also at the farm. So, we bring the sheep. For example, after harvesting the cereals, you put them on the fields, they will clean it up and also shit on it, so fertilize it. So, we have different ways of fertilizing a field, and it’s a circle, and the animal gives you food also, right? So, it’s really organically thought and using aggro ecology techniques because we also use green fertilizers in the fields, which will obviously fertilize the fields. Nowadays, it’s going to catch some carbon and fix the carbon in the soil. And we fix 10, 15 tons per hectare in our fields. So, when we go on tour, for example, we’ll spend some carbon so we can balance our tours environmentally. So, it’s all combined like this. And that’s why it’s also made organically.
The band has a pretty busy schedule ahead. What are you most looking forward to?
We are also looking forward to opening for Clutch in the Midwest because, first of all, we love those guys. We already did tours with them, that was a brilliant vibe, and our music matches perfectly with them. And we visited so many different beautiful places. All in the Midwest, it was in the winter, so it was really snowy and icy, but it was very beautiful. And we’re looking forward to seeing the same thing, but in the summer. So, it’ll be the same landscapes, but without snow. It’ll be very beautiful, and we are sure that we’ll have amazing musical moments playing in front of their crowd. That will work for sure, because there is something, a connection in between their fans and our music.
You can follow and listen to The Inspector Cluzo at the links below:
Facebook: facebook.com/ticluzo
Instagram: instagram.com/theinspectorcluzo/
YouTube: youtube.com/@theinspectorcluzo
Spotify: The Inspector Cluzo on Spotify
Apple Music: The Inspector Cluzo on Apple Music
You can catch the band live in support of Clutch at the following shows:
July 30 – Little Rock, AR – Little Rock Music Hall
July 31 – Oklahoma City, OK – Diamond Ballroom
August 1 – Austin, TX – Emo’s
August 3 – Fort Collins, CO – Washington’s
August 5 – Bozeman, MT – The Elm
August 7 – Vancouver, BC – Commodore Ballroom
August 9 – Edmonton, AB – Midway
August 10 – Calgary, AB – Grey Eagle Event Center
August 12 – Fargo, ND – Up District Festival Field
August 14 – Milwaukee, WI – The Rave
August 15 – Chesterfield, MO – The Factory
August 16 – Hammond, IN – Horseshoe Hammond Casino
Joshua is co-founder of Scummy Water Tower. He’s freelanced for a variety of newspapers, magazines, and websites, including: Rolling Stone, The Boston Globe, Chicago Sun-Times, Guitar World, MTV News, Grammy.com, Chicago Magazine, Milwaukee Magazine, MKE Lifestyle, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, A.V. Club, SPIN, Alternative Press, Under the Radar, Paste, PopMatters, American Songwriter, and Relix. You can email him at josh@scummywatertower.com.
