A rose by any other name

Minitel Rose, one of the bands kicking off Movement on PlayStation Store, chat about their music.

Named after a French 80s Internet phenomenon, promoting love and chat by way of the machine, Minitel Rose are heavily influenced by the music and films of this decade. Minitel Rose's 2008 album, The French Machine, is the synthetic-electro-pop progeny of growing up in the playful 80s.

How would you describe your music to someone who hasn't heard it before?

People say we've got an electro pop sound because we mix pop singing with catched hooks and dancefloor electro production. We like to call our music indy dance. What is sure, we're retro futuristic, influenced by the 80s with a look to the future

So, how did you get together?

We met on the beach, on the West coast of France when we were teenagers. We were looking at the same girls and listening to the same songs. Romain and Raphael were already musicians and they quickly put a band together, Quentin came later. Two years ago we decided to get a new musical project underway, with all of three of us, and after a big party-brainstorming Minitel Rose were born.

Who are your musical influences?

We don't have especially musical influences. We come from Hip Hop, we brought a lot of Progressive Rock, Jazz, 60s Rock... Like our public, we like almost everything in music. As we were born in the middle of the 80s a lot of things from this time have an influence on our music, the 80s American blockbusters and their soundtracks for example.

What subjects do you tackle in your lyrics?

The Minitel Rose means sexy chat as coined by the French Internet father. We talk a lot about the girls and love, in an innocent way. We like it when the public become a bit lost in the lyrics and don't have any clue; each person can then have their own version of the song.

Your music is available through Movement (available on PlayStation Store), how are the Internet and downloads changing the face of the music industry?

The Internet had and has a big role on our career. MySpace helps us to touch the public without any labels. Today everything is possible in music, it's a big opportunity.

What do you think of the general perception of music from your country?

We are pretty lucky because in France we have got the famous French touch... Daft Punk is the first electro band to enter in the history of music and it's a French band. In the last few years the taste of the public has changed, become more open minded. When we were in college there was the guy who liked Hip Hop, those who liked Rock, those who liked Techno... Today with the Internet the kids have got Justice, Wu Tang, The Beatles all on the same iPod.

Are you touring this year or will you be doing any festivals?

Yes, we do gigs in France. There will be a lot of concerts this autumn, just check our MySpace.

Minitel Rose's Movement videos can be downloaded from PlayStation Store. More about Minitel Rose can be found on their MySpace page, myspace.com/minitelrose.