We know it since the Rita Mitsouko: love stories generally end badly. But for Maëva Nicolas and Hugo Herleman, they end up in music instead. An end that looks more like a beginning, that of a very promising career on the independent rock scene. With two EPs to their credit, the Bandit Bandit duo is preparing their first album, which is scheduled for release next March.
The first meeting between Hugo and Maëva has enough to feed the chronicles for a long time: it was four years ago, on Tinder. The following ? “The first time we saw each other, we were both drunk, there was a guitar and we sang stuff” confided Hugo in 2020 on the site maze.fr.
Tvery chaotic, the beginning of their story ended up calming down, giving birth to this duo which cultivates a side that is both romantic and sulphurous with haunting and (a little) hallucinated melodies on well-supported riffs. All supported by clips and visuals with a very elaborate aesthetic.
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When these two Montpellier residents (since settled in Lyon) meet, Maëva is an independent press officer, Hugo is already in music with the group Kursed.
I fell in love with her because her voice touched me directly. I said to myself: ‘You have to give it a shot’
Hugo HerlemmanBandit Bandit
They therefore try it in 2019 with a first eponymous EP of 5 titles, very autobiographical. This is what confided Maëva in 2020 at Sensation rock: “Maux talks about our couple, Nyctalope idem, even more: it talks about Hugo, the night, doing anything, hanging out, … Never know talks about me, the addictions I’ve known and from which I don’t am disentangled; as for Fever, it evokes the passion between the two of us. Finally Pixel describes our meeting on Tinder. For me, this EP is really cathartic”.
Selected in 2020 among the young hopefuls of the Francofolies de la Rochelle and the Printemps de Bourges, Bandit Bandit is back in 2021 with a new EP entitled Tachycardia.
As for their stage name, it fits well with this quirky charm of the mythical couples who have fueled their respective imaginations. Many are from cinema and movies like natural born killer, Bonnie & C.Lyde, Sailor and Lula, pulp Fiction“somewhat eccentric, somewhat mythical duets, with this cheeky, ‘bandit’ aspect. We did some tests with a photographer friend and this gunslinger character, a bit crossed out, spoke to us quite a bit” recognizes Maeva.
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Apparently, given the success, it speaks to a lot of people. Today Bandit Bandit connects concerts and festivals. “And all this when no album has yet been released” highlighted Jean-Noel Scherrer pproducer and turner from the Lyon agency Cold Famous. He adds: “So it’s not a guess on our part: we’re at the start of a career”.
The next Bandit Bandit dates:
September 24 at the Transbordeur in Villeurbanne
November 18 at L’Entrepôt, in Arlon, Belgium