Every day, a personality invites itself into the world of Élodie Suigo. Today, the author, composer and founding member of the group Stupeflip, Julien Barthélémy. On September 8, a reissue of the soundtrack of the film “Parenthese” by Bernard Tanguy was released, augmented by three new tracks.
Julien Barthélémy alias King Ju is one of the founding members, with Stéphane Bellanger and Jean-Paul Michel, of the French group Stupeflip born in 2000. This group has the particularity that each musician has several pseudonyms, the desire being that each can interpret several characters within an entity they called ‘Le Crou’. Stupeflip is indefinable, even indomitable, mixing styles and inspirations. There is rock, angry riffs, sometimes insolent, hip hop, Californian punk, weird noises, sometimes, variety, electro, pop. Their self-titled debut album and title I Smoke Pu D’Shit marked their beginnings and their furious desire to say things. No offense to those who did not share their beliefs.
Friday September 8, 2023, he reissues in a remastered version the original soundtrack of the film Parenthesis by Bernard Tanguy released in 2013, augmented by three previously unpublished pieces. To celebrate ten years of filming, it is possible to watch the film for free on YouTube until October 8.
franceinfo: Is this reissue a new proposition, a job other than that of serving a film?
King Ju: Yes. Actually, I come from graphic design. Before Stupeflip, I did illustration, so it was always linked to images. The music that I make, it’s true, provokes images. I tried to make music, ultimately, a little aquatic, the sea, the sun. And there are little bits of sounds like that in Stupeflip. It was to counteract the universe which is still quite dark and harsh.
I would like to know the starting point of Stupeflip. How was the group born? I know there is a model that has been shown a lot, sent to you by your next-door neighbor.
I think it was 1993. I went to New York. I stayed there for six to seven months. It was the debut of Wu Tang Clan, West Coast Band, Dr. Dre. And then, I returned to Paris. I told myself that guys in rap in France don’t yell. I wanted to scream rap, so I wrote this song Stupeflip. The model had existed since 1994 and six years later, I absolutely wanted to take this model and make something more electro. I did a vocal take again and then it resulted in this song Stupeflip. Besides, I owe it to hip hop basically, but also to a guy called Albert Dupontel and his first sketches, the Rambo one or the one where he passed the baccalaureate saying “Jean-Paul Sartre, Jean-Paul Sartre…“We’ll say that it’s a mix between that and American rap.
Very quickly, art attracted you, at least the artistic world. I would like to know exactly what your father, who was a painter, passed on to you. He received the Grand Prix de Rome, he was at the Villa Medici for more than four years. He was someone who was extremely recognized. Did discovering his paintings make you want to weave your own canvas?
The workshop was the heart of the apartment where I grew up and it put terrible pressure. Sometimes he would make a painting for six months. He destroyed it with a cutter, screaming, so it created an atmosphere…
“He was a good guy, my father, but he was completely obsessed with his painting. I don’t remember him speaking to me once when I was little and that created a kind of tension .”
King Ju of the Stupeflip groupat franceinfo
Me, I was really born into tension and that’s why in Stupeflip, we find this tension. I hate violence, but somehow, when I scream, it’s a bit like my father’s voice. It’s as if he lives a little through me. That’s why I have other much calmer characters, to calm things down a little.
Exactly, did Stupeflip help you calm all this down, do you some good?
I never thought it would make me happy, no. On the other hand, when I’m working on my thing, there are little moments where I’m really happy. I’m happier than any billionaire. But strangely, no, it didn’t make me happier in my life. Exactly, since I stopped all that. For about a year now, I’ve really been trying to think about myself, to analyze myself to try to get better because I’m not someone who is necessarily doing very, very well. Besides, it seems that depression is a sign of intelligence, so I must be very intelligent!
The important thing is not to fall too far into this depression.
Exactly. But in any case, with Stupeflip, the form is sometimes a little harsh, a little dark, but we feel that there is still something positive.
We’ve always seen you with a mask. There, you are wearing a hat and dark glasses…
A simpleton yes! You have a real idiot there!
Is it also a way of facing the world?
The blow of being masked… One day, I was asked: “Why are you masked? Your mask is scary.” What scares me is especially those who show their faces because there is such an ego among artists. I find it terrifying. I don’t want to be recognized in the street. From time to time, people recognize me by my voice. That being said, strangely, sometimes I would like to be recognized.
What has Stupeflip brought you in 23 years?
Pay the rent because frankly, before Stupeflip, I struggled for six, seven years, but really struggled.
“I know what the struggle is. I arrived in this environment, I was 33 years old. Stupeflip allows me to make a living from my art. It’s terrible, it’s down to earth, but it’s ‘is right.”
King Ju of the Stupeflip groupat franceinfo
What’s next?
I want to do a science fiction series. If I live long enough to do this, I think it’s going to be even crazier than Stupeflip because I actually draw quite a bit. And here, I am creating a story and I would like to make a small series of fairly short episodes. It’s going to take time.