McFly and Carlito (David Coscas and Raphaël Carlier, their real names) is a duo of influencers with quirky humor. They have almost seven million subscribers on their YouTube channel. These two troublemakers were able to put their celebrity at the service of others with, for example, in April 2020, the organization of the Maradon, a live video of more than 11 hours to support frontline caregivers in the face of Covid-19. They also took up the challenge of Emmanuel Macron to make a video with a song on barrier gestures. The video I remember generated revenue that they donated in full to AGORAé, solidarity grocery stores.
As nothing can stop them, they also rowed the Mediterranean Sea – 65 hours of hardship – which can be found in video in Crossing. They released their first album on Friday December 10, soberly titled Our best album and will be on tour from March 2022 with a visit to the Olympia scheduled for May 2022.
franceinfo: Since your beginnings, you have had two passions, humor on one side and music on the other.
McFly: Quite frankly, I didn’t think, back in high school, that you could go on with your life by having fun with your buddy. And then finally, we said to each other in the courtyard: “Come on, we’re not giving up. And the music will come back when it comes back“. And now is the right time.
This meeting is amazing because you were in different classes.
McFly: In fact, we had two separate groups of friends at the base and they “broke” at one point, thanks to the music and the nonsense. And there we found each other.
You were aiming for one thing, initially, it was the media.
McFly: I still have to say something, when we got to the age of 16, 17 and had to choose what we were going to do, I said to myself: “But what am I going to do?“This is the reality of a lot of young people. And one day, Carlito said to me:”Man, knowing what you want, it takes five minutes, sit down and think“. I came back and I said to him:”Man I wanna do music, guitar or humor with you“. He responded to me : “Here we are, we make the promise. We don’t let go until the end“.
You started with the radio.
Carlito: We were precisely 50 meters from here, at the Mouv ‘, at the Maison de la Radio et de la Musique.
McFly: I remember, those were the best times, you come out of high school with your friend and your dates are at the Maison de la Radio, and we used to come there. We did our first demos there and our first shows too.
Then there was the “Fat Show”. What do you keep from this show?
Carlito: It was frantic. We worked non-stop.
Back in the days of the “Fat Show” there weren’t a lot of views and very little money, but the fun was the same as it is today.
McFly: It was really thanks to this that we were able to grow and become today what we are. That is to say knowing what we want to do, how to edit it with our hyper-important production, editing-mixing teams.
Why is this album coming out today then?
McFly: During the first confinement, we had house-parties with Bigflo and Oli and suddenly, they told us: “But guys, how many years have you been talking to us about making music? Now is the time, go ahead !“
Carlito: But above all, we don’t see people. There is also a good time to finally see them. We see them in the street a little, but there, we are going to meet.
“The album is a pretext to see people with the scene”.
How do we manage to last? Are you afraid at times?
McFly: I have a very solid base of friendships, including the one with Carlito. I have my wife and my children. It’s a place when I’m there, where people no longer talk to me about YouTube, they no longer talk to me about the media, I’m in my family, it’s my bubble. It allows me to always come back to earth, to remember well, to take a step back and realize things.
Carlito: And in a very pragmatic way, on weekends, we don’t touch it, on Wednesdays, we don’t touch it and holidays, we take them all !
McFly: The pressure and the wind are so enormous that if there are no moments of pause, we cannot hold out in time. Maybe that is the key.
Now that you have perspective on your performance with Emmanuel Macron, how did you experience this adventure? Ultimately, it was also controversial since many said that Emmanuel Macron had to ‘restore’ his image.
Carlito: Many have said it, and they are right, it was a strategy. ‘To restore’, I do not know. This is a result that must be seen over time, it concerns him. On the other hand, obviously it is a strategy, we said it ourselves, very early on, young people are at the cleat and are not idiots. We were very transparent. We were aware of his approach and in it, we still tried to find our pleasure for the people, the messages to send, the entertainment. We did our best anyway.
I would like to talk about Infinite + 1000. Is it important for you to convey the positive?
Carlito: Yes, very positive. Optimistic is the word ! Afterwards, be careful, even on video, sometimes we have messages in which there are things that annoy us, we try to transmit them, but it’s the benevolence FC, as we say on the Internet.
McFly: Anyway, it’s not complicated, I listened to it again this morning with my children, I don’t know how I sang it live, but I have tears in my eyes that immediately rise !
Carlito: You’re gonna be pro anyway, we’re gonna do the job !
McFly: We will have to help each other. Of course, we’ll have to repeat it.
McFly, how is Carlito?
McFly: An incredible engine. He’s got crazy energy. There is nothing to stop him. Very, very demanding, sometimes too much. But he is my friend like my heart brother, my soul brother.
And Carlito, how is McFly?
Carlito: It is at the stage of love. It’s a couple. When I write to him that I love him, I’m feverish and everything. Frankly, that’s too much too powerful stuff to boil down to little sentences.
Happy with this album release?
We’ve been wanting to make this album for too long. Now that we’ve opened the door, we won’t be able to close it, that’s for sure!
Carlito: It’s only a beginning. I think there will be another one, maybe some EPs, the tour, we’re going to have a blast, we like it too much, the stage. For me, there, I have the impression that this is the beginning of something. I hope I am not mistaken.
McFly: Anyway, we opened the door.