For more than 15 years, the Landes group The Inspector Cluzo has shared its life between its Gascon geese and the biggest stages in the world. A militant way of life, endangered in recent years by the bird flu, but which they value more than anything.
From a distance, the song of the Gascon roosters, in the head, the feverish blues-rock which resounds. In their farm in Eyres-Moncube, a few fields from Mont-de-Marsan, Mathieu Jourdain, drums, and Laurent Lacrouts, vocals and guitar, the two halves of The Inspector Cluzo, have built their ideal: Lou Casse, a farm self-sufficient, where everything is reused and where each animal, turkeys, pigs, sheep, has a use. Especially Miguel, the mop goat who stole the show on the cover of We The People Of The Soil.
#MIGUEL & #THEINSPECTORCLUZO are ready to rock the UK again
after opening for @clutchofficial last Dec. Get your tix!https://t.co/ySAaMnCHbb
19 Glasgow
20 Bristol
21 Birmingham
22 Manchester
25 London Camden#brothersinideals#wethepeopleofthesoil #clutch pic.twitter.com/kAh3mcjMCc— The Inspector Cluzo (@inspectorcluzo) February 18, 2020
On their ninth album, the aptly named Horizonstill registered in Nashville with a big name, Vance Powell – “it’s someone who, if you arrive with a million euros to record but it sucks, he will say no” – Mathieu and Laurent, as well as Nathalie, the latter’s companion, do everything from managing the Fuck The Bass Player Records label to finding concert dates. With always the same word that dominates everything: independence. “Only we can put this in place, explains Laurent Lacrouts. That’s why on this album, almost all the biggest turners in France wanted to sign us but we don’t say ‘fuck’ but let us do it because in 20 or 30 years, there will be a lot of people like us“.
“The most important thing for us is to show that we can be independent and then give the tool to future generations.”
Mathieu Jourdain, The Inspector Cluzoat franceinfo
Avian flu, a constant threat
For several years, in the South-West of France, and particularly in the Landes and the Gers, the situation has been bad, because of the avian flu epizootic, which led to the preventive slaughter of tens of millions of volatile. If Mathieu recognizes that the crisis has them “much inspired for the lyrics of the album, all expelled, put in song“, Laurent, him, draws up the observation: “It was very hard, with very big agro-industrial pressures, this avian flu is a tragedy“. He adds : “The small farms, as we imagine them, have almost all been destroyed in the Landes and in the Gers for six years“.
“For us it goes far beyond our personal case, it is also out of respect, the heritage of our grandparents.”
Laurent Lacrouts, The Inspector Cluzoat franceinfo
So they, their 81 precious Landes gray geese are still frolicking in the open air, unlike the industrial farms a few hundred meters from here, which endanger their animals. These rocker-farmers also have scientific training and an iron will to show that their geese are healthy. Their misty gaze turns to the beasts, the last. “Some geese have had six bird flu here, we fought for them, yes we disobeyed, it upsets us but it’s a legacy“, they admit today. And then anyway, with their instruments and their geese: “Now we’re the last ones, that’s what’s dramatic and that’s why we make sure to continue“.
REPORT | The Inspector Cluzo, on the farm and on stage
listen
The Inspector Cluzo, Horizon (Fuckthebassplayer Records). Album available. On tour from March 3.