My first question,and one that I'm sure many would like to ask, is when are we going to get treated to a full length album by Les Bof!?

Aaaah... I knew it... Indeed everybody is asking us about a possible album. I think our fans definitely deserve to get a bit of Les BOF! French 60's to bring back home. Well this should happen soon. We are at the moment finishing recording this famous first album. Most of the backing tracks are ready, only the vocals and the final mix are missing. This will come up at the beginning of next year on CopaseDisques, the famous German label from Hamburg managed by the least famous Alex. No official release date yet so keep an eye on our web site and myspace profile.

How hard is it being French in the UK? How do the English audience respond to the French lyrics?

The best compliment I got from our first gig where about 200 people turned up was “So you are touring UK, where is your next date?”. For the first performance from Les BOF! and for myself the first time on stage that was too good to be true. Half of the people thought we were coming from France and this was exactly the feeling we wanted to create. All this to demonstrate that with all the bands singing in English in UK and all around the globe, the French touch is definitely a plus which makes the difference. On top of this some people that are not into garage rock just come to see us by pure curiosity. So basically even if the crowd does not understand the lyrics they feel like they are lost somewhere in the middle of France during the 60's for an hour. Some people told us that French language sounds good and more poetic than English and some artists from the French Yé-yé scene in the 60's already had an impact on the European scene. Like one of our fans said to me once, “Les BOF! have a rare sixties sound served with a nice French sauce...”.

You've played many gigs around Europe. Which is your favourite city to play? Are you planning a tour in the future?

Wow! This is a difficult question because each gig is different and brings a different crowd. Obviously each band member would have is own point of view, but as far as I am concerned one of the best gig and place we played was Rotterdam for the Primitive Festival. I think this is because not only we did a great show, just before Billy Childish and his Men, but the public was brilliant and following this, Dandy Dave ask me to present the rest of the festival, or if you prefer be the MC and introduce the festival and the bands. That was the first time I did that and the whole festival was a great experience. I want to thank Dave for this again. Another place, if I can name another one, is Berlin: great crowd, great people and good fun! As far as a tour is concerned there should be one in Germany for the launch of the album, but I would love to organise one in France. Unfortunately the 60's and garage scene over there is not as developed as it is in Germany, Spain or Italy.

Can you describe Les Bof! live experience?

A storming good old garagie-dutronic-yé-yé sound but for more details you'd better ask our fans :-)

On your 7", you play three covers to one original song. Do you mostly play covers or your own songs? When playing a cover how do you rewrite the lyrics in French?

To be honest the idea of the band originally was like the the 60's Yé-yé band/singers in France: covering a lot UK and US hits for some of them not very well distributed in France and do a few originals. Well this is what we did at the beginning with only 2 originals for our first gigs out of 11 or 12 songs. Now of course for an album we need to be more creative and this is the reasons why we started to do our own songs. I am surrounded by great musicians and Angus our guitar player as always been very creative writing music for all his past and present bands so that would be a shame not to make the most of it. Out of 14 tracks there our LP will have only one cover. But we still want to surprise our public and fans with some interesting French covers and may issue another EP with covers only. We love to surprise our public and we always play our cover with a “Les BOF!” touch by changing some bit and bops such as adding an extra solos, a blues harp intro etc... And of course I add my own lyrics (unless we cover a French song) which very often have nothing to do with the original ones in English. If it is not to add our own touch then there is no point covering a song.

There's a recent wave of bands singing in French like Les Terribles, the Dadds and Curlee Wurlee, are you familiar with them? What are you listening to these days?

Yes indeed we know all these bands and we had the pleasure to meet Les Terrible for the first time in Rottherdam at the Primitive Festival. I even went on stage with them to “help” Rudi signing a couple of songs :-). I also know Curlee Wurlee and keep in touch from time to time with Cécile although I have never met her but I love her voice and their music. These guys seems to be good fun on Stage. On the other hand I don't the know The Dadds that well, only via their myspace but I would love to see them on stage. All these band and many more show that the French language is very well appreciated in Europe and around the world. You will be surprise to see bands in Mexico (Les Tragiques), Brazil (Les Responsables), Sweden (Les Artifacts) just to name a few who play garage rock and sing in French and like Les BOF! have a French singer. As far as what Les BOF! are is concerned, obviously we listen to a lot of 60's garage rock but we all have different influences. Colin our bass player if very open, listen to various stuff and plays flamenco guitar. Our drummer Ross is a big Beatles fan but listen to a lot of various 60's stuff, pop and indie stuff. Angus has a great record collection and always surprises us with some cool various 60's music especially French. Coming from a traditional skinhead background garage rock came later on in my records collection. I am a big fan of sixties Jamaican and Soul music and oi!/punk but since I was given the opportunity to become a garage rock singer I have completely immersed myself into 60's garage rock. After all this is one of the roots of Punk Rock.

What do Les Bof! do when not playing with the band?

Well... we all have our one jobs and hobbies and this is one of the reason for this late first album. Angus is probably the most active member of the band on the musical side. He plays keyboard with Edinburgh most famous garage band: The Thanes. He also has is own surf band: The Ineptors with our drummer and bass player plus an extra guitar player. He had an instrumental early reggae band as well for a short time but he is a freelance sound engineer and that really helps when it comes to recording Les BOF! As far as I am concerned I DJ sometimes but Les BOF! are my first and only band although I have been offered to sing for a new project but I don't know if this will definitely happen.

Are vintage instruments and matching outfits important to Les Bof!?

Oh yes, always. Again our guitarist is our “maestro” and he is crazy about vintage equipment and his house is full of Vox, Danelectro, Hofner, Fender, Selmer, Rickenbacker, Burns and Hammond stuff just to name a few brands. He also has some good vintage mics PA etc... He is definitely the right man for Les BOF! original sixties sound. Despite all this choice, when it comes to live very often the usual good old AC30 and Hofner guitar is commonly the lot, add it a Selmer 60's bass amp and Vox bass cabinet, a set of 60's Shure mics hooked to a 60's Vox PA, bring a late 60's Premier Olympic drum kit, shake the whole batch and you get Les BOF! Sound on stage.

As your name says, do you still not care about anything?

Ah ah ah... This is a bit of a paradox. Yes indeed we don't care because we had and have nothing to loose with Les BOF! This is at least the state of mind I had the first time of my life I went on stage and this state of mind still keeps me and the other members going on. Basically if the audience doesn't really pay attention, if our way of playing is a bit too primitive sometimes well... we don't care, we do our stuff and go. We had a couple of gigs like that. Especially a certain festival in Aloa (Scotland) but we had fun anyway and came stronger. Originally we had absolutely no ideas were this band was going to lead us and it was purely for fun with just one gig in mind but now we are playing all around Europe and maybe further. Great! I still cannot believe it. This is nothing new I suppose and a lot of famous band started like this. Obviously we do care for certain things such rehearsing and recording to give our audience the sound they deserver. Like a lot of other band we don't take ourselves to seriously the difference is that our name mirrors this state of mind.

Anything else Les Bof! would like to add?

First of all thank you Tolis for your interest in the band and if there is anybody around crazy enough to book a French garage rock band for a tour or a gig, well... we are up for it! Hope to meet you in Greece some times....