After French Cassettes released its full-length debut Gold Youth – featuring nostalgic garage-pop reminiscences of tongue gleeking (“Us Kids”) and fragments of substance abuse enveloped in the chummy upstroke spirit of The Strokes (“Too Young”) – they felt like they had just run the Big Sur Marathon… backwards.
The entire process of writing the songs, then recording (partially recorded at John Vanderslice’s Tiny Telephone), took a solid year.
“We put so much energy into making [the album],” says singer-guitarist Scott Huerta. “Now, we’ve been putting all our energy into getting it out there.” Over the past six months following the release, the band – Scott’s brother Thomas Huerta on bass, Mackenzie Bunch on guitar and keys and James Gallagher on drums – has been completely immersing itself in Gold Youth. “Sitting with an album for a while and listening to everyone’s parts, hearing all the feedback and seeing the reactions has actually been a great step toward our next album,” Huerta says. “I can see what I would do differently, not that it would necessarily be better.”
French Cassettes’ plan: to continue promoting the hell out of Gold Youth, make a gaggle of hipster fans by reissuing the album in April on cassette tape, and learn the songs so well that they become an extension of their body.
“When you get to know the songs inside out, you can think about them while you play live,” Huerta says. “That’s when it’s a good time to start writing the next album.”
The San Francisco quartet hasn’t reached that place where they’re actively involved in the process of writing their follow-up. But they’re getting there.
In the meantime, the group will bring its indelibly breezy hooks to Fernwood Resort on Saturday and, two weeks later, they’ll make their third appearance at the week-long Noise Pop Festival, alongside a slew of stellar indies including Dr. Dog and Real Estate.
FRENCH CASSETTES play at 9pm Saturday, Feb. 15 at Fernwood, 47200 Highway 1, Big Sur. Free. 667-2422.