2024-07-22 16:33:09
At 21, Violette Gauthier, singer-songwriter, creates Bleachthe most fascinating fanzine of the moment, halfway between a handmade diary and a niche culture scrapbook.
Violette Gauthier came into the world amidst curiosities. Her father is a collector of art brut and runs the Galerie du moineau écarlate. From this unusual childhood, the young girl – now studying philosophy – has retained an appetite for cultural “crazies”. And what could be “crazier” than Bleachhis fanzine designed entirely by hand (handwriting and felt-tip pen drawings), devoted to the details of life, to his “strange” tastes, or to the chewing gum of the stars? It was a passport to meet musicians I loved, Warren Ellis, Sebastian… » Songwriter, musician (the melodica holds no secrets for her), author for Les Inrocks and diligent babysitter (her business model), Violette Gauthier has just published a book with L’Oie de Cravan, 172 détails de mes 19 ans. We received her at the editorial office to find out much more. Interview by show of hands.
You describe your home as a “cabinet of curiosities,” where books, unusual objects, and works of outsider art rubbed shoulders. What reading marked your childhood?
Violette Gauthier : It was a fanzine by Elli Medeiros, called Images and Lyricsand brought together texts, comics… It’s the first fanzine I had in my hands!
Is it the “do it yourself” and very free side that you liked in the fanzine format?
Yes, exactly. I started doing it all by myself when I was little. First on my computer, I wrote fake interviews with Agatha Christie. Then by hand with Bleachwhen I was 14. I really wanted to get back to the paper side, and to compose a magazine that I would have liked to read.
Bleach in three words?
It is a cabinet of visual, sound and human curiosities, in drawing.
You are also a singer-songwriter and this is reflected in the subjects chosen in your fanzine.
The fanzine had a heyday during the punk movement, so mine is part of that tradition. My culture and my taste for art came through music. Besides, Eau de Javel is called that because like many teenagers I listened to Nirvana, and their first album… it’s Bleach (bleach in English, editor’s note). And interviewing musicians inspired me to create my own instrument using office rubber bands: the elastikophone.
Ton premier amour musical ?
When I was little, for five years, I only listened to the Wampas. When I was ten, I went on stage with Didier Wampas, dressed in gold skinny jeans… I wanted to be like him!
And from a cultural point of view, where do you get your information?
Either I get lost on YouTube or Spotify – it’s funny I give 21st century answers when I feel like I’m stuck in another time, (laughs) – but more often in books or in record stores where I’m captivated by the covers.
A fanzine to recommend to us?
Raymond Pettibon’s are magnificent, or Howard Finster’s… More current, I can add the magazine Sales Almanacissue d’un fanzine(a sort of underground culture directory created in the 1980s and reactivated in recent years, editor’s note).
The song to listen to this summer while reading your fanzine?
“Pista (Fresh Start)” by Los Bichos, a group of great musicians. It’s the heat of dancing bodies!
Bleach has a final section on famous chewing gums that you collect. Which one has the best story?
Marcel Proust’s. Yes, I really have a Marcel Proust chewing gum. It’s a pink chewing gum, a kind of gum from the early 20th century, that he used in case of stress and that he put under his bedside table to continue writing.
The sequel for Bleach?
If all goes well, Eau de Javel will perhaps one day become the logbook of my concerts. And besides, I have never made a number 1 of the fanzine… It will come!
By Violaine Epitalon
Photo Basile Bertrand
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