It was hailing in Olympia when we rang Jeremy Jay at K Records, where he is mixing his new album, a fitting atmosphere for his moody French new wave songs about Chinese dragons and dreaming. An avid Francoise Hardy fan, we chatted with Jeremy about his personal style, dancing and his amazing mirror/prism belt in Texas. Read the interview after the jump.
Let’s talk about your sense of style and Francoise Hardy, shall we?
I love Francoise Hardy for her basic French sensibility of softness, romance and passion. It’s pillowy in the coolest way. You see it in a lot of French new wave, like the movie My Life to Live, the girl is great in that one. It came out in 1963 and the girl, Anna Karina, she’s great, and definitely her own special deal. It just seems lyrically, especially listening to Francoise Hardy, there’s this intimacy, if you ever see her videos, its basically her looking into the camera and singing. Its just really THERE. It’s like this cool person giving you her journal entry.
Have you ever covered a Francoise Hardy song? And do you speak French?
Actually French is my first language—my mother is French—and I definitely want to cut records in French. I’ve never covered a Francoise Hardy song but if I did I would cover “Tous Les Garcons et les filles”, it’s her best single for sure, it’s so beautiful. Also, some of the photos for the next LP are kind of Francoise Hardy-ish, they’re shot on a type of black and white film called Tri-X, which is a kind of Sixties-style French new wave film. It looks really grainy and vintage, it’s very cool.
Aside from Francoise Hardy, who else inspires you? What about style wise, who do you admire?
Sixties French Mod, The Interior Designer Dorothy Draper, her style is amazing. Future 70's/80's, mostly fitted clothes. Really it's the little things you know, cool socks, silver bracelets, sharp shoes. I love red shoes but mostly I love cool black Florsheim shoes. They're my most favorite type of men’s dress shoe. I'm also mostly into slacks but also into those cool Wrangler/Lee boot-cut fitted pants. There's this great store on Sepulveda Boulevard in Culver City that had vintage old socks just lying there in front of me on sale for 10 dollars each so I bought a lot of them.
What would you say your personal style is?
Classic, I’d say. I’m wearing a lot of patterned, short-sleeved shirts with V-neck sweaters and Florsheim shoes, also striped socks and polka dot socks. It’s all about the socks. You can have your whole deal but without the socks its nothing. I’m really into silver bracelets too. My mother grew up in French Switzerland and was there in the Sixties. All of the Edith Piaf and Francoise Hardy style is from her. She’s the reason why for sure.
We also noticed you had a really awesome accessory at South by Southwest?
Ahh, the mirror belt, a yeah, I’m actually wearing that right now.
Do you like to dance?
I Go-Go with a sway.
