Oh No: Is This the Band the French Punk Scene Has Been Missing?

It was a drizzly July afternoon in Montreuil when we met with Oh Non. The five band members gradually trickled in at the meeting spot, giving us just enough time to get acquainted before the thick armored door nearby was unlocked. Our meeting place was La Marbrerie, a cultural venue and concert hall located on the outskirts of the capital, where the staff welcomed us warmly. This location was deliberately chosen; two months ago, the quintet had taken over its stage for the third “Oh Non Night,” an event they organized featuring two other bands of their choosing. This spectacular, flamboyant, and lively gathering demonstrated, if proof were needed, that counterculture is still very much alive and kicking among the youth of the Paris region.

Oh Non’s live performances are anything but ordinary. They don’t just deliver a concert like so many others. Their approach is maximalist, burlesque, and exuberant. “It’s like a brutalist cabaret, as if Nina Hagen and Liza Minnelli had made love in a warehouse,” jokes Diane Helayel, the band’s singer. This image serves “to demonstrate the collision of numerous elements.” Indeed, Oh Non’s music lies at the crossroads of a plethora of artistic influences, squeezed between the aesthetic brilliance of new-wave and cabaret. The band evokes comparisons to Klaus Nomi, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and Mistinguett.

Dismantling Punk Norms One by One

The group proudly embraces the label “dada punk” as a way to “define the absurd aspect,” explains Téo Comon (bass, synths). “Initially, it was about doing something that wasn’t straightforward, something odd,” adds Rory Goetgheluck, the guitarist. Téo continues: “Aesthetically, there’s a heavy influence of surrealism and Dadaism. Dadaism is about destroying art by art, so we play punk music, but we try to dismantle its norms one by one.”

Oh Non shakes off the clichés attached to a genre that can sometimes be stereotyped, seizing on a movement that’s meant to be rule-free and injecting it with influences that inspire them. “When the band started, we used to go a lot to the cabaret at Cirque Electrique, a decadent cabaret that mixes live music, a jazzy, very punk vibe, with circus performers and burlesque artists,” Diane shares. “It’s somewhere between humor and a bit of Rocky Horror, and it’s something that greatly inspired us.”

“We’re a troupe!”

This inspiration led to ideas like inviting performer Masha Kils to join them on stage during their shows. Dressed in lace, sometimes scantily, and wielding a sign reading “Pogo” or “No Pogo,” the artist delivers a performance that resonates with the audience, fostering “a sense of collective creation that feels a bit like a spectacle,” Diane suggests. And Rory adds: “We’re a troupe!”

United by Celebration

Téo and Diane met in the haze of nights filled with psychotropics, with Diane having “just arrived in Paris.” “I cornered him while he was completely wasted, telling him: ‘I want to start a band with a guy who plays the saxophone!’” she laughs. “We bumped into each other again four years later on the set of a music video where we were extras. I didn’t think he remembered our conversation, but then we decided to make music together the following week.”

They recount this period in the song “Swing des Détraqués,” from their debut EP, OH NON. “It narrates an entire evening, from arrival until you stay too long… The crazies, that was us back then. Wandering through parties that lasted too long,” Diane reveals. “This music is for everyone who loses themselves in the party,” Rory adds, who appreciates “this image of decadence.”

Initially, Oh Non’s demos leaned more towards electro (as evidenced in their very first single, “Bourdon”), inspired by their admiration for Stereo Total and Téo’s role as a producer. He quickly learned to play the bass and spent a summer in Berlin, where he met Ulysse Bouvat: “Téo told me about his project and his desire to include acoustic instruments, especially drums. Then we returned to Paris, and we had a small jam session as a trio.” “Bass, drums, vocals!” Diane laughs. The rhythm section solidified. The now trio was soon joined by Rory Goetgheluck (guitar) and Damien Pumain-Essaïan (guitar, saxophone), a very close childhood friend of Téo.

“Really… French is Great!”

As a quintet, they tinkered, experimented, and refused to limit themselves. This led them to dabble in various musical styles without ever mimicking them. The band thus navigates from post-punk (“Les Filles des Films”) to surf-rock (“Caïman”), through to bossa nova (“Je te connais plus”). “What we do now is very different from what we did at the beginning,” explains Rory. Diane adds: “We have to please everyone in the band, because we all listen to so many different things individually!” “In the end, each of our universes comes together, and we end up with something a bit weird,” Rory concludes.

Something a bit weird, and in French, if you please. With a pen filled with humor, which matches the theatricality of her singing, Diane smoothly transitions from one topic to another: beauty standards, breaking ties, mental wanderings… and those nights when you find yourself struggling to string two words of English together. “Oh my god, this guy is talking to me, in English! Ah damn crap oh no/And my French ass, would betray me/I’ve got to be nice and have to crack a joke,” she sings in “Moi Franglaise.” From personal experience? She laughs: “Obviously! I speak very bad English, even though it’s getting better. I work in a jazz club, so I’m facing American tourists every day, but at the beginning, it was tough!”

“There’s a charm in these unabashedly French bands with terrible accents”

A song that especially allows her to poke fun at “all those fashion people you meet at parties who only speak English,” while she “tries to get by.” “We started this song entirely in English, and I thought, ‘No, really… French is great!’” Téo jokes. Diane agrees: “I think there’s a charm in these unabashedly French bands with terrible accents… There’s a song by Renaud that I love in Franglais, It Is Not Because You Are.”

Live Shows, a “Gestation Chamber”

While Oh Non is already working on their next record (two new tracks are recorded), the band says they are focusing more on live performances. “It’s the cornerstone of the project,” asserts Rory. “We started like that, we did concerts before we had released anything,” explains Ulysse. “In the studio, we’re not in trouble but we’re less comfortable. Live, you often get swept up by the moment whereas in the studio, everything is controlled and you’re with the sound engineer.” Each song is indeed tested on stage for six to seven months before being recorded. “This period is also a composition work that allows us to refine certain things, to see what works or not…,” continues the drummer. And Diane adds: “It’s a little gestation chamber.”

But when it comes time to hit the studio, the band gets straight to the point. If their first EP was recorded DIY style (nine months of sessions scheduled around an already busy calendar since all five musicians work other jobs), Oh Non aims to step up their game for the next one. “The first EP, we recorded it in totally different environments, in Rory’s basement, in my room…” Téo recalls. “Now, we record everything in the same place, just for sound consistency, and to do it as quickly as possible so as not to lose the initial spirit of the track. If you let it drag on, you want to change everything.” “Plus, we don’t have the money to spend ages in the studio,” Rory laughs.

Resourcefulness and Unfailing Creativity

Financial constraints are far from dampening their creativity, which appears inexhaustible. A recent example is the music video for “Caïman,” a single released last May. Imagined by Rory and co-directed with Damien’s cousin, Vadim Essaïan, it showcases all the ingenuity and imagination of the band. “There was prosthetics, a big job on lighting, on set…,” Rory lists. “It allowed us to reuse the stage setup we had installed for the concert at La Marbrerie.” And to feature a fake caiman, joyfully paraded around Paris.

From the shoot, scheduled the day after a gig in Amsterdam, they will have long-lasting memories. “We experienced some fantastic scenes, one of the assistant directors was blocking the street while we had to run, all dressed in raincoats… When we got to the other side, there were sixty people waiting!” Damien recounts. Diane adds, laughing: “There was Rory holding the caiman on a leash while a gang of middle-aged Ukrainian women took photos… He was cooing!” Whether Rory or the reptile, we’ll never know.

In concert at the Inrocks Super Club on September 26.