Plateprat med Quentin Orléan

Hello!
If someone buys you a drink, what do you drink?
Regular Coke

Describe yourself in at least five words.
I was born in Paris in late seventies. Always lived here, It’s my city. I wouldn’t to live elsewhere (except maybe in Japan). I’m married to Alexandra, who is like me a librarian. I’m also a Beatles nut fan. I’m a pure Parisian but my family is motsly (my grand parents) from Poland. But left after WWII.

If you were to choose a pseudonym/artist name?
Zappeur Fou

If you were to write an autobiography one day, what would it be called?
No need to be ambitious to live a happy life

What is your relationship with libraries?
I’m a librarian since 2008. I worked in University libraires, and actually working at library for the National Museum of natural history in Paris.

Five favorite albums?
Love «Forever Changes»

Gene Clark «No Other»

The Beatles «The Beatles»

Nick Drake «Pink Moon»

Zerfas

Five favorite songs?
Difficult question ! those five in the top of my head. But it could be totally different in a couple of hours. The Kinks «Days»,

The Beatles «Tomorrow Never Knows»,

Cold Sun «Here in the Year»,

John Lennon «Mind Games»

Television «Marquee Moon»

What have you been listening to in the past few days?
Who’s Next

Wings «Venus & Mars»,

Cosmic Dealer «Crystallization»,

Iron Butterfly «Heavy»,

Eden’s Children,

Shelagh McDonald «Stargazer»,

Christopher Owens,

Weird Herald,

Gruff Rhys,

Mendelson

Underrated album?
Left Banke «Left Banke Too»

A classic that you've never understood?
Anything by Elvis Costello and Bruce Springsteen

Three favorite album covers?
Golden Dawn «Power Plant»,

«Tropicália ou panis et circencis»,

Donnie & Joe Emerson «Dreamin’ Wild»

Do you collect records? Why?
Yes I do. Because i love the object. The original size of the cover. I’m not an audiophile, so I understand that sometimes it’s not all about sound. But mainly I loooove music. On a vinyl disc you have exactly perfectly timed music. Albums are no too long (like some albums from the 90s are on CDs)

What is the most important difference from when you started collecting records and how it is now?
The price is getting through the roof sometimes. But with internet, it is also easier to find stuff, and even try contact musicians to know more about what they did 50 years ago.

Favorite physical record store?
In Paris (where I live) : Listen! Vinyl Record Store. In the whole world : Disk Union in Tokyo

Last purchased record?
Billy Nicholls «Love Songs»

Your best record purchase ever?
Usually, it’s when I meet artists and tyhey gave me their rare record. So let’s say (for the journey behind it’s finding) : P’tit Fond de rouge

Three records at the top of your Wantlist?
Zerfas,
Joyful Sound «It Will Be Worth It All»,

Bluebyrd (second album from 1975)

The best guitar solo ever recorded?
The solos on Marquee Moon

Favorite song in another language or dialect?
«Cadw 'Mlaen» by Bili Dowcer a'r Gwylanod (welsh artist from the seventies)

The best lyricist? (Your favorite)
I usually don’t listen that much to the lyrics. So let’s name a French artist I love : Jean-Louis Murat

Favorite movie/TV series?
Seinfeld

Vinyl, CD, Cassette, or Streaming. What do you prefer?
Physical always, mainly vinyl. But I like CDs and cassettes too. I use streaming too to try new stuff, and decide if I need them on vinyl

Are you an audio freak/audiophile? No

A mixtape/Spotify playlist to celebrate love, what three songs must be included?
«Days» by the Kinks,
Jackie DeShannon «What the World Needs Now Is Love»,

Dion «Make the Woman Love Me»,

or the «Requiem for an Almost Lady» album by Lee Hazlewood

«Histoire de Melody Nelson» (album too) by Serge Gainsbourg

Which three records have influenced/inspired you the most in the past three years?
«Mind Games» by John Lennon, «It’s not too late» by Crystal Ball

and Pharoah Sanders «Wisdom Through Music»

Music books you would recommend and why?
I started with superb books with recent small review of albums, like : Acid Archives

Endless Trip

or Galactic Ramble.

A great to start collecting sixties or early seventies rock/psych records.

A novel that made an impression on you?

I mosty read books about music. But I love science fiction, mostly classic stuff from the fifties or sixties like Asimov or Philip K. Dick

Non-fiction you would recommend?
Maybe «Nico : The End» by James Young. It’s by a English musician who worked with Nico in the eighties. It’s strangely very funny in describing the strange life of Nico the junkie/musician

If you could put together your dream band, with musicians either living or dead, who would you include?
The Beales !

A memorable music moment?
11 Fébruary 1963 at EMI studio (Abbey Road), the beatles recording in one day 10 tracks for their first album

Which concertwill you never forget?
Arthur Lee in June 2002 in Paris.

Favorite festival?
Not a huge fan of festivals (for the ones I went to). Otherwise I guess 1967 Monterey

Where would you like to travel to experience music?
1962 lunch hour at the Cavern club to see the Beatles

Dream job now and when you were 13?
Not working ! If I really need to choose : Subway driver

How do you think your friends perceive your taste in music?
They totally understand. Always ask for advice. But it’s difficult because everyone has different taste, something I love might not be enjoyed by someone else

Is there a music genre you wish you had spent more time on or gotten to know better?
Classical

What kind of music did you listen to in your teenage years?
Classic rock : Queen, U2, Beatles etc... It changed when I discovered Leonard Cohen, Bowie or the Velvet Underground (CD gifted to me by my father when I bought my first CD player)

Has your taste in music changed?
Of course it has. But still listen globally to the same kind of music. But now I can’t listen to U2 or Queen

Which record can you still put on when you're tired of music?
Anything by the Beatles, Love «Forever Changes», Television «Marquee Moon» or Nick Drake

A musical decade you would travel to if you had a time machine?
Sixties of course !

Are you nostalgic?
No. I’m glad I am from the late seventies, because I can love music from every decade. If I had been a teenager in the sixties, I might have followed the beatles. But I will have missed a lot of more obscure stuff. And I might also not love the Beatles then !

Is there something you want to learn?
Always wanted to be a record producer

The best-dressed musician?
Arthur Lee

Are you vain? Aren’t we all ?

Will you show us a tattoo? I don’t have any tattoo

Are you a maximalist or minimalist? Both

Are you introverted or extroverted? 
Mostly introverted

Mental age? Still 23

What excites you? Discovering new music

What are you afraid of?
Being deaf

Have you had an interesting dream lately? About what?
Not recently, but I have regurlarly dreams about finding rare records for a couple of dollars or euros

Which plant, tree, or animal would you like to be reincarnated as?
Cat

Is there a sound you strongly dislike?
Kazoo

Favorite food?
These days : Katsu curry

Favorite sport?
Football, or ski jumping

If you were to define yourself as a car, which model are you?
One that stays in a garage

Your life philosophy?
Newman (from Seinfeld) : «I don’t work in the rain»

If there is a God, what do you think he would say to you when you meet?
I hope he is a Beatles nut too, he will let me meet John and George

Is there something that annoys you?
Racism, individualism

Something you regret?
Not really. May talking more to my great grand father who stayed 3 years in Auschwitz, and know more about his life (I was 11 years old when he died)

What is your relationship with music journalism? How do you update yourself on music?
I love it. My life changed, and my record collection too when I discovered rock magazines : first the Inrockuptibles in 1996, MOJO in 200, and the most game-changer for me Ugly Things in 2001 (Kim Fowley on the cover and its 40-pages interveiw !).

Today I read Ugly Things, and Shindig!

Do you have any relationship with the record industry?
With some small record labels. I worked with some of them. Giving them ideas of reissues, and sometimes writing liner notes (Guerssen, WahWah, Cameleon etc...)

Are there people who have been important to your taste in music?
My father when he offered me the first Velvet Underground album on CD (I never heard about them then, while I was listening to U2)
Some French record collectors (Sebastien et Alexandre) who each run some great blog. Of course Patrick Lundborg and his Acid Archives.

And I used to talk (very little) with him through emails. He was a kind person, he his really missed

Your role model, or a mentor from whom you have learned something special?
My wife ! She helped me being the person I am today

What inspires you?
Love and kindness

Favorite instrument?
Pedal steel and vintage synths like Moog

Favorite producer?
Phil Spector (not as a person)

Favorite studio? Abbey Road

Favorite record label?
Kiosque d’Orphée

Best/most beautiful song for a funeral?
«Days» by the Kinks

Is there a musician or band that has received far too little attention?
So many ! J.P. Nataf

Tucker Zimmerman

John Carter

John Cunningham

Jimmer Glynn

Honeybus

Insect Trust

The Monks

and many more but let’s stope here 😉

Do you have something you want to ask yourself?
It’s more an advice than a question : you should write a book about music

Who should I have the next Plateprat interview with?
Alex Kerner (Chicago born and raised. Library clerk by day. Obscure vinyl collector all day every day.)