by Colleen Dougher

While many local music fans may recognize Yves Giraud as the former singer, bassist and co-songwriter for local  Euro-pop trio Jadestone or bass player for The Spoon Benders, the bluesy funk-rock band he played in from 2005 until 2007, he recently recorded his first solo effort, Hello. His digital CD is the first release from Forward Motion Records, the indie label recently established by Miami band Dreaming in Stereo’s frontman Fernando Perdomo. Recently, we interviewed the Hollywood pop singer-songwriter about The Spoon Benders’ breakup, his speedy songwriting and his new tunes including one that’s bound to appeal to many. Titled “Avant,” it’s about those days when all you want to do is  call in sick and forget about the whole work thing. Who can’t identify with that?

Do The Spoon Benders still perform anywhere?

No, the band is pretty much done. It was a three-piece band and Matt Winfree, the singer and guitarist, was trying to push the band to do something. We were going to move to Nashville in 2007 and something happened to me in my life financially and I made the decision to stay here with my wife and that pretty much broke up the band. He moved to Nashville to try to keep going and found new players but that didn’t last too long so now he’s in Hawaii. … We do an occasional reunion show when he comes to town but that’s about it.

Was the breakup something that turned out to be good for you?

It’s hard to tell because who knows where that band would have gone. We were doing well. We were able to tour and do interesting things. But I realized I was getting a little bit old to be doing it the way we were doing it. We were trying to be this old-school band that toured without any financial help or record deal. It was demanding and I like South Florida, to be honest with you. Even though most people think it’s too hot, it works for me. I had a house and wife and I just kind of felt like it was time to be a little more serious about the way I did things than just being a full-time musician who travels without making enough money to survive. So in that sense I think it was [good].

Do any of the songs on your new CD deal with the band breakup?

There is a song on the album called “In the Middle of This Song.” I don’t think I wrote it thinking it was about that but the general idea was in it. It’s the idea of growing a bit older and thinking about where you are and how you’re doing things and this whole feeling that things are going a little faster. When I was younger I used to do all kinds of things and sleep two hours a night and be a little crazier, especially when I lived in Los Angeles. That song is about realizing that things are changing and I have to reassess who I am and what I’m doing.

So after The Spoon Benders you continued as a full-time musician?

That’s something I made a decision to become in the early 2000s, I said I really want to do this full-time even though I may not have the career I imagined at 20. I realized I could make money doing something I love, playing music, so I just kept busy doing solo gigs and duos and things with other people. I knew Justin Enco, a Delray Beach musician who does very well for himself as far as getting gigs and making money and surviving. Justin found out that I was available and asked me if I wanted to play with him, so I’ve been doing so since then. At this time it’s actually my main full-time band. It’s a big part of my life right now.

And Broken Sound Boulevard?

Yes, that was my way of still doing exactly what I wanted to do my own way but I’m not very good at promoting myself and pushing myself and trying to make a name for myself so it became a side project. It’s a three-piece acoustic mainly, occasionally electric, but mainly I play acoustic guitar and sing and I have a fabulous bass player named Chris Bonelli, the nephew of a Matt Bonelli, a fairly well-respected and well-known bass player in Florida. I have two different drummers – depends on the weather and I guess who is available. One is Bryan Sussman the other one is Brian Bennett.

How did you come to work with Forward Motion Records?

I have known Fernando [Perdomo] since the ‘90s. He was in DC-3 and he’s still in DC-3. I had my own band at the time named Jadestone and we ended up playing the same circuit. We got along well but didn’t really know each other except from a distance. … But when The Spoon Benders were done, I had this urge to do something I really wanted to do and I contacted Fernando. I knew he was really good at the style of music I like and at coming up with a way of doing it well, so we started working together.

You recorded a CD with Jadestone as well?

Yes, I actually did several. We started in the late 90s and ended a little bit before I joined The Spoon Benders, around 2005, so that was probably the longest run I had in one band. But it was an all-original band, which makes things difficult in South Florida because you only get to play so often. There are not too many venues for that and not much money to be made. … We had one CD called Chocolate-Covered Strawberries (2002) that did very well for a while. We actually even got another CD signed in England with a label, I think Spin Into You was the name of the CD.

Can you tell me about recording your new release as opposed to your previous CDs?

I’ve been used to doing a lot of things myself – producing and recording and playing a lot of the instruments just to try to get the vibe I wanted. … When it came time to doing this album Hello, I contacted Fernando. I have such respect for him as a musician and composer. … I didn’t have any songs written when I contacted him and it took me about two weeks to write the songs. I would actually write them sometimes on the way to the studio. I would get there and play them to him on the couch on acoustic guitar and I would say, ‘OK, how are we going to make this song sound really good?’ And he played a lot of parts. He played keyboard, guitars, so the main difference for me was just to lay back, be a songwriter and let somebody produce and record and then it’s like OK, were going to add piano here. … We worked together.

You wrote all that in a few weeks?

Yeah, over the years I’ve realized that the faster the ideas come and the simpler I stay with the ideas and the faster I lay them down, the better they are. When I work too long on one song and try to make it even better, eventually I destroy it. … I’ve had a tendency over the years to try to write fast and whatever comes, just let it flow and don’t change anything.

Which song on the CD came fastest, just spilled right out?

Hmmm. I don’t know if there was that much of a difference. … probably a song like “Hello,” the title track. There was no hesitation. It just flowed. The lyrics are where I struggle most. I like to write something that’s intelligent enough but I’m still learning English even though I’ve been in the states for 20 years. It’s amazing how everyday I find out something I didn’t know. But musically I would say “Hello” was probably a half-hour thing. It all just worked out right there.

What inspired some of the other songs?

Well I think they have that theme, all of them the same idea. I felt at a time when I was younger — and I don’t like to use that word because I don’t feel old at all …

How old are you?

I’m 44, but I felt at the time that it was a turning point in my life … the end of The Spoon Benders which was a fairly successful band down here, and searching, realizing it was time to change a little. So there was a little bit of seriousness involved in this CD. Maybe some of the other CDs I created before were whatever came to mind. This one, I think, has a direction about it. “Human Way” was my first attempt to say something about life and the negative side of human behavior. I usually just sing about relationships and boyfriend and girlfriend and breakups – the typical songs and simple subjects. A song like “Avant” which has a French title and chorus is about struggling to get up in the morning and go to work, which is simple enough but such a daily reality for all of us. I mean hopefully you love your job enough to want to get up in the morning. I think it’s very important in life, but we’ve all had those days where we just want to stay in bed and call in sick and that’s what it’s about. I guess.

What’s the translation of the French chorus?

Before I lose myself and I throw myself in a hole, I’m going to face myself and I’m going to face the day. I don’t have the exact words in front of me but it translates to that so it’s about trying to be positive about a feeling that’s negative.

So the thread that runs through the songs is the turning point you were talking about?

I guess, maybe just being more mature about life …  stopping in your tracks, where you’ve been working, you’ve been doing all of your things and the years go by and then you slow down and think about everything around you and the subjects that matter to you, one of them being obviously relationship and love and things like “Hello” and then comes the plain old songs about meeting somebody and trying to have a connection. Those are love songs. “War of the Roses” is about the difficulty in relationships and in life itself so I think it’s all a little bit in that sense about trying to realize who I am. We each have our own vision of life but sometimes we just kind of go, go, go every day and get up and do your thing and then go to bed. It was kind of a pondering moment, I guess. That’s what the CD is about, stopping and looking around and thinking about things.

“Hello” which has a man leaving roses at the door of a stranger, is the first track and “War of the Roses” the closer. It’s interesting how it begins and ends with roses.

It wasn’t a conscious thing at the time. I remember thinking about that myself. I’m glad you pointed that out. When it was time to put the songs together, it ended that way and we thought ‘Hmmm, that’s kind of interesting actually.’ Like with movies, it’s always good to have a common thread ….

Yves Giraud will perform at 10 p.m. Tuesday, July 20 at Forward Motion Records’ kickoff party at Van Dyke Café, 846 Lincoln Road, Miami Beach. The lineup also includes Omine (9 p.m.), Perdomo’s band Dreaming in Stereo (10:30 p.m.), Jorge Moreno (11:20 p.m.) and the return of Vic Kingsley’s band The Westar (midnight). The official release party for Giraud’s digital 10-track CD Hello is 10 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 31 at Bardot in Miami. Meanwhile, check out some of his new songs at Yves Giraud’s  Myspace or visit Yvesgiraud.com for more info.

Photos by Gina Rowland.