The French Connection

When it comes to living life to the fullest and soaking in all the creativity that the world has to offer, Manu Mars and Laura Julia of the French indie duo, Japan Lovers, are like — in the words of one of their idols, Queen — "a shooting star leaping through the skies; a tiger defying the laws of gravity..." There's just no stopping them.

"Life is too short, you have to experience many things and see many countries," says Laura, sitting next to Manu and talking to Broken Asphalt from their home in Paris, France. Manu has his guitar with him and donning a wolf ear hat while Laura has on a pristine buttoned down white shirt with a black bow tied around the collar. The sight is oddly reminiscent of a more eclectic French version of the White Stripes, except they sing in Japanese as well, a tribute to the country that they love and which left an indelible mark on their lives. Their name, Japan Lovers, is also the name of their first single.

Prior to his and Laura's four-month stay in Japan, Manu Mars had visited the country by himself and came home with what Laura describes as a "nervous breakdown." It's a jarring difference between Paris, the supposed city of lights, and Tokyo, a merry-go-round spinning at full tilt. Everything converges into Technicolor flashes and glimpses of people sharing a singular experience of living in Tokyo no matter how rich or poor.

Laura describes the Japanese as being, "really open-minded and kind."

"In Japan, I love the way everyone looks and they are really creative people... And I really enjoy creativity in general... I have more things to look at, to talk to, and to experiment with there than in other countries," Manu adds.

They ended up spending four months in Tokyo, and played their second gig with DJ Tomo who is a member of Style Band Tokyo and organizes parties in the city. After all the excitement on the other side of the world, coming back to Paris was a culture shock.

"In France people are really stressed and can be noisy and aggressive; (on one end) you have someone really rich, and (on the other end) people are extremely poor, and we're in the middle — it's like we don't speak the same language," she says.

Everything is completely different, even the the French music scene which is just a rehash of American music (a check online of French music sites by Broken Asphalt finds that most of the songs featured are by American household names like Ke$ha, Pit Bull, LMFAO, Rihanna and Nicki Minaj). When asked about the band Phoenix and their popularity in their home country, Maru responds without missing a beat: "They're more famous outside of France. They make too good music to occupy the higher places in the charts in France."

Laura chimes in, "We only listen to shit in France. It's all shit in the radio. Really good bands are not on the radio, it's really sad."

Luckily, things have not been too bad for Japan Lovers in France. They currently play at various exhibitions and art shows for their friends, have had their music featured in a friend's film called Chinese Kitchen, signed on with the Red Cross to raise money for Japan during the aftermath of the earthquakes that hit the country earlier this year. Still, it's not enough for Laura to quit her day job yet, and they are planning to return to Japan as soon as possible.

Money is money and it's sad that you can't afford to pay the rent even if you make good music in your home country. The pushing of boundaries and experimentation with anything and everything fuels their creative process for their music as they bring their own personal musical influences into the process — Queen and the Beach Boys for Manu Mars and Nirvana for Laura — to create a delicate blend of personal insights and melody in a song.

The result is something catchy as it is unique. From complaining about how their constant inability to pay the rent, the death of Laura's bunny, Tetsuo, to Laura's near drowning in a swimming pool as a child, nothing is off limits for them when it comes to their music. Catch a sample of their unique sound here and you'll agree that they should be at the top of the charts.