User:Tiraboschi/French 79

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French 79
Birth name	Simon Henner
Also known as	Simon Henner
Born	Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France
Genres	Electronic Pop Disco Deep house
Occupation	Music producer
Years active	2014-present (as French 79)
Labels	Limitrophe Production Alter K

Simon Henner, known professionally as French 79, is a French electronic music artist from Marseille, France. His music career began with creation of Nasser, with which he was a guitarist. After releasing 4 albums, he moved to a pop group, Husbands, along with fellow French artists Kid Francesoli (Mathieu Hocine) and Oh! Tiger Mountain (Mathieu Poulain). He first produced music under the French 79 name in 2014 with his debut single "Between the Buttons" and EP Angel.

Life and Career

Nasser and Husbands

At the beginning of his career, Henner founded Nasser, an electronic rock band, in Marseillie. Comprised of Facteur, Henner's alias at the time, as a guitarist, Nicolas Viegeolat as a drummer, and Romain Chincha as a synth player, they released four albums: #1 in 2009, under Leonizer Records, #5 in 2010 under Bonsaï Music, #4 in 2011 under Bonsaï Music and Washi Washa, and their final album of the time, #7, in 2013 under Washi Washa. They later reunited to release the more Electronic-focused The Outcome in 2018 under Pschent Music.

After leaving Nasser, Henner created the pop group Husbands with artists Kid Francesoli and Oh! Tiger Mountain, as they had already been collaborating on other projects together. The group did not have a specific genre focus, but was instead created as a way to explore new ideas, or as put by France Rocks' biography:

They started playing and recording together with no other goal than having as much fun as they could trying to squeeze in everything that didn’t fit in their other artistic endeavors. The result is a joyous, generous, addictive melting pot of everything pop, from indie to dance to reggae and more.

French 79, Angel, Olympic and Joshua

Throughout Henner's career with Nasser and Husbands, he felt that he had a drive to produce electronic-oriented music that was not sated by either of the groups. As such, he created the French 79 title, inspired by the cocktail French 75. He has said that the French 79 moniker should be very individually-focused, as having multiple instrumentalists on stage would be too reminiscent of his previous group experiences.

In 2014, he self-released his first EP, Angel. Though it received little widespread popularity, it was rated highly and later grew alongside his persona with later releases. Similarly, also in 2014, he released "Between the Buttons", which gained popularity as it was later featured on his debut album. In early 2016, he allotted a 6 month time period between tours to produce Olympic, his first full album, which was released 21 October, 2016.

He stated that his intent with the album was to use retro themes, including 70s to 90s synths to create a "club album", to reminisce and to "pay homage to the time I built myself - the 80s and 90s" His influences included film scores composed during his time as a teenager in the 1990s, composed by artists like François de Roubaix and Vladimir Cosma, and artists using synths that sounded "elegant [and] hyper class", like French artists Daft Punk, Kavinsky, and M83, and German musician Apparat. While some songs do contain vocals, he has said that they were avoided, as to not subtract from the album's atmosphere. As said in an interview with Manifesto XXI: "I have influences right to left. This is what I tried to do in this album, to be a little original English, to have a German Apparat style, mixed with my French influences."

In 2019, Henner released Joshua, following very similar inspirations and concepts. He has said he considers it "the soundtrack" to his life, and that it is in many ways the "chapter two" of Olympic. Joshua features a lone collaborator (who had also featured on Olympic), singer Sarah Rebecca, who he believes writes "soulful [and] very personal" lyrics that "just works" with the albums themes. Podcast EatThisMusic described his album after talking with him by saying (while using many of Henner's words):

The entire creative process for French 79 is very authentic. French 79 likes to start “playing a melody” on his “little handy synth” on his “boat in the bay of Marseille” or in “the mountains in the Alps like Chamonix,” French 79 always has it with him. French 79 always tries “to depict a feeling, a location, someone, a relationship” or a memory when creating music, so it is “more evocative” and it is “not just notes of music,” it is “like a music sketch or memo”. Then French 79 goes back to his studio” and listens to the demos he has put together. If something catches French 79’s attention, he starts to build something around this pitch, it is “like writing a movie” or “a book”, essentially the “plot can be really simple to start with,” even “sometimes a unique sentence is strong enough to be intriguing.” Then comes the time to make a song more produced, with French 79 telling himself, “[O]k let’s see if this can turn into a proper song”. French 79 has “tons of raw “tracks” in” a[ ]hard drive, and “some of them might end up being polished and become future songs of mine.”

Throughout his time as French 79, Henner has toured over 40 times, mostly in Germany and France.

Discography

Albums

Year	Title
2016	Olympic Released 21 October, 2016 Label: Alter K
2019	Joshua Released: 8 November, 2019 Label: Alter K

Singles

Year	Title
2014	Angel Released: 21 October, 2014 Label: Self-published

Category:21st-century male musicians Category:21st-century French musicians Category:Electronic musicians Category:Deep house musicians Category:French record producers Category:French electronic musicians