CUIR

Converse on my feet, can in hand, patched leather jacket, I get on tracks. Pockets full of weed, nostrils full of speed.» nothing more effective as an introduction than the lyrics from « Mode Branleur » (“Wanker Mode On” ED) in order to get to the essential of Cuir.

Cuir is above all this pink mask, this austere look, and all the marks of perdition and debauchery that it leaves to hide. Under the mask, it’s Doug, a very hyperactive one, and Brittany’s punk scene activist for many years already (Sordid Ship, Coupe Gorge…). Cuir is also about synthesizers and not just any synthesizer, the cheapest and catchyest conceavable on the market! A handful of EPs, two albums on the clock, one of which was released this year, let’s decode Doug a little better, and see that he’s not so “wanker” as he lets it appear!

| Interview & translation by Nino Futur

Alone at the helm aboard the Cuir station, since 2018, this project is an escape, a breath of fresh air for Doug “free to go to the end of things, without asking anyone’s opinion regarding t artistic”. A whole concept for 100% personal texts and an eminently punx project.

All this solo madness started from a concert: the Australian punk band Ausmuteants in a local bar in Lorient. Known for their so-called “Synth” adds, that is malodies based on old-school and cheap synthesizers, for Doug it was the impetus.

The synthesizer therefore has its place in punk without spilling over Post-punk and New Wave for hipsters. It is on this premise that Cuir will launch. Unlike Captain Krabs and his recipe for pattys, Doug does not hide from revealing his secret formula:

“Most of the time I find the main riffs of the songs on the guitar and then the good melodic lead which I transpose to the synth . And once I have the synth lead for an effective chorus, I add it in the verses to harmonize the whole thing and bang, you get some Cuir! “.

Cuir is also this threatening fluorescent pink hood, an SM vestige, which allows Doug, although accustomed to perform barefaced : “to be able to say more things and be more true”, under the anonymity of Cuir and the semblance of a character which is only Doug wearing a pink hood (which would appear to be a real nightmare to wear on stage) everything seems permitted to spit at the top of his lungs his still poorly swallowed teenage rage, his destructive impulses and also self-destructive.

Self-destruct, gloomy partying, the turbo-get-highness those are themes that has remained constant on each discographic effort from Cuir: between songs like “Shlag” (« Doper »), « Prenons de la drogue » (“Let’s Take Drugs”) or even “Overdose Chaos“, Doug affirms without flinching that he is only counting the stormy fable of his weekends:

“More than half of my life repeating the same pattern so it is normal that I kinda “go around in circles” on the subject album after album”.

After a first demo in 2019 as soberly as possible called “DEMO DEMO DEMO” more than well received by the high authorities of D.I.Y, Cuir continued to pursue its merry way, proposing this same recipe, finding traveling companions in order to play live, chaining albums releases and other EPs (“ALBUM” in 2021 and “EP” in 2022) until our modern era of 2024 and the release “ALBUM ALBUM” on the punk label Offside Records.

Almost already sold-out, the album allowed the project to grow and even tour internationally for a tumultuous and conquering trip. Between broken windows, a carjacking attempt of the van and forgotten masks on the road… the tour confirmed itself as a well-conducted and efficient mission:

“very good reception internationally, frankly only positive, we managed to nab the people live even if they don’t know the band or even understand the lyrics.”

Already working on a new mixtape project but also on the creation of his own studio for more independence, Doug beats the Cuir while it’s still hot!

Hungry for the road, just as good for playing in punk, skin, or among egg-punks and other weirdos scene, when he’s not on a mission for rock, it’s because Doug found him lost again at 9m2.

Another name given to his cellar transformed into a clandestine bar, it is here that all the essence and inspiration of Cuir was drawn, it is also that the world is being remade, or at least Morbihan (Western France’s area ED). It’s probably right here that “you and your posse won’t hold the tide”.

In the end Doug is like you and me, a brave, desperate, chaotic and self-destructive hedonist who only asks for one fundamental thing: