Premiere: Grand Bain, ‘Yr Shoulders’

Kevin Bronson on September 16th, 2016

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Paris-born duo Grand Bain makes electro-rock for sad dances and happy endings, and while their songs find their heartbeat in vintage synthesizers, the vocal interplay between Erica von Trapp and Jules de Gasperis, and his tasty guitar, give their music substantial depth. De Gasperis is a French multi-instrumental and producer; von Trapp is a UCLA-educated chef, author, actress and singer-songwriter-keyboardist. They got together in Paris after de Gasperis asked von Trapp to join a band he was in, and when that project didn’t pan out, they continued to make music as Grand Bain (translation: “deep end”), cooking up their band name while lap swimming at a pool in Paris.

The pair last fall released the debut EP, “No Country” and relocated to Los Angeles. The new song “Yr Shoulders” is one-half of the forthcoming single release “The French Diaries.” It’s “a danceable, sad ode to family,” von Trapp says, which originated during a time the couple was staying with the de Gasperis’ clan in a cottage in the Burgundy countryside. “Being around family can be challenging at times, particularly if you’re itching to leave where you’re from, and this week had been the case,” she remembers. “He went for a walk while I stayed home and played piano, and he came back with essentially the whole song, except for the bridge. I knew that it was something special. We decided to play around with the tiny synth we’d brought, and found the pulse and then the bridge right away. The song talks about the strong love you have for your family and how you even want to like them more than you’re capable of sometimes, yet how sometimes it’s wise to break away.”

||| Stream: “Yr Shoulders”