“When you’re 18, starting a career in music doesn’t take much. “When he started with his friends from Zola high school in Rennes, Victor Solf probably did not imagine that his voice would take him so far. With his friend Simon Carpentier, who died of cancer in 2017, he was part of Popopopops before creating the group Her, with which he played and traveled around the world. In 2010, the kid he was was lucky enough to be spotted by Jean-Louis Brossard, the boss of Trans Musicales. “It was an evening of the Fête de la musique at the Jardin Moderne. There were only ten people. But he was there ”.
Like him, many groups took off thanks to the winter festival, renowned for finding talent. A real springboard that has long supported the Rennes scene and pushed some of them to create their own festival. In 2012, five well-known local groups of the Trans (Popopopops, Manceau, Juveniles, Success and the Wankin Noodles) founded I’m from Rennes with the host of Channel B Cedric Bouchu. “They wanted to highlight the local scene. Not just them, but rather the others, ”recalls this pillar of local radio.
“I don’t know what career I would have made in another city”
It was almost ten years ago and it was not expected to last. But the festival is still there and will celebrate its tenth edition from September 19 to 26. Since its creation, it has never ceased to open its stages to local groups who had sometimes never played further than in their garage. Not all of them have made it, far from it. But that is not the objective. “The results are very positive for the artists but also for the city. I’m from Rennes made it possible to enhance the local scene with the people who support groups, especially when they were less popular, ”continues Cédric Bouchu. Victor Solf recognizes it. Rennes is a real springboard. “I don’t know what career I would have made in another city. Maybe none ”. Before falling ill, his sidekick Simon Carpentier was also an active member of I’m from Rennes. “He talked about it a lot, he wanted it to live.”
💬 “Today’s excitement in the Rennes scene is the same as that of the 80s … the moment of the beginning of the Trans …”
🎶 Meeting with Ced Bouchu, programmer of the unmissable back-to-school festival: @Imfromrennes #VisitRennes #Rennes https://t.co/En6NIIsNMB– Rennes Tourism (@tourismerennes) August 28, 2021
This energy, many consider that it was born in the 1980s, at the same time as the Trans and the explosion of Etienne Daho or Marquis de Sade. Since then, the breath has never really died down and the Breton capital still seems populated by talented artists. “We have always seen that it was a breeding ground for musicians. And at each start of the student year, we saw others arriving, ”recalls Yann Chéhu, former member of Success now known as James Eleganz. “When we started I’m from Rennes, we didn’t need to have a record to tour. We had 50 dates in the year without forcing. Today, the business has changed, it’s much more complicated to play. Cultural places have such a fear of not filling that they no longer take any risk, ”believes the musician now based in Dinard.
“Today, Spotify and Apple Music rule everything”
For ten years and the birth of the festival, Rennes has seen the emergence of a good number of groups which have ended up breaking through at the national level. We talked about the soul of Her, the pop of the Juveniles, proof that the rock scene is no longer the only one to flourish in the capital. But what about the explosion of the rap collective Columbine or their friend Lorenzo? “It’s a new way of consuming music. Today, Spotify and Apple Music rule everything. The styles are more mixed, ”says Victor Solf. For this tenth edition, we warmly recommend that you go and listen to the suave voice of Jeanne Bonjour, the slamming flow of MoHican or the US rap project of Lowdy Williams. And all the others too.