Within the editorial staff of Justfocus, it is a pleasure to present you rich musical universes. Today we present you the Coffees & Cigarettes group, a group that skilfully mixes several registers and has an interesting culture
Hello, a quick note to introduce yourself to readers?
I am Renaud, singer, author, composer, performer for the group Coffees & Cigarettes. A band that mixes song, rock and hip hop and pays tribute to pop culture, cinema. On stage, the group is composed of guitar, machine, and strings (violin, cello) all accompanied by video-projection of cartoons. And today, we are preparing the release of our third album RollerCoaster. 
In cinema, you are more romantic comedy, action, horror, historical films? Honestly, I love all cinemas from the moment they slap me, an emotion.
I'm a romantic comedy if that's it: Love at first sight at Nothing Hill, Love Actually, The Come Back or Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
I'm an action movie if that's Indiana Jones, Die Hard, Robocop, New York 1997, Demolition Man, Last action Hero
I'm a horror movie if it's: Hellraiser, The Witch, The Chainsaw Massacre or Evil Dead.
I'm a historical film if it's: Apocalypse Now, Saving Private Ryan, Amadeus etc…
Just like I'm SF if it is: Starship Troopers, Alien, Blade Runner or 2001: A Space Odyssey.
In short, I love all cinemas.
And for music, what are the three movies you would watch on loop just for their music?
At random, I would say: Edward Scissorhands, Phantom of the paradise, The Virgin suicides. But to talk about recent movies, I could have quoted you 90's by Jonah Hill which has a great Hiphop soundtrack.
In the studio as on stage, there are a lot of strings, is it a bit the "common thread" of your songs?
Strings are very important instruments in the world of Coffees & Cigarettes. In fact, for me, the originality, in all modesty, of Coffees & Cigarettes lies precisely in the fact that the group surrounds itself with strings (violin, cello, viola). I always try to get these instruments out of their comfort zones. I do not know if we can say that the strings are the common thread but in any case they are very important.
Before C&C you were part of the band "Hors la loi", much more rock. What made you want to go towards something more urban? I have always listened to Hiphop but it was only when I created my project Coffees & Cigarettes that I realized that my lyrics and my desires in terms of music were closer to "some more urban". So at the beginning, we put some touches of hiphop in Coffees & Cigarettes and it is over the years and albums that hiphop has asserted itself and that we have claimed it more and more.
C&C is a whole universe. In your first album "London Western" you send us in a Victorian atmosphere while cohabiting French song and snippets of rap. It's daring. Your second album "Freak show" is borderline metal, still mixed with hiphop, but much more focused on guitars. Why this choice?
For each Coffees & Cigarettes album we established a theme. For London Western it was Victorian London. The adaptation of a children's story I had written. The universe had to be very song and very descriptive and narrative. It was only when he arrived on Freakshow that hiphop with big guitars asserted itself. The theme of the album was marginality, difference. So, there were some pretty harsh texts about harassment, self-acceptance, etc.And these themes brought by themselves the big guitars to support the point.
Roller Coaster, a very hip-hop album
For your latest project "Roller Coaster" you went on a more personal slam, how would you describe this opus?
For me, RollerCoaster remains very hiphop. Some lyrics, some songs like Emmène-moi and Full HD are quite spoken word / slam, it's true. This album is much more personal, autobiographical, cathartic. He approaches my life in recent years going through great moments of joy and sorrow. Hence its title RollerCoaster which recalls the rollercoaster side of life with its ups and downs. To retrace all these last years: I had to wink in the rearview mirror and also look into my childhood, into my memories. It was necessary to address the death of my mother, to talk about my children, my nana. In short, I had to agree to talk about me. And I think we managed to do that.
We could compare your cover to that of Angèle, is this the period that takes artists on the roller coaster of life?
Ah ah ah, yeah I saw that… She stung me all (laughs). Yes, I think that our covers, even if they are quite distant but deal with the subject of roller coasters, address the theme of the metaphor of the vagaries of life. In short, Angèle let's settle this by making a duet, a feat. This will be the best way to share our covers and our vision of the roller coaster (laughs)
It is always interesting to discover artists from different backgrounds. We invite you to dive behind the scenes of an incredible pianist.
