This is very funny. Once I read an interview of Elliott Smith, where the journalist said he sounded like Nick Drake. At that time, I didn’t know Nick Drake, and neither did Elliott Smith. I don’t know if the journalist felt ridiculous, because usually when you say that somebody sounds like somebody else, the purpose is to determine influences and so on. So as I liked this concept of being influenced by somebody you’ve never heard of or simply never heard, when the Studenthouse asked me to give a small biography for the festival, I wrote among other things “Some say it sounds like Belle & Sebastian, some say Leonard Cohen (…). Some talk about names that the singer has never heard of”. I sent this to the person in charge of the bands, and he replied me that he found Orouni sounds like Syd Barrett!!! I can’t say that I’ve never heard of him or never heard him, of course I love songs like See Emily Play, Arnold Layne, or Flaming Lips that he wrote when he was still in Pink Floyd, but this is definitely not an influence, sorry Thom and Yod :)
So tonight I’m listening to The Madcap Laughs, his solo album, to check what I(t) sound(s) like.