Tarah Who? is a French Rock band with an interesting sound and personality that takes roots in elements from different Rock eras. The band is formed from the duet Tarah Carpenter and Coralie Herve, who we have interviewed for this article!
Tarah Carpenter Vocals, Guitar
Coralie Herve Drums
Interview
Hello Tarah and hello Coralie! How has 2021 been treating you ladies so far?
Pretty good!! We have started to release new music and videos so it’s always exciting !!
Yeah! Everything is really good and really busy! Like Coralie said, we are releasing a new song and a new music video every month until the release of the album in April 2021, so.. busy busy!!
You were pretty busy lately. You release an EP and a few singles in 2020 and 2021, and you’re going to release an album in April. What can you tell us about the upcoming album?
During the lockdown, I worked on a few songs, and tried a different approach of writing. I came up with the music first. Guitars, bass and drums, then added the vocals. We could not see each other with Coralie so we sent each other tracks and had zoom meetings with our producer Jason Orme. We met one weekend to record the whole thing hoping that each one of us had learned the demo tracks!
That’s great. Tarah, how would you describe your sound as a band, without using technical terms, to our readers who are yet to check your music out?
The way I see Tarah Who? ‘s music is raw Rock. I am very much influenced by 90 s rock, grunge and US punk, I think you can hear that in the songs. We don’t fit in one category because I prefer to stay authentic to the feelings of what I wrote. So if that song sounds more slow like ‘ Hurt’ it will stay that way because that is how I felt at the timme. The colors of that song however might remind you of PJ Harvey. Our song ‘Pantomath’ is more punk, and ‘RAiny Day’ might remind you more of the Foo Fighters.. So I know people need labels, but we don’t really fit in one category. Our attitude puts us in a rock, punk category, but you don’t expect our songs to sound like the clash. 😉
Coralie you’re a left-handed drummer. I am curious, do you play the traditional right-handed set up or your own, and have you faced any difficulties due to that?
I prefer playing my own kit but sometimes we are sharing instruments with other bands and in this case I have to reverse everything to left handed, and some people don’t like it. At some venues, there is not really time in between bands to do changes and it always took me a little bit of time to reverse everything. I can see people staring at me and be like …. you don’t have time for that but I do it anyway hahaha.
To get our readers to know you better, how about we play a little imagination game? I will give you a scenario in an alternate universe and you’d have to react. Ready?
Ready!!
go!
In a universe where the senses of taste and hearing are mixed up, what food would you imagine your music would taste like?
That’s a good question!!! Our music is a mix of different genres like rock/punk… so I’ll say that we will actually have a menu with different tastes available. It could be spicy, creamy but always good hahahaha !!
What about you, Tarah?
A Brooklyn pepperoni pizza with Frank’s buffalo sauce.
Well, shouldn’t have asked that before dinner XD In a universe where the currency used is the person’s sense of humour, how rich would you two be?
I can adapt, so I would say that I would be really wealthy 🙂 I have a pretty good sense of humor.
Well I really think we will do pretty good!!! It just depends on the country we will be living in, sometimes people don’t understand our sense of humour hahaha.
Tarah, in a universe where you sing in a jazz band, what would the band’s name be?
Oh boy… Tarah Who’s Quintet?
That’s jazzy enough! Coralie, in a universe where people worship drummers, what would the festival celebrating you be like?
My favorite music will be playing, there will be drum classes during the festival, good food and good friends!!
Finally, in a universe where aliens from another planet sent a group of their scientists to study the phenomenon of music on Earth, and requested one song from your discography to listen to, which song would you give them, Tarah?
I would give them ‘Manners’ to listen to. It is coming out this February 19th 2021 and it has a pretty good message about loving each other despite our differences.
What about you, Coralie?
I think I would tell them to listen to “Pantomath”, it really represents our sound for me.
Thank you for playing, ladies! Tarah, Have you ever been treated in a sexist way? How would you face sexism and what advice would you give to young people who face any kind of discrimination?
lol!! The story of my life! Yes! very much so! I used to think that it was personal, then I thought it was French, or a generation thing. I think it is all of the above in the end. When I first wanted to learn how to play the drums, my dad said that it wasn’t an instrument for little girls. So I taught myself. I went to a music school in Paris and the drum teacher looked at me and said “come back in a couple years to see if you are still interested.” I went to a music store with some guy friends to buy a guitar and they thought I was the girlfriend just looking around etc… etc… So yeah I ihave a TON of stories, from wanting to learn how to play an instrument to being a musician and wanting to put your music out there. Producers who are just telling you a lot of BS, industry people in general etc.. etc… My best advice: KNOW WHAT YOU WANT AND WHERE YOU WANT TO BE and do NOT let ANYONE get in the way of that. Truth be told, NO ONE is going to do anything for you, BUT YOU. Only let the people who really believe in your art help you, but remember, you are the artist. If you want to know more:
Thank you for sharing this. What about you, Coralie?
There are still people thinking that girls cannot play drums and I don’t understand how it’s possible in 2021. On tour, we were using the other band’s gear and I went to see the drummer and introduced myself saying that I’m the drummer of the next band and I’ll be using his kit. He said right away “see with my manager” , it was his girlfriend LOL!! He saw me changing everything around (left handed) and he wasn’t happy about it. After we played he came to me and said “It was awesome !! I have never seen a girl play drums before !! “. Just don’t worry about jerks like that, be yourself and do what you love !!
Coralie and Tarah, thank you so much for the interview! Hope you had fun. Take care and good luck on your future projects.
