The Courettes bare their souls with Wall of Sound, Motown and Stax influenced new album, as they prepare a return to The Wedgewood Rooms, Southsea

That’s not to do down the genre – there many great garage-rock acts out there – but over the course of the past decade Martin Thorsen (drums) and Flavia Couri (vocals and guitars) have evolved into something quite special with their blend of The Sonics, Ramones, et al, and 1960s girl bands.

And their live shows are already legendary.

New album, The Soul of The Fabulous Courettes, came out last week and it really does what it says on the tin – it is the sound of the married couple’s musical DNA committed to wax.

Previous album Back in Mono saw them nailing the classic Wall of Sound. But this time, influenced by their first tours of America, they’ve gone further.

“We're basing a lot still on the Wall of Sound – that (Phil) Spector sound – that was our foundation,” says Martin. “But we broadened it much more to dig much more soul – Stax and Hitsville USA, the Snake Pit and the Funk Brothers, the Wrecking Crew.

“But also lyrically, it was much more soul searching. Flavia poured out much more of her soul in these lyrics, that's why it's all combined in the title.”

Flavia adds: "Back in Mono is a great album, we're so proud of it, but it was almost like a concept album. With The Soul Of..., we decided, okay, this is our foundation, but we can be ourselves and we don't have to be so tied to a concept.

“We put the other influences that we really dig in there which is soul music, Ike and Tina Turner and Motown...

“We've been on our first US tours last year and this year and we made what we call a rock’n’roll pilgrimage. We've been to Sun Records, we've been to Chess Records, we've been to Graceland, we've been to Al Green's Gospel Church – that was such an uplifting experience. If I had a church like that in my hometown, I would definitely be Christian!” she laughs. “It was nothing like: 'God will punish you', It was just so uplifting, with all of this music.

“The album has a lot to do with this rock’n’roll pilgrimage.”

And on the lyrical side, she explains: “I think our lyrics always actually have reflected the time of our lives. (Debut) Here are The Courettes had a lot of falling in love and finding each other 10,000 kilometers away (Flavia is Brazilian, Martin is Danish – the pair met when their respective bands at the time toured together).

“We Are The Courettes has a song to our son, Strawberry Boy. Back in Mono was an album made in the pandemic, it's all disguised as teenage love stories but it actually talks a lot about loss and death.

"In this album, we've got some some dark themes that are also a little bit disguised. The song Keep Dancing, someone thought it was about us breaking up [they haven’t], but it's actually about my father and his death and a lot of things that came with that. He died of Covid and it took so many months to digest the whole thing, it was a very hard relationship we had.”

Creating the album proved to be a cathartic process for the pair.

“Absolutely,” says Flavia, “and I think we're very lucky to to be artists. The best songs in the world are all about heartbreaks.

“I'd Rather Go Blind (much covered but originally by Etta James) is one of our favorite ever songs – it's that pain. Art is interesting when it has some kind of pain.

"The best singers in the world, you can hear it in their voice. They have something that happy people just don't have!”

Martin adds: “We came up with this saying ‘Pain sounds good’.”

Flavia concludes the thought: “We're so lucky to have this tool (creating music) to deal with the things that are going on in our lives.”

The sound they’ve created on The Soul of… is deliberately widescreen, featuring a whole cast of extra musicians. And as they explain, they always intended to be more than just drums and guitars.

“We began doing this on the second album,” explains Martin, “taking little taking steps towards this, and then we went full-on with the Wall of Sound on Back in Mono. We were thinking that we don't want to be limited when we’re making albums.

“When people hear the albums, we want them to sound as good as we can make them. We don't want to limit ourselves just because we're only a two piece. Why limit our creativity?

“Live shows are one thing, the studio albums are a totally different thing.”

“The first album we were so worried about how we were going to play them live,” says Flavia, “so let's keep it simple.

"Then on the second album, we put on a lot of organ and vocal harmonies, but we didn't miss them at all when we played live, so it was a slow process for us to think: okay, It's two different things – live is live, studio is studio. And a good song is a good song with a piano or with a full orchestra or with a guitar around a bonfire.

"We don't want to limit our musicality and our musical ambition just because we cannot play it like that live.

"We could have just done Back in Mono again. That would be the easy way out, but we like the challenge.

“We like to do something slightly different and to make better records, a better sound, write better songs, play better, be better musicians.”

​They also have La La Brooks, lead singer of ’60s girl band The Crystals, guest on the album’s second single California. The Crystals were closely associated with Phil Spector.

The Courettes met producer/musicians Rocio and Matt Verta-Ray after a gig in New York. When talk came around to the material they were working on and their aims for it, Rocio and Matt mentioned that they knew La La. They passed her the demo and an impressed La La agreed to sing on the track. As The Courettes reveal, they had tried to contact La La’s management themselves, but never received a reply.

"We're still pinching ourselves about that,” says Flavia, “we never met her unfortunately, they just sent us the track, but we have her voice! Da Doo Run Run is one of our all-time favorite songs, so we were really proud of that.”

“It's a very cool,” Martin adds, “and it's also a direct link to the Wall of Sound, this iconic, from the ’60s sound."

The campaign around the release of The Soul of… has seen the band edge closer to the mainstream with profiles in the likes of The Guardian and a session with Marc Riley on 6 Music, as well as a whole raft of excellent reviews.

Never shy, Martin says the reason they’re making headway is simple: “I think this album is a masterpiece.

"We were extremely worried after, after doing Back in Mono, which is such a good album, we thought how are we going to top this? But I think we did it. We did way better songs, and the production is really interesting.”

While the couple are insistent that reviews aren’t the be-all and end-all, Flavia says: “It's always great to have the media giving you the thumbs up and validating our work because we work really hard. To penetrate a little bit into what is called the conventional audience or mainstream or whatever is great.”

“I think it's because the record is so good,” says Martin. “I want a lot of people – way more people – to hear it.

"I think a lot of people could use this record. You can use it in so many ways with their personal lives, and that's one of the beautiful things about music.”

They play a special daytime show at The Wedgewood Rooms in Southsea on Sunday with support from The Caezars and Paul Groovy and The Pop Art Experience, doors 4pm. Go to wedgewood-rooms.co.uk.