RIP Françoise Cactus

Stereo Total singer and major inspiration

I got word today that François Cactus, of the Berlin band Stereo Total, died of breast cancer.

I first encountered this band when I was doing film projections for Peaches in her early days. Dan Burke was booking the El Mocambo in Toronto and would often throw Peach an opening slot for cool bands. Stereo Total had the misfortune of playing when a very buzzed band (maybe At the Drive-In?) was playing at another club the same night, so the attendance was sparse. Despite or because of these intimate circumstances, the band utterly blew my mind.

At the time, they were a four-piece. Françoise played drums and sang, her longtime partner Brezel Göring played a weird tiny, square guitar, Angie Reid was on bass and San Reimo played a little Casio keyboard. It was the most cheap, minimal setup, but they made it work. Stereo Total was a fun band, but I think they were in a bad mood that night—as I recall, partly from the “long” (by European standards) driving times of their tour. Somehow though, the contrast between their goofy, dollar-store aesthetic and their unsmiling, deadpan European demeanour made them seem even cooler. The fact that they’d worked with Alex Chilton (who produced some early sessions for them and played drums on their cover of “Get Down Tonight”) was another mark in their favour.

I thought it was the coolest thing I’d ever seen. (They seemed to feel differently - when we met them backstage and said “that’s so cool!” Françoise’s answer was “You mean, it was terrible?”) Without a doubt, they were one of the biggest influences on the WP’s aesthetic and approach. The idea of playing with cheap random instruments, of combining electro-pop with rock, of doing theatrical choreographed routines in a no-budget, dive bar context… these were the building blocks of the WP as a project, and it all started to take shape that night.

A few years later, I was working for a music promoter in Montreal and we brought them to town for the first time. By now, they were a two-piece, the show was practically sold out in the 400-capacity Lion d’Or, and the show was a raucous good time. This time Françoise was all smiles onstage and off, it was great to see them get some appreciation.

I never really got to know them, but I was always happy to see them continuing to do their thing. RIP Françoise, thank you for the memories and the inspiration.