Yann Le Marec tells the story of how he became Maison agnès b's resident music curator.
For 20 years, he has been the guarantor of the Maison's sound identity. Resident at Le Pulp in 2000, record salesman for Rough Trade at Primavera, behind the turntables at Moma PS1 in New York, Claude Blimey for Kiosk Radio, Echobox and Rinse FM and at the Salon des Amateurs, Yann Le Marec is now at the helm of radio agnès b's musical projects and programming.
How did the story between you and agnès b. begin?
I started out in the decoration department, buying cinema posters and film stills. After a few years, Agnès asked me to take charge of selecting the music played in the stores. At the time, we installed listening terminals in the stores, allowing visitors to discover 5 albums every two months. The idea was to showcase a label and its catalog, with their new releases but also their must-haves. I was then tasked with launching boutique radio in 2006, then web radio in 2018, and most recently the app. It broadcasts continuously and without advertising on three continents, in Europe, Asia and the United States. It enables all boutiques to play the same music. It's also on the website and now available on a mobile app. It's a selection of over 14,000 tracks, programmed according to the time of day. Independently of the stores, this year we had 188,000 unique listeners worldwide. We also organize events, in partnership with independent labels, which we support by making records and playing them on the radio.
How did you get into music?
I started buying 45s when I was 12 or 13, before the advent of CDs, and I used to record the radio and my favorite shows on tape. This was before the Internet, so I spent all my time in record shops. It wasn't about collecting at first, but discovering. My father was a sailor and brought back a Pioneer turntable from Japan, the first with variable speed control.
How do you choose the tracks you play?
I don't use any “classic” streaming platform to listen to music. I do my research via the catalogs of labels and distributors with whom I then make contact. We buy tracks directly from the artists and play them on the radio. I discover through meetings and conversations, I note down information about musicians and labels, I search…
What does agnès b. mean to you?
Agnès has this incredible ability to say yes to the ideas she believes in, and to go all out. Both she and the Maison have commitments that I like and that are a strength: supporting ecology, charities and also independent creation with ethics. It seems obvious, but it's not the norm, and it deserves to be said. agnès b. supports and encourages independent artists. It has always done so, and I'm proud to have been part of it for many years, and to give life to this state of mind through music.
agnès b. radio now has an app — download it and listen for yourself.
