Gaëtan Roussel

Biography
by Jason Birchmeier
Gaëtan Roussel is a French singer/songwriter and guitarist who rose to fame in the rock bands Louise Attaque and Tarmac prior to embarking on a solo career in 2010. Founded in 1994 in Paris, France, Louise Attaque is a quartet comprised of Arnaud Samuel (violin), Robin Feix (bass), and Alexandre Margraff (drums), in addition to Roussel (vocals, guitar). Released in 1997, the eponymous album debut, Louise Attaque, is one of the most successful French rock albums of all time. Though it was slow to catch on, Louise Attaque topped the French albums chart for ten weeks, spent an astounding 172 weeks overall on the chart, sold two-and-a-half million copies, and earned the band a Victoire de la Musique award for Group of the Year. Louise Attaque's second album, Comme on a Dit (2000), also topped the albums chart and won the band a Victoire de la Musique award for Rock Album of the Year, but its success nonetheless failed to rival that of its predecessor. In search of a fresh start, Roussel and Samuel split from Louise Attaque and founded a new band, Tarmac, with Philippe Almosnino (guitar), Pierre Dubost (bass), and Yvo Abadi (drums). Tarmac released three albums, L'Atelier (2001), Notre Époque (2003), and Concert au Réservoir (2004), none of which reached the Top Ten. Roussel subsequently reunited with Louise Attaque for the band's long-awaited third album, À Plus Tard Crocodile (2005), which proved fairly popular, reaching number two on the albums chart. Roussel then split from Louise Attaque once again and, among other activities, collaborated at length with Alain Bashung on the chart-topping album Bleu Pétrole (2008). A couple years later, Roussel made his solo album debut with Ginger (2010), a Top Ten effort featuring the single "Help Myself (Nous Ne Faisons Que Passer)."