We had the pleasure of interviewing Romain Carpentier, a 63-year-old Argenteuil, France-based nurse, multi-instrumentalist, and composer, who ten years ago taught himself a little bit of guitar and bass, following a childhood dream of becoming a musician. In the past decade, the self-taught Carpenter has written compositions that draw from Spanish music, surf rock, and 60s rock under the name P’pa Carpenter.
His latest single, ‘Bullitt Rock,’ is centered around a looping, bluesy guitar line, a simple yet propulsive rhythmic backbeat, some expressive horns, and twinkling keys, which gives the track a cinematic quality — while being a lot of fun. Sonically, it owes a little bit of a debt to the 1960s Mission Impossible TV series theme, but that shouldn’t be surprising, as “Bullitt Rock” conveys fast-paced, white-knuckled action.
Here are the excerpts from the interview.
Hi Romain, Great to have you with us today! Please share with our readers about yourself.
Hi, my artist name is “P’pa Carpenter.” I am 65 years old, married, and have three children. I live in the suburbs of Paris. I was an ambulance driver and then a nurse. I am now retired, but I still replace sometimes in the hospital. I like cycling, and I also do a little car racing on the circuit. I like everything artistic in general, and I am passionate about anthropology, history, astronomy, science, etc.
Please tell us more about your journey.
I have no musical training, and I like almost all styles of music. However, it was around the age of 50 I realized a teenager’s dream to play guitar in autodidact at home. Over the years, I have managed to compose relatively good tracks despite my poor guitar skills.
Please tell us about the inspiration behind your music.
My musical influences are mainly 60’s Rock, Spanish music, movie soundtracks, sometimes Jazz, etc. My playing style is simple and rather minimalist. I record at home with only a small pocket home studio, “Micro BR” from Roland, and sometimes with the collaboration of my son Rémi on the synthesizer and software “FL Studio.”
For my composition “Bullitt Rock,” I was influenced by the famous chase sequence from the 1968 film Bullitt by Peter Yates with Steve McQueen and his Ford Mustang. Throughout this movie, there are fantastic tracks by Lalo Schifrin, but not in the chase sequence. So I modestly tried to compose one in the genre of this composer with the contribution of instrumental arrangements on the synthesizer made by my son Rémi.
Fantastic! So tell us, how can people find out more about you?
You can follow me on Instagram @ppacarpenter and Twitter @RomainCarpent12.
Thank you so much, Romain, for giving us your precious time! We wish you all the best for your journey ahead!