Page 11 - BiTS_06_JUNE_2024

BiTS INTERVIEW: BEAUX GRIS GRIS

Greta Valenti and Robin Davey ARE Beaux Gris Gris. Presenting music
with their band The Apocalypse they have just completed a tour which

included venues in both England and Scotland and they are coming
back later in the year.

There are few bands that generate the high energy stage shows that

they do, but Ian McKenzie managed to catch them (early in their

morning in California) as they relaxed at the start of another busy day.

GV: Hi.

BiTS: Hello, Greta. Nice to speak to you. Are you ready to go?

GV: Yeah.

RD: Greta said to me, is that the interview? And I'm like, oh yeah,
that's the interview. She said, oh, okay. Yeah [laughing]. So she was
aware of it. I just wasn't but it's cool. We're good to go. Actually,
it's a nice day. We're sitting in the sun in California.

GV: I'm soaking in the last moments of sun before we come
to England [laughing].

BiTS: [Laughing] Yes, of course. Okay,
if you're ready, then we'll make a
start. I want to ask you, Greta, you
come from Louisiana. I gather it's a
very long-standing family in
Louisiana.

GV: Yeah. So, I mean, I would say I'm
a European mutt because I have, like,
just so many different types of
heritage. Over the last few years I've
been doing a lot of ancestry research
and I've had different family members
do it over the years and certain
branches get explored. I know a lot
about the Swiss-German side of my
family, and we still have connections
with them and all that stuff. So I
started getting into the Louisiana
French, Cajun and Creole side, which
is on two different sides of my family, and I researched it all the way back to the Louisiana
Purchase days, like pretty much the formation of New Orleans. My great, great, great, great, great,

great grandfather was one of the literal designers of the city of New Orleans. He designed Ursulines
Convent, which is still there to this day and there's sketches of his. So it's just really cool to be
that connected to the history of Louisiana.