Didier Balducci, also known as Memphis Mao, is a dynamic musician and label owner who ventured into music later than most but has significantly impacted the scene with his raw, minimalist style.

Influenced by punk and garage rock legends like the Stooges and the Velvet Underground, Didier picked up the guitar at 19 and immersed himself in the DIY ethos, forming the Dum Dum Boys with friends. As the founder of Mono-Tone Records, he champions underground music, reissues forgotten gems, and supports new talent, embodying a true DIY spirit. His diverse projects, including Memphis Electronic, showcase his versatility and passion for authentic, self-produced rock music.

“We were so eager to play we couldn’t wait any longer!”

How did you first get interested in music? What led you to pick up an instrument and start playing?

Didier Balducci: I started late! I didn’t listen to any music before I was 15, and I began with the records of a friend of mine’s older brother who had lots of punk records but also the MC5, Stooges, Seeds, etc. I started playing guitar really late too, at 19, because up until then I was sure it was too difficult. I thought that you had to take lessons, etc. Then I realized that playing stuff like the first Stooges album, most of the Velvet Underground rockier songs, Suicide and all that, was quite easy, so we started the Dum Dum Boys among friends. We rehearsed a bit and played live soon after, even though none of us had played in a band before or touched a musical instrument.

Were there certain records that you would highlight that helped you shape the style of music you wanted to do?

Like I said, it was really the Stooges, Suicide, and also sixties garage bands like the Seeds or the Sonics, and the Cramps too, that helped me start playing an instrument and finding a quite minimal style. Playing loud with a lot of fuzz and very simple and repetitive riffs, a style where you don’t need much technique or skills.

Would love it if you could elaborate when you first joined the bands and how the Dum Dum Boys came about for you?

The other guitar player, Bratch, the singer, Karim, and I were in school together. We had known each other for years when we started playing and we had the same taste in music. So when we thought about starting a band, we got a bass player who was at the university with us and started rehearsing in the summer to get a gig in September. We didn’t even have a drummer yet. We did the first gig with a guy from another band on the drums. We asked him to play with us for that night on the parking lot in front of the venue. Otherwise, we would have played without a drummer. We were so eager to play we couldn’t wait any longer!

Tell us about the Memphis Electronic project. What’s the concept behind it?

There isn’t really a “concept.” It’s just my solo project and the name I use in XYZ. I don’t sing at all in the Dum Dum Boys and never ever considered singing, but I did a solo 45 a long time ago just for fun. Then recently I felt like doing a whole LP, playing all the instruments and singing, recording at home quite spontaneously and mixing all the different styles I love but keeping it lo-fi and “homemade.” Two months ago, I felt like doing another one with some ideas I had kept on the side plus a lot of new stuff written really fast.

You also worked with Arnaud Maguet & Olivier Millagou?

Yes, Arnaud is a very good friend of mine. He’s into contemporary art but also music. We played together in a band called Alpha60 about 15 years ago and I also cooperated with him on various 45s or exhibition soundtracks he did. It’s fun to do different things sometimes, something other than “classical” rock’n’roll.

What about Beau Delay?

That’s Arnaud’s moniker when he does music.

What about Nick Prizu and The Landscape Tape?

Nick Prizu was the name of the singer of the band. I played guitar in it and Bratch played drums. We had recorded but not really mixed an album worth of material and then the singer died, so we stopped the band and the tapes slept for years and years until I decided to release it anyway, the way it was, a rough and raw mix. I’m really glad I did!

Landscape Tape is the project of a friend of mine who used to record all alone (he released a couple of CDs that way) and played sometimes, just him on stage with pre-recorded stuff. But after a while, he felt like having a backing band to play live and record, so I back him up, playing alternatively guitar or bass with another guy and we did one album all together.

Was the formation of Mono-Tone Records part of the reason to have a platform to release your experimental projects? Would love it if you could share what initiated the idea behind it.

Yes, to begin with, Mono-Tone was just put together to release my own records, whether it was NON!, the DDBoys, or this solo single. But then I began doing some reissues and later released some new material from other bands, and it became a “real” label. It’s still very DIY and handmade as it’s a one-man label. The records are distributed by Distrolux (Munster Records’ distribution), so you can find them anywhere, but there is no website, no Bandcamp, not much promotion or anything. It’s still quite underground and “old style”!

2022 was an incredible year for your label with the release of ‘Simply Saucer,’ ‘Les Bowlers,’ ‘Subsonics’ … tell us how do you usually approach new projects?

Well, the Bowlers was a co-production with another label, Cameleon Records in Paris, and it’s his project much more than mine. For the other two, I contacted the bands to ask if they would be interested in doing something on Mono-Tone. Edgar from Simply Saucer told me he liked the idea of re-releasing this double LP (it was released originally on a small label that went bankrupt soon after), so that was put together really fast. The Subsonics I knew a bit from having booked them to play in Nice a few years ago. I wanted to release their first two albums on vinyl, which were out only on CD at the time, but then also suggested to them that it would be cool to do a compilation of all the non-album songs they put on 45s as there is enough to do a whole album, and they agreed. I hope I will work with them again, they are my favorite real rock’n’roll band alive!

What are some of the highlights for you? After all, the label has been going on for quite a while now.

Personally, I’ve always loved to death the two Justin Love/Justin Trouble albums, so I was very happy to reissue them. I’m also very proud of the Klitz LP as they had never done an album at the time, plus it sold really well, which was not 100% guaranteed as it’s very lo-fi! I’m also glad I reissued the Kim Fowley album as he’s a hero of mine. And I’m glad I helped some people discover some quite underground stuff like Angel Corpus Christi or Charles Douglas. That’s the whole point of the label.

What are some future plans for it?

There aren’t many records planned right now, just the new Crocodiles. Then I’ll see… The prices of record pressing have really gone up and up these last couple of years, so it’s getting harder to take chances on some unknown stuff. Plus, the “market” is getting smaller and smaller, so in the near future I think I won’t be releasing as many records as I used to (in recent years, it was 10 or 12 per year).

What else currently occupies your life?

I’m also writing books and publishing them, and some others, on Mono-Tone Editions (Mono-Tone Publishing). It’s even more underground than the records, but it’s fun too!

Let’s end this interview with some of your favorite albums. Have you found something new lately you would like to recommend to our readers?

I love all the “classical” records you would expect from someone playing my kind of music: Stooges, VU, Suicide, Modern Lovers, Roxy Music, Rallizes Dénudés, Seeds, 13th Floor Elevators, Spacemen 3, etc. But among my favorite records of all time are also Brian Eno’s ‘Here Comes the Warm Jets,’ the two Syd Barrett albums, Love’s ‘Forever Changes,’ Lee Hazlewood’s ‘Love & Other Crimes,’ stuff like that… and a lot of soul, but more on 45s than albums.

Recently, all I have bought are JT IV’s ‘The Future’ and a southern rock/soul compilation, Blue Plate Special, plus a very cool Scorpion Violente reissue (a great French band).