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College
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
College is the music project of the French electronic musician David Grellier, born in 1979 and started in 2005. Grellier is also the founder of the collective Valerie and, as Mitch Silver, is part of the electroclash band Sexy Sushi. With College he wanted, in his own words, to bring together the emotions of his youth in his music. He was inspired by the American pop culture of the 1980s, by soap operas and by images of cities such as Los Angeles and Chicago, and by artists such as Daft Punk, Alan Braxe, Fred Falke and John Carpenter.
Music and breakthrough
In 2008 the album Secret Diary was released, together with the EP Teenage Color. In 2011 Northern Council followed. That same year the song A Real Hero, made with the Canadian synth-pop group Electric Youth, was used in the film Drive and was a hit in France. A year later it was also heard in Taken 2. In 2013 the album Heritage came out, followed by Old Tapes in 2016 and Shanghai in 2017. In 2014 the EP Save The Day was released, with vocals by Nola Wren.
Influence
Valerie, the collective that Grellier founded in Nantes in 2007, brings together artists such as The Outrunners and Anoraak. That group is described as a romantic, retro-futuristic mix of 1980s electro, also known as synthwave. College belongs to the wave of producers who brought back the sound of the 1980s, and gained a large audience through Drive.
Listening
Discography
Studio albums
- 2008Secret Diary
- 2011Northern Council
- 2013Heritage
- 2016Old Tapes
- 2017Shanghai
In School of Rock
The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.
- The Dream Factory: Film Reel 5NL Reader
Mentioned in other articles
- Synthwave Genre
French producers such as Kavinsky and College made it popular in the mid-2000s; Nightcall (2010) was heard in the film Drive (2011).
- Synthwave-revival Genre
Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive (2011) brought that style to the cinema with a score by Cliff Martinez, former drummer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, supplemented with songs by Kavinsky and College, among others.