The Inspector Cluzo, between rock and agroecology

“Applaud the farmers, they feed you”: this is what we hear on stage between the songs of The Inspector Cluzo, artisans of feverish rock and professional farmers, supporters of agroecology. In concert, there are Laurent Lacrouts (guitar, vocals) and Mathieu Jourdain on drums, which he sometimes gives up for an exceptional date to Philippe Etchebest, chef and amateur drummer. The pair have played more than 1,200 dates in more than 65 countries since their formation in 2008. The two men, almost fifty years old, have a great reputation in the United States, where they notably opened for Suicidal Tendencies. The pair even visited recording studios in Nashville, Tennessee.

Also read: In Bordeaux, agroecology ahead of its time

And for 10 years, they have also been farmers and farmers on the “Lou Casse” farm (“Le Chêne” in Gascon) near Mont-de-Marsan (Landes). At the end of their concerts, the public can buy a vinyl or a goose confit. “Fortunately there is agriculture, we love the stage, making records, but not the current industrialization of music,” explains Laurent Lacrouts, met by AFP during their visit to Paris Paradis, a festival organized this weekend by the newspaper Le Parisien. “And the farm is a priority because of global warming,” adds the man who met his partner in high school, before both studying fundamental physics. “In relation to the environment, when you are a farmer, you are in the ruck (spontaneous scrum in rugby, of which they are fans) while the music world watches it from the stands,” scathes Laurent Lacrouts.

“We recently visited a festival that we like, which represented 3,500 tons of carbon, while we set ourselves between 15 and 30 tons per year for our activities.” “We believe a lot in compensation, more than in guilt: a round trip by plane to New York is a ton per person, two of us can afford it; on our farm, we use green manure,” he says, inexhaustible. Without forgetting to greet his wife, Nathalie, and the former farmers who keep the farm running when the duo is on the road. Their 9th studio album Horizon riffs on their life and philosophy. The titles speak for themselves, like Act local think global. Wolves at the door recounts a significant episode.

The farmers of “Lou Casse” refused to have their goose farm culled during an episode of avian flu affecting an agro-industrial building located near their home, against which they had warned the health authorities. The “Lou Casse” team won their case. Jean-Luc Guérin, professor at the national veterinary school of Toulouse, established that their endangered gray Landes geese were healthy. They mention his name in concert. “Be careful, we are not at war against agro-industry, we have a way of resisting which is different from other activists, we are in 'doing it', in agro-industry, they also work and they are victims of a system that we must rather help,” insists the singer.

The first part of their series of concerts in Paris at La Maroquinerie, at the end of February-beginning of March 2024, will be a short presentation of agroecology by the agronomist Marc Dufumier, you can't make it up.