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Parcels' Jules Crommelin and Anatole Serret Talk Role Models, Berlin, and Gucci

Australian-born, Berlin-based electropop band Parcels is hitting all the right notes. 

In a black and white photo, Australian band Parcels walk on the street beside a tree with a power line above them.

Photography by Kenzia Bengel de Vaulx

Styled by Jennifer Eymere in Gucci

Byron Bay, Australia—a laid-back idyll on the eastern coast of the continent—is known for its world-class surf, New Age practices, and sparkling beaches. It’s also the birthplace of electropop five-piece Parcels. Now based in Berlin, the band was first spotted by Franco-Japanese label Kitsuné (who are also the designers behind Maison Kitsuné) and had Parisian electronic music duo Daft Punk clandestinely attend their first show in France. (The band went on to collaborate with the dance legends on a single, 2017’s “Overnight.”)

Since then, Parcels has found its footing. Their debut self-titled album, which was released in 2018, was an instant success, taking the band on a global tour and setting sky-high expectations for their sophomore effort. And meet the high bar they did. Day/Night was released at the end of 2021—an expansive, scintillating exploration of jazz, disco, pop, and soundscapes, urging the listener to move to the beat.

L’OFFICIEL speaks with Parcels guitarist Jules Crommelin and drummer Anatole Serret on making music together, their inspirations, and Berlin’s club scene.

Australian born Berlin based electropop grou Parcels stand in front of a garage door with red graffiti on greey pavement

L’OFFICIEL: What state of mind are you in, a few days away from going on tour?

ANATOLE SERRET: We’ve missed playing on stage so much. This return to live shows fills us with a new energy.


L’O: What is your earliest memory of music?

AS: My parents lived in Bali, Indonesia, so we listened to a lot of gamelan in the car. It brought out so many emotions. I wasn’t so sure I wanted to listen to the music of my hippie parents as a kid, but I realize in hindsight that I loved it.

JULES CROMMELIN: I find that it comes out in the way you play. When we rehearse, and improvise, we sometimes find ourselves on slightly offbeat rhythms. As far as my earliest music memory—I grew up in my mother’s house, and her husband at the time had a room full of records. There were speakers in every room and music was playing all the time, from morning until late at night. I particularly loved David Bowie and Sixto Rodriguez, especially the song “I Wonder.” I must have been five or six years old, but I saw myself in what he was doing; there was something childlike about it.

Parcels walks on pavement below blue sky and tree with fence beside them and back turned towards the camera.
They look back and smile at the camera standing on the pavement with the sky blue and the sun shining above them along with a powerline

"When a reference makes me uncomfortable, it pushes me to understand what in our music draws the comparison."

L’O: How do you decide when a song is finished?

AS: It’s never easy. There’s always the temptation to add more layers of sound...it’s mostly our intuition that guides us. In terms of songwriting, I think I prefer songs that are very simple in construction. When we’re in the studio, I’m very aware of how easy it would be to get lost. Often we get to the point where the song seems perfect, and that seems obvious to me—even if my judgment is a little hasty at times. Then someone might have a great idea, which really puts the finishing touches on the song.

JC: Finding the balance between our intuition and the flood of ideas that can overwhelm us is always tricky.

L’O: Who are your role models?

AS: Phoenix. We went on tour with them, and getting to see how their friendship remained solid after making music together for 25 years makes them particularly inspiring.

L’O: How do you like people to talk about your music?

JC: I don’t really like that people say it’s “funky.” It reminds me of Jamiroquai. We also have a complex relationship with Steely Dan—I never know how to take it. But when a reference makes me uncomfortable, it pushes me to understand what in our music draws the comparison.

A member of parcels rendered in black and white stands in front of a fence and a wall of bushes wearing a tuxedo.

L’O: You live in Berlin. Has the city had an influence on your work?

AS: I don’t think that the Berlin music scene influences us, but rather the nightlife. We’ve always wanted to make people dance at our shows; to see the audience move like a living organism like they do in Berlin clubs.

JC: We love seeing people dancing—it seems that they find a personal emotional connection in our music; that the groove joins the emotion.

L’O: What other artistic forms inspire you?

AS: I listen to a lot of lectures by Terence McKenna (ed note: an ethnobotanist and mystic who advocated for the use of psychedelics). I’m not sure that they inspire me, but I’m so fascinated by what he says that I must take something away from it.

"We’ve always wanted to make people dance at our shows; to see the audience move like a living organism."

Three members of parcels stand in the background, one sits on a yellow fire hydrant, and one sits on ground in the foreground all in front of the pole of a stop sign and a wall of bushes.

L’O: You have recently worked with Gucci. What do you think of the approach of Alessandro Michele [the house’s creative director]?

AS: We haven’t met him yet, but we really like his work. The way he draws inspiration from the past without ever copying what has been done, but transforming it to give it a more modern personality.

JC: Fashion and music live in a bit of the same world, with the same issues, including how to establish a stimulating conversation with the past—the “classic”—and infuse it with exciting newness. This is what Alessandro does, and what we try to do as well.

L’O: Do you have any regrets in your journey as a band?

AS: None. I believe in the butterfly effect—I’m happy with where we’ve ended up.

JS: I totally agree.

HAIR Amber Duarte
GROOMING Nathan Hejl
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT Danica Svanborg

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