Pierre de Gaillande
Pierre de Gaillande is a French-born American singer, guitarist and composer. In the early 1990s, de Gaillande played trumpet in San Diego hardcore band Creedle, bass in New York power pop bands The Morning Glories and southern California indie band Film Star, as well as touring and recording with Atlantic recording artist C. Gibbs. He founded the band Melomane in 1998 as guitarist and lead singer. Melomane made three full-length studio albums and toured extensively in Europe.
De Gaillande founded the band Sea Foxx in 2003, which featured former Skeleton Key drummer Stephen Calhoon. De Gaillande was one of two founding members of the rock band The Snow, along with singer/pianist Hilary Downes.
In 2010, he released the album Bad Reputation: Pierre de Gaillande Sings Georges Brassens, in which he covered songs by French songwriter and poet Georges Brassens and translated the lyrics from French to English. De Gaillande says he first became interested in Brassens' music as a child, when his father played it very loudly in their home. A second album of Georges Brassens in English entitled Bad Reputation Volume 2 was released in 2014, and Volume 3 was released in 2023.
In 2018, de Gaillande and guitarist Gerald Menke formed Body Kite, a fully improvised, krautrock inspired band which performs live improvised sets accompanying films and abstract visuals. Body Kite features a rotating roster of musicians from the Hudson Valley and New York City.
In 2019, de Gaillande released an album of French versions of American punk and indie songs entitled franglais under the moniker Bad Reputation.
On April 4, 2025, de Gaillande released Working Batterie Volume 1, a collaboration with bassist Mike Watt, which is an album of songs created by compositions all begun by different drummers. Musicians involved in this project include Georgia Hubley, Nels Cline, Robert Walter, Kenny Wollesen, Stephen Ulrich, Dion Thurman, Devon Goldberg, Stephen Calhoon, Dan Menke, Gerald Menke, Brad Hubbard, Quentin Jennings, and C. Gibbs, among others.