Formed in late 2025 between Brussels, Strasbourg and Antwerp, Coup Dur is a yéyé trio of a new kind, born in the post-internet era. It brings together Avril De Broucker (Lavomatic) on guitar, Clémence D’Hulst (Fake Empire) on bass and César Laloux (Ada Oda) on drums.

Driven by French-language songs that are both shimmering and incisive, the band has developed a unique aesthetic blending melodic softness, biting romanticism and garage energy. Coup Dur creates a dialogue between the legacy of the twist and contemporary realities: doom scrolling, failed dates, the cult of performance and fantasies of self-employment. A lucid and ironic take on an overloaded era, where the intimate clashes with the noise of the world.

Their debut EP, The English Want Coup Dur, brings together five tracks written between February and April 2025, then recorded and mixed in just two days in Antwerp by Rafael ‘Tuff Guac’ Valles Hilario. This short, intense format embodies a defining gesture: music that is direct, spontaneous and stripped of all excess. The trio express their aspirations, frustrations and daily lives with frank irony, at times softened by genuine tenderness. The EP’s title reflects both the band’s amusement and surprise at seeing this debut project released on the English label Precious Recordings of London.

The band’s first single, ‘Mon Amie’, lays the foundations of their identity. An emblematic track of their playful twist-pop, it explores the fantasy of a break-up between friends, often more complex to navigate than a romantic split. Coup Dur expresses bluntly what is usually left unsaid: the ambiguity of relationships, the difficulty of breaking up and, implicitly, the hope of future reconciliation.

With ‘J’attendrai’, the second track from the EP, the band delivers a brief, edgy power pop track centred on romantic anticipation. True to their unemotional tone, Coup Dur offers an ironic inventory of everyday situations where love is slow to materialise, driven by a persistent, almost naive conviction that, despite everything, it always ends up emerging.

Finally, the third single ‘Tu dis des choses’ explores that murky zone that precedes love. Between disappointing dates and dashed hopes, the track offers a sharp observation of the mechanics of contemporary dating. Self-absorbed, charming, absent: Coup Dur puts these characters under the microscope with biting humour and a keen eye for detail.

With The English Want Coup Dur, the trio make a debut that is as concise as it is assertive, accurately capturing the emotional and social contradictions of their era.