Naked (On Drugs) break down into duo Sébastien Perrin and Luke Byron Scott, hailing from Lyon and Milton Keynes, respectively.

These two raconteurs thrive on a penchant for avant-garde and a hard-wired desire to dramatise their distorted aesthetic. Hypnotically compelling and rooted in post-punk noir, their flair for the unpredictable holds the trigger, stealing focus and beckoning you in. Harbouring a propensity for melodramatics they shun the confides of genre and stereotypes, uniting disparate influences to boundary-crushing effect.

Take their debut single Lee Ann Skin, for instance, juxtaposing a medley of instruments under a whirlwind barrage of sound. Unpredictable would be an understatement, its uncompromising noir thrill fed on a jarring diet of sleazy distortion and spiky jazz.

Yet, don’t for one second consider that you have the band sussed after hearing one track, try Death Dance for size, a no-wave piano core interspersed by Perrin’s predatorily growls and squeals of interjecting clarinet, coming up for air amidst a jaunty drumbeat. Perrin croons with dissolute menace “her hand on my blue jeans, the smile on her face, she snaps her fingers, THEN I SNAP HER NECK!”

You can trace their aesthetic back to the likes of Psychic TV, Cabaret Voltaire and The Fall, and yet comparisons prove futile in describing a sound so idiosyncratic and varied. Their unpredictable, nature charms the listener, unknowing what to expect next, leaving you enthralled with a dissolutely moorish taste brewing in your mouth.

Alex James Taylor: What brought you and Luke together?
Sébastien Perrin: It was by mistake really. I was taking a vacation in Manchester, and went to see Jez Kerr playing live in a small bar, the guy from A Certain Ratio. It was absolutely dreadful. I really wanted to dance and so I started dancing towards the end when it got a bit bouncy. Luke approached me after the gig and told me that I danced weirdly. He’s a very shy guy and doesn’t usually approach people, we started talking then after that we just got really drunk.

AT: So what convinced you to make the move over to Manchester?
SP: After talking to Luke he suggested moving to Manchester and starting a band together. So I went back to France, sold pretty much everything I owned and within a few months I’d moved to Manchester.

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