Doomed Confessionary: Antoine Morières (ÖFÖ-AM)
Photo by Stéphanie Di Domenico
ÖfÖ-AM is an instrumental stoner/post-rock band from Montpellier, France. Founded in 2009, the trio currently consists of Géraud Jonquet on bass, Jonathan Barthelemy on drums and Antoine Morières on guitar.
ÖfÖ-AM have released their latest full-length album »Octopus Vulgaris« on March 28th, 2025. »Octopus Vulgaris« is their third album, inspired by the post-apocalyptic science fiction short story written for this occasion by the band’s guitarist Antoine Morières. Each of the 10 tracks of this album illustrates a chapter of this story, which tells of the appearance of Octaman, the half-man, half-octopus hero.
Can you please say a few words about your band?
ÖFÖ-AM exists since 2009, The original line up was Chris Thomas on bass, Nico Lebrun on drums and me, Antoine Morières on guitar, the musical idea was to play some epic 70’s instrumental stoner, we did a first 10″ EP and did some fun tour with good friend’s bands like Marvin, Payday or Café Flesh, Chris was really active on social media and organised a lot of gigs in Montpellier, he was working as barmaid at the Mojomatic and the Black Sheep, organised there really cool gigs and get in touch with a lot of bands like Karma To Burn, we did a couple of gigs with them and had a really good times, they accepted to share a split 45″ vinyl with us in 2009 on their label Napalm Records.
In 2010 we recorded our first album »The Beast Within« we went on tour quickly after and played at the Hellfest in 2012
Then Nico left the band to raise is twins boys, so we took Guillaume Fink on the drums and shared a split 33″ vinyl with his other band Lahius, at this time, I was playing the guitar on the two bands.
Nico came back in the band in 2017 but Chris left to the USA to live there with his Wife and we took Géraud Jonquet (Verdun’s drummer) on bass. We recorded the second album »Tales From Outer Space« and released it on 2019. Then Nico left again and we took John Barthelemy on drums to work on our last album »Octopus Vulgaris« release this year on 2025
What was the biggest challenge for the band?
To keep it alive.
What can you be most proud of so far?
The split with Karma To Burn and playing at the Hellfest.
What was your biggest regret?
Not to sign with some labels who proposed to work with us.
Photo by Philippe Poulenas
What was the best concert/tour so far and why?
Every year the last week in June, we organised a savage party on the beach (we’re from the south of France) named “Le Samynaire” for our friend Samy’s birthday, we’ve been playing there almost every year and every time it was crazy!
But for me, the best concert was in 2021 at the Mordor Fest, one of the first show with John on the drums, we played really well and the audience and the sound was mad!
What was the biggest surprise on the music scene for you?
I think it was Rage Against The Machine when I was kid I saw them later live in Montpellier during the “Battle of Los Angeles” tour, it was epic!
What is currently in your heavy musical rotation?
Wow I won’t be really original, I listen to every style of music from all generations but I’ve got a preference for the early 70’s music and analog productions.
I’ll say Led Zeppelin, Hendrix, Black Sabbath, King Crimson, Zappa, RATM…
What was the best advice you’ve ever been given as a musician?
Learning music is never ending.
What are your guilty pleasures?
Hazy IPA, weed and NOFX.
Can you say something more about the current music scene in Montpellier?
There is some good young bands and a revival of 80’s and 90’s music in Montpellier but unfortunately every pubs or small venues downtown have stop to organise live Rock gigs because of an anti-noise politics…
Rock’n’roll in France still being underground.
Where can we see you live this year (concerts/tours)?
Géraud and me have a lot of work as sound techs and John and I have kids so we didn’t find a good period to go on tour this year, for the moment we’re going to do some gigs in France and we will see in 2026.
If you interested to book ÖFÖ-AM feel free to contact us!
What are your plans for the future as a band?
Record another album. As the composer of the tracks, I’m working hard on the guitar to take a step forward, I work on gipsy jazz and improvisations, I also play a lot on the drums, I want this next album to be really different and surprising.
How can people best support your band?
It’s always a pleasure when people share with us their feedbacks about our albums or leave a comment about their best track. Of course they can buy it on Bandcamp it helps a lot!
Share it with their friends or band’s mates.
They can also ask to their local fest to book us!
Do you have any message for your listeners?
Of course we want to thank everyone of them to listen to ÖFÖ-AM’s music, being an instrumental band is sometimes special, people ask us why we don’t have a singer but there’s a lot of instrumental music, classical music, jazz, afro beat, movie tracks, surf/garage bands etc… Instrumental music is great too!
Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well