Gonzalez and Fromageau parted ways shortly after touring their second album Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts. Gonzalez records primarily on his own, with other artists as guest musicians. The band is signed to Mute Records and found international success in 2011 with the single "Midnight City". Their most recent album Fantasy was released on 17 March 2023.
Anthony Gerard Gonzalez (born March 13, 1980) grew up in Antibes, France together with his brother Yann. His family had a great interest in football and Gonzalez had trials with AS Cannes, while his maternal grandfather is the French international Laurent Robuschi. At the age of 14 he got injured and turned to music instead after his parents bought him a guitar. Gonzalez developed his interest in music and American culture while at secondary school. Together with Fromageau he formed a post-rock outfit called My Violent Wish.
At the age of 17, Gonzalez bought a synth to record a demo, which he sent to a number of French labels. When the Paris-based Gooom Records appeared interested, he recruited Fromageau to "help me because I didn't feel like I had the shoulders to carry the project on my own". The band is named after the galaxy of the same name.
The band's musical aesthetic is characterized by extensive use of reverb effects and lyrics spoken softly over loud instruments. Gonzalez has been inspired by aspects of the American Dream and his songs have been outlined as themed around "adult-scripted teen dreams". Inspiration for the 1980s style found in much of Gonzalez’s music includes bands such as My Bloody Valentine, Pink Floyd, and Tangerine Dream. Between various electronic music properties and album artwork, M83’s style includes a mix of both contemporary pop and 1980s dream pop.
Raconte-moi histoire
M83 Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
It's a very tiny frog
But it's also very special
You can only find it in the jungle
So far away from me
But if you find it and if you touch it
Your world can change forever
You can feel your body changing
And your vision also
And blue becomes red and red becomes blue
And your mommy suddenly becomes your daddy
And everything looks like a giant cupcake
And you keep laughing and laughing and laughing
Nothing is ever quite the same really
And after you finish laughing
It's time to turn into a frog yourself
It's very funny to be a frog
You can dive into the water
And cross the rivers and the oceans
And you can jump all the time and everywhere
Do you want to play with me?
We can be a whole group of friends
A whole group of frogs
Jumping into the streets
Jumping into the planet
Climbing up the buildings
Swimming in the lakes and in the bathtubs
We would be hundreds, thousands, millions
The biggest group of friends the world has ever seen
Jumping and laughing forever
It would be great, right?
The lyrics to M83's "Raconte-moi une histoire" describe a magical frog that, when touched, has the power to radically alter the perception of the person who touches it. The frog itself is highly unique and only found in the deepest corners of the jungle. The transformative power of the frog is illustrated in the lyrics, with the touch of its skin resulting in a total sensory shift. Sounds, colors, and even relationships are completely recontextualized, with the familiar becoming unfamiliar and vice versa. The experience is so profound that the singer of the lyrics suggests that, once you've turned into a frog, everything becomes a giant cupcake and laughter reigns supreme.
As the lyrics progress, the notion of being a frog becomes highly appealing. The singer invites others to join in on the fun, envisioning a whole group of friends turned amphibian. The idea of being part of a massive, unstoppable crowd is highly alluring, and the song imagines this group of frogs taking over the streets, climbing buildings, and swimming in lakes and bathtubs. Ultimately, the song presents the idea of being a frog as something to aspire to, a way of escaping the mundane monotony of day-to-day life.
Overall, the lyrics to "Raconte-moi une histoire" are highly poetic and fantastical, presenting a surreal world where sensibilities are upended and the impossible becomes the norm. Yet the song's central message, of the transformative power of imagination and the joys of collective experience, is both relatable and inspiring.
Line by Line Meaning
I heard about this frog
Let me tell you an interesting story
It's a very tiny frog
This frog is very small in size
But it's also very special
But it has some unusual properties
You can only find it in the jungle
It exists only in the dense forest areas
So far away from me
Alas! I cannot find it easily
But if you find it and if you touch it
But if you get to hold it
Your world can change forever
It can change your perspective about things for good
If you touch its skin
By getting in touch with its skin
You can feel your body changing
You can experience transformation within yourself
And your vision also
Not just that, it can even alter the way you perceive things
And blue becomes red and red becomes blue
It can create an illusion where colors can take a different form
And your mommy suddenly becomes your daddy
It can change the identity of your beloved ones
And everything looks like a giant cupcake
It can create a situation where everything appears in a similar form
And you keep laughing and laughing and laughing
It can get you into a continuous fit of laughter
Nothing is ever quite the same really
Things can seem different from what you originally perceived them to be
And after you finish laughing
Once the state of giddiness is over
It's time to turn into a frog yourself
Are you ready to transform into a frog like creature?
It's very funny to be a frog
It is quite amusing to live like a frog, isn't it?
You can dive into the water
You can explore beneath the surface of water
And cross the rivers and the oceans
You can cross huge rivers and even oceans
And you can jump all the time and everywhere
You can jump without any inhibitions
Do you want to play with me?
Would you be interested to join me in building a dreamlike world?
We can be a whole group of friends
We can create a huge team of similar creatures
A whole group of frogs
All of us could be living in a world surrounded by fellow frog dwellers
Jumping into the streets
Playing and having fun on the streets
Jumping into the planet
Going beyond our world and playing in the universe
Climbing up the buildings
Scaling tall buildings to explore the world from a different altitude
Swimming in the lakes and in the bathtubs
Taking a dip in ponds and even turning bathtubs into our play area
We would be hundreds, thousands, millions
Our group would be huge in numbers
The biggest group of friends the world has ever seen
Setting an unparalleled example of friendship
Jumping and laughing forever
Graduating towards an eternal state of happiness
It would be great, right?
Life would be a never-ending party, an adventure in itself!
Lyrics © Wixen Music Publishing, DOMINO PUBLISHING COMPANY, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: ANTHONY GONZALEZ, YANN GONZALEZ, JUSTIN MELDAL-JOHNSEN
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@patamesh
LYRICS
I heard about this frog
It's a very tiny frog
But it's also very special
You can only find it in the jungle
So far away from me
But if you find it and if you touch it
Your world can change forever
If you touch its skin
You can feel your body changing
And your vision also
And blue becomes red and red becomes blue
And your mommy suddenly becomes your daddy
And everything looks like a giant cupcake
And you keep laughing and laughing and laughing
Nothing is ever quite the same really
And after you finish laughing
It's time to turn into a frog yourself
It's very funny to be a frog
You can dive into the water
And cross the rivers and the oceans
And you can jump all the time and everywhere
Do you want to play with me?
We can be a whole group of friends
A whole group of frogs
Jumping into the streets
Jumping into the planet
Climbing up the buildings
Swimming in the lakes and in the bathtubs
We would be hundreds, thousands, millions
The biggest group of friends the world has ever seen
Jumping and laughing forever
It would be great, right?
@finney2011
I listened to this song with my son in the car when he was in kindergarten over and over while driving him to school... He always said, "Dad can you play that again" Now he is 16 and we are going to see M83 live in 2 weeks. A DREAM come true for both of us. To share this with my son is something I will never forget.
@septemberbud
That is amazing and I hope you guys had a great time. Seriously shows how impactful music has on our lives.
@Neat_Net
Hurry up, you're dreaming 😢
@kellymcgrady6836
I’ve never loved anything more than this comment lol
@DanielFoley75
The line "Do you want to play with me?" always kills me. Someday your kid will ask you this question for the last time, but you won't realize that was the last time until later.
@jennyx1111
This omfg
@kingkush0
My dad used to say one day you won't want to hangout with me and that always stuck
@ShroudedDay
😢😢😢 thanks for this. Gonna go play with my daughter now and enjoy every second of it.
@Hy-Brasil
i tried to tell my husband this for so many years and he didn't believe me, kept believing he had nothing but time.. his sons are grown and want nothing to do with him.
@humuhumunukunuku
"It would be great, right?" Ah, the bliss of childhood....