From the moment The Courettes hit the stage, it’s like stepping into a portal that lands somewhere between the crackle of a 45 single and the electric charge of a punk dive in 1977. But don’t let the vintage veneer fool you. This is not pastiche. The Brazilian-Danish duo is feral, fierce, and forward-facing—a band rooted in love, noise, and a staggering commitment to their craft.
Speaking from their home in Denmark, Flavia Couri and Martin Couri are candid, warm, and clearly still in love—with each other and with rock ‘n’ roll. Their most recent album, The Soul of The Fabulous Courettes, dropped in September 2024 and sold out its first pressing by January. “The second pressing is an orange vinyl because the first one was a white, and we had also a Rough Trade special edition in transparent vinyl, which is beautiful,” Flavia says. “It’s not gatefold this time, but the lyrics are there.”
Despite some fans mistaking them for Montrealers—likely a reflection of their wide-ranging, borderless appeal—The Courettes are firmly rooted in Denmark. Martin is Danish. Flavia is Brazilian.
They met on tour in Brazil back in 2013. “We met at five in the morning in a tour van, and I counted the places and I said, okay, it’s going to be me and 10 men, two weeks on the road,” Flavia recalls. “Martin was the first one to come in five in the morning, and I just pointed, ‘Oh, can I sit here? Can you move your stuff?'” She laughs. “And he’s been in my space ever since.”
It started as a tour fling. It turned into something more. “We found out we had a very similar record collection,” she says. “Also we’re both collectors of space age design. It was actually great that he moved my stuff and sat by my side. I’m very happy that he did it. I didn’t know that back then at five in the morning, but that’s where we started.”
Though their sonic palette draws from the 1960s—girl groups, garage fuzz, surf music, punk—they’ve never been easy to pin down. “I used to play really fast punk rock,” Martin says. “And Flavia did a little bit more garage/surf rock thing.”
Their live show is explosive, even more so given it’s just the two of them. “For many years we’ve been touring just Flavia and I,” Martin says. “Just doing the drums and guitar. Really raw and energetic shows.”
They developed a style where minimalism becomes maximalism. Flavia plays guitar with the kind of octave-splitting wizardry that makes a one-woman wall of sound. “There was a guy in the US who came to a show and said, ‘You’re not playing guitar. You take your hands off and the sound is still there.’ He thought I was miming,” she laughs. “He thought there was a guy hidden behind the amplifier or something. It was such a great compliment.”
Martin adds, “We play around 140 shows a year. So it’s very hard to find somebody with that commitment.” Which is why they’ve leaned into technology, incorporating backing tracks—a shift they made only recently. “There were so many songs we felt we could not play live,” Flavia says. “So we decided, let’s try the backing tracks.”
They had resisted for years, but audience assumptions nudged them along. “So many people came to the shows saying, ‘Where are the computers? Where’s the bass?’ So we thought, we might as well give it a try.”
Despite this, they stress their independence. “We can do it without,” Martin says. “But now we’re free to experiment.”
The fuzz tone on Flavia’s guitar is another chapter in their analogue obsession. “It took many years to get that fuzz sound,” she says. “We’re really proud because it was research. I use my signature guitar—it’s handmade in Belgium from Fab Guitars. It’s called Flavia, my own name. It’s very unique.”
As for pedals? “On the records we use the Maestro, the one from the 60s. But live, it doesn’t work. It doesn’t have the low end. So I use an Danelectro Eisenhower Fuzz. I used to use the Hyper Fuzz from Boss, too.”
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They wear their influences proudly: The Sonics, The Kinks, the early Stones, The Ronettes, The Ramones. “I went to a Ramones show when I was 12,” Flavia says. “That changed everything. And the first time I heard ‘Be My Baby’ was in a Levi’s commercial. I just thought, what’s that voice? That drum sound? It was like, wow. This is what I want to do.”
Though the White Stripes comparison is inevitable, they’re clear that it’s not something they ever chased. “More than we like,” Martin says. “We never had one second of inspiration from the band. It’s just that we’re a duo. It was never planned.”
Their origin story backs that up. “Our band really started in a very organic way,” Flavia says. “It was a love story. I was living in Brazil, Martin was in Denmark. I was flying to see him. I started writing songs on the plane. ‘I Want to Be Your Yoko Ono,’ ‘The Boy I Love,’ ‘I’ve Been Walking’ – all of those came from that time.”
“I’m actually a bass player,” she adds. “But I picked up the guitar because I was writing these songs. Suddenly we were a duo.”
The songs may have started in planes, but they landed in full bloom. “We had eight songs, and Kim Kix from PowerSolo invited us to record. He said, ‘Let’s record eight songs.’ That’s why our first album has eight songs.”
Their fans range from punk kids to silver-haired Cramps veterans. “You have to have the young kids so the audience actually moves,” Martin says. “But we love the older ones, too. They come and say, ‘I saw the Cramps in ’78, and you guys are great.’ That means the world to us.”
They play hard. In 2024, they did 124 shows. 2025 is already booking up. “We’re halfway through 118 shows this year,” Martin says. “We don’t do long tours—12 days max. We come home to be with our son.”
That balance of chaos and care, of love and noise, is at the heart of The Courettes. They’re not chasing retro trends. They’re building something lasting with grit, heart and style.
And if you happen to be in Montreal on September 22nd, they’ll be at Le Foufounes Électriques. “Please come to our show,” Flavia says. “Bring your kids. Bring your parents. Bring your neighbours. It’s our second time in Montreal, and we loved it the first time.”
For a band that started as a seat mix-up at five in the morning, they’ve come a long way—and they’re not slowing down.
“We always say,” Flavia smiles, “the world is a better place when people know rock and roll.”
For more info: thecourettes.com
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