French indie folk duo Brigitte ready to paint Hong Kong red, white and blue

Something special happened when the two members of French indie folk duo Brigitte met for the first time. Sylvie Hoarau and Aurélie Saada, who make their Hong Kong debut on May 23 as part of Le French May, were both musicians playing with various bands, but a strange kind of alchemy took place when they met 10 years ago.

"We really love each other," says Saada. "We live in the same neighbourhood, and we met because we had friends in common. There was a bass player we both used to play with, and 10 years ago he invited me to have a drink at her place. I'd seen her around, and playing in bands, and I really wanted to meet this girl because I really liked her spirit.

"And then when we met, something really natural happened. I asked her if she wanted to write songs with me. We were both doing music before, but we were kind of losers in music, and we were thinking of stopping and maybe opening a restaurant together.

"We spent one year writing songs in my dining room with my baby around. We didn't want to go on stage at that point; it was something really intimate. We had a lot of freedom, and it was surprising for us. We'd felt before that we weren't as free as we could be.

"What I was doing wasn't personal; it wasn't me. I was in bands with guys, and I was frightened of talking about what I liked, and Sylvie was the same. But with Brigitte we can write the songs we want to write, and wear what we want on stage. We did our first show in a little art gallery, and people were like, 'Wow'. And our little baby was born. Everything has been so busy since then."

Their little baby, showcased on albums "Et vous, tu m'aimes?" (2011) and "À bouche que veux-tu" (2014), is a strange mix, equal parts off-kilter folk, cabaret, easy listening and 1960s flower-power pop, with influences as diverse as jazz, nursery rhymes and disco, all accompanied by the duo singing in harmony.