It’s a shadow on the success story that was thought to be flawless. While Duchess has established itself as a pillar of the new French music scene, the investigation published by our colleagues at StreetPress paints a much less glamorous picture of the backstage. Several people describe constant pressure and questionable management methods. For Léo Chatelier, the head of the company, it was time to provide clarification on the genesis of his business and to take responsibility.
“I started from nothing”: for Léo Chatelier, how far can improvisation go?
In a written response sent to Public, Léo Chatelier does not seek to deny the entirety of the facts, while providing important nuances. He emphasizes that he built Duchess as a self-taught individual, starting from scratch and without initial financial means. “I did my best with passion. I am a trained musician,” he recalls, admitting to having to learn accounting and human resources without a safety net. This forced improvisation, coupled with an original team composed of friends, would have created a damaging confusion between the professional framework and the friendly sphere.
This proximity, while launching meteoric careers, also showed its limitations once success arrived. The founder admits that the mixing of genres could generate tensions that he was not prepared to manage. “I didn’t always handle the pressure well, and I deeply regret that it may have hurt our original teams,” he confesses.
“An era has passed”: Léo Chatelier’s strategy to turn the page
To address criticisms of internal dysfunctions, Léo Chatelier highlights the structural transformation carried out in recent years. According to him, the cited testimonies concern a bygone era, when the organization lacked structure in its early days. As soon as the label’s finances allowed, the management claims to have hired senior profiles to stabilize the company. The arrival of an administrator, marketing directors, and a dedicated partner in pure management would aim precisely to prevent such situations from reoccurring. “The issue is taken particularly seriously within the team,” he writes to the Public editorial team.
While the boss admits to youthful mistakes and clumsiness in his initial management, he relies on this new organization to protect his employees as well as his artists. It remains to be seen whether these apologies and structural changes will suffice to appease former team members, marked by their time at the label. A decisive turning point for the image of the company that manages the interests of the new darling of the French.
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