I’m impressed. I’m still not believing that Pablo did accept this interview. I’m sure that -like me- you have some artist that you follow since ages. This is the case for me regarding Pablo. As I’m an absolute fan of one of its former band Ekkaia, I did listen to absolutely everything he did. As many, I think that Ekkaia is -still- one of the best melodic crust band («Crust de Salon» in French, copyright Trash Manu) that did ever exist. I’m still listening to them, not from time to time but regulary, and I’m still not bored by all of their albums. This style was very popular in Spain between 2000 and 2010.

The main goal of this blog/zine was to interview bands after their "split". As you see, I did succeed to do this only one time (with Shall Not Kill). As not as many bands did play during the past two years, it was not so easy to interview active band. So I did try to interview individuals. I still do not remember how I got Pablo’s Facebook contact but he did answer positively to my request. I was supposed to see him playing with his band Sangre De Muerdago in Rouen, but the show was canceled, due to «you know what». So trying to interview him was for me a kind of consolation prize.

So here it is. Here’s the Pablo’s interview. It did take a lot of time, but it’s finally here and I hope you will enjoy it.
Once again thank you Pablo for taking the time to answer this interview.
All band’s pictures were provided by Pablo. Ekkaia flyer by David S and Pablo.

You did play more than 10 years ago in Ekkaia which is a crust/punk band. How did you move from this style of music to traditional Galician music ? Was it something you did at the same time or, were you just bored by extreme music and wanted to play something else as this two styles are totally different ? Are you aware that you did introduce Galician folk music to a lot of people listening to Ekkaia (Before knowing Sangre de Muerdago I wasn’t listening to any traditional music at all). Are you still playing in punk bands or is it something that now belongs to the past for you ?

I've been always loving music in general, definitely being sometimes more fond of some styles than others, but I ultimately love the language of music and the emotion you can express and receive through it. I always had an acoustic guitar at home in which I played any kind of music on, from punk to folk as well. I didn't move conciously from A to B, neither feels like that. Sangre de Muerdago was something of my privacy, songs I wrote at home that were rarely heard by anyone else, until it slowly started coming out and developing into what it is today. There are obvious differences in the shape of music when you talk about punk and folk, but the spirit that runs throughout both of them is often similar or just the very same. I'm always happy to hear of punks enjoying folk and traditional music, and not only that, I love to encounter punks that are into art in general, and the sensibility of poetry or delicate music.
I still play loud music and have a pretty ferocious punk band called Lamia with old friends Jon Hurt (State of Fear, Consume..) and Tom Radio (Tau Cross, Frustration..), but we haven't released anything yet.

Are you still following the scene from Galicia/A Coruña, is the punk still alive there ? What do think about these new Spanish crust bands like Tenue or Herïda ? Are you still going to this kind of concert, or have you any interaction with the Spanish DIY punk scene ?

I don't really follow any particular scene besides following the music that moves me, not that I have not an interest, but music is so wide that focusing on a small fraction of a style would be sad. Yet I know often what's happening over there in Galicia, not only punk related but in music in general. I keep great friendship and contact with many musician friends from over there. I don't know the bands you mention for example, but I definitely keep going and enjoying loud concerts of different nature very much.

I heard from Christophe Stonehenge that he planned to release a full discography of Ekkaia. Can you tell me more about the project, when will it be released ? Can we hope for some unreleased or live songs. A lot of people are waiting for it, and we see that Ekkaia is now part of the bands that do not exist anymore but that have a strong impact on the scene (I’m thinking for example of Alerta Antifascita doing new Ekkaia t-shirts …) any thoughts about that (that Ekkaia is now part of « History ») ?

Yes, the discography is about to be released. Unfortunately there won't be any unreleased material, we have nothing like that in the pockets. Regarding Ekkaia tshirts and the like, my thoughts are that I believe that many people around the world have been doing a good sum of money with them, probably more than we ever did. It wouldn't matter to me if we would have been notified or when at least, the money raised was destined to solidarity.

If I’m not wrong you did play in a black-metal band called Antlers. As you are from Spain and, I think (correct me if I’m wrong) other band members are from Germany, how did you make the connection with them, how did you do to write the music ? About Antlers, is the band dead or do you plan to release something new one day ?

I live in Leipzig since many years, yet the origins of Antlers go back to my last year in Galicia. It was not until I was in Leipzig that a line-up started taking shape and the project started developing in a more serious fashion. The band lived for 7 full years but it is very dead and buried right now. It ended up in a very sad way and there are no plans to wake ghosts of the past up.

Sangre De Muerdago was supposed to be on tour at the beginning of the COVID19 pandemic (I was waiting for your show in Rouen, France). How did you live the fact that the tour was canceled ? Will this tour happen again (in the same town or same places) or did you plan something else ? I do believe that you were going to play songs from the new album ? Was it hard to release a new album without being able to play it (defend it) in live ? How as a band or as person did you go through this very harsh pandemic time ?

Yes, we actually did start the tour and played the first few shows, but soon enough we decided/had to cancel the whole tour and drive back home. It was a hard blow, and we have only played two concerts ever since.
We were playing songs from the new album indeed, and yes, it was hard, but life turned out way more difficult for many other people in other parts of the world, so I would feel not good complaining about it.

As I come from a DIY scene I was asking myself, is Sangre de Muerdago a ‘DIY’ band. I mean you seems to play in big places and the music itself seems to attract more people than punk rock shows. Is Sangre De Muerdago a « professional » band, or are you still open to play in squats, or in small/tiny places ? For instance, Sangre De Muerdago seems to have its own label called Musica Maxica, are all the album self released, why did you choose to do that ?

We operate in a very DIY way at all levels, not only in music but in life itself. We play some big places but we play as well many small ones, including squats, we are open to play anywhere where people are receptive and open to music. Sangre de Muerdagois a professional band yes, and we survive along with the music. Life is humble and cosy, no luxury around us besides having the time to invest in what we love to do.
We have our own “label” as well as you point out, if you can even call it label. It is a very small DIY operation in order to self release our work and very occasionally help friends to release their work as well.

Speaking about playing live. Does Sangre de Muerdago need a special acoustic to play (as you are playing traditional instruments). I saw that you plan to play in churches, or in place with a good acoustic. It is something mandatory for Sangre de Muerdago or can you play in any places with a poor acoustic (even outdoors?)

It helps very much to play in locations with good acoustics, we appreciate that a lot. It is not a must,
but it helps tons!

If this question is too personal, I’ll totally understand you will skip it. You did write a song about your dog Pippi. You relationship with her seems to be very intense and I’m super sorry for you loss. I was asking myself what are in general you relationship with animals (domestic or wild). I often think that animals are better than humans ... Speaking of that do you live a vegan or vegetarian lifestyle ?

Thank you for your words. Pippi was a dearest friend and love of mine, she was born at home in Galicia when I was living in a caravan in the country, and the bond we shared was of the strongest kind. Sometimes I couldn't make a different between her and I and often felt like we were one single being. I still cry her very much.
I have always an eye out in the natural world, I usually spend hours a day in the forest and place myself in that world at many levels, I observe birds and many other creatures, plants, trees... I also like to study them on a regular and ceasless basis.
I do live a vegetarian/vegan lifestyle since the mid 90s, my diet is ever changing though as I learn about nutrition, I listen to my body, and I learne more and more of the impact that food production has on the planet. What I'm doing at the moment is to eat mostly vegan but I eat dairy as well which I try to adquire organic and as regional as possible.

Who are the other Sangre De Muerdago members. Are they related to punk music. Do they play in other bands. Who is writing the music and the lyrics in the band, is it a collective work, or something else ? On the other are the other Ekkaia members still doing music do you still have some connection with them ?

The other Sangre de Muerdago members are my friends and my family, I love them all very deeply and just to think about my bond with them moves me to tears. They're related to punk in a way or another, not really musically, but really on attitude, which is what to me, creates punk.
I may write all the songs, melodies and lyrics, but they all write beautiful voices and arrangements to the songs I initially compose. Sangre de Muerdago songs wouldn't be what they are without them.
I believe every other Ekkaia member is still doing music, and with most of them I keep a close relation and they all feel like my brothers.

I saw on the last Sangre de Muerdago vinyl that you did hide a sentence from Henry David Thoreau saying « All good things are wild and free ». Why did you choose to carve this sentence on the vinyl. Is it related to nature ? Do you consider Sangre De Muerdago as an ecological band ? For instance I did notice that you did sell a t-shirt to raise fund for an association defending the elephants. I also noticed that a lot of Sangre de Muerdago’s songs talks about the nature. So can we say that Sangre De Muerdago is a political band ?

Regarding Thoreau's phrase, I love the meaning of this sentence very much, and I guess I can say that everything we do is related to nature. It has some kind of duality to say I consider Sangre de Muerdago an ecological band. Yes I do, and it is the path i want to keep walking, yet despite the fact that we try to live by these standards, we still jump in the tour van to go play concerts or have jumped in planes to go on tour to America or Asia. So well, I like to think of us as an ecological band because our decissions and actions are conditioned by our “green thinking”. We've done several fundraisings mostly for animal rights, and I like to think that the message we communicate through our music is worth jumping in the tour van or very occasionally, i would say even rarely, on a plane.
The elephants tshirt was one of those campaigns in which we raised funds to send to Botswana to Elephants Without Borders, you can find more info about them online.
And yes, I would say Sangre de Muerdago is a deeply political band, even though we don't express ourselves in the language of political propaganda, the depths of all our songs are political in a way or another.

I'm asking this question (the exact same question) to each band I interview. I wanted to have your opinion about the rise of social media (facebook, instagram), and music streaming "applications" (bandcamp, spotify). Do you think it changed the "scene" ? I mean ... I feel a lack of sincerity when using those things (for instance a political action is now resumed by changing your profile photo on the Facebook) and see it more like a threat than something good for the music and the scene we love. It changed a lot the way the gigs are going on (I did stop going to show for more than five years and saw a lot of changes), people always using their smartphone, to film or take photos and sometimes forgetting the most important thing ... listening to the music, enjoying the music. Do you think the rise of these new technologies changed a lot of things during shows. Do you think there is also a paradox in the scene, a lot of bands, venues are clearly struggling against what we call "capitalism" but are using those applications (facebook, instagram), the thoughts and the actions are in total opposition. I do believe that punk is capable of more for instance why not using software which are open-source, decentralized, and not owned by the biggest fortune companies of the world ?

It has of course changed the scene, very deeply, if you ask me. To me it is a constant struggle and I stumble through it a lot. I have to force myself to post things on our social media and try to function with these tools. I have a lot of inner conflict with all of it and I would be lying if would say I don't. I won't also deny the power it has to spread news or information when you are a band, and artist, a collective, run a personal business, or for any DIY efforts. Yet many beautiful aspects of our community are now lost and gone for good. I think it also affects deeply in the way people enjoy and pay attention to music and the message of it, there's basically no space for lyrical content when you make use of digital music, and I think the whole pull of the digital world drags you to not dig the music itself as deep as some years ago.
Regarding the struggle against capitalism and at the same using its tools, I think the debate here is so great that we would need a one year lecture just to try to cover some aspects of it. The inbalance of the world is bigger and bigger, and we keep on running blindly towards it. Not only using these new technologies, I think, the point we should acknowledge here is the susteinability paradox, and the will to bring all people to live by “first world” standards. If everyone would live like a German, we would exhaust this planet in an instant. The planet can't stand that each human owns 1,5 cars average because there wouldn't be oxigen left to breathe. And so on, it goes one fact after the next and the next. Despite all this, we keep on and on on this road, expecting that there'll be a miraculous turning point while every other species is disappearing and the ecosystem is exhausted. So I try to live a more simple life at a more relaxed pace in general and focus on art and how it can impact, and trigger thinking, self-criticism, reflection and introspection.
I have the feeling that punk is capable of certain change, but not much anymore besides changing the lives of a few, if you ask me. I may sound pessimistic to many, but I think it is a matter of opening our eyes, and we need to acknowledge as well that as some of us have embraced punk as a means to change, to learn, to construct, to live passionately or embrace a different way to build our relations and to love and to care for each other, for many other people it is an act of self-destruction. Punk is capable of certain change, yet it feels to me that it comes at a very small scale and I believe it is more efective when open-minded, shape-shifting, and binded to different sorts of artistic and creative expressions.

I can hardly imagine it’s been more than a year since we had the chance to have JØTNARR play in Paris. More than one year, without almost any shows at all. We had plenty of shows booked for March, April, May, and June … and more after. The world has decided, that we had to stop it.

As I do not want to stop anything related to music, I decided to still write my small interviews. Organizing shows takes a lot of time, and doing theses interviews was something I was doing when I had the time to. Most of the time, I tried to interview the band before the show: giving them a space to express theirselves before the show and maybe sometimes making people to come see them play. I asked JØTNARR before their show but didn’t had the time to do it. One year after I was thinking it was time to fix that mistake.

I know JØTNARR throught the mighty React with Protest label (Sabine and Lars) and I am listening to them because of that. As they are good friends with the Ulrich family they did play a couple of time at the Cry me a River fest (best place in the world ?). That’s where I did see them for the first time. I think that I do not have to say that their show here was impressive but the thing I felt that evening is that their personnalty was also part of the good vibes we had here. I did see three people, three friends playing their music, with a big smile on their faces wanting to share something with the people here at CMAR. They were so fun.

That’s why we kindly asked them to come play in Paris for the first birthday of the collective. It’s not something that is doable everytime but they did come on a week-end playing a first show in UK before taking the boat to France and play here. No Brexit at this time, it was, I think, pretty easy for them to come here. But not all bands will do that to play a show for less than fifty people in a bar in Paris.

They did sleep at home and we had a great time with them, one of the band you want to have at your home everyday. Lots of good laughts and vibes.

As always I’m adding to this blog post, some photos and some tracks you can listen on the Bandcamp. If you don’t know them, give them a try, as they are in my opinion an underestimated band, at least a not so well know band as they are mixing different styles, from classic metal, to heavy metal and a bit of screamo. Not a recipe you can ear everyday.

So here is this small interview of JØTNARR. Thanks a lot to the band and especially Chris who takes the time to answer my questions.

The recent news about the Brexit says that it will really be applicated from January first. From my point view the Brexit is an absolute catastrophy. If I'm understanding well it will not be possible to travel to the UK from a foreign country without a visa. For instance, for a show in Paris (like the one with us last January) you'll need a visa to come play. So it makes the "organization" even harder for you if you want to play outside of the UK. How do you feel about it. I'm far to be an expert regarding the UK politics, but people I know from UK are clearly against the Brexit. Do you think a last minute change is possible, and how are you going to deal with it especially about touring outside of the UK ? Last word for me for this question : Fuck the borders.

Chris: Urgh, Brexit is a fucking disaster. There are people far more qualified than me to explain this mess, but of course I voted against it, I voted to remain.

At the time, I didn't understand much of anything about the implications for trade etc., but I could see that a 'leave' result would validate and increase general racist and anti-foreign sentiments, so obviously fuck that. It was a slim margin that won it for "leave", but I think people didn't really have a clue what they were voting for - we were blatantly misled on things, like the promise of hundreds of millions of pounds freed up to be pumped into our National Health Service if we left the EU. A total lie. Anyway, I don't want to go on and on about it, but I can't believe the absolute state of our country at the moment. Unfortunately Brexit is just one horrible part of over a decade of disastrous Tory rule.
On Brexit, I do keep some small, naive hope that we'll somehow be able to reverse this bullshit, just because it already looks so disastrous that people won't stand for it... and I've no idea at the moment what it will mean for us to try and play again in Europe... But things don't look good at the moment. Fuck borders and fuck the Tories.

The last JØTNARR album was now released almost 2 years ago (May 2019). Are you planning to release new stuffs ? If I'm not wrong (looking at your facebook profiles) somes of you now have babies and are now "dads" (speaking of it congratulation ;-) ) (and correct me if I'm wrong). Does it slow down the time you have to play together or to do rehersal with JØTNARR ? On the other hand did the COVID crisis gave you more time to work on new songs or was impossible to meet each others for doing that ? We personnally had to cancel almost 10 shows, and this virus crisis is a huge wreck. We are a bit demoralized about it, like having that feeling that the "normality" (about shows) will never come back. What's your personnal feeling about it ?

Chris: The short answer is yes, one of the less important effects of the pandemic and our government's murderously negligent handling of it is that we haven't been able to play any shows or get together just to write and rehearse nearly as much as we'd like. On the plus side, I've had loads more time at home to play guitar, so I've written lots of new material, and we had a good backlog of stuff since the last release anyway - so yes, there are definitely plans for more JØTNARR recordings as soon as possible.

Simon recently had a beautiful baby - Magnus - with his partner Machaela (aka Mach Sabbath), and my partner Abbi and I are expecting a little girl any day now. Oli already has a daughter (who is on the cover art of Burn & Bury) with his wife Laura, so we will all be d-beat Dads, hahaaa.

I noticed some super melodic parts in JØTNARR's songs, some of these parts sounds like heavy metal songs. I was a heavy metal listener in my childhood. Especially Iron Maiden. As you are from the UK I felt obligated to ask you a question about Maiden. First of all because I'm a Maiden fan (sometimes ashamed of it) and secondly because I want you opinion about the band. Most of the time when I speak to British people I'm asking this question. Do you like Iron Maiden or not ? I have to admit they disappoint me a lot especially their political positions (sometimes patriotics, their position about the brexit). If you do or do not like Iron Maiden, please tell me why ?

Chris: So, this is kind of a running joke within the band that Simon only likes Blaze Baley era Maiden, but the honest truth is that Simon absolutely hates it all, hahaha, whereas me and Oli are definitely Maiden fans. Before we started the band, I wasn't really into them at all, but Oli's devotion made me reconsider. Powerslave really clicked with me, and then Seventh Son, and I was like "okay, I think I love this band". Somewhere In Time sealed the deal, that album is maybe my favourite, what a ripper! I'm not actually sure what the bands politics are, but it wouldn't surprise me that Bruce particularly was a bit of an old gammon, but I honestly have no idea... I've briefly met Steve Harris twice and he just seems like a genuinely nice, down-to-earth dude that's totally unaffected by being in one of the biggest bands on the planet.

I saw that Chris did a "gofundme" to raise money for "Mid and North Essex Mind" which is a local and independant charity who provide mental health service for different people. I notice that you choose to support a "local" (in Essex, you live in Colchester) association. First of all congratulation for this, doing 25 press-ups for 25 days is not something I'll be able to do. Was it hard ? I'm stopping jokes. Do you think that action like this one (which are for me some kind of political action) is better when it's done locally. I mean when you do politics in your town, neighborhoods you directly see that you are acting on things you see and do everyday. Secondly why did you choose mental health. I'm personnally learning a lot about it these days and I do think that it is something very important to talk about it, and I do know people who are suffering from it, and I personnaly -sometimes- suffer from it too.

Chris : Thank you! Fuck knows how I managed it! I've actually kept doing press-ups (just not 25 a day) and I go running regularly because it really seems to help my own mental health.

So the "25 press-ups for 25 days challenge" was one of those viral things on Facebook where people nominate each other, and the idea was supposedly to raise awareness about PTSD and depression and mental health issues. I felt like watching people just do press-ups was pretty fucking boring, so I tried to make it funny, mostly with this alter-ego 'Metal Melv', but I also pretended to be Ronnie James Dio and Dani Filth and stuff. A surprising amount of people were liking the videos so I thought I'd set up a donation page and try and actually raise a bit of money for a mental health charity. Mind is a nationwide mental health charity, but they have regional organisations - so I just chose my local one because... well because I suppose any sort of political act on a smaller or local scale appeals to me, just because trying to understand and address everything that's wrong on a national scale seems like such an overwhelming, insurmountable idea.

I couldn't wait to spit the taste. to scrape it out of my mouth. running like a boy. into summer freedom. scratched the dates. in the timber. and threw away the blade. when I turned to face the field. all the flags of hate were there.
easy to see. far from the thick of it. the food and favours. the narrowed view. that shifted gaze. vile shit you'd defend, and I'd condemn.
flesh and fascist slogans make us enemies, not friends.

I'm always reading band's lyrics. I wanted to know who is writting the lyrics in JØTNARR and what are your inspirations ? The texts are in general very short (a few lines). I tried to search some political meaning it. The only song I did found who seems to be polictical is "Spit the taste" (maybe Drugs. Terror. Death. too). A sentence of "Spit the taste" is "[..] easy to see. far from the thick of it. the food and favours. the narrowed view. that shifted gaze. vile shit you'd defend, and I'd condemn. Flesh and fascist slogans make us enemies, not friends.". I'm maybe wrong but it is the only song on which you clearly takes position. On the other hand some other songs seems to have other inspirations, Nazgül Youth for instance (maybe about the Lord of the rings). What is you current process when writting some lyrics and what is the message in it (if there is any message) ?

Chris: I write all the lyrics, and I find I just like writing about a load of different stuff, so yeah, I guess the lyrics don't always have an on-the-nose political point... sometimes I will just want to write about RoboCop or whatever, but there is always an effort to try and make it have some other meaning. "Spit The Taste / Vile" I guess has the most overtly anti-fascist sentiments, but, for instance, "Rise By Sin" is - to me - about bands or artists who flirt with edgy, nationalist imagery or ideas, but like to say "we're not political" because they know that being a self-confessed nazi is a terrible move, and they simply don't want to lose a good portion of the audience. I think because people hear a black metal influence in some of our songs, that even that vague association can cause people to wonder about your political views, and I totally get that. I think if you read our lyrics or come to our gigs there can be no doubt where we're at, and I would never seek to maintain some sort of edgy mysticism by supposing to be apolitical or some bullshit, but at the same time I don't want our political views to be the sole focus of our material - besides, there are loads of bands doing that way better than we could anyway. But yeah, obviously, fuck the fash.

Nazgul Youth is about feeling like you lose time being trapped or inhibited by your mental health issues. For me personally, it took me a long time to understand and address some mental health stuff, but I don't want to just write a very matter of fact song about that, I want to try and make it sound cool so I'll sing about "nine riders" and all that shit as a way of talking about that stuff in a (hopefully) more entertaining way.

You did release a split with Aureole Of Ash. The first vinyl I ever bought was the 7" of Louise Cyphre (Wenn wire menschen) (in 2001, so 19 years ago), so for me React with Prostest is something very special : a label I follow since a very long time. I'm ALWAYS listening to their new releases. I wanted to know how did you make the connection between you and Lars, and why did you had this idea to make a split with Aureole of ash (Lars from React With Protest is playing in it). You also played at the last "Cry me a River" festival (first time I saw you), and you were planned to play for the last one this year (which was cancelled because of the COVID). Can you tell me more about this connection you have between Sabine and Lars/React With Protest and JØTNARR (how did you met each others, do you often play in Germany, is there another split planned to be released on RWP .... and so on)

Chris: I knew of Lars and Sabine / RWP / CMAR because of our friends in Battle of Wolf and Me & Goliath. I went to a CMAR, but it wasn't until Gaby (Me&G, Lich) put JØTNARR on in London with Ressurectionists that I properly met them. That's when Lars first saw JØTNARR, and he seemed to love it, I'm pleased to say. He's a brutally honest person - if he doesn't like your band, he's not gonna pretend and just be polite, so I know he has a genuine affection for us - which has been brilliant because it's meant we've played CMAR 3 times, and that has provided a means to play in Europe, not to mention a means to see fucking sick bands and make friends with some absolute legends. I bloody love the German punk family. Going to play over there for those champs honestly feels like some sort of punk utopia, I wish we could just do that all the time.

The Aureole of Ash split is basically an out-of-print EP from each band. So for us, it was our "Divide The Growth and Stone" EP which had never got a vinyl release, so it was really cool that we got to do it as a split with AofA. The split was entirely Lars' idea if I remember rightly. I think there was talk of doing a tour together around it, but for one reason or another it didn't happen - but they eventually came over with Fluoride, so I put them on in Colchester, and got to play with them the following day in Norwich. Fluoride and AofA were fucking awesome at those shows.

When you did play in Paris last January (... that seems so far to me, right now) we had a lot of fun. You were one of the bands with which we had the funniest moments. I remember we didn't stop laughing when you were at home (was it you tasting french cheese at 2AM after the show ?). The thing is I sometimes feel that there is less and less fun at shows and that -sometimes- people feel the music too seriously. You seems to be people who like to party, making jokes and have a good laugh. Do you share also this feelings that sometime things are getting too serious and that a show is also here to have fun, drink beers (or whiskey, or softs) and to then have good memories to share or to remember (It obviously does not prevent talking about serious subjects when necessary). The scene here in Paris tends to be more and more "serious" (this does not means bad) that’s why I'm asking the question ?

Chris: HAHAHAAA! I remember your fridge smelt incredibly strong to me. Alas, I didn't try your cheese, I'm a vegan who didn't even like strong cheese before I stopped eating it. I think I remember you kept Marmite in your fridge, and I was telling you how much I love Marmite, and that Oli and Simon think it's odd that I make a hot drink from it. We had a great time playing for you guys - very grateful we got to come to Paris shortly before this Corona virus stuff shut all that down. I'm just sad we had to leave so early in the morning, so didn't really get to stay up partying properly.

I think I can speak for all three of us when I say we are extremely dedicated and passionate about the music we make, but that doing a band is supposed to be fun, so yeah, we definitely want to get high and have a few beers, and shout at some confused locals about classic rock and nu metal.

I remember being worried that going to play CMAR for the first time, all the German bands were going to be incredibly reserved straight-edge people that took everything very seriously, but most of them are legendary pissheads who are absolutely gagging to talk about Mercyful Fate and sing 'Hold The Line' with us, so it's all good. I do know what you mean about people taking things a bit seriously, I have put on some bands before that are a bit dull / take themselves too seriously, but not many... I think I'm naturally drawn to herberts that love a few beers and a laugh.

I'm asking this question (the exact same question) to each band I interview. I wanted to have your opinion about the rise of social media (facebook, instagram), and music streaming "applications" (bandcamp, spotify). Do you think it changed the "scene" ? I mean ... I feel a lack of sincerity when using those things (for instance a political action is now resumed by changing your profile photo on the Facebook) and see it more like a threat than something good for the music and the scene we love. It changed a lot the way the gigs are going on (I did stop going to show for more than five years and saw a lot of changes), people always using their smartphone, to film or take photos and sometimes forgetting the most important thing ... listening to the music, enjoying the music. Do you think the rise of these new technologies changed a lot of things during shows. Do you think there is also a paradox in the scene, a lot of bands, venues are clearly struggling against what we call "capitalism" but are using those applications (facebook, instagram), the thoughts and the actions are in total opposition. I do believe that punk is capable of more for instance why not using software which are open-source, decentralized, and not owned by the biggest fortune companies of the world ?

Chris: Wow, yeah, I hear you... There's a lot to unpack there. I don't think I can give you much more of an answer than to say I think it's a double-edged sword from my point of view. Social media can be absolutely awful for people's self esteem etc etc, but it's a great means for me to stay in touch with people, promote gigs and the band. I think Spotify and apple and all that stink, they're super convenient for the user I imagine, but not great for the artist. Bandcamp seems the best bet out of all those large streaming services. Bandcamp is the main thing we use to push our music online I'd say, and I personally use it quite a lot to listen to new stuff from bands I like, or to find new bands (although I don't do nearly enough of that...)

My personal experience of the gigs I choose to go to as a punter, and the ones that we play, isn't that people are glued to their phones - but I work in a venue and I have definitely seen that sort of behaviour, especially amongst much younger music fans... Fuck I sound old. I don't know, I agree people should probably relish the opportunity to not look at thier phones for a little while and just watch a band. But it's weird talking about this stuff because, due to the pandemic, I haven't actually been at a gig for almost a year. Maybe people will behave altogether differently once we're able to go to gigs again.

You can add anything you want to say in this last question. The last word is for you !

Chris: Yeah, I would just urge all the French punks to give Marmite a try. Thank you for taking the time to speak to me! Loads of love. Xxxx

J’ai toujours eu beaucoup de mal à lire des livres sur la musique. J’ai essayé à plusieurs reprises de tenter l’expérience sans y prendre beaucoup de plaisir. J’avais bien tenté de lire quelques livres des éditions «Camion Blanc» et j’avais trouvé ça catastrophique (en tant qu’(ex)fan d'Iron Maiden j’avais jeté mon dévolu sur «L’épopée des Killers» et m’étais aussi essayé à lire «J’étais un robot» racontant l’histoire de Kraftwerk au travers d’un des membres du groupe). Mes lectures musicales se sont alors finalement cantonnées aux fanzines (interviews, critiques de disques). Ces derniers se faisant de plus en plus rares, j'ai fini par ne quasiment plus lire de choses à ce sujet. Je dois avouer que je fais plus partie des gens qui écoutent la musique que de ceux qui lisent dessus (pour le cinéma par contre c’est une autre histoire, mais ce n’est pas l’objet de ce texte)

Je ne me souviens plus exactement comment je suis tombé sur Baignoires, hépatites et autres histoires relatant les péripéties de NOFX de leurs débuts en 1983 (et même avant, car de nombreux passages racontent les enfances atypiques (ou pas) des différents membres du groupe) jusqu’à aujourd’hui. On y retrouve les débuts de Cokie the clown : projet solo de Fat Mike grimé en clown raté, et la réalisation de backstage passport : documentaire vidéo (sous forme d’épisodes) dans lequel on suit le groupe en tournée dans tout un tas de pays où on ne les attend pas : Pérou, Chine, Corée du Sud, Afrique du Sud ... Entre les deux nous avons la joie d'assister à toutes leurs galères, leurs échecs et leurs succès : entre autre la création de Fat Wreck Chords, leurs relations avec MTV (NOFX n'a quasiment fait aucun clip, et refusé de signer sur une major), leur rencontre avec Brett d'Epitaph qui voulait les faire sonner comme Bad Religion. Je n'en dis pas plus ça serait vous gâcher le plaisir.

Ce que je sais par contre c’est que l’ai acheté à un copain (Manu pour ne pas le citer) pour 15 balles, de la main à la main. Comme on le disait très justement, je pense que la traduction et la vente auraient bénéficié d’un franc succès si la distribution avait dépassée les milieux D.I.Y. Je suis par exemple certain qu’un bon nombre de fans ou d’amateurs de NOFX ne connaissent pas l’existence de ce livre et que des milliers d’exemplaires auraient pu être distribués dans les FNAC ou dans les Giberts. Je ne connais pas les motivations de Pascal (qui semble s’être chargé de la distribution et de la traduction du livre) mais à mon sens cette traduction et ce livre gagnent à être plus connus et plus accessibles.

A mon avis toute personne ayant de près ou de loin des affinités avec la musique punk ou avec NOFX devrait lire ce livre. Je pense que cette histoire témoigne d’un mouvement, de quelque chose qui n’existe déjà plus et qui a eu une existence trop courte. A l’heure ou le punk se semi-professionnalise de plus en plus, ou la moindre sortie bénéficie d’un tirage à 300 exemplaires au format vinyle, l’histoire de NOFX vient nous rappeler que le punk à ses débuts n’avait rien à voir avec ce qu’il est maintenant (on rappellera que NOFX a auto produit une grande partie de ses disques, les autres albums étants sur Epitaph, en somme chez les copains). A la lecture de ces lignes, je ne pense pas que j’aurais personnellement pu faire long feu dans les concerts de cette époque, ou la multiplications des histoires sordides (viols, drogue, bastons) et des plans complètement foireux (suicide, addiction, vomi, et j’en passe) nous donne souvent l’impression que cette scène était carrément dangereuse, voire malsaine à certains moments (et plus difficilement accessible que l’on pourrait le croire). On ne sait plus si l’on doit en rire ou en pleurer.

On se rend compte à la lecture du bouquin (j’ai par la même occasion beaucoup réécouter leurs disques au fur et à mesure de ma lecture) que les membres de NOFX n’ont rien à prouver, et cela dès le début de leur histoire. Ce ne sont pas des gens qui se la pètent, ils sont juste eux dans leur état d’esprit à la con (et ça fait du bien). On a un peu l’impression que tout cela leur arrive par hasard au détour de beuveries et de rencontres imprévues. Même si la drogue reste le sujet central du livre à mon opinion, on prend conscience que les membres du groupe restent eux-mêmes, fidèles à leur amitiés et intègres par rapport à leurs idées. On voit en particulier une inversion proportionnelle de la défonce entre Smelly (Erik Sandin, batteur du groupe trop souvent oublié) et Fat Mike. Smelly devenu héroïnomane ne touchera plus à une drogue après une cure de désintoxication. Je peux vous assurer que ce livre peut vous dégoutter à tout jamais des drogues, mon opinion ayant carrément changée à ce sujet après avoir fini l’ouvrage.

Malgré tout ce livre n’est pas à mettre entre toutes les mains car il expose une vérité crue qui a de plus en plus de mal à trouver sa place dans la société actuelle (j’en vois déjà boycotter le groupe). On y parle de viol, d’abus sexuels, d’euthanasie, de mort (sans rire on apprend la mort d’un proche du groupe toutes les vingts pages) sous une forme jamais vue et je peux vous dire que j’ai bien été secoué, bouleversé par certains passages. J’en avais même parfois une boule au ventre, et il y a certains trucs que je ne pourrais pas oublier avant un bout temps. Vous êtes prévenus.

Je ne sais pas si je me trompe, mais il me semble que le livre a été traduit par Pascal (de Et mon cul c’est du tofu) et David Mourey. Ces deux là ne semblent pas être des traducteurs «professionnels» (je veux dire des personnes dont c’est le métier). J’avais émis des doutes quant à la concordance des temps utilisés dans certaines parties (je me souviens en avoir discuté avec mon pote Manu). Néanmoins (après avoir fini le livre), je trouve que cette traduction très brute donne une fraîcheur très particulière qui convient particulièrement bien au livre et au sujet. En ce moment je n’arrive pas à lire de roman, et cette traduction tombe à pic. J’ai eu l’impression qu’un pote me racontait son histoire pendant tout le livre, l’impression d’avoir une conversation de 350 pages. La forme est parfaite et vous tient en haleine tout au long du livre. Les histoires sont abordées sous différents angles selon le point de vue des membres du groupe. Ce qui peut créer des situations assez cocasses, mais tellement marrantes (ça faisait longtemps que ne je ne m’étais pas autant marré).

Ayant beaucoup de mal à lire en anglais, je remercie vraiment Pascal et David pour leur traduction, sans eux je n’aurais pas pu capter toutes les nuances et subtilités de ce livre (oui oui, il y en a). On notera que les traducteurs ont particulièrement pris soin de nous expliquer toutes les subtilités des expressions ou des langages d’argotiques en nous gratifiant d’une multitudes d’annotations (jamais inutiles) en bas de pages. Comme on peut le dire ce livre est un «page turner» chaque page nous donne envie de lire la suivante. Les 200 premières pages étant les meilleures à mon goût. On rentre après dans l’histoire plus moderne de NOFX, ou des punks sans avenir, sont devenus propriétaires de boîte de nuit ou ambassadeurs politiques (PunkVoters)(sur ce coup là -désolé NOFX- mais je me range du côté de Propagandhi).

Le groupe ayant tourné et fréquenté tout un tas de artistes dont je suis fan vous allez voir que ces pages regorgent d’anecdotes plus débiles les unes que les autres. On apprendra des choses sur Weezer, Bad Religion, Blink 182 et encore d’autres. Dans l’esprit sordide j’ai finalement appris l’origine de la mort de Tony Sly (chanteur de No Use For A Name) sans vraiment le vouloir … (RIP Tony). Dans l’esprit «American Pie» on apprend que les NOFX ont pissé dans leur van qui allait être celui utilisé par Fugazi avant de le rendre lors de leur tournée européenne ... tout ça pour finalement s’apercevoir que les Fugazi étaient des personnes très cools (Oops).

Ce livre s’ouvre et se ferme sur des histoires de pisse. Mike qui boit des cocktails à la pisse de Soma, Cokie qui fait boire son urine à des personnes du publique. Et ceci, finalement, le résume bien en quelques mots.

Je ne saurais que trop vous conseiller de visionner dans la foulée backstage passport dont je parle plus haut, qui vous permettra de mettre des images sur les mots (en tout cas la fin du livre).

Je vous laisse sur une phrase de Mike qui m’a marquée (car je pense exactement la même chose), avant que vous fonciez vous procurer ce petit chef d’œuvre (toujours disponible chez Mon cul dont voici le lien http://moncul.org/distro_mon_cul/zines/):

«J’étais énervé. Vraiment énervé. Cela arrive si souvent dans la vie : vous dites aux gens ce qu’ils doivent faire, encore et encore, et il ne le font pas. Et ils en paient les conséquences. Vous ne pouvez pas forcer quelqu’un à faire quelque chose, peu importe combien ça l’aiderait. C’est la chose la plus frustrante au monde. Et vous n’avez généralement qu’à soupirer et laisser aller. Mais c’en était une difficile à ignorer.»

I have never been really fond of Italian screamo. I remember back in the days when Raein and La Quiete were some of the bands the most liked in that style, that I was not super fond of them. The only exception was The Death Of Anna Karina. I probably do not know every Italian screamo bands but after the 2000-2010 period I did not find any stuff coming from italy matching exactly my tastes. I did put the Chivàla album in my bandcamp wishlist in 2018 and did not listen to it for a couple of months. (you know there are so many bands to listen ....)

I remember putting a random playlist in my bathroom. I was showering when Terra from the Chivàla EP was randomly chosen by the algorithm. I can say I discovered Chivàla by chance. I did notice that a lot of things happened to me randomly. I still don't know if it scares me or not. The fact is I did listen and re-listen to that particular song over and over again. There was something deeply melancholic and strong in it which forced me to listen to it over and over again without listening to the rest of EP.

I then had the chance to have the physical release of the 10 inches split with Suiriami. This one is for me even more intense than the first EP and the two songs on that vinyl are just incredible, especially 27 Marzo, which is a super sad song (pretty slow/mid-tempo) that talks to me a lot and reminds me my past life (I'm talking here about the lyrics).

They released this year a split with Reste on tape. The song on that tape is in my opinion the best thing the band ever released. This track is so intense and sad at the same time. And once again the lyrics remind some events that happened in my in my life. This song is called Avrà I Tuoi Occhi. If there is one thing to remember about Chivàla it is this song, and if there is one sentence I do remember and that a lot of people do feel every day and every f***** minute of their lifes it is this one "Solo dolore, nel profondo" (only pain, deep inside). I'm talking and asking questions about this song in the interview so you will have more details about it in the interview.

Se il limite fosse liquido,
bisognerebbe ingoiarlo d'un fiato,
per annaspare, ad un passo dalla morte,
dove il sonno fa rumore e poi si stempera.
Oppure mescolarsi alle correnti del tempo,
in una spirale amorfa verso il fondo.

Solo dolore, nel profondo.

Scenderemo nel gorgo muti
ma con luce nuova feriremo il cielo,
come ogni sole dopo l'abisso della notte.

Se tutto è destinato alla deriva eterna
in uno spazio nero e senza Dio,
saremo tempesta per sempre.

I really hope you will enjoy this interview, the band did an absolutely fantastic job answering to it. Thank you so much.
All the live photos are taken by Claudio G. Messina, thanks a lot Claudio for letting me using your photos to illustrate this blog post !

When I'm reading (on the internet) about Chivàla, it is often associated to Screamo. In my opinion Chivàla is not a Screamo band. When my friends are asking me how Chivàla sounds like I often refer to Verse and Self Defense Family (especially because of the the voice of your singer), which are in my opinion Post Hardcore or Melodic Hardcore bands. Do you agree with that statement ? Are you influenced by these bands or am I totally wrong ?

We try to play something which is truly ours, and unknowingly we blend together different kinds of influences, from Screamo to Post Rock, from Shoegaze to Post Metal, from Melodic Hardcore to Emo. We think that giving an "etiquette" to music nowadays is somehow reductive, but when we are asked what kind of music we play, we usually answer with "Post Hardcore".
Your statement is totally right: Giuseppe, our singer, says that he is heavily influenced from some iconic Melodic Hardcore bands such as Have Heart, Verse, The Carrier, Modern Life Is War, More Than Life, Killing The Dream and he is an absolute lover of Self Defense Family and End Of A Year. He has always been impressed by their genuine lyric-writing and their passionate attitude on the stage. Being able to convey the intensity of the emotions of your songs with your body language, creating a strong bond with the people who are listening to you, being almost "submerged" by them is, according to us, one of the most beautiful things that modern Punk, and its subgenres, has given to us. For a short period of time he used to play in a Screamo band called Folgore, and he grew up listening to classic Italian and French Screamo bands.

Did you play in any bands before Chivàla ? By diging on discogs (correct me if I'm wrong) I saw that your drummer played in a lot of bands based in Bari (Pastel/ISTMO/Minus Tree). How did you meet each others and why did you decide to play together. The first songs were released in 2018 but when did you start to play together ? Speaking of gigs did you ever tour outside of Italy (I heard you played in Germany, we tried to make you play in France without success) ?

Andrea, our drummer, used to play in a Melodic Hardcore band called Minus Tree from 2010 to 2013, and they toured Europe several times. Some years after their hiatus, he had an intense experience with Istmo, an instrumental band, which in its short history toured Europe, and with the Pastel duo, focusing on a more melodic and dreamy-like atmosphere. He is fond of Screamo, Melodic Hardcore, Post Rock, Emo and it is safe to say that he has a 360 degrees knowledge about Punk music and its subgenres. He listens to Hip Hop and Electronic Music as well. He always says that he started to really understand music when he firstly toured Europe with other bands.
Giordano, our founder guitarist, grew up listening to Ambient Music and Post Rock, mainly Mogwai and Godspeed You! Black Emperor, to Progressive (Tool and Mars Volta), and lately he approached the highly emotive Post Hardcore works of Envy and Marnero. Usually our composition process starts with the imput of Giordano and Andrea, which are the founding members of the band, and then we all complete the songs by adding our own ideas. Giordano has been playing for seven years in Gingko Dawn Shock, which can be labelled as an Alternative/Post Rock band.

Alessandro, our bass player, is mainly a singer and a guitarist, and agreed to play the bass guitar with us after our former member Luca moved to another city to finish his studies. He is the lead voice in Gingko Dawn Shock and the second guitarist. Lately he started a solo project called James Landed. He was the bass player for Istmo. He always tried to blend together different musical experiences. His playing style is influeced by The Smashing Pumpkins, A Perfect Circle, Black Metal and Post Metal bands, as well as the Post Hardcore of Marnero.
At the end of 2019 we welcomed another member in our family, Francesco, as guitarist. He builds custom guitars as his job, and he is a music lover. He followed some bands of our local scene in Bari (Pastel, Gingko Dawn Shock and The Pier), being a heavy listener of Screamo and Post Hardcore (Envy, Saetia, The Saddest Landscape, Rinoa, Svalbard, Birds in Row), and Math Rock.
We all know each other because we all were deeply involved in the local music scene, and sometimes we played some gigs together.

Giordano wanted to experience a more emotive and melodic sound, and with Andrea they decided to start the chivàla project in the middle 2017. He was through a hard period, coping with depression after a break up, and composed some of the first tracks in our ep. He says that he always wanted to play with Andrea, because they share some common thoughts about music, and their idea was to create a Screamo band, focused on a more bright and less chaotic sound. Than Luca and Giuseppe completed the line up. By October 2017 we completed all the five songs of our ep. We were very keen to play together, and we composed the tracks with no effort at all.
Unfortunately, we played outside of Italy just once. We played in May 2019 at the Miss The Stars Fest in Berlin, and the day after at the Ultimate Screamo Fest in Warsaw. We had the pleasure to share the van with our American buddies from Amitiè, creating a strong bond between the bands, and to play three gigs with Closer and Regarding Ambiguity.
We hope to play in France in 2021 (let's not think about Covid-19 for a moment)!!

How did you know/met people from RESTE (who are sharing split tape with you), and how did you have the idea of making the split with them ? Splits shared by European and American bands are not that common, and as far as I know you've never toured in the US so how did you make the connection with them ?

Andrea and Ryan from Reste have known each other for several years, since when Yusuke were born and Andrea was playing with Pastel. They talked on the internet and they sometimes spoke about bands. Not long ago, Ryan wrote to Andrea, made him listen to some practice recordings of his new band (Reste), and he asked him if we could make something together. The idea of the split was born that way.

In my opinion the song on the split with RESTE (àvra i tuoi ochi) is the best song you have ever released. I have two questions about this song. Does it refer to Cesare Pavese, and if it is why did you choose to quote him ?
How was this song recorded, I mean, was it done before or during the lockdown ? By seeing some of your "instagram" posts you seems to record it at your "own" place; am I wrong ? Is this something you often do ?
Speaking of the lockdown were you able to pratice, or write new songs during this time ? Was it a difficult time for you as individuals or as a band ?

Even if I do not speak Italian at all I had a look on the lyrics which seems pretty poetic and or "abstract" to me. Who is writting the lyrics and what are the subjects you are talking about. I tried to search some kind of political meaning in it and found this :

è importante il pensare critico
la rivolta silenziosa contro regole immobili

sono libero perchè capace di piangere e urlare
la mia mente è davvero mia"

which is in my mind -kind of- a political statement. Will you say that Chivàla is talking about politics ?

The title of the song, “Avrà i tuoi occhi”, and a line within the lyrics, “scenderemo nel gorgo muti”, (“mute, we’ll descend into the maelstrom”), are a direct quotation to Cesare Pavese’s poem “Verrà la morte e avrà i tuoi occhi”. Giuseppe, our singer and lyric-writer, was reading a lot of Cesare Pavese’s compositions in that period, and was inspired by them. He arranged them in a personal way. The track talks about overcoming our inner emotional boundaries, to become a better version of ourselves in every way, no matter how hard it can be. “Se tutto è destinato alla deriva in uno spazio nero e senza Dio, saremo tempesta per sempre.” (“If everything is destined to drift away into a dark, godless space, we’ll be a storm forever.”), is the sentence which contains the meaning of all the song: when the potential of a human being is fully unleashed and used to improve everything aroud him/her in a good way, it has no limits. To improve the way we see the world, and the way we take care of the world, we must first improve ourselves, care more for the others, be less selfish. An act of kindness, so easy for anyone of us to do, can change someone else’s life for the better.
All the lyrics are directly influenced by all the XX century poetry, mainly Italian and Russian. Giuseppe always says that when he writes, he wants to be impersonal and abstract, so anyone who reads the lyrics and listens to the song, can experience the whole music in a very personal way, finding the meanings within himself/herself. If music itself is always a universal language, sometimes words can be so, too.
About the composition, we wrote the song some months before the lockdown, and we recorded it at the end of February 2020. Then the lockdown happened, at the starting of March, and we decided to share the song on the internet some months before the split came out, as an act of love towards all our friends across Italy and the world in a period of great distress. The lockdown was hard, we never met for two months, but we always kept in touch with videocalls on the internet. We could never practice, but Giordano was writing new material at home and he always reached out to make us listen to it. We think that the lockdown made the bond we share as individuals and friends stronger, and we couldn’t hold back the emotions when we finally met again.
Usually we make some “homemade” recordings in our place to have an external perspective on the songs, we make the changes we want, and then we record them at a very special place in Apulia (our region), called Sudest Studio in Guagnano (LE), with the help of a friend of us, Stefano Manca. We did this for all the tracks we wrote, we don’t know if in the future that will change.
We usually try to avoid any political meaning within our songs: if anything can be interpreted as political, was not intended to be so. Usually our lyrics talk about inner search, dealing with pain and struggling with depression: they are the description of unique moments of reflection, a way to go outside the turmoil of the mind.

I did notice that all your songs are written in Italian. I am french an I'm always saying to french bands to write their songs in French so it can be easier for "locals" to sing along and really understand the true meaning of some lyrics, and it make the music sounds really different. Even if I'm not italian, I think that Chivàla is easily recognizable by the fact you sing in italian. What's pretty strange is that we -in my opinion- do not find the "rhythm" or "sonority" of italian in your songs. Someone told me once : "Is it French, I'm not recognizing in what tongue he sings ?". Do you agree with that or is it the first time someone speaks about this ? Why did you choose italian and not english for your song and did you ever consider singing/writing in English ?

This is actually the first time we hear about this (the lack of “Italian sonority”)! Giuseppe writes in Italian because he says that in his native language he can express meaning in a more powerful way. The lyrics usually play with sounds and accents within the words, a trait Italian shares with French and Spanish, which are both very beautiful and rich languages. There are many examples of bands which write content in their native tongue, and we love them: Daitro, Sed Non Satiata, Anteros, Viva Belgrado, Envy, Vi Som Alskade Varandra Sa Mycket.

Super simple question, but what does Chivàla (the word) means (I found some weird explanations of this word on the internet), and why did your choose that name ?

There is no real meaning in the word “chivàla”. We were trying to find a name to the band and Andrea thought about the question “chi va là?” (“who’s there?”), and he just moved the accent on the previous syllabe. We though it sounded pretty and that’s all.

What did happen on 27 march. Is this day very personnal to you all ? (I guess by reading the lyrics of this song)

Giuseppe wrote the lyrics of the song on the 27th March 2018. He was going through a bad time, he broke up with his girlfriend, he worked a lot and he had no time at all to rest. The lyrics are painful and they refer to something we can all relate to. We all liked their meaning, and we agreed to call the track that way. Now, it’s one of our songs we like the most. Sometimes, music is a way to just express ourselves and feel better.

I'm asking this question to each band I interview. I wanted to have your opinion about the rise of social media (facebook, instagram), and music streaming "applications" (bandcamp, spotify). Do you think it changed the "scene" ? I mean ... I feel a lack of sincerity when using those things (for instance a political action is now resumed by changing your profile photo on the Facebook, people are obsessed with the number of "like" they got) and see it more like a threat than something good for the music and the scene we love. It changed a lot the way the gigs are going on (I did stop going to show for more than five years and saw a lot of changes), people always using their smartphone, to film or take photos and sometimes forgetting the most important thing ... listening to the music, enjoying the music. Do you think the rise of these new technologies changed a lot of things during shows. Do you think there is also a paradox in the scene, a lot of bands, venues are clearly struggling against what we call "capitalism" but are using those applications (facebook, instagram), the thoughts and the actions are in total opposition. I do believe that punk is capable of more for instance why not using software which are open-source, decentralized, and not owned by the biggest fortune companies of the world ?

We think that social media have become an aspect of everyday life that can’t be ignored nor avoided. If we consider the positive side of it, social media have allowed a lot of bands to be listened and appreciated, even by people who live far away from them. Personally, we started to make lasting friendships with bands living in other parts of the world thanks to the internet: Amitiè, Lytic, Shizune, Suirami, Reste, Pique, One Dying Wish, Ojne, Radura. All of this would have been almost impossible 30 years ago. We were so happy when people living in the US and in other parts of Europe (it’s a long list, and if we write down all the names, we surely will miss someone) agreed to help us print and distribute our records. Also booking gigs is a lot easier with the internet, and we’re sure many people who didn’t know us came to our shows thanks to the events created on Facebook. If it wasn’t for the internet, probably we wouldn’t be answering to these questions right now!
On the other side, it’s true that sometimes people use a lot their smartphones during live shows. In many cases they’re just trying to let the people who missed the gig know what happened.
Sometimes people show on the internet an idealized portrait of themselves, which actually doesn’t match reality. Sometimes we were disappointed when bands who sounded so powerful on records and on the internet, turned out to be just fakes in real life. Sometimes being punk “at all costs” is just a facade.
The important thing is that the positive message, the passion, the commitment and positive values of our music reach as many people as possible, no matter the mean we use.

If you have anything to add or something so say do not hesitate. The final word is for you. I hope you like the questions of this small interview. You are very welcome in Paris whenever you want. I hope we can make you play in 2021.

First of all, we want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for reaching out to us. Your questions were very interesting, and we gladly answered to them. No one ever asked us the meaning of our songs in detail, and the fact that you read the lyrics so carefully truly warms our hearts.
The Covid situation in Italy seems less dangerous (for now at least) and these last weeks we have been working on new songs. We are trying to create something different from what we did, and hopefully we’ll share a new ep with all of you by 2021.
We are in contact with our buddies from Radura and we are talking of touring the western part of Europe in the upcoming year, starting from France and going down to Spain. We look forward to meet you in person and to see the wonderful city of Paris.
Thanks again, and take care.

Here is a photo of the band in their actual line-up. It's the first time a band do this for an in interview on this blog. Many many thanks to Chivàla, for their time and their kindness.

I heard about Hundreds of AU by seeing one of their t-shirt at the "Cry me a River" fest 2019. The shirt design was a drawing of a planet subtitled by "Fascism dies in space".

As I'm a huge fan of science fiction, I wanted to listen to that band and wanted to discover their universe. At that time only a Demo and their first album Communication Link Re-Established were released.

Hundreds of AU is one of the multiple projects of Tom Schlatter. As far as I know, I remember that he was playing in In first person (I have one copy left of the split with Storm the Bastille if someone wants it) and in The assistant. Two bands I listened to back in the day. I also realized that he was playing in more recent "screamo" bands like What of us and You and I. I don't know much about the other members excepting what "Discogs" is telling me (meaning : not much)

Last year the album Mission Priorities on Launch was released by the band and it is, in my opinion, one of the best screamo album of 2019. When I say screamo I think that Hundred of AU has some hardcore in it too. I know that I'm not good at all to describe music or in "FFO" but sometimes Hundreds of AU reminds me a lot of "Trainwreck" which is one of my favorite band ever.

Hundreds of AU took the time to answer a couple of my questions. Thanks to them for taking the time to do it and I hope you will enjoy reading it.

Medieval mindsets
Infecting progress
They built their time machine on
Fear and control
Disguised
As a
Moral
crusade
No regard for life after birth
No regard for dignity
False medal Of moral strength
This was never about life
This was always about control
Reproductive rights are human rights, not political currency.

I first believed that the AU in Hundreds of AU means "alternate universe". I then realized that it means "Astronomical Units". Looking at your records artworks (Communications Link Re-establish and the 2017 demo) it seems pretty obvious that you were inspired by science fiction, speaking of that :
Do you think that there is a kind of trend into sci-fi for a couple years (for instance Ryloth from Germany use a lot of sci-fi references in their songs and artworks, the band Kepler who seems to take their name from a planet ...). I have noticed this not only in music but also in movies, video games, and books.
Are you by yourself sci-fi enthusiastic and do you have some music/novels/movies that inspired you and the band ?

TOM: I think there’s a healthy amount of crossover between people who like science fiction and people who get into punk/hardcore. Both are safe havens for outsiders growing up, so it makes perfect sense to me to see bands inserting science fiction references. When I started Hundreds of AU I had been living in upstate New York for about a year. My friends and social life were all in New Jersey, about 3 hours south and I dealt with homesickness on a regular basis. At the time I was reading “Revelation Space”, a science fiction novel by Alastair Reynolds. One of the characters in the book, while traveling through deep space expresses homesickness and states that “Earth is hundreds of au away”. I found myself relating to the homesickness aspect of it and took to the idea of naming the band Hundreds of AU.

I am personally into Screamo music since a long time (I mean I'm listening to it since a long time). That subgenre was -in my opinion- almost "dead" especially in France (where I live). Are you thinking that we are in a Screamo Revival era and are you realizing that (I think) you were a big part of it last year (I think "Mission priorities on launch" was one of the most discussed Screamo album this year) ? Tons of good records were released since 3/4 years and a lot of new bands are "emergerging" from all over the world (even in France where this genre was totally stopped). Even what I do consider as "mainstream" media are speaking about it (I remember an article published by vice.com last summer). Do you agree with that, and why did you choose this particular style for "Hundreds of AU" ?

TOM: Over the past 5-10 years I started seeing a resurgence of this particular style of music. I’ve talked about this in the past; as a person who was around and playing in bands in the late 90’s/early 00’s, I consider what’s happening now so much better than that first wave of bands back then. The bands of this genre today carry a social and political consciousness with them that was not apparent back then. There’s more participation from LGBT, POC, women and femme identifying folks now than ever. I’m also seeing musicianship that is so impressive and inspiring. I chose this particular style for Hundreds of AU because I had played in bands similar before and wanted to improve upon my delivery of the genre. I also just naturally seem to lean toward writing this style.

I'm not sure that the band is very well known in Europe. It was almost impossible for me to get your Vinyl there, Rob from "ZilpZalp" records finally got one for me. Do you plan to better distribute the album in Europe (for instance for the next release). Do you also plan a tour outside of America ? (We will be thrilled to have you one day in Paris).

TOM: Recently vinyl pressing prices and overseas postage have hindered a lot of US labels and bands from being able to get their physical formats overseas, especially for DIY bands and labels. I shipped a t-shirt to France last month and it was about $18 to ship. We will keep investigating a better way to make the physical formats more widely available.

The end of 2019 and 2020 were pretty intense for all of us I think. In France we've got the yellow vests, the protests against the new law about retirements, the COVID19, and now the death of George Floyd murdered by the police. Do you think our society is changing (in a good way) ? We do see a lot of protests around the world to end what is unacceptable for all of us (police brutally, global access to healthcare, the rights for minorities and so on ...), are you in your music talking about politics and do you think that music is a good way to share opinions, to unite people in a political way (the answer seems obvious when reading you lyrics, but I do want to have your personal opinion as a band about this). Do you talk about all these problems during your shows, or do you let people understanding you lyrics the way they want to ?

TOM: In the United States it’s very hard to be optimistic about the future and invest in the hope of any long term positive change. I’ve attended two protests last week and the feeling in the air is raw and angry, but at the same time there was also a huge sense of community and solidarity. The current administration in our country has expressed views that are opposed to any change on the front of police brutality, healthcare, economic inequity, etc.

I was drawn to punk and hardcore due to how the genre focuses on political and social issues. My education and exposure through this music to viewpoints outside of my experience have helped shape my worldview and make me confront my own privilege in ways that never would have happened if I hadn’t started listening and playing in bands. Hundreds of AU is can be considered a political in that we write a good amount of political lyrics, but generally, I’d like to think anyone participating in the DIY punk/hc is there for the exposure to new ideas and information. I know it’s not always the case, but the new crop of young folks doing bands and speaking up really give me hope in that regard.

I'm asking this question to each band I interview. I wanted to have your opinion about the rise of social media (facebook, instagram), and music streaming "applications" (bandcamp, spotify). Do you think it changed the "scene" ? I mean ... I feel a lack of sincerity when using those things (for instance a political action is now resumed by changing your profile photo on the Facebook, people are obsessed the number of "like" they got) and see it more like a threat than something good for the music and the scene we love. It changed a lot the way the gigs are going on (I did stop going to show for more than five years and saw a lot of changes), people always using their smartphone, to film or take photos and sometimes forgetting the most important thing ... listening to the music, enjoying the music. Do you think the rising of these new technologies changed a lot of things during shows. Do you think there is also a paradox in the scene, a lot of bands, venues are clearly struggling against what we call "capitalism" but are using those applications (facebook, instagram), the thoughts and the actions are in total opposition. I do believe that punk is capable of more for instance why not using software which are open-source, decentralized, and not owned by the biggest fortune companies of the world ?

TOM: I’ve recently cut back my social media usage because I realized I had a very unhealthy relationship with it. Facebook and Instagram can be helpful for sharing information or being informed about issues/events, however, I don’t think they are spaces that are conducive to discussion or debate. In the wake of the protests in the United States, I stepped back from posting on social media and just decided to pick up the phone and call my friends to talk to them about what was happening. I feel so strange saying this, but I had forgotten how much more value is had in a phone conversation as opposed to a social media exchange.

I’ve seen a lot of my friends expressing solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement via social media. It’s great to see, but at the same time I hope that this goes past just posing a simple hashtag and then 2 weeks later everyone moves on. There’s a real opportunity here for white America to confront systemic racism, for white individuals to confront their own privilege, etc and it would be a shame if social media reduces it to a “trending topic”.

In reference to streaming platforms; it’s interesting to me because in the 90’s we would have to dub cassette tapes all day, pack them up in envelopes and send them out to get our music heard or to get someone to book a show on a tour for us. Now, I can put my music on bandcamp and by the end of the day it’s possible that someone on the other side of the world has heard it. Environmentally this cuts down on resources used to share music and from an accessibility standpoint it makes the music available to people even if they can’t afford the physical format. I think the arrival of file sharing and streaming services affects “career musicians” more negatively than a band like us.

As for struggling against capitalism: When we refer to struggling against capitalism it can be tricky. In a capitalist society information moves through capitalist channels, so in a way, you have no choice but to participate somewhat to share ideas or keep informed. Is using facebook/Instagram, two platforms owned by a billionaire who essentially uses these platforms to mine your data and sell it to advertisers something that everyone feels good about? Probably not.

If you have anything to add, feel free to do it. Thanks a lot for taking your time to answer these questions. It means a lot to me.

Thank you for getting in touch and having this conversation with us.

Hundreds of AU just put a new song yesterday called Blue Months
Please check it on Bandcamp.

Je me souviens parfaitement ma première rencontre avec Fabien. C'était devant le Gibus à Paris. Je ne sais plus par quel biais il m'a été présenté, mais nous nous sommes retrouvés à sa table avec une bière à la main (en tout cas pour moi). Ce dont je me souviens également c'est qu'il nous a filé gracieusement deux places pour le concert. Cette rencontre est d'autant plus étrange que je suis aujourd'hui incapable de dire les groupes qui avaient joué ce soir-là. Par contre, cette courte conversation, je saurais vous en donner les détails. On a commencé à parler de EUX, ce "nouveau projet screamo" de Paris. Naïvement je pensais que le style était définitivement mort en France et encore plus à Paris. Et ce soir-là, je me retrouve à boire une bière avec quelqu'un qui me dit : "J'ai toujours rêvé de faire un groupe à la Mihaï Edrisch ou à la Daïtro" (je ne lui ai pas dit à ce moment-là, mais j'avais très envie de lui dire "Enfin !"). De fil en aiguille il m'apprend que leur premier opus est enfin prêt et qu'ils vont essayer le plus tôt possible de le défendre sur scène. Depuis ce jour-là je les ai vus au moins quatre fois, et on peut dire que le groupe a pris de la bouteille par rapport à ses débuts.

Je dois avouer avoir vu EUX avant d'avoir réellement écouté Et les autres (titre de leur première galette). Je n'avais pas été super convaincu, peut-être que j'étais dans une mauvaise passe, ou que la salle n'était pas adaptée, mais j'avais trouvé ça un peu brouillon on pouvait clairement sentir le stress débuts malgrè un talent certain. Pareil la seconde fois. Il m'aura fallu attendre la troisième pour me prendre une baffe (mais alors une grosse baffe). Lorsqu'ils ont joué en première partie de Crowning et Swallow's nest. Ce jour-là fu le bon pour moi. Et comme je ne suis toujours pas doué pour parler de musique, je parlerais de l'ambiance. Tout le monde était ce soir-là scotché devant leur prestation. Probablement quoi qu'on en dise le meilleur "set" de la soirée et pour moi, une révélation. J'avais boudé leur vinyle lors des deux précédents live, je n'ai pas résisté cette fois-ci. Depuis ce live, leur disque a pour moi pris énormément d'ampleur. Il a des choses comme ça auxquelles on ne s'attend pas.

Etant à l'origine un duo (Jérôme guitariste de EUX s'occupait également de la basse à l'origine du groupe) EUX s'est transformé en un trio avec l'arrivée de Flow (Miles Oliver / Le Dead Projet) qui a repris le flambeau à Jérôme pour s'occuper de la basse. Et je me souviens également de ma première rencontre avec lui. Il jouait aux boules, avec un verre (de pastis ?) à la main. Vous voyez le genre de tableau ;-) . Tout ça pour dire (je sais ça n'a rien à voir) que son arrivée dans le groupe a -à mon sens- permis de fluidifier les concerts du groupe. Et sous cette forme, ça défonce encore plus.

J'ai profité de cette période de confinement pour faire une micro interview du groupe. Non seulement parce que ce sont des crèmes (chacun dans leur style, mais je peux vous assurer qu'ils sont de ceux à ne jamais refuser de te rendre un service) mais également parce qu'ils font de la sacrée bonne musique et qu'à mon sens trop peu de gens (de mon entourage) ont profité pleinement de cette dernière. Ils se sont très gentiment prêtés à l'exercice. Merci à vous les copains ! J'en profite pour vous dire qu'ils ont récemment sorti un split avec un groupe américain nommé Ysidro (avec un membre de Beau Navire). Le titre présent sur ce split s'appelle The Shame et je vous laisse découvrir par vous-même de quoi il retourne (dans l'interview).

Salut EUX. Étant pour ma part un vieux fan de Screamo, je retrouve dans votre musique tout un tas d’influences de la scène française des années 20XX. Je pense en particulier à Daïtro et Mihai Edrisch :
Étant donné la « non-popularité » de ce style qu’est-ce qui vous a orienté vers ce type de musique, étiez-vous dans des projets avant la création de EUX (il me semble que Fabien jouait dans Bien à toi)

Fabien : En 2005, à 16 ans alors que j’ai dû affronter le deuil de mon grand frère, j’ai découvert «Laissez vivre les squelettes». La conjonction de ces deux évènements fut ma découverte du screamo / emo punk et orienterons mes choix musicaux, pour ne pas dire ma vie.
J’étais assez jeune et n’avais pas encore beaucoup d’expérience ni contact dans la musique, mais depuis cette époque je me suis promis d’avoir un jour une formation de ce type.
La vie a passé, diverses expériences musicales m’ont construit et plus de 10 ans après, certainement car j’étais enfin prêt, EUX s’est tout naturellement fait de lui-même.

Pensez-vous qu’un renouveau du Screamo est en train d’émerger en France. Je pense tout particulièrement à des groupes comme Aleska, les quelques copains Parisiens de Tenace et I am John Baudelaire, et à la scène Marseillaise (Yarostan, Seules les mortes)

Flow : Je pense qu’il y a eu un vide screamo au milieu dans les années 2010 , à la fin de groupes comme Daïtro, Sed Non Satiata (Fabien: et Mihai Edrisch !!) mais aussi Raein ou Suis La Lune. Mais très vite, une scène anglaise est apparue avec notamment le label Dog Knights. Il n’y a pas eu des centaines de groupes screamo en France non plus , mais il y a toujours eu des petites scènes bien vivantes notamment en Normandie, Bretagne, PACA, etc.. Le retour aux mélodies/émotions et paroles en français a encore de beaux jours devant lui.

Au vu de la teneur du projet on peut penser ou comprendre que l’histoire (et la sensibilité) de Fabien a joué un rôle particulier et primordial dans la composition et la musique du premier album. Fabien joue-t-il le ‘chef d’orchestre’ dans le projet ? Pour les autres membres du groupe, comment a-t-il été possible de s’insérer et de comprendre cet univers si particulier ?

Fabien : Difficile de répondre objectivement à la question du ‘chef d’orchestre’ pour ma part, et puis on était que 2 à l’époque, donc c’était 50/50 (même si Jérôme s’occupait exclusivement de composer les mélodies et moi tout le reste).
En vérité, rien de tout ça n’aurait existé sans la qualité des riffs de Jérôme, vraiment. La première chanson qu’on a composée (Florian) laissait entrevoir de réelles émotions. Les mélodies qui constituaient la seconde (Mathias) n’ont fait que confirmer la couleur que nous souhaitions donner à cet opus et m’offrirent un terrain de jeu idéal pour me libérer de mes pensées.
Depuis l’arrivée de Flow, ça n’a plus rien avoir, on est vraiment sur une parfaite équité, avec un très fort investissement de ce dernier tant sur le plan musical que les autres aspects d’un groupe.

Flow : Fabien m’a expliqué et m’a tout de suite fait ressentir ses paroles ainsi que les émotions de Jérôme à la guitare. Savoir faire peser les mots est quelque chose d’essentiel et que j’adore dans ce que fait Fabien. On réfléchit ensemble à laisser de la place pour la voix et bien l’accompagner selon les moments.

Chaque titre de l’album porte le nom de quelqu’un. J’imagine que ce n’est pas par hasard et que ce sont des gens qui ont compté/comptent pour toi/vous, pouvez-vous m’en dire plus à ce sujet ? Je peux imaginer que ce genre de question peut être douloureuse, vous pouvez bien sûr ne pas y répondre si vous le voulez !

Fabien : Ça n’est absolument pas douloureux, au contraire, c’est le message que je souhaite faire passer : il faut parler de ces choses. Premièrement pour extérioriser ces sujets encore considéré comme tabou (car selon moi c’est le meilleur moyen de les surmonter) et deuxièmement pour continuer de faire vivre ces personnes auprès de tous ceux qui écoutent.
Plus clairement, «Zoé» est ma fille (il était impassable de ne pas lui donner place) / «Florian» est un pote qui a tendance à partir au quart de tour / «Mathias» est le grand frère de Zoé, né-sans vie en 2016 / «Jérôme» est mon grand frère, mais peut aussi être notre guitariste / «Denis» est un ami cher dont j’ai appris la disparition lorsque nous composions.
Plus artistiquement, j’ai toujours aimé l’idée que l’ensemble des chansons qui constituent un disque soit un tout, et le fil conducteur des prénoms m’a semblé une bonne idée. Enfin, le nom «et les autres» n’est pas anodin : il fait référence à l’ensemble des autres personnes de nos vies, mais surtout à L’un sans l’autre (Mihiai Edrisch).

Pourquoi être passés de deux à trois musiciens dans le groupe ? Comment avez-vous choisi Flow (Miles Oliver). Vous connaissiez-vous avant ? D’où vient la démarche et comment avez-vous réussi à intégrer Flow en Live n’ayant lui-même pas participé à la composition de l’album ?

Flow : Je connaissais Jérôme et surtout Fabien, et j’aimais beaucoup l’album «Et les autres». Cela faisait longtemps que je n’avais pas été replongé dans tel un torrent émotionnel, alors j’ai eu envie de retrouver les lignes de basse pour me faire un plaisir perso. Finalement, il m’est paru complètement évident de leur proposer d’intégrer le groupe et nous jouons ensemble depuis 1 an maintenant. On s’est très vite bien entendus et ils m’ont laissé une entière liberté dans mes parties afin d’enrichir les anciennes compos. Ensuite, on a commencé à vraiment composer en groupe, ce qui est vraiment jouissif. Les moments de répétition, de création, d’enregistrement et de live sont vraiment exaltants.

Fabien : Effectivement la démarche est venue de Flow, que je connaissais d’avant (Old Town Bicyclette Festival).
Au début Jéjé et moi s’accrochions vraiment à notre duo guitare/basse – batterie/chant, mais lorsqu’on a commencé à recommencer à composer, on s’est rendu compte qu’on tournait un peu en rond. Par ailleurs, m’étant exclusivement occupé de la totalité de la vie médiatique / logistique du groupe, notamment le booking de notre première tournée EU (ça m’a pris 6 mois 7/24 !!), j’étais réellement épuisé, vraiment …
Ces deux raisons et la démarche de Flow nous ont convaincu que sa venue serait parfaite. Et tellement logique que ça ait été lui (Le Dead Projet / Miles Oliver). À partir de là, on ne pas dire qu’il y a réellement eu une intégration : dès la première répète (où il connaissait déjà tout le disque), c’était comme s’il avait toujours fait partie du groupe.

Vous avez récemment sorti un split avec le groupe Ysidro. Comment est née cette collaboration ? Le titre sur ce split «The shame» aborde le sujet des violences faites aux femmes et semble faire prendre un virage au groupe. Avez-vous décidé que EUX serait aussi également un moyen de véhiculer des idées politiques et sociétales, ce qui ne semblait pas du tout être le cas sur «et les autres» ?

Flow : J’ai connu John, le bassiste d’Ysidro à Paris, quand il y habitait. Il a joué dans Beau Navire, que j’adorais. On a tout de suite accroché humainement et musicalement. Cela faisait longtemps qu’on parlait de faire quelque chose ensemble, du coup, comme ils sortaient 2 splits, j’ai adoré l’idée et on a décidé d’y inclure notre chanson « The Shame ».

Fabien : L’idée du thème de cette chanson vient de moi, pour autant je ne suis absolument pas politisé ou «sociétisé».
Je voulais même pousser plus loin le concept en associant le clip à une collecte de fond pour un organisme protecteur des femmes. Flow et Jéjé étaient moyen chaud, justement pour ne pas trop politiser le groupe. J’ai entendu, compris et finalement je pense qu’ils ont bien fait.
Effectivement, on fait des groupes pour (essayer) de faire de la jolie musique mais aussi véhiculer des idées et aussi basique que ce soit, celle de la différence femme / homme et particulièrement leur maltraitance est quelque chose que je ne conçois pas. Je te jure, je ne comprends même pas pourquoi il existe une quelconque différence, mais comme chaque être humain sur la planète d’ailleurs. J’accorde simplement plus d’attachement la femme car elle représente pour moi la pureté, la beauté et la bienveillance.

Pouvez-vous m’en dire plus sur la tournée de l’an passé. Comment avez-vous organisé tout ça ? L’accueil de l’album était-il à la hauteur de vos attentes. Avez-vous quelques anecdotes croustillantes sur cette tournée … ? Il me semble également que vous aviez prévu de tourner ce printemps/été ; avec la crise sanitaire actuelle quels sont désormais vos plans à ce sujet ?

Fabien : On a posté notre première publication (des extraits du disque) un dimanche soir fin aout 2018, 2 jours plus tard Missed Out Records (Philadelphie PA - USA) faisait des tapes du disque. Je pense que ça résume assez bien comment celui-ci a été reçu, de notre point de vu tout du moins.
Comme je l’ai dit plus haut, j’ai passé plus de 10 ans dans l’ignorance de la scène screamo, alors qu’il y a un tel vivier international soudé ! On s’est juste contenté de faire à fond ce en quoi on croyait et le reste c’est fait de lui-même. J’estime, en toute humilité, avoir apporter un bout de moi à la scène screamo, au moins pour la remercier de ce qu’elle m’a apportée dans ma vie.
Précédemment évoqué également, le booking de la tournée a été aussi intense et intéressant, que douloureux pour moi qui l'ai mené seul. Bien sûr, sans l’aide de beaucoup de monde, cela n’aurait pas été possible : Flow, premièrement, mais également Antoine de Chalk Hands qui m’a vraiment beaucoup aidé ! Ou encore Karol d’Idioteq ou nos potes de Bright End avec qui on a joué grâce à ce bon vieux Will (El Mariachi).
Comme anecdote croustillante, je pense que la palme peut être attribuée à la vitre avant de la voiture de mes parents haha ! Le seul truc qui me faisait flipper dans une tournée : se faire péter la caisse avec tout le matos dedans. Première date / samedi / 18h00, on venait tout juste d’arriver de Paris, on se gare en plein hyper centre, on va se promener un peu en attendant que le mec du bar soit prêt, on revient à 18h30 : vitre pétée ! À ce moment tu réfléchis très vit(r)e à la suite de la tournée … mais je n’avais pas donné autant de ma personne pour nous arrêter là !! Heureusement, rien de volé (sauf toute les fringues de Jéjé), juste hyper relou le Grenoble > Vicence (IT) en plein hiver à 130km/h avec un sac plastique en guise de vitre.

Flow : On appréhendait de tourner en Angleterre, à cause de l’accueil et de notre budget. Mais la date organisée à Bristol avec 6 groupes était géniale. On a découvert cette ville qui est un vivier de groupes et de gens très ouverts. Cela me rappelait les Etats-Unis où j’ai déjà tourné et où tu dois être capable de jouer dans n’importes quelles conditions et donner le meilleur de toi-même. Cela met tout de suite la barre très haute ... les musiciens anglais m’ont toujours impressionné par leur technique et leur son. Une tournée permet toujours de faire un point sur le groupe et aussi de passer du temps en dehors de chez nous, ensemble. Concernant la tournée de ce printemps, nos calendriers et le virus ont reporté toutes nos dates, mais cela nous laisse du temps pour nous focaliser sur de nouvelles chansons et mûrir notre prochain album.

Ma sempiternelle question que je pose à tous les groupes. Pensez-vous que l’avènement des réseaux sociaux et des moyens de communication électronique a changé notre rapport à la musique et tout particulièrement à la musique live ?

Flow : Personnellement, j’ai toujours trouvé le net indispensable pour la musique : il y a 15 ans je démarchais au téléphone et je passais des journées au téléphone à essayer de joindre les programmateurs. Les réseaux sociaux ont renversé la balance et permis aux auditeurs et programmateurs de nous découvrir avec beaucoup moins d’efforts et de moyens de notre part. A contrario, on en revient maintenant à communiquer et à organiser directement en appelant certains bars ou organisations, ce qui nous rapproche, humanise et simplifie beaucoup plus les rapports. J’ai découvert tellement de nouveaux groupes, grâce aux blogs, bandcamp, fanzine et autres sites. La presse écrite, comme la télévision ne s’intéresse plus aux musiques extrèmes de nos jours. Le confinement nous prouve par contre à quel point ces musiques extrêmes ont besoin d’être vécues en live et ces concerts ne pourront jamais être remplacés par une vidéo ou un enregistrement.

Si vous voulez ajouter un dernier mot pour la fin ...

Fabien : J’ai déjà dit pas mal / beaucoup de trucs, dont des choses qui me sont vraiment chères.
Je voudrais conclure par le plus important des remerciements que je puisse faire en ce qui concerne EUX, à Jérôme, car sans lui et le fait qu’il m’ait supporté (je peux être vraiment relou des fois, je le sais mais c’est plus fort que moi quand quelque chose me tiens à cœur) je n’aurais jamais vécu ce rêve devenue réalité.
Merci également à tous les labels qui nous ont soutenu, HViH et Denis qui a TOUJOURS répondu à mes appels, VOTU, Callous Records, À Fond’Cale, Eastrain Rec (Barque!!!!) et Zilpzalp (Rob et ces deux incroyable fils).
Et bien sûr, je remercie la vie de m’avoir apporté mon fils, ma fille et Karine, sources d’accomplissements inépuisables de mon quotidien et mon avenir.

I wanted to introduce you to a band I discovered through bandcamp when they released their first song. This band is pretty special to me, as I follow them since their early songs. I had the chance to see them and met them a couple of times, in Germany (at CMAR and MTS).
As we often do before the show we decided to publish a small interview before their Paris show.

Hi Ryloth. First of all, thank you for taking the time to answer this small interview. As far as I know, the band's name comes from the name of a Star Wars planet. Your T-shirt artwork is related to Dune (with a Fremen on it). I was asking myself, why did you choose this thematic for the band ? To dream and to forget the harsh reality we live all the time ? I was wondering, do you think that the world is going to an end because of the ecological problem and the outer space may be the only outcome for the human race to survive ? Is that a reason why Ryloth is always referring to such ideas (space, sci-fi) ? Or is it just for fun ? Speaking of that do you have any sci-fi books recommendations or books that had some kind of influence on Ryloth ?

Phil: I basically like sci-fi and the opportunities that come along with the genre, when it comes not only to lyrics but also to music (syntheziser, samples) and last but not least artwork.

Daniel: Sci-Fi interests me, insofar as it isn't considered canon in academia or maybe in general. Despite this ignorance (although this might've changed today), sci-fi developed with an interest in the humanities and natural sciences and its approach to these sciences had to develop in a manner, that's different to the actual shape in academia.
But I'm also interested in what other people think of sci-fi, thats why the book I'd recommend might go in a different direction, than the one I depicted. I really enjoyed reading Ursula K. Le Guin's "The Dispossessed" and Octavia E. Butler's "Parable of the Sower".

Will: While I think it's totally legit to flee into imaginary worlds with the help of books or movies/series every once in a while, this was not the intent with choosing that name or this "theme" for the the band. As Daniel and Phil both said, the fascination lies somewhere else. Thats why i want to add Anne Leckie's "Radch Empire Trilogy" in which she sets a space opera in in a world where people are not distinguished by gender, the default pronoun is "she" and main character used to be a sentient space ship.
As for the doomsday theory: I strongly believe that the world isn't ending due to ecological problems in the near (or even not so near) future and that we will have colonies in space (which are as of now literally sci-fi) at the same time and not because the planet has become uninhabitable. Capitalism is able to exist (and probably thrive) on the ruins of environment/civilisation as we know it as it doesnt need vast green fields, healthy forests or clean natural waters.

Vicky: I, for my part, just joined the band, but my art interest are looking towards feminism and the "cyborg women" as proposed by Donna Harraway in her "Cyborg Manifesto". Ive been referred to that book a few years ago by a teacher and the theory of hybrid human (women/queer people having to change their nature in order to fit to this made-for-men world) really spoke to me and inspired me to think about how do we, as women/queer people, have to adapt to survive. And of course, who speaks of cyborgs also has to (re)think the relation with technologies and future human kind.

I remember discovering the band through Bandcamp. The first time I listened to Archipelago I instantly believed that this sound was pretty different, with a mix of different styles that was never done before (for me). I'm particularly speaking of the way you use the double kick, the way you mix Screamo and some (post ?) Black metal. To my opinion you belong to a Screamo scene that is emerging and try to change the codes and the styles by incorporating new elements ... I'll call it Blackened Screamo (I'm thinking of Niboowin for instance). First of all, do you agree with this analysis ? Second, what were the influences for the band style ; do you listen to both Screamo and Black metal, if so can you give us some examples of bands that have influenced Ryloth ?

Phil: We're all quite different when it comes to our own preferences in music. Surely, there's some middle ground and this might be where we meet when putting together our songs, but I'd say that the spectrum of what we are listening to is pretty wide-ranged and we don't want to limit ourselves.

Daniel: What Phil said, for sure. To put it in abstract terms, I think it's rarely a good thing for music to become self-referential. Not so much as in having a most diverse "musical language" (we, as one band, won't be able to cover that), but as in bringing sounds to places, where they might not be as present. I don't know if our music achieves that, but it certainly is a goal for me these days.

Will: I think the term "blackened" is so over-used these days. Maybe its the new "post" prefix :D
Two bands that influence me a lot are Battle Of Wolf 359 and Titan (CAN) but whenever I really try to write something that goes vaguely into either direction, I fail miserably and the outcome is some riff that fits with Ryloth, especially with Daniel approaching it in a totally different way, than I imagined he would do. So, I guess, I keep listening to them.

I had the chance to see you play live twice. First time at Miss the Stars fest, second time at Cry me a river fest, both in 2019. We had the chance to listen to "new" songs live (I mean songs that were unrecorded at that time). Do you plan to release an "album" soon ? Or have some new songs released for the tour ? I know that you add Vicky as the main "singer" of the band, did it change a lot of things for the band. Did you change the lyrics or did you change some parts to fit with her "style" ?

Phil: I never wanted to do both in Ryloth (drums and vocals), but despite trying a few times, we never found someone for that position and so we went along with it, sharing the vocals between three of us. So I'm super happy we found someone that allows me to focus exclusively on drums.

Daniel: I think, we are in an "orientation phase" at the moment. That means, that only in the future it'll become apparent, how our style will have been changed. That's a lame, but maybe the most sci-fi answer ever. With another person working in the band, things will be different. I'm excited about our work together and curious about what might change. But maybe Vicky can answer the last part of your question best.

Vicky: We are releasing an album soon, but due to lack of time and and experience (this is my first band ever) it was recorded only with the core members. But we did rearrange lyrics for live shows, since I "inherited" all of Phil's parts and some of the others on top. Luckily, since this is my first time, i get to find/adapt my style with the best mates and all their patience towarda the facts that i never did music before. For me it was indeed, a big life change, new challenges and experiences, but i feel like it went pretty smoothly and the band seems pretty fine with letting me explore.

The only lyrics I had the chance to read are Archipelago lyrics, which seems to be very ... poetic, to be honest I have difficulties to get the meaning of it. Can you tell me more about these lyrics. Will all the songs have these
kinds of lyrics or do you also write about the "real" world, for instance political stuff ... or anything else.

Will: As i am the one who wrote that very lyrics, i want to start by emphasizing that its absolutely about the real world and politics: in fact, i wanted to describe my thoughts, feelings, fears that i had at the time seeing right-wing parties gaining momentum and strength all over Europe, especially in Germany where we now have the situation that a defacto neo-nazi party (AFD) is in the parliament and in some regions of the country even about to become the biggest party which puts them in a position to be either a very strong opposition or maybe being part of the provincial government rather sooner than later. As we can see more and more, there are so called conservative politicians of various parties that have no problem what so ever to form a coalition.
Among other more subtle references as Brecht and Arndt for example, i used George R.R. Martin's "The Song Of Ice And Fire"-setting as there are also a lot of schemes going on behind the scenes to hint towards all the near-unbelievable connections the state has to not only non-violent and moderate right-wing forces but apparently also to hardcore-militant neonazi cells for example the NSU (National Socialist Underground) who killed at least 9 migrants and a police officer, dozens of attempted murders, three bombings and several robberies over the course of almost a decade maybe with partial knowledge and even maybe help (read about Andreas Temme) of the Federal Bureau for the Protection of the Constitution.
The last months made it even more evident - I'm referring to Gruppe Freital, "Hannibal", "Nordkreuz" and Franco A., the murder of CDU-politician Walter Lübcke and the increasing number of assaults that found its temporary peak in the assassination of 10 people in Hanau a few days ago - that there's a climate where its not only understandable to feel of being alone and helpless as expressed in "Archipelago" but also that there is an urgent need to speak/stand up against it at any given time and place. Fascists and (neo-)nazis are not threatening "foreigners" or people "who look different" as the media often suggests with their language of ostracism, but in the end everyone who is not in line with their misanthropic agenda.
Vicky: As the new singer, i started writing some lyrics that mix both real world and political issues, but since i like that blurry meaning as written previously, words will be played with to make it feel like a connection between politics and sci-fi, and of course with feminist and narrative discourse.

As far as I know, you are close and involved in the DIY scene. I wanted to have your opinion about the rise of social media (facebook, instagram), and music streaming "applications" (bandcamp, spotify). Do you think it changed the "scene" ? I mean ... I feel a lack of sincerity when using those ... things and see it more like a threat than something good for the music and the scene we love. It changed a lot the way the gigs are going on, people always using their smartphone, to film or take photos and sometimes forgetting the most important thing ... listening to the music. Do you think the rising of these new technologies changed a lot of things during shows ? I remember going to a bar in Germany saying not to use phones and to enjoy the good time with friends, this kind of "advice" or "behavior" do not exist in France at all and I have the feeling the German people have a different opinion about this than the rest of the countries I have every visited, am I right ?

Phil: We're having very different opinions about social media, some of us barely use it, some do it on a daily basis.
I think that everyone "can" profit from it as in gettting connected and for example finding help within a community as a small hardcore band to get an album released, shows organized, etc, or even on a individual level finding like-minded people.
However, its both a blessing and a curse.

Vicky: Since im a French Canadian, i cannot talk for how German people see the arise of social media, but i feel like its a necessary change. Social media is still real life, and of course the lack of authenticity might be an issue, but thats why the users need to keep DIY values and transpose it into the digital world. Because in fact, internet and social media are powered by the users, using it and developping their "réseau" of contacts. I like social media, i like empowering movement coming from it and since it's made to be a digital copy of human social interactions, i think the DIY scene should find ways to reappropriate and adapt it to the values we have. Its accessible, it gives a way to discover bands and interact with them, breaking the boundaries and frontiers that countries are imposing to us, and i think its an amazing thing to democratize music and make the scene survive. Internet will never rob a live experience, a human contact, but it can surely enhance human organization when well used. Maybe the only thing i would like to add, combine with social media, is to support bands by being present in the community when possible, like offering places to sleep, little bit of food, go to their shows, take some pictures if that motivates you (but always with consent ;)) and care for each other, either online or offline.

Thank you for answering this small interview. I hope you will have a good time in Paris. You can add anything else as a last word. Thank you

Thank you for having us and listen to the following bands: Dianacrawls, Sur L'eau, Shalashaska, Second Guessing, Lets Start With A Forest Level, Amitié, Teryky, Old Pride, Marée Noire, No God Only Teeth, Massa Nera, Weareonfire, Closer, Dispassionate, Malatesta, R. Josef, Karloff, Still and To Languish. Shoutout to all our friends we didn't mention, we put together this list of "smaller" bands (as ourselves) and in some cases new bands on purpose instead of naming the ones that are already getting well-deserved attention.

I highly encourage you to listen to CODEX and Toadeater demo before reading the interview. Here are the links for both releases below. Enjoy the interview ;). And one more time, thanks to the band for taking the time to answer my questions.

Hi Toadeater, thank you for taking the time to answer to this small interview.

What does the name of the band exactly means ? It seems that in english the word "ToadEater" is used to designate someone as an obsequious flatterer and a sycophant. The word itself seems to take its root from a pratice of quacks doctors who were hiring a young boy to eat a toad (considered as poisonnous at this time), and then pretend to give him a cure to impress the crowd to get the benefit of it to sell their "services" to others. It sounds to me like with this name you are also talking about the politics of our time when some people are using the weakness of other just to serve their own cause. What is you opinion about that ?

On the band's name, we came through a song title of the Seattle D-Beat / Crust band Deathraid, and found him directly interesting. You are absolutey right with you intepretation about the quack-aide's helper who had to eat a "poisonous" toad, then squirmed in pain until the quack gave him some "medicine" to convince the crowd that the medicine cured the Toadeater from his agony. Like the Toadeater, many people play a role because they depend on their social system and have to live up to expectations, values, and behaviors in order to preserve their personal "medicine," such as money or power, things that ultimately have no value.

On the other hand, the artwork of your first demo is drawing of a toad eating a human. Is there something related to veganism/vegetarianism. Does it mean that you think that no human being has the right to do that to an animal ?

The Artwork is by Fabian / Hagiophobic (ed. we used one Hagiophoic artwork for the gig's flyer) who also designed the cover art work for CODEX. When we came up with the idea, the thought behind it was that humanity has the misbelief they stand above nature / animals, in our opinion this is a big fallacy. We give him all the artistic freedom he wants when doing designs for us, and we know for sure that he is vegan, so it is likely that your thoughts are correct!

The production of the album sound very raw to me. It's -for me- a perfect mix between black-metal and crust punk. We feel a pretty unique urgency and intensity in your music because of the production. Did you choose to record this album with one single microphone in the room, or something like that, as it sounds very 'live' even if we can distinguish all the instruments one by one. Was it something that you were looking for during the recording process ?

We recorded the whole album in just three days. First the drums and then guitar, bass and vocals. But all without a click, so you can still feel this live effect on the recordings. We barely had the opportunity to try things out in the studio because we were under a lot of time pressure. Maybe that's why this rough sound comes from. Whether that was intended by us - I do not know. Looking back, we would have taken more time for the recordings. Nevertheless, we are very satisfied with the result.

The lyrics of CODEX are very dark. I expected to find some political meaning in it, but these lyrics are for me very poetic, and sometime very painful : "I am a Demon, I am the Parasite", ".. a man is wolf to another man", "Live for what ? Die for waht ?". From where did you take you inspiration. Is there any secret meaning in these lyrics ?

To answer this question one has to know that the lyrics on CODEX got written by two people who have a completely different style of writing. M´s lyrics are very personal and sometimes cryptic. At first, the reader may not be able to think what exactly is at stake. Everyone should put their own part together.

S´s lyrics are a reflection of the things that concerned him at the time of writing. It is with two writers in any case difficult to bring stringency in an album, which is why we have also decided that for upcoming releases either M. or S will write the lyrics completely independently.

We decided to say (as it is super important to us) that the show will be a RABM show (Red and Anarchist black metal). Do you consider yourself as a RABM band ? I mean I think it is very important to remind to everyone that this kind of music, is also a place to defend obvious things, fight racsim, sexism and so on. We see that there are lot of people trying to defend this style of music and say "no, black metal is not fascism music". We can see that for instance with the festival "Black flags over brooklyn" (Kim Kelly interview about BFOB), or the Riffs for Reproductive Justice compilation (https://blackflagsoverbrooklyn.bandcamp.com/album/riffs-for-reproductive-justice)). Do you consider yourself as a band or as an indivudal to be a part of this ? Do you consider that by playing something related to the black metal genre, you have to say that you are a RABM band ?

As our lyrical themes are not (directly) centering about red / anarchistic topics it would be wrong to label TOADEATER as a RABM band in general, like for example ISKRA or DAWN RAY´D. However, everyone in the band got socialized in the DIY Hardcore / Punk Scene, and growing up in a politically aware environment always influences our actions, therefore we love to play in autonomous centres / squats and collaborate with equal minded people. There is no reason to leave Black Metal, a musical style that can create intense and extreme feelings like no other genre, to fascists who conceal a contemptuous ideology behind so called „misantrophy“.

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer these questions. I hope my english was understandable. You can add anything you want to say. Maybe something to convince people to come see you at the show ?

Thank you for inviting us to france and all the effort you made with organizing the concert and the interview, people like you and your crew are keeping the DIY Spirt alive! We don´t really know how to convice people to come to our show. Every concert is different, we really try to go to our physical limits when playing live and the audience always plays a big role for the atmosphere.

True story. It all began by chance. I was packing everything after a show, the bands were already gone and we did a last check to be sure nobody forgot any of their stuff. Just before leaving I found a "Laudare" patch on the floor. I asked if it belongs to someone, got no answer, so I put it in my pocket. Then a couple of months passed away. I wore the jacket that I had worn that night and was crouching in my pocket and found that Laudare patch again. The artwork of this patch representing stained glass was so cool that I had to listen to the band. I remember when I was young that I sometimes chose the CD I bought just because the artwork was beautiful (I bought the Seventh Son of a Seventh Son tape by Iron Maiden just because of the artwork). It was the same feeling. I came back home check their bandcamp and was instantly stocked by what I heard. Their music is unique. Then what ? I just decided I wanted to get their lastest release called d.é.o.m.é. I sent them an e-mail asking for it and just realized at this moment that they were going to tour in October. We booked a date for the gig. That's it. True hazardous story.

Speaking of the band itself and their music is not that simple, especially when English is not your native language. I'll try to, but please be indulgent with me. Laudare is a pretty new band, they started in 2017. Their drummer (Jussi) was playing in a band called Amber which does not sound like Laudare at all (check below).

Their music is mixing a lot of different styles, the voices can be spoken words or screaming. There are two singers Luise and Daniel. The parts which are screamed are mostly done by Luise, the spoken ones -if I'm not wrong- are done by Daniel. Luise's voice is super powerful and intense and fit exactly with the music they are playing. Just for hearing that voice I can't wait to see them live. Regarding their sounds I think you’d better have to listen to the album better than reading what I'm going to say. They are mixing Screamo (with the screaming voice), Black-Metal (I'm thinking of some kind of blast beats and guitar parts for instance in Begging Substance and ... And Coherence). Some parts are played with a clear guitar sound. There are also -in my opinion- inspirations from classical music. When you mix up all those things it give you a pretty strange but incredible result.

In my opinion Laudare is not just music, but an art project. For instance their vinyl physical release is a 100% D.I.Y object. There are a lot of different artworks in it, a piece of glass, and a red piece of tissue. I addition to that they also have a website (check it here) which is interactive.

I think you now understand the project. Laudare is something different, not just music but an art concept.

"Rudderless, we drift athwart a tempest,
And when once the storm of youth is past,
Without lyre, without lute or chorus,
Death the silent pilot comes at last
And within the grave there is no pleasure,
For the blindworm battens on the root,
And desire shudders into ashes,
And the tree of passion bears no fruit"

Lead from a gash in a sense that marred
servants of failure
the fiercer the frailer
however essential I disregard

I'm reconciling with distress still
a hesitating urge that spills
from amidst these insights that I barred
that flash back solace worn and charred

Spade for spade I am shifting emotions
a flustering silence is catching a hold
My conscious is countered in this commotion
an elusive alignment as your spirit unfolds

One last wistful glance
it's fading, it's waning
Our last woeful dance
as I'm tumbling, restraining

Or have I fallen
already
for you?

As Laudare is going to play in Paris on October 30 2019, we decided to interview them (by mail) before their show. Their words will probably be better than mine to describe their music and to convince you to come to that show.

Hi Laudare, you identify your music style as Violent Poetry. What does it exactly means ? By reading your lyrics we can easily understand why but I really want to have your explanation. By writting texts that are not related, to politics or about how the world is going on, do you consider Laudare as an apolitical band ?

The cornerstone of this project is its lyrics. In the case of d.é.o.m.é. the lyrics were written already before we actually teamed up to write music together. So I think the approach towards the music was quiet unusual. There was a room that existed already being filled with words, with meaning and it was up to us to find a suiting sound. Though we are all armed with different tastes for musical styles we knew that it would take a somewhat harsh, noisy direction. So we baptized it "Violent Poetry".

We are an apolitical band although it's members are not in their personal lives. Nowadays everything is "operating on a political mission" and although we have not discussed this in the beginning we found out that it is quiet comforting to not hold any specific flag in our hands, to create something that is "free from everything else". Writing political lyrics is quiet something and I think it affords a lot of knowledge, research and information. What you'll find usually is shallow phrases. Simplified statements about things so complex. Everything is interwoven, globalized and I feel like I actually don't know anything about how the world works. So I rather do not dare to say anything about it for someone knows definately better. For sure. The poetry is about the world within - not about the world outside.

By checking on the internet, I saw that Laudare is a Latin word meaning "praise" in english. What does it mean to you as a band, why did you choose such a name ? Is it related to you, to something religious, is it against religion ? In addition to that what does "d.é.o.m.é" (the name of the album) means ?

Rest and run, breathe and break. Laudare is about constant searching and longing. About rearing up against the experience of senselessness and agony and encountering it with an ebullient lust for life. About personal growth and regression; overcoming oneself and being restrained by ones flaws over and over again. Commiting to the circle of life and death, collapse and change. A never-ending journey. Fearing it constantly, loving it relentlessly; celebrating, praising every up and every down. Laudare! Is about faith, not about religion. Limitless. The title is a secret. Also to us. It has been quoted like this within a dream. We shall find out if we may, someday.

The music of Laudare is mixing different styles. Black metal, hardcore, screamo. In some songs there are some parts that reminds me of classical music (especially in "... And Coherence"). Your music style is pretty unique. By speaking of that with a friend he told me that your music sounds "baroque" (and I do agree). What was the process of creating such a kind of music, what are your influences ? If I'm not wrong I saw that you were looking for musicians to play "d.é.o.m.é" in acoustic with cello, piano ... Does it mean that the album was composed to be played in both styles ?

The way Laudare sounds mostly is because it's members are influenced by various, very different kinds of music. For my part I'm digging deeper into classical music with every day and by the time d.é.o.m.é. was written I was focused on baroque music especially so I'm sure I've gained a lot of inspiration from there. Also studies on classical guitar-playing guided a lot of the arrangements. Furthermore we took a more detailed approach towards the interaction between bass and guitar to create more counterpoint-like melodies. Since we are only 3 people it is important to have every instrument being independent as well as complementing to the rest. We are always looking for new people to get involved with Laudare. Being a band is not enough so we are always looking for other musicians and instruments to get involved. Right now arrangements are written also with classical instruments. Not for d.é.o.m.é. though. This was not planned in the first place and right now we are working on completely new material.

Last question as we are doing the interview before your Paris show. What will you say to people to tell them to come at your show ? You know there are so many shows in Paris that I really want people to come see you in live but I think my words are not strong enough to convince them, so what will be yours ?

It happened to us twice that people came after a show with tears in their eyes. They were literally crying for being touched by the performance. Also there is these seconds of comforting silence after the last note of our set is played. This is magic. I think we are not only an intense live band - hints of a theatre play shall be promised. Come to convince. Come. Feast.

Ça s'est passé très simplement. À cette période je commençais déjà à penser au blog et cette idée d'écrire sur ShallNotKill. Ça remonte un petit peu. C'est à ce moment-là que j'ai découvert Aleska, par leur premier album sorti en 2016. Je l'ai mis une fois sur bandcamp, ça m'a suffi, j'ai tout de suite compris que ce groupe allait être spécial pour moi (je te conseille le dernier Hundreds of AU dans le même genre). Ce genre de sensation arrive rarement, je suis plutôt du genre à digérer lentement les albums mais de temps en temps je n'en ai pas besoin. J'aime de façon instantanée. Ayant été un peu à la bourre sur les sorties musicales ces dernières années, je me suis dit que tout le monde avait déjà probablement poncé cet album comme il se doit. Alors je me suis mis à en parler autour de moi. Déjà que le Screamo n'a pas le vent en poupe, mais là tous le monde me regardait avec des yeux ébahis en se demandant de quoi je pouvais bien parler. Quand je dis "tout le monde" tout est relatif, je n'ai pas non plus un cercle d'amis extrêmement développé. Alors j'ai eu cette nouvelle sensation, un peu (beaucoup) égoïste de me dire qu'Aleska resterai dans mon jardin secret. Je ne sais pas si vous voyez ce genre de groupe pour lesquels vous avez l'impression d'être l'ultime fan et que tous ceux qui vous entourent sont des ignorants. Alors vous le gardez jalousement pour vous. Et bien pour moi Aleska c'est ça.

La grande question qui se pose dans ce genre de cas est "pourquoi ?", pourquoi Aleska n'a pas -à mon sens- la reconnaissance qu'il mérite, à vrai dire, je n'en sais rien et je m'en fiche complètement. Ce que je sais c'est qu'ils font de la bonne musique. De la musique qui me touche. De la musique sincère. Dans un style quand même très original. Comme je le dis souvent je ne suis pas très bien placé pour parler de musique, mais si je devais dire quelque chose sur Aleska c'est bien que ce groupe est à la croisée des chemins. Entre le Post-Hardcore (je trouve des passages à la Isis, par exemple sur Détruire) avec de grandes phases mélancoliques et instrumentales, et le Screamo avec des passages très brutes et hurlés (sur Vanité illusoire par exemple). Parfois (Nicolas il me semble) ne crie plus et passe au chant clair. J'en entends déjà hurler à la mort, mais je trouve ces moments très poétiques (certains moments me rappellent l'album Mappo de Sed Non Satiata). Si je parle ici surtout de Construire ou détruire il faut bien constater qu'Aleska a pas mal évolué en passant selon moi d'un Screamo assez brut à un mix entre Screamo, Post-Hardcore ou encore carrément Metal. J'ose croire que leur nom Aleska vient du titre du même nom de June Paik identifiant clairement les racines et l'inspiration qu'a pu avoir le groupe à un moment de leur existence. (Si je me trompe corrige-moi).

Impatient d'en découdre
Il n'est jamais trop tard pour se battre
Il n'est jamais trop tard pour s'enfuir
Impatient d'échapper
A cette triste réalité qui me donne envie de gerber
Impatient d'en finir
Du gris au noir...
Mer sombre, dis moi pourquoi je sombre
Mère sombre, dis moi pourquoi je sombre
Un renégat, un écorché qui a perdu l'espoir d'exister
Alors que faire quand tout semble perdu ?
Il ne reste qu'à peindre du gris au noir
Seul face à ses propres codes
Seul face au désarroi
Seul face à terre
Seul dans cette galère
Alors, que faire si on ne peut plus compter sur personne ni soi même ?
Il faut peindre du gris au noir...

J'aime beaucoup disséquer les paroles des groupes et je ne me suis pas gêné sur Aleska et ça tombe bien car ils ont plein de choses à dire. Loin d'être politiques leurs textes dans l'ensemble assez poétiques restent tout de même teintés d'un message, et on sent bien que les personnes les ayant écrit se basent sur leurs propres expériences, leurs vécus, leurs tristesses, leurs frustrations, leurs peurs. Un exemple très flagrant ce que je dis ici pourrait être le titre Du gris au noir. "À cette triste réalité qui me donne envie de gerber", "Alors que faire quand tout semble perdu ?", "Seul face à ses propres codes", "Alors que faire si on ne peut plus compter sur personne ni soi-même", on ressent bien dans ces quatre phrases de ce titre un questionnement sur soi-même et sur le monde qui nous entoure. Même le titre Du gris au noir, donne ici le tempo au niveau des paroles, tout dans Aleska reste très sombre. Il ne reste qu'une échappatoire passer du gris au noir tout en nous faisant comprendre ... qu'il n'y a pas de blanc. Je ne saurais pas vraiment non plus analyser De la cime au cimetière, mais j'ose penser qu'il est question ici de représentativité des êtres, à savoir : perdre son temps à vouloir être quelque chose, ou quelqu'un pour un style, une image, un paraître qui pourra nous emmener au sommet quitte à déjà mettre un pied dans la tombe. Et cette phrase est criante de vérité dans le monde d'aujourd'hui: "A trop chercher sa place, on se perd entre la cime et le cimetière". Une sorte de leçon d'humilité que chacun devrait écouter ou comprendre à sa manière. Aleska c'est aussi ça, leurs paroles nous laissent dans le doute, l'incertitude et l'on sent sincèrement qu'à travers ces textes très imagés il y a de réelles revendications, des revendications à aspirer à quelque chose meilleur, de plus simple, de plus vrai: "Le coeur comme unique vérité" (Combler le vide). La dernière lueur longue fable qui oscille entre douceur et fureur illustre extrêmement bien ce propos, un extrait ci-dessous des paroles:

Et si jamais j'en ai la chance, je continuerai seul
Sans plus jamais m'appuyer sur vos piliers instables
Guettant sans cesse cet horizon qu'une nouvelle lueur voudra bien éclairer
Et si jamais ce monde renaît, je continuerai seul
Sans plus jamais oublier de ne plus croire en vos fables
Guettant sans cesse cet horizon qu'une nouvelle lueur voudra bien éclairer
Et si jamais je me relève, je continuerai seul
Sans plus jamais pardonner ceux qui m'ont fait tomber
Guettant sans esse cet horizon qu'une nouvelle lueur voudra bien éclairer

Cette forme de rancoeur, de nostalgie, de perte d'espoir me touche énormément, car je ressens souvent des choses similaires, bien évidemment au centre de la scène punk qui parfois peut être sans pitié. Ce titre qui me fait frissonner laisse néanmoins pointer une touche d'espoir. Gardons encore dans nos coeurs l'idée d'un "nouvel horizon", d'une "nouvelle lueur", qui inspirera un monde meilleur, plus juste, plus sincère.

Aleska semble également vouloir garder une autonomie profonde par rapport à leur musique. Certains vont encore hurler mais leur dernier album a été produit sur la base d'un financement participatif sur une plateforme dédiée à cela. Quand j'ai découvert l'album éponyme de 2016, je l'ai vite acheté en physique me disant qu'il ne restait que quelques copies. J'ai tout de suite compris à ce moment là que les personnes qui composaient Aleska étaient de chouettes gens. Leur réponse suite à mon achat a été super touchante et encourageante, ils avaient juste l'air d'être contents que quelqu'un achète leur disque: "Un énorme merci pour ta commande et ton soutien!". Ça me rappelle cette époque révolue ou ce qu'on achetait par les distros était toujours accompagné d'un petit mot, d'un petit remerciement, d'une phrase sympa. On avait l'impression d'être proche des groupes. Tout ça pour dire que leur dernier album "Construire ou détruire" est entièrement autoproduit (apparemment aucun label n'ayant voulu participer à la sortie). Logiquement on ne trouve donc aucun logo de label sur la pochette. Le mastering et le pressage des disques ont été en intégralité pris en charge par le groupe, ce qui leur procure également une forme d'indépendance dans le choix de tout un tas de choses (les paroles, le style, le graphisme, etc). J'ai trouvé leur démarche assez touchante. "Si personne ne veut nous aider, et bien on va le faire tout seuls". J'ai forcément par la suite participé à ce disque (via la campagne) à la hauteur de mes moyens.

Construire, déconstruire, reconstruire, détruire.
Construire pour vivre.
Déconstruire, avancer.
Reconstruire, espérer.
Détruire puis oublier.
Myriade d'étoiles, beauté du spectacle, percevoir une lueur pouvant teindre > les abîmes déjà naissants.
Eclairant les chemins qui nous mènent au néant.
Symbole d'un éspoir qui nous maintient vivants.
Construire pour définir, définir pour tenter.
Tenter de ne pas sombrer.
Construire pour dire "je".
Construire pour voir le "nous".
Déplorer dans la froideur des regards l'adversisté des bien-pensants.
Tu verras le néant à travers mes yeux et moi l'infini à travers les tiens.
Le rien est le tout, seul l'amour nous sauvera.
Destinée qui nous allie, qui nous unit tant qu'elle ne nous aliène point.
Le seul miracle sera d'être deux à travers les limbes de l'indéfini.
Pour les autres tu n'est qu'une image, pour moi tu seras un icône.
Construire pour se sentir exister, pierre après pierre, jour après jour, continuer à espérer, pouvoir atteindre une apogée toujours plus haut.
Reconstruire ou détruire, puis recommencer, construire pour continuer à espérer.

Comme on prévoit toujours les choses à la dernière minute nous sommes allés faire un petit tour à Strasbourg à l'Itawak fest, j'avoue principalement m'être laissé charmer par la présence d'Aleska et de Jeanne. Bizarrement pour moi, Aleska a joué en premier (quasiment il y avait un ciné concert avant). A part un ou deux petits pains à la batterie (mais qui n'en fait jamais), leur set était top, et j'ai vraiment pris beaucoup beaucoup de plaisir à les découvrir en live. La meilleure prestation de ce Samedi soir à mon sens (mais je ne suis pas objectif je sais, je connaissais tous les titres)

J'avais contacté un des membres du groupe en amont pour qu'il me ramène les disques et les t-shirts (commandés via la campagne participative). Ce fut pour moi l'occasion de rencontrer le quatuor pour de vrai. Je suis toujours stressé et en même temps excité par cette idée-là. Tout s'est passé pour le mieux, des personnes très humaines et bien sympas, même si nous n'avons pas trop eu le temps de discuter dans les détails, les rencontrer m'a fait super plaisir. D'autant plus que j'essayais tant bien que mal de les ajouter à une date sur Paris pour qu'ils puissent enfin se présenter correctement à toute la scène Parisienne. On a un peu galéré mais on a fini par trouver un terrain d'entente. Une belle date à venir pour la rentrée, le 14 Septembre 2019, avec leurs copains de No Vale Nada. J'espère que l'essai sera transformé et que nos amis Parisiens se pointerons nombreux à ce concert. Car oui Aleska, c'est un groupe énorme, qui va vous faire ressentir diverses choses. Je ne sais pas si ce maigre article pourra encourager certains à venir. Mais qu'on soit deux ou cent, pour ma part le plaisir sera le même. Je trépigne comme un enfant. Et peu importe la hype ce concert sera j'en suis sûr une réussite. N'ayez pas de doutes venez et n'oubliez pas qu'a trop chercher votre place vous pourriez vous perdre entre la cime et le cimetière.

Vanité illusoire, la supériorité est une valeur innée, un langage qu'il aurait fallu décrypter. L'intégrité n'est qu'un concept qui ne ravit que ses propres adeptes.
La modestie est une plaie cachée qu'on ne saurait exhiber. La loyauté est un vestige, un vieux précepte. La vanité trône au panthéon des vices les mieux acceptés.
Ou comment l'honnêteté a sombré avec l'espoir. Pour toi et moi, tout semble illusoire au milieu de ce vide glacé.

Je clôture comme à mon habitude cet article par une micro interview d'Aleska. Un énorme merci à eux d'avoir pris le temps de répondre.

Salut Aleska comment expliquez-vous le fait que les labels n'aient pas voulu produire votre disque ? Le choix de la campagne participative a-t-il été un choix délibéré ou contraint par le manque de labels ? Comment expliquez-vous votre relative discrétion par rapport à cette scène. J'entends par là que j'ai parfois l'impression que vous êtes un groupe oublié …

Mike: Il est clair qu’idéalement nous aurions aimé trouver un ou plusieurs labels pour participer à ce projet. Nous en avons contacté un nombre assez important malheureusement sans succès… Dans la mesure où nous sommes un groupe avec des moyens financiers plutôt limités, il ne nous était pas possible de prendre en charge le pressage des vinyles…C’était donc soit on annulait tout et on jetait tout ce que nous avions déjà investi en temps et en argent, soit on retardait d’encore plusieurs mois la sortie de l’album en attendant qu’on ait les fonds nécessaires, soit on recourait à ce système de précommandes. Le choix s’est donc vite imposé à nous. Nous souhaitons d’ailleurs une nouvelle fois remercier tous ceux qui ont participé à cette campagne de financement et nous on permis d’aller au bout de notre projet. Je constate d’ailleurs que de plus en plus de groupes adoptent ce mode de financement et que cela va certainement être amené à se développer de plus en plus, en raison notamment du manque de moyens des labels dans cette scène. Avec le recul je trouve ce mode de fonctionnement pas mal du tout car cela laisse une totale liberté au groupe dans la gestion artistique de son projet, et qu’il n’y a pas besoin de discuter avec les labels du format ou support à choisir pour la sortie ou des couleurs des t-shirts !
Concernant le fait que l’on soit un groupe un peu «oublié» comme tu dis, il est clair que si tu veux que l’on parle de ton groupe, que l’on te propose des tas de concerts, il ne suffit pas de faire de la bonne musique, il y a aussi tout un travail de communication à faire et de réseau à créer. C’est d’ailleurs peut-être la phase qui demande le plus grand investissement en temps à un groupe car, en plus des répètes et des enregistrements, il faut passer pas mal de temps dans les concerts et sur les réseaux sociaux. Compte tenu de nos vies respectives assez chargées, on n’a jamais eu vraiment le temps de se consacrer à cette étape, ce qui fait que l’on manque certainement un peu de visibilité dans la scène. Mais grâce à ton interview ça va changer !

Adri: Il n’y a pas à proprement parler une raison pour laquelle on a décidé de produire le disque de cette manière mais une multitude. Par rapport, aux labels il y a soit un manque d’intérêt pour notre musique, de temps et d’argent ou aussi tout simplement qu’on a pas contacté les bons. De manière générale, ils ne répondent pas si tu tournes pas assez ou si tu n’es pas ultra engagé dans la scène.
La campagne est un choix délibéré, j’avais proposé aux autres et on a pas mal hésité vu que c’est carrément mal vu dans la scène jusqu’au moment où on s’est dit fuck off, on veut sortir ce disque ! Depuis, pas mal de potes s’y sont mis donc bon si ça permet à un disque de vivre et que par continuité ça nous fait jouer, ça peut que faire bouger la scène et c’est vertueux.
D’un autre côté, ça ne nous empêche en rien d’acheter des vinyles dans des distros et d’aider les indés comme on peut.
Quant à la discrétion, on en sait trop rien c’est un mélange de tous les points cités au-dessus, personnellement, je sais qu’on aimerait bien avoir plus de visibilité/opportunité etc etc... Il aura fallu 8 ans pour qu’on nous propose une date sur Paris par exemple et c’est trop cool de pouvoir enfin venir !

Nico: Les labels qui ont bien voulu prendre le temps de nous répondre nous ont plus ou moins donné la même explication : déjà plusieurs sorties programmées et plus de budget pour pouvoir accompagner notre nouvel album à venir. Personnellement, je ne souhaitais même pas faire ce démarchage et je ne m’attendais de toute façon pas à grand chose comme retour de leur part, ce qui a été le cas ! Le fait de lancer un financement participatif qui ferait office de précommandes était déjà prévu avant de les contacter et ça n’a pas été une conséquence du manque de labels. Pour expliquer très facilement notre discrétion par rapport à cette scène, il y a une question à se poser : qu’est devenue la scène screamo de nos jours ? De mon point de vue, cette scène place la musique loin derrière l’idéologie et c’est ce qui nous met à l’écart. Nous, on est là avant tout et uniquement pour faire de la musique ! Et quand on parle avec les gens qui viennent nous voir, on parle avant tout de musique et d’émotions ce qui devrait toujours être la priorité selon moi quand on définit une «scène». A côté de ça, il y a aussi un gros travail à faire sur les réseaux sociaux comme l’a dit Mike, et c’est vrai que ce n’est pas toujours facile de pouvoir tout gérer en même temps. Et c’est d’autant plus compliqué quand on doit travailler en même temps sur la sortie d’un nouvel album en auto production.

Si je ne me trompe pas Aleska s'est construit avec des membres de ShallNotKill Dead for a minute et Esteban. Comment vous êtes vous rencontrés, dans quel contexte, et surtout pourquoi avez-vous choisi ensemble de faire ce type de musique à un moment ou le Screamo ne marche plus vraiment (les trois groupes cités plus haut ont quand même à mon sens assez peu d'éléments communs avec Aleska) ?

Mike: Je connais Vince depuis près de 20 ans. A l’époque nous faisions pas mal de concerts et tournées ensemble avec nos groupes respectifs puis nous nous sommes retrouvés quelques années plus tard à jouer ensemble dans Esteban. A la fin d’Esteban j’ai totalement arrêté la musique pendant un an puis Vince m’a appelé pour me dire qu’il avait remonté un projet avec de super zicos et qu’ils auraient éventuellement besoin d’un vieux bassiste tout rouillé !
Concernant notre style musical, on ne s’est jamais vraiment préoccupé du style que l’on souhaiterait faire ou que l’on devrait faire pour être à la mode. Pour nous la musique doit être sincère et instinctive. Cela se ressent surtout dans notre façon de composer qui est principalement basée sur l’improvisation à partir d’un riff de gratte ou d’une rythmique… En fait, nous sommes quatre zicos avec des goûts et influences totalement différents et la musique d’Aleska n’est que le résultat, plus ou moins bien réussi 😊, de ce mélange !

Adri: Nico et moi écoutons du emo/screamo et tout ce qui touche à cette scène depuis les années 2000, on avait un groupe ensemble à cette époque et on connaissait de nom Dead for a minute et ShallNotKill. On essayait de se rapprocher de ce genre musical mais on ne jouait pas avec les bonnes personnes, à ce moment là, on faisait plus de l’emocore à la Thursday ou New Ruins de the Kidcrash. C’est quand, on a vu Esteban en 2007 ou 2008 avec Kidcrash justement qu’on s’est dit “et si on demandait à Vince s’il serait chaud pour jouer avec nous (il avait le jeu parfait pour ce style musical)” ? Il nous a dit qu’il n’était pas intéressé puisqu’il avait déjà un groupe de screamo. Avec Nico, on a continué notre chemin jusqu’à ce qu’on lui redemande en 2011 à la fin d’Esteban et ce vieux faisan était d’accord. On était 6 dans le groupe au début et c’est quand Mike s’est ramené qu’on a bloqué le line up (qui est toujours le même depuis).
On n’a pas vraiment choisi de faire ce style, ça s’est fait naturellement, on avait pas mal de groupes en commun (Envy, Botch, At the drive in, The get up kids, Mono, City of caterpillar,, Neil perry, Raein, Orchid,, Saetia, Gantz, Amanda woodward, Daïtro etc etc) mais les autres avaient l’expérience et écoutaient des groupes un peu plus old school tandis que nous on avait tendance à suivre ce qui se passait à ce moment là (Suis la lune, Age sixteen, I create, Grown up, Algernon cadwallader, Birds in row, et des trucs plus récents comme Cassus, Shirokuma, State faults, Shin guard etc etc.)

Nico: Pour ce qui est de notre rencontre, je pense qu’Adri à très bien tout résumer ci dessus. Pour notre musique, il n’y a pas un seul instant où on s’est imposé une barrière dans la composition. On ne s’est jamais dit qu’on voulait faire du screamo ou du post rock ou du post hardcore. On privilégie vraiment ce qui vient sur le moment et ce qui nous plaît. Peu importe ce qui marche ou ce qui est à la mode sur le moment, ce n’est absolument pas ce qui guidera ou influencera notre musique.

Le groupe ayant été bâti avec des membres d'anciens groupes (relativement connus à l'époque), je pense imaginer que vous avez dû trainer depuis quelques années aux concerts. D'où ma sempiternelle question: pouvez-vous me donner votre avis sur l'évolution de la "scène", d'un point de vue par exemple politique ou médiatique (ou tout autre). Pensez-vous que les réseaux sociaux et l'avènement des moyens de communication aient considérablement changé la donne dans la musique D.I.Y ? Pensez-vous qu'il est possible qu'il y ait un choc générationel? (je pose cette question car j'ai moi-même souvent un sentiment fort de nostalgie par rapport au passé)

Mike: Pour parler simplement du dynamisme de la scène, sans aller dans le politique ou l’analyse sociologique, je laisse ça à Nico et Adri 😊, en tant que «vieux» du groupe j’ai eu la chance de connaître l’âge d’or de cette scène où il y avait énormément de concerts, plein de super groupes à aller voir toutes les semaines. A cette époque, en tant que groupe, tout semblait plus facile, il y avait plus d’endroits où jouer, plus de labels, les gens se déplaçaient plus nombreux aux concerts, il y avait une super dynamique… Il est clair qu’aujourd’hui on ressent beaucoup moins toute cette énergie et cet engouement et que c’est même parfois décourageant en tant que groupe de devoir consentir autant d’efforts pour finalement se rendre compte que les gens ne se sentent finalement pas concernés par cette scène. Voilà, j’ai fait mon vieux rabat-joie nostalgique, mais fort heureusement il y a toujours des gens investis et motivés dans la scène qui essayent de faire bouger les choses.

Adri: On a vu pas mal de concerts sur de nombreuses années et j’avoue que c’est une question assez difficile vu que la réponse que je peux donner ne fait qu’évoluer avec le temps. De manière générale, les idées et l’idéologie restent les mêmes. Il y aura toujours des personnes dévouées aux idées/concepts DIY dans une ligne politique antifa même si j’ai l’impression que cette étiquette est moins visible, je ne dis pas que les gens sont moins politisés mais qu’ils ont tendance à rejeter un peu plus la politique “classique” justement. Ce qui est paradoxal pour une scène où tous comptent les uns sur les autres.
Du moins, j’ai l’impression qu’il y a un plus fort individualisme qu’avant ce qui parfois accentue une forme d’élitisme. Par exemple, il est bien plus difficile de faire le premier pas et de rencontrer des personnes aux concerts. Je pense qu’on est un peu trop à l’arrache et qu’on se méfie de nous ou qu’on nous ignore par rapport au fait qu’on ne joue pas assez le jeu de l’identification. Depuis l’avènement des réseaux sociaux tous ces éléments se sont accentués et je trouve qu’il y a trop de critères et de codes où du moins que la scène est plus fermée. C’était plus simple avant qu’aujourd’hui, tu peux avoir des groupes en commun, une passion pour ce genre et ce qu’il raconte mais t’es plus facilement “blacklisté” si tu n’épouses pas l’ensemble idéologique de la scène. Dans le groupe, personne n’est vegan et ce n’est pas pour autant qu’on ne respecte pas ces idées, au contraire, on trouve ça super important mais c’est déjà arrivé qu’on nous refuse des dates à cause de ça ou parce que Vince est passionné de photographie et qu’il fait des photos qui ne plaisent pas à tout le monde. C’est un peu dommage dans le sens où c’est déjà une scène de niche surtout qu’il y a un regain d’intérêt en ce moment pas comme la première moitié des années 2010 où là ç’était plus mort. Néanmoins, cela reste mineur et 90% des personnes qu’on a pu rencontrer sont géniaux passionnés et beaucoup d’entres eux sont devenus des super potes.

Nico: Les réseaux sociaux et de culte de l’image ont clairement changé la donne. A l’époque, les gens que l’on pouvait rencontrer et avec qui on discutait étaient clairement présent parce que ça avait de l’importance pour eux et parce qu’ils étaient réellement engagés dans cette scène. Aujourd’hui, je trouve qu’il est très difficile de rencontrer des personnes comme ça car tu as affaire à tout un tas de personnes présentes uniquement pour l’image. A l’époque, dès qu’il y avait un concert, tout le monde se bougeait et était fier de pouvoir soutenir la scène locale peu importe le style de musique qui pouvait y passer et peu importe que ce soit un groupe connu ou pas. Aujourd’hui, soit les gens ne se déplacent pas, soit la bonne partie de ceux qui se déplacent ne sont pas là pour la musique mais uniquement pour pouvoir se prendre en photo et mettre ça en ligne. Et encore une fois, comme je le disais plus haut, la musique arrive bien derrière tout ça… Heureusement, il y a de belles rencontres et toujours de vrais passionnés mais qui sont souvent des personnes un peu plus âgées et qui ont connu la scène à l’époque de son « âge d’or » si on peut dire. Il y a tout de mêmes des exceptions mais elles restent rares. J’ai quand même l’impression et l’espoir que l’on retombe dans une époque de partage, d’écoute et d’émotions avant de penser à l’idéologie. A voir comment ça va évoluer dans les années à venir!

Je trouve vos paroles très sombres, je dirais même très tristes, je ressens réellement beaucoup de tristesse dans vos titres. Est-ce un exercice de style? Ou êtes-vous réellement habité par ce sentiment, pensez-vous malgré vous être nihiliste et ne pas croire en un avenir meilleur et plus juste pour l'humanité. ("Devant vos regards plein de tristesse : plus de lumière, plus de vie, plus d'espoir") ?

Adri: C’est une bonne question. Premièrement, ce n’est pas un exercice de style, même si la façon d’écrire les textes pourrait paraître confuse. J’ai généralement écrit les textes et Nico proposait sa vision et son ressenti. Plus récemment, il est venu avec des textes complets mais je pense qu’on écrit de la même manière. Il y a une accroche avec une phrase forte et après on déroule le fil presque en écriture automatique, le plus chaud c’est de rester fidèle à ce qu’on veut dire et à ce qu’on ressent. Pour le côté nihiliste des textes, il est authentique et vient à la fois de ce qu’on peut voir tous les jours mais surtout de l’endroit où on vit je pense. Le Nord Est de la Lorraine où nous habitons est une zone sinistrée, désindustrialisée, où tout est gris, tout est plat. Il n’y pas grand chose à faire, le taf est rare et trouver une raison de s’y plaire reste compliqué. Pour autant, c’est chez nous et on s’y sent attaché malgré tout. On a nos familles, nos potes et on veut faire en sorte d’apporter quelque chose, aussi futile soit cette chose.

Nico: Ce n’est effectivement pas un exercice de style. On ne va pas forcément s’imposer quoi que ce soit et on prend ce qui sort sur le moment. Personnellement, les seules fois où j’ai voulu m’imposer un thème, il m’a été impossible d’écrire quelque chose qui m’a satisfait. Notre musique est assez sombre aussi et comme j’écrit mes textes une fois que musique est terminée, ils suivent ce que je ressens en écoutant les compositions. Je ne suis pas nihiliste et je pense personnellement qu’on nous maintient dans un climat de stress et d’angoisse permanent. Quoi de plus facile que de manipuler quelqu’un qui doute et qui a peur? Mon point de vue c’est qu’on peut toujours faire bouger les choses et se donner les moyens d’atteindre ses objectifs donc je serais plutôt même du genre optimiste! Et pour citer le même texte que tu as utilisé pour illustrer ta question et appuyer ce que je viens de dire : « Et si jamais je me relève, je continuerai seul. Sans plus jamais pardonner ceux qui m’ont fait tomber. Guettant sans cesse cet horizon qu’une nouvelle lueur voudra bien éclairer ».

Note to readers:

• Sorry for my english
• Peoples faces have been blurred on the photos excepted for bands member's.

For those who are not aware of that, I stopped going to gigs for more than five years. During this lifetime crisis I also have -like an asshole- cut every contact I had with what we call the "scene". This includes year after year stopping talking with some of my best friends. I don’t know why I’ve done this and now I truly regret that moment in my life. But … we all make mistakes. I finally came back a year ago. And with this comeback, I obviously, met again the people I loved. This includes one of my best friends, who introduce me to so many things during all theses years (music, people, movies). I remember sending an email to Lars from React with Protest asking about to go to the Cry Me A River festival with this friend. I searched my mail and finally find an old evidence of the plan we had together. On 30 January 2009, I wrote this to Lars : "Oh, the schedule of Cry Me A River this year seems to be awesome. Hope we can come with xxx from xxx this year". (I replaced the name of my friend by xxx). I don’t remember why we didn’t make it that year, but the fact is we never went to the Cry Me A River together. As I wanted to break this curse, I asked him this year if he wanted to go with me. If I’m writing this blog post, that’s because I got a positive answer. So ten years after our original plan we finally made it. That’s it for the heartbreaking story.

As he comes from a town not so far from Paris, and that I -unfortunately- works and lives in Paris. The rendezvous point was set at my place. We decided to go to a show the day before. As "always" everybody was laughing at us because we were going to a "Screamo" festival. I’m speaking of that just to say that Paris is not a "Screamo" place at all and also to say that this so-called considering punk scene is just sometimes also hurting people. It is sometimes not more supportive or kindhearted that any other places. Please let people listen to what they want.

In France this friend is super famous for its car, a tiny one that he uses over the years to go to festivals and shows (he changed it many times but kept the same brand and model). As I’m not good pilot and I have not driven a car for over ten years, he made the road alone (sorry pal). We were four of us in the car. And let’s say that we had a long long drive. Maybe too long for me, as my right leg always makes me pain in that kind of situation. Speaking of the weather, we left on Friday. The French meteorologists were saying this Friday was the peak of the heat wave, so a good challenge for four people, especially in a car without any air conditioner. It was pretty long, but I truly love the fact that traveling by car makes you feel you are traveling (and not teleporting). You see the landscape changing little by little, and notice the small differences between every place. The GPS was saying the journey will take eight hours, so we originally planned to leave Paris around 8:30 AM, but as always when you are traveling you always get delayed. We finally moved around 9:30 AM. Add the traffic jams to this (there were so many roadworks, in Germany) and it took us in total 10 hours including stops to rest and eat a little.

The funny thing about the Cry me a river fest is that the "crew" didn’t give us a lot of information. As I’m not a huge fan of Facebook and social media things (I’m using this it only to see gigs schedule), we were not sure of the exact address and I had to ask to a friend. Unfortunately for us we missed the first band (Nordic Walking). It was a little bit stressful for me as I absolutely wanted to see Ryloth. I like this band so much that it was one of the reasons I wanted to go to the Cry Me A River. I’ll talk in detail about the music later.

At the end of this long trip, we arrived in a nice German country, in an agricultural region . We passed through small roads surrounded by corn fields, woods and nature. With that shiny weather, I felt super relieved to be there. Everything seemed to be nice. After struggling with our GPS system, we finally found Sabine and Lars’s place: a big house in the middle of corn fields surrounded by woods and their and vegetable garden. That’s it. The festival takes place in their garden, like a house show. A big tent was set up in the middle of the garden, some merch tables were installed around the site. Everything was neat. In that garden there were two cherry trees, with ripe cherries on it. I spent a lot of time eating those as everyone else. To tell you how cool it was, when the most accessible cherries were taken by us the RWP family put a ladder next to the trees to allow people eating them again. Maybe it’s a small detail but for me it describes very well the atmosphere and the environment of these two fabulous days.

Speaking about the merch I saw there plenty of good ideas. For instance, there was a box full of used t-shirts at a super affordable price (€6 if I remember well). There were also some merch tables without anybody taking care of it, a cardboard box was just here with a sign saying to take what you want at the price you want (obviously at a fair price).

On Saturday Versmold was full of punks. We had to take the car to take a shower at the swimming pool. Then we find a place with a lake and we did spend a couple hours playing in the water and making games like kids. As the weather was super hot having that place near Sabine and Lars’s home was awesome. Far better than a swimming pool. I still don't know if we had to pay to go to that lake … the fact is that we went there without paying anything. A lot of people were there on a tiny tiny beach, but it was ok as we did spend most of the time in the water. I have to say I was super upset and disappointed because my teammates didn’t want to go to the mini-golf course. This is one of the "ritual" of the Cry Me A River festival and we missed the opportunity to go there :-(. It was too hot for this kind of activity (my friends were right).

As the shows were stopping when the sun goes down, we did have plenty of time to party and make new friends. Everybody was super kind and helpful to each other, exchanging or giving beers or other kinds of alcohol. Sharing about music, the places and cities we lived in, the life in general. Even with my bad English I had a great time speaking with different people. I’ll say that we were approximately 150 people here, so making new friends was super easy as you see the same faces for two days. It’s not like going to a big festival with tons of people and where everybody is a stranger.

Friday

Ryloth: I'll not repeat here how I love Ryloth. I have written something about them in my Miss the Stars festival report. This time it was even better. The drum sound was perfect, loud enough to hear the kick. If I'm not wrong, they have played the same set at the Miss the stars festival. Awesome band, one of the best shows of the weekend for me.

Jotnarr: I had a blast listening to Jotnarr. The songs they played were super melodic. I remember humming one of their tracks the whole day. Their melodies are anchored in my subconscious. The drummer was so good.

Niboowin: I waited for a year to see Niboowin. I was blown away by their first album especially the first song "Resting Peacefully" that they unfortunately didn't play at the show. I had a chat with the singer and the guitarist and one of them told me that they played a couple of new songs (if I'm not wrong). By speaking with the guitarist late on Friday evening, I got an explanation about the band's name. It's a word coming from a Native American language meaning "Death" (correct me if I'm wrong). One member of the band is a Native American and they have used this language in some of their songs too. We also talked about Old Soul (their previous band). Killer show.

Cassus : I remember seeing them in Paris. I sometimes don't like certain parts (the voice especially). I gave them a second chance and I have to say that what I heard on this Friday evening was super cool. To be honest it's impossible to love every band :-).

Lentic Waters: At the end of the day Lentic Waters has done an incredible job. I missed them at the "Miss the Stars" and It was my chance to see them (again). The atmosphere was super good. Lot of people were "stage diving". It was the only show we had at night-time. Some lights were added to allow us to see. The atmosphere was thrilling.

Saturday

Swallow's nest: I didn't know Path were playing first and we arrived too late to see them (I'm so sad), but Swallow's nest was here to comfort me. One of the singers is David form "Zegema beach records". We had the chance to see them again in Paris 2 weeks after the Cry Me a River. I'm super happy because they played the songs I like the most.

Cady: We had the chance to have Cady two weeks before in Paris for the first show of their tour in Europe. So we already knew each other. I can say that Cady is one of the funniest bands I've seen these days. They're hilarious and always have a good joke to tell. It's exactly what we have seen in the Cry Me A River fest. A group of friends who had a good time. They were the first to participate in the famous Cry Me A River human pyramid. The bassist did some crowd surfing, Polly the main singer was standing on the guitar cab to do her stuff. One of the shows with the best atmosphere this weekend. Bravo.

Coma Regalia: I honestly have to say that I have never taken the time to listen carefully to Coma Regalia. It did not happen this time either. I just listened to two or three songs of their set and it seemed to be good, but as I don't know the songs at all it was difficult for me to "get in". Their bassist was replaced by Cady's bassist (who has learned the songs by watching YouTube videos), so he did two shows in a row. Well done, especially in a tent where the temperature reaches 40 degrees.

Aureole of Ash: Sabine and Lars's band playing at home. It was different than the Miss the stars show. There was no video while they were playing. It sounded harsher than in May.

Gentle Art of Choking: One of the best drummers of the weekend. Just amazing.

The last words will be for the RWP Family. Thank you so much for organizing that festival every year. It was an incredible weekend for me. Thanks a lot to everybody participating in the festival (the people who were cooking, the people at the bar, the people at the mix table). Thanks for the food (vegan breakfast), thanks for the place, thanks for the cherries, thanks for the camping site in the garden. Thanks for what you have for the scene for so many years. Thanks a lot once again. I hope the Cry Me A River will continue to be one of the best places for Screamo music over the years. I'll not talk about our trip to go back in France I felt so nostalgic of leaving so early. Going back to home is always frustrating especially when you're living these special moments in life .... and this one was special.

Like many others I saw the music and the scene evolve, at shows, on the internet and by talking to other. At this time the word "skramz" did not even exist at all and to be honest I still do not understand why we had to create a (buzz) word different than Screamo. Probably not to be associated with bands like "Bullet for my Valentine", but seriously who cares (in the scene) about that, about style, about hairs or about clothes, personnaly I don't, and I'll still call the Screamo Screamo, not just because I discovered this kind of music with that name, but also to prove that I do not care about the "negative" connotation that others create about these "other" bands. There's no "REAL" Screamo, there is just music, none is better than others. I do not want this scene to be elitist or prententious (like I am). My understanding is that the "skramz" word is also about humour and self-mockery. I hope so. I however have a bad feeling about it. I probably lived in a cave for the past seven years but I did heard about the "skramz" word one year ago. Yep, I'm definitly an old schmuck, my only advantage is that I saw the changes during all those years, and I never stopped buying records. One of my friend qualified my "humble" vinyls collection as the "best Screamo collection he ever seen", even if I know he says that to make me happy. That said, you're now aware of who I am, and that's important for the rest of this blog post. I'll probably have some negative words (among all the positives ones) but it's just that I'm an old sour man (compared to the Screamo existence).

To be honest I have a profound respect for the Miss the Stars Festival, for what they have done over the years, for the scene, and for this kind of music. They've done an incredible job, like all the bands playing at their festival, and none have done such a kind of festival in an European capital accessible to everyone at that price. You -members of the Miss the Stars team- rock, and thanks a lot for everything you've done. All of this to say my Screamo history has German roots. This post will talk about how I have lived -for a week-end- Screamo music the German way :-).

I didn't knew kinds of festival like that existed. I -obviously- know the Sabine and Lars's Cry me a river festival. But it is the only festival dedicated to Screamo that I knew. Good to know there is another one. Most of the time, Screamo bands play with other type of band playing other styles. For instance I remember seeing some really good Screamo bands at the Ieper Festival (previously Vort'n'vis) in their early years. I clearly remember seeing The Spectacle, Requiem, and Children of Fall at the 2005 edition playing with bands like Knuckledust or Darkest Hour . All of this to say that the Miss the Stars is the Screamo festival of the Screamo fesitvals. In other word "the place to be" if you like that style (and this is my case).

Something I was not aware of is that getting a ticket for the festival was that hard. Just like a kind of lottery. Tickets are sold in seconds, in two times (to specifics hours on two weeks, if I'm not wrong). I remember being at a restaurant with my mom (Hey, mom, if you read that "I love you") and my love and I both used our laptop in the middle of the meal to get tickets. She had two. I got zero. Good luck, bad luck. Russian roulette. There's probably a reason behind this, the size of Zukunft am Ostkreuz (where the festival takes place), the willing of keeping this fest as a "small" fest where human exchanges are still possible (I'll talk about this later). But for some it can be very very frustrating. I didn't know until that time that Screamo stirs up passions at this scale. Hey, yeah, Screamo is mainstream. I was a little bit disappointed by this -going to this festival is just a luck story, some succeed every years and some not- until I knew they were selling day tickets at the entrance. A friend of mine was in Berlin at that time and joined us for one night. He easily got a ticket without planning anything. A pure chance. It also means that it is possible to come if you really want to.

I already knew the Zukunft am Ostkreuz place as I had come to an -incredible- Lvmen's show in January. It's always a pleasure to be there, a very "charming" place with really kind people. For the festival two stages were setup one in the big main room, and the other one in a smaller hall but still accessible to people who really wanted to see the shows. I have to admit that the "geometry" of the small stage was a little bit weird with a lot of people packed at the back (most of them not able to see the stage at all) and a lot of spaces not filled near the benchs, at the left of the room. But everybody was respectful to each other and it was still possible to see a band you like if you want to. Nothing to say about that the "organization" was neat and very respectful. Maybe to much (for me).

Speaking of that I saw things I had never seen in France. For instance some signs where sticked to the wall saying that people are going to takes photographs and that you had the right to ask not to appear on it. A respect of intimity, and of private life that I never saw in France. I do not know if it's a German specificity but I also saw this kind of stuffs in bars with signs saying not to take photographs and that our lifes are not a Facebook timeline. I felt very safe and comfortable with that, a great idea, that -in my humble opinion- we should bring in France. Still with the idea to respect each other ways of living or gender, there was menstrual tampons in toilets, and sign saying that you better should use urinals if you did not have the need to use the toilets. Once again that shows the festival is taking care about respecting each others. But ... this is in my opinion a "normal" behaviour that everyone should be aware of without having a reminder about it. This kind of thing may also infantilise people (it does not means that's not cool, I was just thinking about it).

On the other hand there were also signs on stage saying : "no shirt, no show". Just meaning that the artists had to keep their shirts on (even with these high temperatures on stage) not to hurt the sensibility of others. I do totally respect this, at this may shock people, not wanting to see part of a body naked. But it also means that times have changed, that there's a problem that seemed (in my opinion) not to exist some years ago. A problem with the bodies. I remember seeing bands playing totally naked (Hyacinth for instance) as a political claim. Just saying that bodies are bodies and that we are all equals to each others. That a naked body is not shocking but in contrary just a body among others and that we not have to be complexed about it as we are all made the same (the differences between bodies are just a social problem, being naked is a political action against that body cult). Even if I do understand and respect the intention behind those signs, it is in my opinion a regression in the punk scene.

As we had to stay from five to midnight the two days, we had to eat and drink on site. I've tried almost everything. The fest did an incredible job on food. People at the "stands" were super kind and peaceful, I even did ask for the recipe of the "fricassee". I am a vegetarien, but all the food was vegan, and it was super tasteful, with different kind of foods (mexican, warp, hot dogs, and so on). I didn't had to empty my wallet as price were super cheap compared to France (from 3 to 4 euros for a plate, and 2,50 euro for a beer).

To sum up, I really had the feeling of being safe here. It was a real pleasure to be there with my friends, feeling ok, and not have to be worried about anything. It was a relief not to care about anything and not beeing juged.

I have learned German for seven years at school. I'm far from beeing good at German, but everytime I go to Germany I'm trying to speak German. What I'm trying to do is to be autonomous for simple stuffs, asking for food or a for a beer, buying stuffs, speaking about the weather and that kind of things. I was surprised that every time I tried to, the people I spoke with answered me in english or in french. It seems that German people are better french speakers that french are german speakers :-). I am speaking about that because I tried to "socialized" with other over the week-end. I'm generally not shy, but every try was a failure. I had that feeling that people were staying comfortable with their friends not really trying to know each others. Maybe it's a language problem, I know I have a terrible French accent. But the story tells I did not succeed in making new friends over the two days, and that I had to spend some hours alone (it's my poor friend me). But I don't think that's really a problem. Beeing alone is always instructive.

I'm just realizing I'm talking too much, most of you may have stop reading this post since the first part. But isn't this festival a music a festival ? Should we not talk about the heart of it : music ? It was indeed very intense. As I do for every fest, I'm checking what I'll see a few days before. It's almost impossible to see every show -and that's normal- with that number of bands. A thing I liked is that everyband is "treated" as the same. 30 minutes show that's it, not depending on the hype of your band. It allows small band to get known and to feel as equal to the others. Another clever thing : the "big" bands are not the last ones to play. I like this for two reasons. The first one is that you had listen to many differents bands during the day, and sometimes you get bored, or that's too much for you. You do not have to wait until the end of day to see the "main" band. Second thing is that it can be easier for some folks to leave earlier if they live far from the festival place. Another good point for the Miss the stars

As I'm not super talented to talk about music, I'll just do here a top three of the shows I liked the most:

• Ryloth: This band was the band I was waiting for at this fest. I discovered their "démo" on Bandcamp and at the time I did listen to it I instantely become an early fan. As it was pointed to me a few months ago Screamo and Black metal are not two styles so far from each other. Surprisely I -since a few years- am listening to Black Metal (band like Dead to a dying world, Solbrud, or Dawn'R'ayd). I'm talking about this because I think Ryloth is the missing band that join the two universes, some Screamo mixed with some Black metal. Like Dodsrït does with Crust and Black metal. Their melodic and double-kick parts are super intense. They just started band, and it was from far the best thing I saw that week-end. They deserve more recognition. I heard that they will release more songs later this year. The ones they played on that Saturday evening. They're inspired from science fiction movies and novels (Start Wars, Dune, and so on) and as I am a SF fan, it made my day.

• Vi som älskade varandra så mycket:I had all their records in my bandcamp wishlist since years and I listened to it from time to time as I do love their slow melodic parts but I was not a huge fan ... until I saw them live. On live the melodies were so sad and melancholic that I totally stop dancing and took time to really take time on listening, just listening. We had the chance to heard two songs of the new upcomming album. The first one was super good. A futur instant buy. Their attitude on stage was super humble and very precise, no bum note at all, like pros. Back at home I had re-listen to the album and their songs now make more sens to me. Even if they sing in Swedish you can understand the poerty and the intensity of the lyrics. Reading the english translation told me I wasn't wrong. It's my "rediscovery" of the week-end. Bravo.

• Amitié: As I am french, Screamo bands which are taking their names from french words always make me laugh. It has been done so many times that it is now super "cliché". Sans visage, La dispute, Suis la lune, Beau navire, Triste, Sur l'eau, Déraciné: the list is endless. (Yes, french bands takes english names too, and I know my english is bad). Screamo band having a french name is not generally a good sign for me, but I have to admit that I am often wrong on this point. And Amitié once again told me I was totally wrong. They just blew up the stage.

I -obviously- also had to talk about Aureole of ash, Sabine and Lars's band which was the only non-screamo band I saw during the fest. Nothing to say. Good from start to end, awesome political messages displayed on the wall. Humble behaviour. And ... I saw an Arsen aka köning der monster shirt. Yep I noticed. Grind rules.

For those who wanted more quiet things an open stage at the back of the place was also here for some accoustics band. I didn't had the chance to saw one of them but I do think it's a marvelous idea for those who wants to make a sound pause. Once again great choice.

I do not know if the German crowd is always like this as I havn't done many show in Germany but there were absolutely zero stage diving during the week-end. However their were plenty of occasion to stage dive, for instance with very punchy band like Finisterre and Morrow. A little dose of fun and amusement like this would have been fun, but I do not know if this kind of things are acceptable or authorized in a fest like this. Maybe it may bring a more relaxed atmosphere. It was a little bit too serious for me. Once again, it is not criticism but just my way of feeling things, my observation, that may differs for other people.  

Two days like these ones didn't helped me with my tinitus crisis. The sound level was globally ok (I am very very very sensitive to too loud shows). And I notice I was the only one wearing an helmet and I havn't seen any prevention for hearing loss from loud noise. I was told after that, that you can ask at the bar for ear plugs but as far as I know it was not clearly told. In contrary this is something that I almost see everytime in France, with free ear plugs exposed and free at the entrance of any shows. Be careful to others but not to yourself (I'm obviously joking).

I still had some hours left on Saturday and Sunday to walk around in Berlin. I don't know if it is because it's a "new place" for me (and new places always looks nicer than the place you live in) but I felt it quiet. I saw almost no cops, no tickets inspector in the subway, no turnstile to enter the subway. It felt more livable than Paris. More quiet. The thing that shocked me the most is that streets are clean and there's nature everywhere, all around the buildings, and this nature seems not to be too controlled by humans. Maybe I was in a part of Berlin that is like this. But I did love the moment I passed walking here and around. We passed a few hours walking and talking about the city, trying to remember the German history, the war, the wall. This week-end was like an hardcore band album "Life. Love. But no regrets.". Thank you Miss the stars.

Suite à divers problèmes personnels j'avais mis de côté -trop longtemps- les concerts et parfois la musique. Une rencontre fortuite m'a fait replonger dedans. De fils en aiguilles me voilà de retour dans ma maison familiale, là où j'avais stocké ce pan de ma vie que je voulais peut-être oublier. Ça m'a pris comme ça, j'ai frénétiquement réouvert tous ces cartons de disques, de flyers, de cds et de fanzines. Plus j'en ouvrais plus des souvenirs que j'avais totalement oblitérés de mon esprit sont remontés à la surface. J'avais oublié qu'un temps j'étais cette personne-là, plus enjouée, plus heureuse, plus épanouie, grâce à la musique. En regardant de plus près tous ces cartons de disques je me suis rendu compte qu'il y avait dedans pas mal de petits trésors, de groupes oubliés (ou pas) ayant marqué (plus ou moins) le cours de ma monotone existence.

De retour aux concerts et dans "la scène" en général, je me suis rendu compte que les choses avaient évolué (et c'est bien normal) dans un sens "différent" de ce que j'avais personnellement connu il y a quelques années. L'accès à la musique étant encore plus facile qu'auparavant je me suis mis à crouler (et je croule toujours) sous la profusion de choses à écouter, résultant -pour ma part- en une nécessité d'un retour aux sources (mes sources). J'ai reparcouru mes classiques (et je suis loin d'avoir fini).

Tout en le faisant je me suis dit que ça pourrait être sympa d'en faire profiter les autres. Ayant toujours été une figure très passive et anonyme (par choix), me complaisant dans le fait d'être spectateur plus qu'acteur je me suis dit qu'il était peut-être temps de réaliser quelque chose : en l'occurrence refaire découvrir des groupes "anciens" ou "oubliés". Ça ne touchera probablement personne, mais ça me permettra -j'espère- de mieux structurer ma pensée, à tourner la page, à avancer ... enfin. Autant dire que je ne sais pas la fréquence à laquelle je vais faire ça. Je vais juste "essayer".

Le premier de ces groupes qui m'est revenu dans la gueule sans que je ne m'y attende un seul instant c'est Shallnotkill. D'abord par le 7 pouces dans lequel l'incroyable "Laïus" (probablement un des premiers titres que j'avais entendu d'eux) m'a procuré un sentiment intraduisible, une secousse. J'étais capable après tout ce temps d'écrire les paroles sans aucun oubli, comme si ce texte était rentré/ancré en moi, enfouis dans un compartiment de mon cerveau auquel je n'avais plus accès. Une sorte de madeleine de Proust musicale qui vous fait replonger dans un passé goûteux et agréable. La résurrection de moments oubliés. Très étrangement plusieurs titres m'ont procuré ce sentiment probablement parce que les paroles de Shallnotkill me touchent par divers aspects (poétique, politique ?).

La modélisation civile
Il ne manquera que des barreaux
Masquer les odeurs
Asphyxier les vérités
Un canevas d'incertitudes
Songer à ce qui ne sera jamais
Tel un renvoi acide, un laïus pour vindicte
L'abstraction est l'extension à l'infini des possibles
Se féliciter de l'unidirectonnalité comtemplative
Les regards croisés n'ont plus lieu d'être que pour répondre aux intérêts libéraux
Les insolubles équations du langage
Sentiments confinés aux frontières de l'être charnel
Cette chair impassible
Erodée par le tourment céphalique
Il n'y a pas plus aveugle que celle qui ne veut pas voir
Il n'y a pas plus bavard que celui qui ne veut rien dire
Haranguant la vie
Jouissant impunément
Le verbe serait-il un bâillon ?
Déjà, l'image viole les consciences ...

Fort de cette impression, je me suis mis à rechercher le 10 pouces (Self Titled). Je savais pertinemment qu'il était quelque part, mais impossible de mettre la main dessus. De retour chez ma maman, j'ai fouiné et refouiné. Sans succès. J'ai même contacté un vieux (copain) pour savoir s'il lui en restait (je te parle de ça car il lui reste certains trucs de Shallnotkill, donc même après toutes ces années c'est trouvable sans que tu n'aies à te ruinier sur Discogs). Sans succès. J'ai fini par le retrouver quelque temps plus tard dans les disques que j'avais déjà ramenés dans mon "chez moi". J'ai posé le disque sur la platine, et, là, à l'instant précis où "faire de l'ombre au soleil" a débuté (le second titre) est venue comme une évidence le besoin d'écrire sur ce que j'écoutais. Ce titre fait écho à ce que j'ai pu vivre à un moment donné de ma vie (au boulot, quand j'ai arrêté les concerts) : "Faire sienne toutes les victoires", "La rancœur mutant en une main d'amertume". Comme quoi parfois tu as la réponse à tes questionnements dans un texte, et ça ne t'empêche pas de commettre les mêmes erreurs encore et encore. Shallnotkill c'est parfois aussi ça : te rappeler des évidences. A l'heure où tout n'est que paraître, réécouter ce titre remet les pendules à l'heure en me redonnant une leçon d'humilité. Ca fait du bien. C'est juste et pertinent.

Faire sienne toutes les victoires.
Une clef marquée du sceau de la fierté,
Qui n'ouvrira jamais que les portes de la solitude.
Une branche pourrie de vanité,
Emportée par un torrent d'autosatisfaction,
Par des vagues de jalousie,
S'échouant sur les rivages du mépris,
S'enlisant dans une vase de prétention.
La rancoeur mutant en une main d'amertume
Levant une voile tisse de trop vives certitudes,
Posé nonchalamment sur la réalite.
Faire de l'ombre au soleil,
Faire de l'ombre au soleil ...

Un des meilleurs titres de Shallnotkill reste pour moi (et oui ça peut paraître bizarre) leur reprise de Hiatus: Entombed universe. Je me souviens à "l'époque" avoir écrit à Christelle pour lui demander les paroles, impossible de les trouver, c'était pas aussi simple qu'aujourd'hui pour mettre la main sur ce genre d'information. (J'ai dû mettre 2 secondes pour les trouver pour ce billet). Je t'invite d'ailleurs à écouter les deux versions pour te faire un avis. Le duo de guitares dans celle de Shallnotkill reste pour moi incroyable. Et pour le coup ce titre n'est pas une "redécouverte", il me hante depuis des années, toujours présent sur mon "baladeur", il revient me rappeler la probable raison de ce mal-être qui m'habite, et fait naître un espoir, celui d'agir ensemble. "I'm looking for a unified life resistance". Comme si Shallnotkill avait une réelle appétence dans ses paroles (je pense que le choix de cette reprise n'est pas anodin) pour tout ce qui concerne nos façons de vivre, les rapports humains, et les sentiments qui leur sont associés. En tout cas je le sens comme ça.

A way of doom
Death Suffocation
All around the nations
Symptoms of humanity
Drying their minds
Endless pain results
Buit by lies

I'm looking for
A unified life resitance

Impossible pour moi d'écrire quelque chose sur Shallnokill, sans citer leur morceau "fleuve" : Le sens de la vie, qui pendant plus de trente minutes vous envoûte dans un style que jamais je n'ai entendu, à la limite de la dissonance. Le sens de la vie est bien sûr inspiré du film des Monty Python (The meaning of life) et traite de la grande question de l'existence. A écouter d'urgence si tu n'as pas encore eu ce privilège.

Cet album modestement appelé shallnotkill. (donc sans titre) aborde d'ailleurs tout un tas de sujets: écologique sur L'origine du déclin, historique sur Palimpseste, des réflexions sur la possession et tout le gâchis engendré par la société de consommation sur Tonio, et complètement philosophique -à mon sens- sur Le sens de la vie. Les paroles de chaque titre étant annotées de textes explicatifs ou de réflexions sur le sujet abordé nous rappellent que Shallnotkill est aussi un groupe politique et politisé. La discrétion et l'humilité dans laquelle cet engagement est exprimé en renforcent le sens. Comme quoi ça ne sert à rien d'en faire des caisses pour être touchant.

Des luttes ajournées
des vides à combler
des corps se consument
des esprits s'abandonnent
L'austérité court
Et piétine l'essence même de l'existence
Marquant l'être
Des stigmates d'une piétée nouvelle
Masquer la puanteur du monde
Par une odeur de sainteté.
Un voile de soie, pour cacher le visage nécrosé du rigorisme.
Que la mort a rendu plus que jamais vivace.
Restreindre le champ des possibles
Pour mieux asservir
Diluer les cultures
Glorifier la prédation
Absoudre et se résoudre
Un édifice de consensus se referme sur des idéaux.
Ca prophétise.
Usant d' aphorismes sous cellophane
Des dents blanches cathodiques
dans nos ganglions tuméfiées
Ratification, résolution, résignation
De la bave au coin des lèvres
Un terreau fertile d'ignominies
Dont la teneur fasciste est distillée
Dans un divertissement avilissant
Des journées entières
à traduire des silences en mots
Des journées entières
A tenter de jouir la vie
Comme la mort de nos ultimes convulsions
Des journées entières
à s'essayer à mesurer
Un vide incommensurable
Des journées entières ....

Pour être tout à fait clair, je ne suis pas du tout bien placé pour mettre des mots sur la musique ou sur les styles. Loin de moi l'idée de vous décrire la musique de Shallnotkill, elle se vit. De plus elle ne vous fera pas l'écouter plus ou moins. Décrire les sentiments qu'elle me procure est à mon sens bien plus important que décrire la musique elle-même (de toute façon je ne sais pas faire ça). J'espère juste que ces quelques mots pourront susciter l'envie à quelques-unes ou quelques-uns de jeter une oreille à Shallnotkill. Non pas parce que c'est un groupe qui a compté -et compte toujours- pour moi, mais parce que c'est un groupe qui relève -à mon sens- d'une autre époque, d'un autre temps, qui semble si lointain et en même temps si proche. Un temps où la musique se vivait différemment (en tout cas pour moi).

Impossible de me rappeler par quel biais j'ai récupéré ce DVD dans lequel on peut y voir quelques titres en live. Mais il ressort de ces images quelque chose qui me rappelle une époque, des images qui semblent sincères. Dans lesquelles, nous ne voyons aucun téléphone brandi, duquel aucune trace n'est palpable, mais qui quand elles sont visionnées, vous laisse penser qu'il est possible de vivre et de ressentir la musique différemment qu'aujourd'hui, c'est-à-dire, avec son coeur, avec ses tripes, et non par un "télécran" au travers duquel je ne ressens plus rien. Shallnotkill c'est ça aussi, un témoignage -parmi tant d'autres- de ce qu'a pu être la musique en dehors de l'air du numérique, où nous étions plutôt que paraissions. Loin de moi l'idée de glorifier le passé, il n'y a pas à mon sens de mieux, ou de moins bien. Il y a juste des moments différents. Et ce moment, il était sacrément cool.

Les quelques mots écrits sur la jaquette du DVD représentent d'ailleurs étrangement ma pensée (merci à Florian de les avoir écrits). J'ai intentionnellement masqué la dernière phrase pour la remettre au goût jour:

"A l'heure ou tout le monde se branle sur MySpace Bandcamp et Facebook, c'est un groupe qui va terriblement me manquer qui me manque terriblement".

Qui me manque terriblement ... comme tout un tas de groupes que le label 213 records" à produit dans les années 2000, entre autres (c'est parti pour le "name dropping") : Gantz, Criatura, Eyston, Strong As Ten (Je te conseille d'ailleurs le split The Appolo program/Short supply qui reste un bon vieux classique et qui n'a pas pris une ride). Bref un chouette label (tenu d'ailleur par des membres de Shallnotkill, Julien et Christelle), qui continue à nous gâter depuis tant d'années (maintenant dans des styles un peu différents, je te laisse aller voir par toi même). 213 records.

Bien sûr, il y a eu un après Shallnotkill et si tu trouves ça bien, tu peux aussi suivre et écouter tout un tas de groupes dans lesquels les membres de Shallnotkill ont joué. Une liste non exhaustive, je dois forcément louper des trucs:

• Meny Hellkin
• Aleska (hésite pas à leur donner des sous pour le nouvel album)
• The Austrasian Goat
• Le coeur noir (saigne rouge)
• Bras mort
• YSREL
• Avale

Leurs Bandcamp respectifs, ci-dessous:

Je vous fais confiance pour redonner à Shallnotkill ses "lettres de noblesse" et que le groupe puisse enfin avoir la reconnaissance qu'il mériterait. Oui. Shallnotkill ça bute. Tu peux bien sûr me contacter si tu veux je t'envoie les sons en mp3. Tout n'est pas trouvable facilement. Sur ce, bonne écoute.

Enfin (et aussi parce que je l'ai retrouvé au dernier moment), je vous laisse un lien ci-dessous pour télécharger le dernier live de Shallnotkill joué à Reims le 24 juin 2006, déjà 13 ans. Je connais un petit chanceux qui y était, et pour le coup, je trouve que ce live retranscrit bien l'émotion que peut amener Shallnotkill. Shallnotkill - RIP Live 2006

Shallnotkill c'est fini depuis 13 ans, quels souvenirs gardez de vous de cette époque ? Comment avez-vous perçu l'évolution des choses depuis de ce temps-là ? J'avoue que je suis souvent nostalgique, éprouvez-vous aussi ce sentiment ?

Julien: J'en garde d'excellents souvenirs. Ce groupe m'a permis de belles rencontres, de m'ouvrir sur le monde. Je ne suis pas nostalgique. La nostalgie m'effraie. J'essaie de m'en préserver et de me focaliser sur le présent. Mais je m'appuie pour ça sur le passé et SHALLNOTKILL fût une expérience fondamentale pour moi et fondatrice à bien des égards. Force est d'admettre que les temps changent. Et c'est ce qui rend l'existence intéressante. Depuis, j'ai vieilli. Avec tout ce que cela implique.

On peut voir que vous avez tous suivi des chemins assez différents musicalement, surtout en termes de style. Avez-vous essayé de suivre les "styles" avec les années (Il n'y a plus de masses de groupes qui jouent dans le style de Shallnotkill aujourd'hui ..), ou est-ce des choix très personnels, des questions de goûts, de rencontres ?

Julien: Effectivement. Je crois que la question du "style" se posait pour nous. On était des métalleux, des enfants des années 80. On s'est ensuite pris le grunge et le néo-metal dans la tronche. Et puis il y a eu BOTCH. Un vrai choc pour nous tous. Ca a reconditionné notre rapport à la musique, au delà du style.
On a découvert, une scène DIY, des gens, des préoccupations. Ca nous a amené à avoir un regard plus critique sur la musique et notre monde.
Dès lors, SHALLNOTKILL s'est plutôt imposé comme un creuset où nous mettions nos gouts communs avec un fonctionnement démocratique.
Je me souviens que ce qui faisait l'unanimité musicalement du temps où l'on jouait, cétait BOTCH, EYEHATEGOD, BLACK SABBATH, les premiers disques de ENVY, THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN et JR EWING.
Et puis les groupes qu'on cotoyait: DEAD FOR A MINUTE, SUBMERGE, GANTZ ... Tout celà nous nourrissait. C'était à l'aube d'Internet.
Les groupes avaient souvent une petite distro et on s'échangeait des disques et des fanzines sur les concerts, des conseils et avis... Il n'était pas question QUE de musique.
On s'inscrivait avec SHALLNOTKILL dans la scène DIY de l'époque parce que c'était les gens qu'on cotoyait, notre réseau relationnel, mais on avait bien conscience d'être un peu marginaux en terme de "style" :
trop émo pour les métalleux, trop métal pour les punks...
Je dois avouer que depuis, je n'écoute plus vraiment de metal ou de punk-hardcore, trop "formatés" et codifiés à mon gôut.
Je remets parfois quelques madeleines de Proust sur la platine et jette parfois une oreille aux groupes des copains, par curiosité.
Je ne pense plus du tout mon activité musicale en terme de "style". J'ai parfois participé à des projets musicaux qui répondaient à des "exercices de style", mais c'est vite ennuyeux.

Que devient 213records ? On peut voir aussi de ce côté-là que ce que vous produisez aujourd'hui est vraiment totalement différent d'hier. Pour être honnête je croyais même que le label avait disparu pendant un temps. Gardez-vous cette démarche DIY, continuez-vous à produire les groupes des copains, de la scène locale (Metz) ?

Julien: 213 va sortir son 50eme vinyl. Les raisons qui nous ont poussé à produire des disques et à avoir une distro ne sont plus valables aujourd'hui.
On peut évoquer la "faute" à Internet, mais ca serait réduire l'équation à un seul facteur. Et ils sont multiples.
Je n'ai plus les mêmes gouts, la même énergie et les même aspirations qu'il y a 15 ans.
Et on a toujours été guidé par nos goûts. L'essentiel de ce qu'on a sorti, c'est des disques de potes. On a peu de regrets.
L'image a pris beaucoup d'importance. Trop à mes yeux. Un label se doit d'avoir une identité.
Et force et d'admettre qu'on en a pas : on a sorti des choses vraiments très variées, sans ancrage local.
Il reste 3 volumes de la série "synesthetic alchemy" - dédiée aux musiques "libres" et plus ou moins improvisées - à sortir et l'on mettra le label en stand-by.

Si vous deviez garder une seule chanson de Shallnotkill laquelle ça serait ? Et surtout pourquoi ? Je me dis qu'avec le temps qui passe on doit être plus capable de répondre à cette question. Vous avez dû avoir le temps de bien "digérer" votre musique.

Julien: C'est une question difficile. Parce que je ne réécoute pas mes disques, où très rarement et avec difficulté.
J'ai une tendresse particulière pour "le sens de la vie", parce que c'était un projet intéressant et qu'on y a tous mis du notre.
Mais cette remarque est valable pour presque tout ce qu'on a fait. Et c'est ce qui me fait plaisir justement en repensant cette époque. On était passionnés.
Ce qui me manque, ce sont ces moments que nous vivions et de partager des expériences nouvelles ensemble.
On a choisi de mettre un terme à l'aventure avant que la passion ne s'étiole.