First I just want to thank you for participating in this edition of Infidel Interviews. With this interview let's just start with a bit about yourself. What's your name, where are you from, and how old are you?
Hi , thanks for this interview I’m very pleased to answer it. My name is Aurélien, I’m 38, I live in France on the west side.
How do you enjoy where you live? Is their a vibrant music community for you to indulge? Would you say you find that your local scene influences your attitude and/ or creativity?
I really enjoy where I live it’s a quiet place on the countryside but there’s a lot of small bands playing different types of music, it’s mostly punk / hardcore and metal. I think we are with my band flyingdeadman the only post rock band in the 100 kilometers around :) Our local scene doesn’t influence us a lot even if I really appreciate the bands
What would you say are your biggest influences when it comes to art and music? Are there any bands that you would say struck you with the chord that inspired you to peruse your current path of musical aspirations? Are you musically self taught? Or have you had mentors along the way to help you develop?
I really appreciate lots of bands such as explosions in the sky, this will destroy you, caspian, lights and motion, jambinai and many other post rock bands I can not mention all of them it would be too long, but also lots of others bands or artists : massive attack, tricky, deftones, cult of luna, isis, moodie black, dälek... I’ve learned to play by myself and it tooks a long long time :) I’m not sure I’ve finished learning yet.
What would you say are your favorite themes and topics to write about? What draws you to those themes?
I don’t think I have favorite themes expect live...that sounds maybe a little bit stupid but music is a kind of introspection I don’t need other themes apart from my life.
Since you are involved a musical collective, I wanna ask, how do you all manage to get together musically, and then continue to stay together on the same page? Has it been a journey of compromise or do you find that you work together fluidly? Would you say there has been any major obstacles working together?
I write the music from the beginning to the end alone I show the different parts to play to Fabien the other guitarist and it’s done. That’s how we work together.
What sort of processes do you go through when making music? Do you have a formula(s) that you follow, or do you feel it out as you go along? Or is it more of a mixture of the two?
It’s always and never the same process ;) Sometimes I play some notes on my guitar or on the piano so see if I can make something good, sometimes I hear the music in my head... I let the inspiration comes and never try to force creativity it comes when it comes.
What do you see in the near, and far, future for your creative output?
Our new Ep « 56 seasons » has been released on january 5 so I’m really excited to see how people will react if they will like it or not.
Playing live shows, recording new tracks, attempting to go live the life that gives you the experiences that inspires it all... it can be difficult to balance the time. Do you have any particular methods that you use to keep yourself focused or balanced in your direction?
We really enjoy to play live but unfortunately there is very few post rock places to play where we live so we don’t play live a lot. I try to create a new Ep or album each two years because we have some friends always waiting for new songs :)
Do you have any other musical projects that you are involved with, or do you have any other musicians or artists that you collaborate with in some capacity? If you could collaborate with any musician or artist, dead or alive, who would it be? And what in particular draws you to want to collaborate with them?
With Fabien we both play in an other band « Dacurse » which is more hip hop / rock with 3 friends. If I could collaborate with a dead artist I’ll enjoy a lot to play with Kurt Cobain because I think I’ve started music thanks to him and his band Nirvana. The power of their music gave me the envy to make music and to create songs. I think our music suits well with pictures or images so if one day we can make soundtrack for a movie I will really appreciate it. So, if Christopher Nolan, David Fincher or Tim Burton read this interview they could phone or email me :)
Promotion can be one of the most difficult things in the music industry. Do you have an agent that helps book shows and manage your online presence, or have you decided to trek it out without and mantle the reigns of the social media apparatus yourself? Is it difficult engaging the online world consistently and originally, or do you find it easy?
We don’t have any label, manager or anyone who works for us. We do all or promotion by ourselves and maybe we could increase our renown by working with someone but no-one ask to work with us. It’s really difficult to promote our music it’s a full time work in a way and we don’t really have time to do it in a professional way.
Would you say that your choice to pursue music has changed your life since you started? Would you say that creativity has evolved you spiritually, emotionally, or logically? What are some of the biggest challenges you have had to overcome in your musical career?
We have to work to pay our bills, music is only a hobby, I would like to live thanks to our music but I think it’s maybe too lat now. Since we start to play and record music we’ve made lots of encounters and talk with people from all around the world and that’s fun and really pleasant. We would like to play more gigs and reach more listeners, not for the money because our EP are alway for free download, just for the pleasure.
When it comes to your life show, how would you describe yourself thematically and visually? Are you an energy and audience driven band in the live atmosphere? Or would you consider yourself to be more thematic or presentation oriented? If you could play any anywhere, with anyone, in the world, dead or alive, who and where would it be?
We’re a kind of musical and visual band. I take sequences from old movies and we project them during our live show. we play behind a screen and the audience only see our shadows since the video comes from behind us. We try to make people travel with music and images during our show. I’de like to play everywhere with everyone who wants to play with us.
Have you had any particular moment(s) that you would like to share, that you would consider to be a crowning achievement in your musical career so far, or moments that you would say truly continue to inspire you to pursue your artistic path?
No moment in particular. To receive an email or a review saying our music sounds good is a kind of achievement.
When it comes to non-musical media, what do you find yourself most inspired by, and what about it draws you to it as a source of inspiration?
I’m inspired by lots of different artistic disciplines such as dance, movies. Sometimes what I see could be inspiring but it’s hard to describe how it draws me.
Thank you so much for participating in this episode of Infidel Interview. Any parting words for your fans, or my audience?
Firstly I would like to thank you a lot for this interview and I must apologize myself because it’s a bit hard to answer an interview in a different language I mean not in french ;) I don’t think we have fan but if we have some I’de like to thanks them too. I hope my answers are not too boring for your audience.
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