<-back Interview réalisée par Miguel 1-first question, you come back from tour with The pine around Uk and europe, are you happy? is your first tour? whats been the worst and thebest experience you've had touring ? Yes, this was our first tour ever!! So you can imagine that it was an amazing experience! We met a lot of nice people... Lots of them were really enthusiastic about our music... Something that we would never expected! We haven't heard anything about the Pine before the tour. We spent one whole week together & we had a lot of fun... They are really crazy. Particularly Steve the drummer cause he is always excited (and sing Iron Maiden songs everytime !) and Kurt one of the guitarist cause he's always eating!! For me, we haven't had any bad experience during the tour. I suppose we are lucky cause I'm always hearing things about problems on tours as broken van (it happened to the Pine before the last show of the tour), money lost, or stuff like that... But for us, nothing at all!! Seb, our drummer would have told you that the worst time were being on the road everytime but for me it was OK... Honestly I can't describe how this tour did affect me (even in French i wouldn't be able to!) but it was really like a dream came true. AMAZING (my favorite english word since the tour!);) 2-comment us are the things right now with Belle Epoque actually Euh... right now, we are in stand-by... Everybody except me is gone on holidays (shit!) so I'm waiting for them to practice again... We have to focuse on composing... We still need some new songs to complete our forth-coming (and first!) 12inch LP... Hope it will be relseased one day! Then we are planing to tour again... Germany & France maybe, probably with a german band called Collin Kramer. And maybe Italy & Spain next spring or next summer! 3-A cliche question I know.Comment us a bit Belle Epoque history, is Belle epoque the first band you guys have been in to have a record out? have other past or paralel bands? Belle Epoque is four guys from the suburb of Paris... Seb (drum) & Cyril (guitar) used to play in a band together when they were 16.. A teenage band influced by Tool, Deftones & Faith No More!! They did one gig only! Seb also played guitar in a band before that when he was really young (it was called “Ox Breath”!!!!!!). Seb & Cyril were looking for people to start a new band so Morgan joined them... And then they asked me to play bass.. So basiclly, this is our first “real” band... First gigs, tour, recording, etc.. experience. So exciting!!!! 4-About your first democd debut, i love it, fuck I like A LOT!, are you agree with result? sound, artwork etc..? holy shit! any label MUST put out this demo on a 7" !! i need money, haha! Thanks for the compliment... Having a first CD recorded is pretty incredible to me... Actually I never listening to it but I'm really happy doing it... Our first studio experience was pretty strange. We had to be really fast cause we only had one day to record & mix everything!! And as it was our first studio experience we were pretty stressed!! For a first recording I find the sound OK but it's not what I'm looking for in the futur... It lacks of energy (even if it's a live recording), the drum sounds too quiet & mainstream, if you know what I mean! But the guy who recorded the demo was not into punk. I didn't know anything about punk actually. He was more into progressive rock band like Yes (!) and mainstream music... But he offered us to record something so we said “yes” (like his favorite band!...ok, sorry, bad joke ;) About pressing the demo on a 7 inch... It could be a good idea but the demo is too long for a 7 inch... And, we don't have any money! 5-when i heard your demo...reminds me classical and autentic old emofrench bands (peu etre, anomie, carthermata, etc...) can people hear specific remnants of these bands in your music? Personally, I really like these bands (I'm not the only one in the band!) and for sure, it has been a huge influence for me/us. I find these bands amazing even if it sounds strange and unsound, if you know what I mean! The lyrics, the intensity, the sincerity of these bands is amazing. But you know, most of people in the french punk-hxc scene didn't like them at the time they were playing cause of their political views.. But I don't care, these bands make me totally crazy!! 6-what bands, current and past, would you say influence belle epoque? Pfff... Too much to make a list!! We're all listening to a lot of music.. And our taste are pretty different. We all listen to punk-hxc but we can also mention hip-hop, jazz, drum n'bass, hardtek, etc... For sure, all these kind of music doesn't affect our music directly but we are not narrow minded... What I like to play in belle epoque is close to old emo-band but it's pretty easy to notice!! I don't know for the others... I think, the main point is that it must be melodic and harsh altogether.. This is the best way to express ourselves I presume. Call it emo or not, it doesn't matter. We are playing basic punk-hxc, as a lot of people do. 7-you will appear on next "Ape must kill no ape LP compilation ", is a new song? No, sorry.. I wish it could be a new song but the last song we've recorded (which appears on the UK version of the demo) was too long for Marianne (the girl who runs that label). Morever she wanted to have the “Hier, si loin” song on her comp. I'm even happy cause i really like this song. It means a lot to me and I think the lyrics fit very well with the main topic of the comp' (“This is your life” compilation). 8-what can we expect from belle epoque in the future? projects, tours, releases, etc, we want new stuff!! uou have any offer to edit? As I said before, our very next project is to put out a “real” record! A 12” inch would be the best but we need money to do it... A friend of us who's starting a label (“the future is unwritten”) seems to be motivate by helping us. Some other people offered us to participate to one of the Belle Epoque projects but we need to talk more of it with them. 9-your band name, reminds me a 90´s spanish film to won an Oscar haha!, What is the story of your band's name? what do you think about the french era called "belle epoque"? I haven't seen that movie actually! Explaining our name in english would be to difficult to me... It has a lot of different meanings. We hesitate a lot before calling us like this but finally I don't regret it. Now it means a lot to me. The expression “belle epoque” can be a reflexion about life in general. Does the “belle epoque” really exist? People are always complaining about things going wrong (me first!) and telling that past time was better (the “belle epoque” basically)... I think we have to create our own “belle epoque” even if it's pretty hard cause we are always bound by things like work, money, society, etc... “Belle Epoque” could basically mean, “make of your life what you want it to be”... Maybe it sounds cliché.. I don't know... As I said before, you can find much more meanings in it and it's just one of it. Make up your mind! I don't know much things about the belle epoque era.. i only know what history books teach me. Maybe the “belle epoque” (begining of the 20 th century) was a great time for rich people but I don't think it was the case for everyone!! It's pretty hypocritical calling a period like this just because the bourgeois were discovering technical inventions, tourism or were doing big party everytime. The “Belle Epoque” is just the premiss of the modern capitalism so it sounds pretty ironical !!! Pff, it's really hard explaining it in english!!! 10-what is the "scene" like in francia? There seem to be a lot of emo-screamy hardcore bands coming from there these days, we can speak about a new emofrench era? there are a lot of new interest bands daitro, gantz, myralee, loisirs, mihai edrisch, sed non satiata, etc...what do you think about it? I don't know... Most of this bands are good... People are nice also... What can I say?? They are doing the music they enjoy... For most of the bands you'd just quote, I don't think it's a trend or something like that playing this kind of music... I saw them live and it's really sincere. But there is a lot of good bands everywhere. 11-So, what's on your stereo at the moment? Anything to surprise us at all We are Sunday so I've chilled in the front of my computer screen all the afternoon... I have to go out... I'll go mountain -biking!! Before that, here is the things I listened answering this interview: *bob dylan – greatest hits LP *off minor – inominate LP (wonderful!!) *his hero is gone – monuments to thieves LP *amanda woodward – la décadence de la décadence LP *quill / george bitch JR – split 7' *brainoil – s/t LP Nothing really surprising, sorry! 12-Anything else you'd like to add? Alright. Thanks for your time, and good luck with everything. Mucho gracias to you man!! It was fun to answer our first interview in english!!! I wish I could speak a little bit spanish... Sorry! Hope you'll get what I mean with my strange english sentences & grammar!! Thanks for your interest in our shitty band... Hope to meet you one day! See U & take care!! <-back |