Blue Coffee Interview
Nicolas de Bank (N) and Gautier Rodriguez (G)
Q: Can you talk about your history of the band?
G: Three years ago, Nico, Sebastien and I lost a common friend and some weeks later his wife invited Nico and me for a lunch. We spent most of time talking about music we made and recording process. It suddenly clicked, we have to make music together.
We met each other some times before that, but never long enough to talk about it.
N: It was one of this strange moments, between sadness due to the loss of our friend, who also was a musician, and excitation to make music again with new people. So we decided to play some tunes together during months to come.
G: I met Sebastien, Nico's close friend, some months later and then we started to play. My friend François joined us quickly, so did Aurelie for a year but she left the band since. We found a work rhythm allowing us to find balance between the band and our family and professional lives, once a month at Nico's home studio and some days recording sessions at mine, during holidays.
N: Sebastien, Aurelie and I were the remains of a former band, ready for a new beginning with some covers and almost our own songs to play. Work could begin!
Q: Can you talk about what some of those themes are on your release Silent?
N: “Mountain” and “Pain Addiction” were older songs of mine, talking about love feelings and crooked paths it brings you on, nothing new but since we all ask ourselves the same questions. But I promise you scoop for the next ones!
G: Resilience in troubled love stories is the connection between “Silent” and “Believe” - how to deal with it and go on. In a larger way this theme makes sense with all unbalanced human relationships, colored with manipulation or perversion, and mostly the first step to hope of getting better is when you realize it. Despite it's not really obvious, it's quite two "positive" songs for me. About Anytime, mourning is always something personal... To me, those moments when your thoughts go to a loved one you lost, engrave links and memories between dead ones and living, deep inside our souls and out of time.
At least I feel it this way...
Q: What is your creative process like?
G: I have no creative routine; several songs can come together in a same inspired moment after weeks without.
On this release “Silent” and “Believe” melodies were found during our first jam sessions with Nico and Seb, and i wrote lyrics later, but most of the time, it begins with melodies on my old first acoustic guitar. Sometimes lyrics come at the same time, sometimes from a notebook I use to stock my thoughts, memories, emotions. There is always a kind of meeting between words and music. Then I add a second guitar, a bass and some arrangements, before the band listens to it and gives opinions.
N: Gautier and i have almost the same working way, but even if we have a precise idea of a song, we often find the right way to play it in studio sessions with the band, and it's the same for some older compos which get back to light during those sessions.
Nicolas de Bank (N) and Gautier Rodriguez (G)
Q: Can you talk about your history of the band?
G: Three years ago, Nico, Sebastien and I lost a common friend and some weeks later his wife invited Nico and me for a lunch. We spent most of time talking about music we made and recording process. It suddenly clicked, we have to make music together.
We met each other some times before that, but never long enough to talk about it.
N: It was one of this strange moments, between sadness due to the loss of our friend, who also was a musician, and excitation to make music again with new people. So we decided to play some tunes together during months to come.
G: I met Sebastien, Nico's close friend, some months later and then we started to play. My friend François joined us quickly, so did Aurelie for a year but she left the band since. We found a work rhythm allowing us to find balance between the band and our family and professional lives, once a month at Nico's home studio and some days recording sessions at mine, during holidays.
N: Sebastien, Aurelie and I were the remains of a former band, ready for a new beginning with some covers and almost our own songs to play. Work could begin!
Q: Can you talk about what some of those themes are on your release Silent?
N: “Mountain” and “Pain Addiction” were older songs of mine, talking about love feelings and crooked paths it brings you on, nothing new but since we all ask ourselves the same questions. But I promise you scoop for the next ones!
G: Resilience in troubled love stories is the connection between “Silent” and “Believe” - how to deal with it and go on. In a larger way this theme makes sense with all unbalanced human relationships, colored with manipulation or perversion, and mostly the first step to hope of getting better is when you realize it. Despite it's not really obvious, it's quite two "positive" songs for me. About Anytime, mourning is always something personal... To me, those moments when your thoughts go to a loved one you lost, engrave links and memories between dead ones and living, deep inside our souls and out of time.
At least I feel it this way...
Q: What is your creative process like?
G: I have no creative routine; several songs can come together in a same inspired moment after weeks without.
On this release “Silent” and “Believe” melodies were found during our first jam sessions with Nico and Seb, and i wrote lyrics later, but most of the time, it begins with melodies on my old first acoustic guitar. Sometimes lyrics come at the same time, sometimes from a notebook I use to stock my thoughts, memories, emotions. There is always a kind of meeting between words and music. Then I add a second guitar, a bass and some arrangements, before the band listens to it and gives opinions.
N: Gautier and i have almost the same working way, but even if we have a precise idea of a song, we often find the right way to play it in studio sessions with the band, and it's the same for some older compos which get back to light during those sessions.
Q: How did you approach recording the album since it was DIY?
G: We have an old fashion way to record - only mics, one preamp and my old Yamaha DAW - no live compressors so I have to keep an eye on clips all the time. We do it one track at once, drums first with a rhythm guitar in headphones, and once it's ok, we add guitars and bass.
N: Although we try to avoid this situation, we sometimes find inspiration during recording, a new drums fill or a guitar solo at 3 AM for example and of course it takes a thousand takes to record it.
G: In a back and forth move, drums give inspiration to record guitars and bass which give inspiration to change some parts of drums. And so we spend many hours on a few seconds of music.
Q: You mention that the music explores troubled relationship between blindness and realizations, observed as countrysides seen through windows of a car with no precise destination. Can you go into more detail?
G: I think there's always a very fleeting moment where we are spectators of what's happening to us before we get it. Later, when it comes back to mind, we dive into details in a kind of time lapse, intimate and maybe a bit fantasized. I compare it to a car travel, cause when you observe landscapes through windows, although it changes constantly, your brain records a lot of things and rearranges it in a kind of daydream that makes you forget the destination. In a word, even if all goes fast around, it's yet possible to take time to feel things deeply.
That's where our music belongs.
Q: What else should we know about your music?
G: Our next release should be finished this autumn, and we hope we can talk about it if you enjoy. We really like to play several versions of our songs, (electric or acoustic) according to places we play.
N: I'm inspired by many artists and bands including Radiohead, Jeff Buckley, Nick Cave and many many more, and I usually favor melancholic songs. However one of my favorites ever is “Everlong” by Foo Fighters. So if you meet Dave Grohl one of these days say hi for me!
G: We have an old fashion way to record - only mics, one preamp and my old Yamaha DAW - no live compressors so I have to keep an eye on clips all the time. We do it one track at once, drums first with a rhythm guitar in headphones, and once it's ok, we add guitars and bass.
N: Although we try to avoid this situation, we sometimes find inspiration during recording, a new drums fill or a guitar solo at 3 AM for example and of course it takes a thousand takes to record it.
G: In a back and forth move, drums give inspiration to record guitars and bass which give inspiration to change some parts of drums. And so we spend many hours on a few seconds of music.
Q: You mention that the music explores troubled relationship between blindness and realizations, observed as countrysides seen through windows of a car with no precise destination. Can you go into more detail?
G: I think there's always a very fleeting moment where we are spectators of what's happening to us before we get it. Later, when it comes back to mind, we dive into details in a kind of time lapse, intimate and maybe a bit fantasized. I compare it to a car travel, cause when you observe landscapes through windows, although it changes constantly, your brain records a lot of things and rearranges it in a kind of daydream that makes you forget the destination. In a word, even if all goes fast around, it's yet possible to take time to feel things deeply.
That's where our music belongs.
Q: What else should we know about your music?
G: Our next release should be finished this autumn, and we hope we can talk about it if you enjoy. We really like to play several versions of our songs, (electric or acoustic) according to places we play.
N: I'm inspired by many artists and bands including Radiohead, Jeff Buckley, Nick Cave and many many more, and I usually favor melancholic songs. However one of my favorites ever is “Everlong” by Foo Fighters. So if you meet Dave Grohl one of these days say hi for me!