Very proud to present to you the interview I did with the new, wonderful sound coming from France under the name of "Bâton Rouge"! I didn't get the chance to review their "Fragments D'eux Mêmes" release, so if by any chance you haven't been introduced to this band then this is the perfect opportunity to do so. Members of "12XU", "Daitro" and "Mihai Edrisch"...what to say more?! Enjoy!
1. First of all, thank you so much for taking your time for this interview. Please introduce yourself (yourselves) and the rest of the band.
Gwen: I'm playing bass and I sing as well in "Bâton Rouge"
Julien: hi, I'm julien and I play guitar and sing in "Bâton Rouge"
Samuel: Hi, I'm Samuel and I play guitar. There's also Benoit who plays drums.
2. Some of you guys know each other from previous bands, but how did the idea to form "Bâton Rouge" come along?
Julien: We knew each other more or less from childhood actually. We hung out with each other before playing together and learning how to play an instrument. 2 years ago, Benoit was kinda fed of playing "Daitro" songs but wanted to keep on playing music together because we were still all living in the same town and also because we're the best friends ever. So we kept on playing together under a new name and a new direction for a band.
Gwen: I met these 3 guys in 2001 and I saw their first show when they were playing with "Daitro". I joined them in 2004 and I never left them because they are really cool. "BâtonRouge" is the following of this friendship, with another kind of way to play music.
3. France plays a big role when it comes to both European and worldwide emo/screamo/punk sound. What are your personal impressions about the French underground scene?
Sam: I don't really know what French screamo is... maybe the lyrics in French make something very special, I don't know. About underground scene in France, there's still some nice people in many places that are involved into that, playing bands, makings labels... But I have the sensation that there's less and less good places to makes shows.
Gwen: Everybody says that French screamo is very typical, but even if we were playing with "Daitro", we are not very involved in screamo stuff so we don't really know what is this French specificity. About the French underground scene, we can say that many people are working in the way of DIY in different cities even if we cannot keep our squat open more than 3 month.
4. And how about your local scene in Lyon? Anything particular you love or hate about it?
Gwen: I think Lyon is one of the most active scene in France because there are many people from there involved in underground stuff, because a lot of people from outside are coming and leaving all the time, because this city is well located on the French map, I think that's why there is a perpetual activity. Of course, we love and hate our city for many reason, that's what we were singing with "Daitro" in "Y".
Sam: Since a long time there's a big and interesting activity about alternative music in Lyon. There are always some new bands, new people, that are involved into that. There are different persons who organize events, shows, play in bands,... in a DIY spirit, but in different kind of style. That makes something interesting and rich. At this time most of the shows, events, happened in place called "Grrnd Zero". It's also where we have our practice room. I'm really attached about local scene, in music or in art, and I think it's important to keep it strong. I'm always very curious to see what happened in the city, see new bands from here playing...
5. Some members of your band have played in a plethora of other bands, all being strictly diy. What originally managed to draw you into the movement?
Gwen: When I discovered diy stuff, I was playing in "Simfela", a powerviolence band from a small city close to Lyon and we discovered "Daitro" in the same time, so we were both new in this big city full of underground stuff and we decided to do things together.
Julien: 12 years ago I've been to a small show here in Lyon and the band kicked my ass. Friends from SK records were organizing the show and they were also doing a small DIY label. They showed me it was possible to do things on their own for great bands. Then we started to organize our shows with our good buddies from "Simfela" and "Mihai Edrisch" as well (for our bands, but for touring bands as well) and go to play together in other cities altogether too. We saved and collected all the money we got to put out our first releases because it was obvious nobody will do it for us. Eventually we realized what we were doing was starting a DIY label. It started like that... very naturally, with close friends.
6. Do you consider that your involvement in such music defined you on a personal level?
Gwen: For my part, I don't think so. Life is a mix of many things and I am the product of all that things, so not only defined by a musical involvement even if I learned a lot on myself with playing music with my friends.
Sam: Not really... of course it contributes to build my personality, like everything you do in life. I think the most important thing I learn with that, it's that you can do something that really works by your own and don't wait the others to do it for you.
7. In the same sense, what have been your experiences with diy thus far, good ones as well as bad ones?
Gwen: I think that good experiences came with the bad ones. A tour for example is done with cool evenings and shity ones, and the cool ones are becoming cooler if you compare with the crappy one you had the day before. Spending 8 hours on the Turkish border was a nightmare during this 8 hours, but it became a very good recollection because of this unlikely situation. But a rainy Monday in Switzerland cannot be more than a rainy Monday in Switzerland...
Sam: Good things are to met nice people in many different places. Discover cities and places, travelling... to see how many people and places are connected by the simple idea to do constructive stuff in an alternative way. The things that get me tired are all these persons that consider themselves as very radical and politics, but only speak to same people that always agree with what they say... what a fight!
8. What are your thoughts when it comes to diy and internet? Do you follow/participate in some webzines or blogs?
Julien: Any! I personally use internet to check my emails and look at some cool vintage guitars and records I want to get, that's all... I also check some message boards out (mostly the one in Lyon) but I don't post often. I'm not really an internet person and not very at ease with that modern way of communicating, besides email of course...
Gwen: I don't know how to do an attachment with my computer, so...
Sam: I most use internet for emails and classic stuff. I'm not an "active" person on internet.
9. What inspires you most when it comes to writing and which themes do you like to grasp with your lyrics? Does only one member write the words or are more of you involved?
Julien: No, we're all in the process of writing lyrics. Someone comes with rough sentences and we build this up together on vocal melodies, with everybody giving his point of view and approvement on them. Writing lyrics is a hard task. Especially because we don't want them to be like "Daitro", where Aurelien and I were sharing them...
Gwen: Lyrics are always the last thing we are doing for a song, this is not our favorite time when we are writing music...
10. "Daïtro" has been famous for being both romantic and revolutionary. Do you plan to sculpt "Bâton Rouge" in a similar fashion? And how much experiences from previous work do you actually carry over to new projects?
Gwen: One of the reason of the hiatus of "Daitro" is that we made things to much complicated, especially in trying to make sense for everything, that's why we are trying now to be more in emergency.
Sam: "Bâton Rouge" must be more simple in many ways, it's what we want.
Julien: Not really. We're still the same but we need to say different things in a different way. "Bâton Rouge" is more spontaneous, more simple. More straight forward.
11. Before your album came out you did quite a few shows. Which show under this name has been your most memorable thus far?
Gwen: The two most memorable was the first one because it was the beginning and the last one because we were playing only the record songs for introducing them.
Sam: Yes the first one was nice and quite strange in the same time. It was fun to play together other songs than "Daitro" ones. At this time we don't play so many shows with "Bâton Rouge". So it's hard to say which one is the more intense... in general I liked the last shows we played in Lyon.
12. Care to share your favorite releases of 2010 and some of your overall favorites?
Julien: I loved 'Plain Language' by "Delay". Awesome record. I listened to it all summer long.
The new "Daniel Striped Tiger" is great as well, but it's not out yet... I got the MP3s from Seb/Purepainsugar... I listened to a lot of the "Heratys" LP, a swedish band playing raw and fast punk a la "Totalitar"... really good. "The Good Damn" from Lyon released a fantastic album called "I Can Walk With My Broken Leg". They remind me some "16 Horsepower" / "Black Keys" stuff... Still from Lyon, the first full length from "Reveille" is great too. I listened to a lot of the "Obits" 7"es as well. The new "Old Growth" LP as well, but it's not out yet as well... "Mass Hysteri" last LP is great too. "Thou" "Baton rouge..." LP and that incredible "Nirvana" cover! 2010 was a good year... I might be forgetting some though...
Gwen: For my part, I spend half of the year to listen "anchronous" from "Tubers", so I think I missed a lot of things, but that one was so so so great.
Sam: From 2010... I really like the "Yrsel" album. The 2 "Obits" 7" also, I listened to them a lot ("put it in writing", best song ever!)... I probably forgot a lot of stuff.
13. Time for you to interview me!
Julien: Ok...
Where were you born?
Born in Belgrade, Serbia. Always lived here, basically never moved to live somewhere else.
Do you have any brothers and sisters?
Nope, I'm the only child of my parents.
What did you enjoy doing as a child?
Spending as much time outside as possible, had many friends in the neighborhood, so we all used to play outside and have fun. I liked to spend a lot of time with my cousin, with whom I'm playing in a band today. He and myself used to to all sort of crazy stuff when we were kids haha, fun times.
What's the first rock record you enjoyed? And last one you bought?
Tough question. My initial interest in music was sparked thanks to my already mentioned cousin. He got into music quite young, so I presume it was natural that he radiated that onto me. If I remember the first bands I heard from him were Metallica, GnR and Iron Maiden, which records and which was the very first I can't really recall. As for the last record I bought it was actually a batch of records: "Army of Flying Robots" - "Life Is Cheap" LP, "The Spirit of Versailles" - "In Line For Halos" 7'', "A Fine Boat, That Coffin" - "Second Nail" LP, "Dazd/Order of Vulture" split.
What are your favorite places in Serbia?
Hm, another tough one. I can't really name a specific few places because I am sentimental about a lot of spots. I have a vast number of great memories which are linked to hanging out with good friends on a specific place in the city, or even a whole city section due to long walks I used to take with my girl. I am a dude who finds love in small details, so even the tiniest thing can make me love and remember a certain place.
Also there are some things I want to ask you, but maybe it's too rude, I don't know... you'll tell me... as a Serbian, you obviously didn't have the same peaceful youth as we had in France because of that horrible conflict which happened in ex-Yugoslavia in the 90s. I'm really sensitive to the fact that we're not that far from each other, maybe 1500km or so but we didn't have to experience the same things during our youth. Is it still a taboo / painful topic to talk with your friends and family over here? Or still taboo to speak about it in the news etc, even though the government recognized Srebrenica? Do you feel any unconscious guilt, pain or whatever as a Serbian, like for example German people felt years after world war II?
Despite living in such a hostile environment, I never really felt that since I was a kid when those conflicts were active. I guess that my parents did an excellent job with isolating me from all of that. I was aware that stuff is bad, but I was too small to actually have an opinion about anything and I even have extremely hazy memories from that period. I do however remember the NATO bombings, since it was much later. But generally, despite my friends remember all that, we never actually talk about stuff like that. It was horrible, but it is also behind us, no point in talking about it nor reflecting upon it. Same thing with Srebrenica and all that. People are either indifferent or pissed off and fanatical about our past, luckily for me I am in the circle of people who don't give a crap about stuff like that. I can't blame nor am I interested in blaming my (or whose ever) stupid ancestors for fighting each other or other nations. I mean, you also can't blame every German person for the things Hitler did so long ago right? Only thing we can do is make sure nothing like that ever happens again.
I'm aware these are not the happiest questions ever... don't reply to them if it brings back too bad memories... Maybe these bunch of other questions will be easier though... here we go :
Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath? Black Sabbath
Pavement or Smashing Pumpkins? Smashing Pumpkins
Pearl Jam or Nirvana? Nirvana
Fender or Gibson? To be honest I don't make much difference here, but lets say Fender.
Stooges or MC5? Stooges
Queen or David Bowie? David Bowie
Ebullition or No Idea? Ebullition, but it is a tight decision.
Daitro or Mihai Edrisch? Both, shoulder to shoulder, they fall together into my "best band ever" category.
Television or Talking Heads? Talking Heads, since I don't know about Television haha, shame on me.
12" or 7"? For some reason I prefer 7'' more, I really dig smaller records. Don't know why, maybe because my first record was a seven inch.
Blur or Oasis? Oasis
Black Flag or Minor Threat? Minor Threat
14. What do you enjoy doing outside of band work, any hobbies or past-times?
Julien: Doing artwork... shoplifting books in big libraries... hanging out with my girl... listening to music and reading books. I don't really have other hobbies besides music. Old vintage guitars maybe and documenting myself about music in general and punk and hardcore...
Gwen: Travelling, drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes, watching football games, talking hours, watching mafia movies, screwing around.
Sam: Watching football and talk about it with Gwen! Art stuff and exhibitions, reading books, drinking beer on a bench with friends when it becomes hot outside.
15. Do you have some plans for the future as a band? More releases, splits, tours?
Julien: Recording our new songs and do a 7" that we were to release first and playing shows.
16. I usually don't like asking matters of previous projects, but I guess that a lot of readers would go nuts if I don't do that now. Do you have some plans you wish to accomplish with "12xu" in the future? And are there any signs of "Daïtro" coming back to life?
Julien: With "12XU" we just finished the 10th new song supposed to be on our first LP that we'll record in june 2011. We're spending a lot of time in the practice room to arrange the details on all these new songs... We have a 7" split with "Abject Object" which may be out sooner or later, we're doing our own version of Green Day's "Coming Clean"! I don't think "Daitro" will be back to life to write new songs or doing new tours. Writing new stuff with "Bâton Rouge" is more exciting for us now... We still might play shows again if it makes sense... if good friends of ours come and tour here and ask us to play for example... or in a cool festival where the 5 of us would be into it, that kind of stuff...
17. Thank you very much once again for this interview and for the interest in "Natures With No Plagues". Do you have some final message for the readers?
Gwen: Congratulation for the Davis Cup you won against us, grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!
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