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Album review
Rinôçérôse
Music Kills Me
Paris
08/03/2002 -
RFI Musique: You claim that on your new album one of your main aims was to put a positive spin on negative themes like death. That sounds a bit cynical to me… Jean-Philippe Freu: No, I wouldn't say it was cynical at all. Our new album's called Music Kills Me and that says it all really. The songs evoke people who really were killed by music, like Brian Jones and Jimmy Hendrix, for instance. Personally, I've always said that if Brian Jones had been a postman instead of a musician he'd probably still be alive today! We take a bit more of a cautious approach to the rock'n'roll lifestyle. We don't go in for gorging ourselves on beer and barbiturates like Hendrix and co. did. Personally, I limit my drug intake to coffee and a moderate amount of beer! Bringing up old rock stars like Hendrix and Led Zeppelin isn't exactly commercial in 2002, is it? Rinôçérôse certainly couldn't be accused of churning out electro for the young, clubbable end of the market!
J-P.F: No, you're right there. I'd say our target age group's 40-something rather than 20-something, in fact! I mean, how the hell are you meant to sell records to young kids these days anyway? Their approach to music is to leg it round to their mate's house as soon as a new album comes out and copy it on a blank CD – either that or download it for free from the Internet! (Laughs). No, seriously – and we have to be a bit serious here because there are people out there who lack a basic sense of humour! – the reason we bring up Hendrix, Brian Jones and Led Zeppelin is because we've always considered them to be real pop icons and they're particularly interesting from an aesthetic point of view. A lot of artists who've been pigeon-holed as "electro" seem to base their music on borrowing from other genres such as ethnic sounds and jazz. Is this because electro music can never be totally self-sufficient in itself?
J-P.F: I think the concept of taking a mixed approach to things – and by that I mean working with analog instruments and a more 'organic' sound – had to happen sooner or later. But I think our particular fusion is radically different from a lot of other "cross-over" projects on the electro scene right now.
Patou Carrié: I think what makes Rinôçérôse different from other artists involved in fusing electronic and organic music is that for us the electronic element always comes second.
J-P.F: Take someone like St Germain, for instance. I'm sure the way he works is he's got his basic beats and his computer and then he samples other elements in on top of that. But the way we work is very different. We always start by composing a track on guitar, like they did back in the good old days! And as soon as we've finished recording an album we get straight out there on the road to do live shows. An artist like St Germain – who, I must admit, has had a great deal of influence on our music in other ways – has taken a very different approach up to now. It took a long time before he took his music out on the road!
The "Victoires de la Musique" awards will be rolling around again soon (March 9th). How do you feel about the fact that St Germain walked off with two of the top awards at last year's ceremony?
J-P.F: Well, honestly, I don't keep up with all the celebrity stuff like who won what – so, I have to admit, I didn't actually know St Germain received two "Victoires de la Musique" last year! But I say good for him, he deserves it! One thing's for sure and that's that the latest St Germain album's really good and no-one could ever have imagined anything like that four years ago – so bravo! St Germain's success proves that electronic music is slowly coming out of the underground and becoming accessible to a wider audience. I wouldn't say that's necessarily a good thing, but it's part of a natural evolution. So you think electro is better off on the underground, then?
J-P.F: No, not at all! All I'm saying is what happened with St Germain was that his album ended up taking off with all those 40-somethings we were talking about earlier, you know, the music fans that don't record their music on blank CDs! (Laughs) I think the underground image of electronic music was exciting for a while, but it couldn't stay on that level where only a small circle of music insiders knew about it. It was only natural it should evolve and that meant that one day it would break through onto the musical mainstream. I mean, look at it now, advertisers use electronic music to sell car shampoos these days! That's the way it goes.
What's interesting about you, Jean-Philippe and Patou, is that neither of you have given up your 'day jobs'. Do you think it'll be possible for you to carry on your double life much longer?
J-P.F: We make "popular" music as opposed to classical music. OK, so our music may not be as popular as someone like Jean-Jacques Goldman for instance, but we're self-taught hands-on musicians. We don't like to use the term "artistic career" because you can't manage and plan your music the same way you can with a more traditional career path! The only thing we're sure of is that we get a great deal of pleasure out of making music and there's no logical reason why we shouldn't go on doing it forever. We've got our own home studio and there's nothing to stop us recording our own music and burning our own CDs if we feel like it!
I think the reason our 'day jobs' have attracted a bit of attention is because we're both psychologists. But we could equally well have been cooks or postmen and carried on our professions alongside our music! While our career was taking off on the music scene I was giving psychology training courses and I still had a lot of 'clients' who needed my services. And as I had a bit of spare time between recording sessions and live dates I decided to keep doing university lectures and things like that. I enjoy my double life too. Teaching gives my mind a bit of a rest from music and I like the idea of keeping in touch with a profession I've given so many years of my life to.
But it must get a bit tricky fitting tours and recording sessions round family and other professional obligations…
J-P.F: Well, our recent tour with Moby was a good case in point! We were due to go out on the road with him in July last year and I really had my hands full then. I was still teaching a lot of students in the law and social economics faculties in Montpellier. Somehow I managed to sit down and correct 300 exam papers by June 21st – and then I turned round and went off on tour with Moby on July 3rd! Now we've got our own tour coming up in March. It's going to be a bit more difficult to fit my lectures in this time round, but I'm sure I'll find a solution!
Is this your way of keeping your feet on the ground and staying in touch with 'real life'?
P.C: Yes, I think it is in a way, even if it is getting more and more difficult to keep the two things going at the same time.
J-P.F: There's one thing we believe in – and that's that the drive to make music comes from the frustration of not being able to! I spent a long while travelling back and forth between Montpellier and Marseilles. I had a two-hour train trip each day and rather than waste my time I'd spend the return trip thinking about music. I had all these ideas bubbling up in my head and as soon as I got home I'd drop my briefcase in the hallway, step out of my 'psychology teacher' persona and rush into the studio to get things down on tape!
P.C: The thing is, we don't really like the musician lifestyle in itself. And I think if we devoted our time and energy exclusively to making music. Well, it's not that I'd be bored exactly, but I don't think it would really suit my psychological make-up… So you're a bit like Superman really. You can't devote yourselves to saving the world 24 hours a day, because you've got to put your glasses on and go to work at the Daily Planet!
J-P.F: That's it, exactly! That's who I see myself as: Superman!
P.C: But we'd like to make it clear – we don't run into a phonebox and slip on a disguise before going into the classroom or getting up on stage!
J-P.F: That's the advantage of our Mod look, I guess! Your approach is really right at the other end of the spectrum from TV shows like Popstars and Star Academy which present music as an instant route to success and the celebrity lifestyle…
J-P.F: Well, personally, we've always seen music as a bit of a loser's game. It's social suicide really compared to what you could do if you followed a more traditional career path! Music's a tough business. People's musical tastes change all the time, so one minute you're in and the next you're out! You've got nothing solid to build on really, you've got to do it out of passion – or not at all!
TV shows like Popstars and Star Academy that present music as a 'real career' with all the professional castings and make-overs and all that rubbish. That's the complete opposite of what we live on a day-to-day basis and what we believe in. Those kind of shows are absolutely criminal really. They've got nothing to do with reality at all! As far as we're concerned music's a real passion. It's a domain we're prepared to 'waste' a lot more of our social life in than any other!
So your families see you as losers since you've become musicians?!
P.C: Yes, more or less!
J-P.F: Well, we're not exactly seen as losers. After all, our families see us putting out albums on a regular basis and going off on tour. But the music world's a milieu they don't know at all – and they're a bit scared of it really! Music's not exactly something that people look up to where we come from!
Loïc Bussières
Translation : Julie Street
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