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The Do, shamans in the night.
New album, Both ways open jaws.
Paris
21/03/2011 -
Olivia: We wanted to record everything we hadn’t been able to play during two years of touring, with the all the frustrations of being three on stage and the inevitable technical constraints. I wanted to compose for keyboards, because the harpsichord and harp were a bit of an obsession for me at the start. We also had more studio machines, so we could experiment with lots of new sounds.
Dan: For this CD, we shut ourselves away more. When we did the first album, we were straddling two worlds, because we were producing a lot of music to order for the cinema and contemporary dance. We didn’t have time to go deeper. On this one we were completely focused. We were able to stay put and develop all our ideas.
Your album titles take us from a mouthful to open jaws – what’s behind the mouth imagery?
O: There’s been a slightly more dangerous, threatening development, perhaps even a threat to us. Since 2008, we’ve had a lot of publicity that we weren’t prepared for. We’re proud of what we’ve done, but it’s easy to end up feeling like you’ve been taken over, and not all of the advice you get is good. But it’s mainly a poetic expression and an image that suits us well.
What inspired the fairytale, witch-like atmosphere?
O: Fairy tales have always been close to my imagination. In my native Finland there are a lot of fairy-like characters. They aren’t necessarily good either, and some real, sometimes hard stories fed into my imagination, especially visually.
D: Half way through, we took a real change in direction when we composed Dust it Off, the opening track. Everyone had this bubbly image of us from the media. We decided that it was OK for us to use stronger language, some unsettling poetry and play harder sounds.
D: We started the album in a house we rented in the Luberon that was really weird, full of history almost to the point of being haunted. The magic hit you from the moment you stood in front of it. We were there with our music and I had the feeling that we had to fight to keep going further with our way of thinking. When we talk about demons in Smash them all, it’s about when it’s hard to go further, and about the barriers you have to accept and that never go away.
O: In this album we talk about the enemy inside: you try to stifle it, but sometimes you need to let it out. We also recorded two tracks outside, Bohemian dances and Moon mermaids. The moon was very present in the aesthetics, especially in Moon mermaids. It was the perfect décor for this track. There was a proper moonrise that evening, it was beautiful.
There’s a lot of work on arrangements on this album, and a more rock, electro sound, sometimes even tribal. What drew you to making these contrasts?
D: When the tracks come about, we have no idea where they’re going, we let ourselves travel to one place, then to a completely opposite sound just afterwards. When I compose music, it’s like amnesia. I forget everything, which is why I can work on it for days. We like each song to be a little labyrinth where you can get lost in the acoustics and be surprised at what you hear.
With the percussion, it sounds like you have a shed full of bric-a-brac. Did you use any unusual instruments?
D: We work on the basis that everything is percussion and we invent. I’ve got 200 saucepans that we use to record stuff! We might take a Chinese abacus for a shaker, or beer bottle tops. We used stones for The Wicked and the blind and the introduction to Bohemian dances, and I even shook some plants! It’s great all the noises you can create. Since I was six I’ve been recording everything, and I’ve always enjoyed it. When I was young I used to bang on my plate with my thumb at meal times. I used to like to eat from a plate that made a good sound, and I still do it.
You started your tour before the album’s release. Has anything changed in your live performance?
O: There are six of us: two women playing multiple instruments, like the vibraphone, saxophone, trombone and the violin. They’re a whole orchestra on their own. There’s also a guitarist with an incredible pedal board, and the drummer who’s been with us for two years. We play out our album on stage, even though it’s less radical than on the first tour. We’ve reworked some of the first album’s titles, but we make sure the audience can keep track.
Dust it off
On tour in France
At the Festival des 3 Eléphants (Laval) on 20 May 2011, at Francofolies de La Rochelle on 14 July 2011
Marie-Catherine Mardi
22/11/2010 -
11/10/2010 -
24/08/2010 -
16/01/2008 -
