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file under black/pagan metal
Amesoeurs is dead. The French band that so delicisouly combined black metal with new wave and melancholy has pulled its own plug. After The MCD ‘Ruines Humaines’ in 2006 and the self-titled full-length in April of this year, the band has collapsed because of some internal problems (so it is rumoured). Whatever the cause, the fact remains that this is a big loss for fans of true, emotional and melancholic music. Fursy (bass) and Neige (vocal/guitar) give us their story about the new record and the band.
Text: Richard G.
I would like to start this interview off the other way around for a change, by saying thank you for your beautiful music and goodbye! Because if I have understood correctly, Amesoeurs is no longer. Could you tell us in short why this is so?
Neige: You know, the Amesoeurs concept is like a fixed image and didn't change since the creation of the band. I felt that with the EP and the album we have explored it the best way we could and now have to stop. I don't see us like a "still-born" band, it's more like when you have a precise picture in mind, you paint it, finish it and leave it to the moment in time. I also want to dedicate my creations to Alcest now.
Fursy: Too many bands continue surfing on the wave of their first release because the audience acclaimed it and just repeat the first opus each time. We don't want to repeat it again and again. And it's bad in my opinion. We are also very busy with our other work and musical projects.
It seems a rather unfortunate moment, since your self-titled debut full-length is just about being released. How weird does it feel to be releasing something, knowing that it is the end?
Fursy: Very motivating because you know that it was the first and last one, so you must put everything into it, regarding the music as much as the visual, concept, and atmosphere. You have to do the best. It is of course a little bit sad as it is a 5/6 year story which now stops.
Neige: We made the album knowing that the band would cease to be when it's out so it gave us a really special energy. I even think that this is a part of the cold and dispossessed feeling of the album.
And besides some interviews, in what ways will you be still promoting the new material? Will there be some opportunity for fans to say goodbye to Amesoeurs, maybe in the form of a farewell show and/or tour even?
Fursy: It is not expected at all even if it happens. It could have been a great idea, but would involve rehearsals, time spent, etc etc...
And where will we be seeing Amesoeurs members again in the future, what are your plans in music?
Fursy: I just signed a 5 album contract with Prophecy Productions for my personal project Les Discrets. The first album should be released around Autumn/Winter 2009. Winterhalter joined the project as drummer as well.
Neige: As for Alcest, I hope to record my second album early summer. I also plan to go on tour in November in Canada/USA, and early 2010 in Europe.
Over to the album then: ‘Amesoeurs’ is being released some 2,5 years after your first release, the ‘Ruines Humaines’ MCD. Anticipation for a full-length was high after that release, was it difficult putting together the material for the new album?
Fursy: If you mean "together" with the members, no, it wasn't at all. We worked for the most part over the internet, giving feedback and we had global rehearsals before the studio. But since this album is by its very concept a prism that reflects all the sides of the "Amesoeurs universe" and our personal feelings, we didn't search for any link or homogeneity between our respective songs and our different approaches are interesting in the end I think.
Neige: Hum, I would say that in a different way. I think we precisely looked for a chaotic mix of genres but knowing perfectly that whatever the style we play there is always something that links our songs. A feeling I can hardly describe but that is all around the record. I don't know if it's because this is our album, because I am used to listening to a lot of different music or whatever, but this mix of genres never shocked me as a listener, quite the contrary.
Did you set goals for yourself as to how the new material should sound? Where did you want to go musically after the MCD?
Neige: The characteristic that I appreciate and reproach at the same time with the MCD is that it deals too much with emotions in a direct way. It is 3 tracks concentrated on really violent and overflowing melancholy. We wanted the album to deal more with the imaginary "Amesoeurs city" concept, so something that generates images, fantasies in our mind. I think we kept our primary sadness but made the music more evocative.
And in what way did you try to achieve those goals, and how do you feel the album reflects that?
Fursy: I always make this metaphor; Amesoeurs' album is like a film in which you introduce something, develop it, and then conclude. The intro (´Gas In Veins´) is a scenery that introduces the elements and the darkness, hopeless and disturbing atmospheres that you can find in the rest of the disc. You enter the city/modern world, then see each face of it; sometimes sad, sometimes violent, bleak, desolated, unhealthy, nostalgic etc. and then you are finally swallowed by it till the end. We composed and created the work based on that concept.
Neige: When I read the text, "swallowed by the hive" about our concept, which I wrote maybe 4 years ago I realized that our album, in each of its aspects, can be seen as the musical version of it. That's why we are proud of this album and see it as an accomplishment.
The Amesoeurs sound is often linked to black metal as well as new wave/postpunk sounds. Even though the sounds in itself are not unfamiliar, it is not the case that there are 15 bands (plus copycats) that play music in the same vein as you. Are there any contemporary bands that you feel Amesoeurs has some kind of spiritual or musical connection with?
Fursy: It's too difficult to answer, as each song has a particular style... For spiritual connections I would like to say Lantlòs, which is for me one of the best new bands I have heard.
Neige: Lantlôs are really great yes, their sound is as cold and grey as concrete; I really can feel a connection with Amesoeurs. We took the opportunity to meet the Lantlôs guy when we were in Germany recording our album; it was a really cool time. I am going to sing on their next full-length by the way.
The most attractive feature for me in your music is the incredible atmosphere that is created. It is hard to describe, but the music really manages to stir something loose on an emotional level. A strange question maybe, but how do you do that?
Fursy: Thank you for the compliment! I think that it is the main goal for most musicians. We just play music that sounds good for us, but it is true that we are more interested in nostalgic melodies, so it helps to create atmospheres ;-)
Neige: As I said in a previous question, what you are describing is maybe this feeling that binds the songs together, whatever style they are. I agree with Fursy in the sense we just play what awakens our emotions but it's true that almost all the time our music has this typical "melancholy".
Something that really made an impact is Audrey’s incredibly desperate, harsh eruption halfway through ‘La Reine Trayeuse’, what a sound! What inspired that particular emotion?
Fursy: Yes, very very powerful! The screams were so breathtaking that we decided to cut the guitars to let her scream alone. Originally, it wasn't expected and it occurred thanks to Markus Stock the sound engineer who muted the guitars for a few seconds while mixing!
It should be known by now that an important source of inspiration for Amesoeurs is life in the city and all aspects that play a role in it. Even though in biographies a lot of negative points are highlighted, your music also reflects some spark of hope and romanticism. What positive sides are there in urban life according to you (if any)?
Fursy: A lot actually. The first one would be the infinite access to culture (theatres, shows, museums, cinemas, etc.) that is in perpetual movement. Then for the ability to walk in the street as a total unknown, meet with interesting new people, and discovering numerous new pubs and restaurants.
Stressing the ills of urban life, a logical escape would seem the country side and/or nature. What role does that side of the world play in the music of Amesoeurs?
Fursy: We both grew up in nature/the countryside. It's part of us since birth. The new life in the cities, the discovery of ugly and filthy people, drugs, stress and pollution is, I think, for any person who lived for a long time in the countryside, quite a trauma (big or not). If I had never lived in the countryside, Amesoeurs would not have been something that interested me. That's also why I think we've reached our goals, because we won't discover the metropolis all our life.
Neige: You have to understand that we created Amesoeurs just at the moment we were about to leave our countryside life to continue our studies in a bigger city. I don't know if it is a coincidence but I guess not since in a way Amesoeurs is the metaphor of all the discoveries and fears we had with urban life. And indeed, due to the fact we have lived that life for years now and don't feel this "freshness" anymore our music would never have been so pure and sincere if we decided to keep on with the band.
In the first question I already sort of said goodbye, but at the end of this interview I would like to thank you again for the beautiful parting gift that is ‘Amesoeurs’. I hope to be hearing more from you in the future in other musical endeavours. Until then, goodbye. If you have any parting words for the Lords of Metal readership, please feel free to add anything you want.
Fursy: Thank you once again for such nice words, and thank you very much for this very interesting interview!
Neige: Exactly the same!
http://www.myspace.com/amesoeurs
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