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 The recent past in the history of electronica have seen the French as pioneers within the genre. tHe pEnoLOpe[s] (Citizen Records, High Note) are two such lads (Axel and Vincent) who have taken this hype, added dashes of eclectic energy, fun and fancy complemented with fashion and definitely given the Parisian trendies something to talk about!
HKClubbing.com caught up with them ahead of their Asian tour.
Nilly: Hello. Tell us a little about yourselves. Where do you guys come from, how you met, what keeps you guys ding what you do best…making music?
Axel: We are coming from the north of Paris and are best friends since our childhood...We grow up in the same “grey” area and were even at school together. The Penelopes 's adventure has really started in 2003 while we were students and have released our 1st EP. The studies were just for us a pretext to stay forever some teenagers (laughs )..After this Ep released confidentially , we've signed on DJ Hell 's label, Gigolo records. We both realized that we didn't want to “work” and we decided to play music, exclusively...cause music was the only thing which brought some light and fun in our "common" life. Now,music is an obsession and we are finally working hard to compose .... Nilly: Where does the name “The Penelopes” come from? Girlfriend/s?
Vincent: For a while, in our dissolute life, we shared the same girlfriend, Penelope.....No, not all, we are joking (laughs) .We wanted to give an androgynous aspect for the name of the band and we simply like this first name. There’s no link with the legend of Penelope and Ulysses. If people discover the band, they may expect to see some girls on stage and finally, they see 2 sweet guys arriving (laughs)... Nilly: Tell us a little about your style of music.
Axel: We are simply making a dance rock music...We think that this style resume well our aim...We like anthemic, heroic, existential music...it come from our rock background and we want to mix it with the power of electronic music and with the new way to produce .I’m singing and playing bass, KBD, GTR (not in live), even harmonica and Vincent are mixing that with the power of drum machine and others big sounds of vintage keyboards!! Nilly: What inspired you to make the genre of music that you play?
Axel: We are big fans of The Cure, Gang of four, indie rock 90, Devo, Shoegazing stuff or dream pop stuffs like Cocteau Twins...Nowadays, the best bands of the world are Arcade Fire and Tv on the radio but our goal is not to copy their approach .. As we often say, we want to “learn to unlearn”...we don’t want to become an nth band of rock’n roll...it’s for this reason that we are looking for on the side of club music... but we are not listening a lot of electronic music.It allows us to keep our ears fresh, to dare strange electronic combinations. Nilly: Tell us a little about the release of your debut album “The Arrogance of Simplicity”.
Axel: This title is an oxymoron to evocate our passion for the pop culture in general. It's so hard to sound simple, it needs a lot of work ... the simplicity is arrogant, and it is the most difficult thing to reach in music. We will always prefer all the music that sound "falsely" simple like Soul, Funk rather than boring electronica made of cut / paste of easy sounds. This expression also shows an important part of our behaviour: our love for the simple pleasures (countryside, joke ,humour).Otherwise ,the album was relatively long to produce (almost 1 year) probably because it was our 1st one and we were a little bit stressed .It’s also due to the busy agenda of people who wanted to collaborate with us. Today, our favorite tracks are 'Circle of Seasons' and 'Demian' because they evoke a certain pain of your chilhood...but the choice change each month... Nilly: How has your album been received both at home in France and outside of France?
Vincent: We don’t want to praise ourselves (laughs) but our album has been very well received sometimes even acclaimed especially in France, UK, Japan. In France, the press review is going from electronic specialized press to big newspaper like ‘Le Monde’, what was an aim for us: to do a bridge between club culture and rock scene. For instance, we have been elected by the most famous French electronic magazine as Best Upcoming Artists for 2007 with Klaxons and Justice...We have recently been nominated in a big European contest as best discovery of 2007...We are happy for that. Our favorite compliment was when it was write that the album sounds fresh. Nilly: How did you get involved with Vitalic at Citizen Records? Axel: After signing on the German label, Gigolo records, we met a lot of people belonging to the electro nebula, like DJ Hell, The Hacker, David Carretta and Vitalic of course. After some discussion with Vitalic and his crew, we realize that we were sharing the same vision. the desire to be some UFO .........We‘ve always wanted to be appreciate for our specificity...If a label ask us to do something like another artist (there is a lot of opportunists in this business ),you can be sure that we won’t do nothing for this label ..Vitalic and Citizen Records are understanding the uncommon references we have and we are re-inventing with passion and they encourage us to mix them with modern music .We are very proud to be on a label considered as a relevance of the "French touch" ..... Nilly: Vitalic is well known for his techno and love for it. Have you been inspired by techno?
Vincent: Vitalic‘s music is a slap!! We love it!!! We are more pop than him but our music can also liberate this same kind of brutality!!! We also like a lot 1st techno stuff like Juan Atkins ,Franckie Knuckles ...more recently The Hacker, Chemical Bros (of course ),Adult .. Nilly: Who are the other artists on the album and are there very different from each other?
Vincent: Deirdre Dubois (who sings on Demian, our 2nd single) is American. She was the singer of a band called, Ekova. We discover this band while they were the band support of The Cure at the end of the 90’s. Samy Birnbach aka DJ Morpheus was the former singer of Minimal Compact, an avant garde post punk band that we adore. We are very close to Morpheus now. He‘s a pure and very sensitive guy. We became some friends and are already working on an album together for the future. Nilly: Many different electronica labels are adopting this trend where there are a variety of different genres of music within. What is your opinion on this?
Axel: We don’t really think that it’s a money making idea. A label that wants to make money (we will not give name..laughs) find a formula and repeat it endlessly. If we take the example of Citizen Records and of Vitalic and us, people can feel a big variety but if I have to resume, we would say that we are doing “maximal music”!!
Nilly: Who are your rivals and buddies within your scene?
Axel: We have no rival cause we are the best (laughs )...More seriously, we hate the minimal lazy electronic scene in which people (you cannot say “artist”) are in general some nerds without any charisma (even our mailman has more). For us ,artist should be some “figurehead” and must aim at an ideal ,in this sad period without ideal .We also hate this rock’ n roll scene made of spoiled pretentious child, all dressed with slim jeans ....We are thinking that others poses more sensitive can be invent than this parody of rock’n roll attitude .Our real buddies within the French and European scene are Vitalic, Blackstrobe, DJ Morpheus some artists who are “generous”
Nilly: There seems to be a trend in music now wherein art, fashion and photography play a key component to a new sub-culture. From your photos and the image of “The Penelopes” as a duo, it seems that you have brought all four components together.
What was the key driving force behind you guys embracing all three elements? For you, what comes first or what creates the inspiration for the other; art or fashion or music or photography?
Axel: We are interesting in Art in general but music is our obsession. ..We notice that a lot of people and artists put the music as the ultimate art .It’s a soundtrack for their life. We are not interested by fashion for the fashion .For us, it’s just a way to beautify our daily life..Like the Pet shop boys, I’d like to be able to change our look for each album.it’ so funny!! maybe ,for our next pictures ,we will be looked like Hippies ..We never know with us (laughs )
Vincent: For us ,it was natural to invent a universe for The Penelopes, also a way to improve, to meet others artists, graphists ,directors and to learn new concepts.. Nilly: Through your various tours, where else have you noted a similar trend in music? How does it differ from place to place?
Vincent: In general ,the trend is to do some crossover ,what is a good new and a sign that people are probably more open minded now than in the 90 .. There is probably less “blinker” now :you can mix every kind of music with electronic ..Of course ,the German are blocked on their awful minimal techno (laughs ) ...
Axel: In USA, where we’ve played in July, we notice that the electronic music is not developed like in Europe or Asia, an evidence that they are mentally retarded as their president (laughs) !! Nilly: You have been known to do a lot of work with French fashion designer Agnes B. Outside of design she shares a similar love of the sub-culture encompassing art, fashion, music and photography. How did you become involved with her?
Vincent: We've caught the attention of Agnes B team during a hot
Parisian gig where a lot of band were playing. Then, they invite us to play for the after show of a fashion show...and the story really began like this Nilly: In fact and Agnes B designer did the artwork for the sleeve of your debut album “The Simplicity of Arrogance”. Were there several designers involved in the creation of the sleeve?
Axel: Everything happened naturally because Agnes b followed us since the beginning of our young carreer..Our relation has always been founded on an artistic exchange .Agnes and his team has taught and are teaching us a lot of things about visual arts and graphism..We are fans of designers like Peter Saville (designer for Joy Division, New Order, Suede ..) ,Hypnosis, Stylo Rouge ..it was a common point that drive us naturally to work together .. Nilly: With a focus on your current Asia tour, tell us a little about what is bringing you here and where you will be performing?
Vincent: We are here as part of the release of our album in Asian territories ..We are going to play Live in Hong Kong for HK live (the party of the magazine ) ,then we are playing live in taiwan for 2 parties: one called Xue Xue and also for the release of the movie “Lagerfeld Confidential” ..Then we will comeback in HK for our photo exhibition in an Agnes b store and for a selector-DJ set in Evisu bar. This last date will be a kind of invitation to discover our universe ..We usually play live but for Evisu ,it was interesting to propose a kind of intimate presentation of the music we love and that inspire us from post punk to techno !
Axel: You cannot imagine how happy we are to come and play in Asia…it was such a target for us....We don’t have the American dream but rather the Asian dream !!!! Nilly: How did you have the chance to break through into the Asian music scene?
Vincent: Our album is signed since February on a Japanese label called P vine..that allowed us to play in Tokyo for the 1st time in June..
In May, we were contacted by Pierre Yves Lochon, the A&R of French Electro Connection to feature on his compilation that is distributed in Asia by High Note. Pierre Yves has proposed our album among others to High note that has decided to release it for the rest of Asia, what is a great pleasure. People at High note and especially Pierre Yves have taken a lot of initiatives to help us to make our 1st step in Asia and we thank them a lot for that … Nilly: How are your gigs received in Asia, is your crowd mainly foreigners?
Axel: People in Bangkok called me the black Iggy pop, because I often end my gigs, shirtless....laughs...
Vincent: Otherwise...yes!! Our crowd start to grow up out of France for our biggest pleasure ! Nilly: What are you feelings towards the HK element of the tour?
Vincent: From France, with the preparation of his tour, we feel a big effervescence in HK...We think that Hk and Asia in general are an incredible pool of talent and we are very happy in advance to come and discover all this energy! Catch tHe pEnoLOpe[s] live for an electro -pop mix party at Hong Kong's most stylish new bar on Friday the 7th of December! Evisu Baru, 2nd Floor The Workstation, 43 Lyndhurst Terrace, Central, Hong Kong. $150 with one drink.10pm - late. Limited tickets. For more information call 9616 0107. www.thepenelopes.org, www.frenchelectroconnection.com. Interview by Nilly C. |
