Interview Mnemotechnic - eng

[Mnemotechnic - Antipode, Rennes - 01.21.10]

   The following is certainly the most serious interview we made so far. We met the guys from ‘Mnemo’ back in January, when they supported The Big Pink. We wanted to know more about their quick fame, and the support they found in La Carène.
   No matter which adjectives people use to describe the music of Mnemotechnic, the guys want to make the girls dance. And they succeed.


1) Could you introduce yourselves for people who don't know you yet please?

Arnaud : I am Arnaud. I am the lead vocals and play the guitar. This is my only project, but I used to play guitar or drums in bands that were locally known.
Damien : Name is Damien, I play guitar. I used to be in some funk or electro bands, but Mnemo is my only project too.
Anthony : I am Antony, I play drums. It is the same story for me really. I have been playing with different bands, but Dave and I have a side project, an instrumental band called Savate.  
Xavier : So my name is Xavier, I play bass guitar, and Anthony is my musical fiancé…
Anthony : We’re 24/7 together, and we only make music.
X : Last year we were playing in a band called Mon Automatique. And now we are busy playing for Savate and Mnemotechnic.
Anthony : And for other bands too…
X : Yeah, and I also work with young people, teaching them how to male music, films or how to paint.
 

2) Today is your second gig in Rennes, since you played last November at Le Jardin Moderne. What did you think of the welcoming and of the atmosphere?

X: It was pretty good, but as it was on a Wednesday, the crowd was not ready to give it all!
Arnaud : It was on a Thursday, because on Wednesday we were in Le Havre, in Normandy. The people were very nice, no doubt about it. Le Jardin Moderne is a great place, very dynamic, and extremely lively! A bunch of bands were playing there that week. We received a warm welcome, but it was pretty quiet compared to the last four gigs.
Anthony : I think that the audience first came to discover the different bands. It was our first time in Rennes and I think it was only our third or fourth gig as Mnemotechnic. The other bands were really good. It was an interesting night but a little… well it was pretty quiet. We had a hell of a night though. On the way back home, as we talked in the van, we had the feeling it had been a good show. It really was a good one, very interesting.


3) You played in your hometown Brest for the first time on January 16, which was last week actually. National media were here.

Damien : There were 800 people.
Arnaud : It was a gig the town wanted to promote. It was the opening night of the musical year, with resident or supporting bands highlighted by La Carène, the main venue. The bands were mostly local and promoted by the town which had organized a meeting with national press. Also, there were a lot of people who came to listen to the bands, it made us very happy – we feared no one would come. Three bands from Brest playing at the main venue, something to be proud of!
Anthony : Yeah, and the venue is quite big. (Ed: maximum capacity of 1300)
Arnaud : 800 people were there, it was so nice to play our first gig in front of so many people. It was a new experience, quite different from what we are used to, as the stage is large and the audience not so close. But as far as the sound is concerned, it is impressive. It was a real good show. We still have a lot to learn until we are comfortable on big stages like this. But we really enjoyed ourselves.
Anthony : The sweetest part was to play in Brest. Bands often play their first gig at home, it was fun.


4) Concerning your album’s cover, can you tell us more about the artwork? What visual identity do you want to create?
  
Damien : Ask Arnaud, he is your guy.
Arnaud : Indeed! I am a graphic designer, it is my job. Of course it was not an obligation, but I wanted to be involved and to take part in the band’s business. I also write the lyrics so I try to develop an identity that fits with them. In this album, we developed the mask theme, the fact that the image people give of themselves can sometimes be deceitful. Here the picture shows a woman with all her sweetness, but wearing the mask of a rabid dog. It represents the gap there can be between our image and our identity. I cannot talk about the aesthetics of this picture, just like I cannot talk about our music – I created it so I would not be objective.
100% : What do the other band members think of that?
Arnaud : They apparently agreed.
X : Yeah, we do things as we feel. The band’s name is Arnaud’s idea. We liked it straightaway. I personally like the idea that it does not describe what our music is. It does not end with an “a” saying “this is hardcore”, like Sepultura or Metallica. Mnemotechnic could be the name of an electro band, which we are not. It blurs tracks. So does the cover, and the music… We trusted Arnaud and I think we were right.
Anthony : Arnaud brought up several ideas for the cover. We just added little things. On the whole, we loved the aesthetics of the photo, which is sober and elaborate at the same time.
X : Everything we do we do fast, and here we saved a lot of time in the end.
Damien : Everything went super fast.
Anthony : One of the biggest problems is to choose a name. Every single band struggles to find one. Arnaud was the one who called or sent a mail saying ‘What do you think of Mnemotechnic as our band’s name?’
100% : Was there a reason why he picked that name?
Arnaud : It is easy to remember! It is hard to describe things with just a name, unless you have a brilliant idea. I think this one has a nice rhythm and as we said before, it is misleading. Also, it can be understood in several languages. Choosing a name is not an essential part of the project, but we had to have one!


5) On La Carène’s website, your music is classified as math rock.

All : Oh, it isn’t!
100% : We thought so.
Anthony : It is funny. This is our third or fourth interview, and we have been asked about this every time.
100% : We can feel the emancipation from math rock music, but you are still influenced by it, as far as rhythm is concerned.
Arnaud : No, I think there had been confusion. We all come from various musical backgrounds. Just as we said earlier, Xavier and I played math rock in bands like Savate. Arnaud first played in hardcore or noise rock bands. The words math rock and noise rock came up to describe our music but I think someone has used them in the wrong way. Since then, a lot of people think we are influenced by these kinds of music, which is not true. On the contrary, we created Mnemotechnic to simply make the girls and everybody dance in clubs, and provide a counterbalance to the fact that all of us played math rock, which is a rather weird, complex music.  
X : The idea of making music that is accessible to a wide audience, and not only big guys with a beard, has brought us up together. Maybe people think Mnemotechnic sounds like math rock, I do not know. We are not objective enough to say « I don’t understand, our style do have changed, people think wrong. » We can always say we have changed; there is nothing we can do if people do not see it! We enjoy ourselves playing music anyway.
Damien : The eldest qualified that music as post punk.
Anthony : Yeah, it is more like it.
Damien : At the beginning of the 80s, rock bands realised they were making people dance to their music. They decided to call it ‘post punk’.
X : We use the bass drum a lot and we sometimes sound like disco music.
Anthony : Yeah, in the way we play.
Arnaud : Our interpretation can remind of people of math rock because we still carry that music in us.
X : It shows that people are not indifferent.
Anthony : We asked ourselves that question last weekend, and found it weird that...
Arnaud : We should have made things clearer from the beginning.
Anthony : I think we cannot deny that we are old math rockers.


6) You are friends with Foals, Goose, and Sonic Youth on Myspace.

Anthony : We are!
Damien : Definitely! Goose, man, Gooooooose!
Anthony : We all listened to Nirvana, and to Rage Against the Machine. So we have definitely been influenced by bands like these, but also by Sonic Youth.
Arnaud : We all have been making music for more than ten years, and been listening to all kind of bands for 15 or 20 years. We try to mix our different musical backgrounds.
 

7) What was the best thing in being promoted by La Carène?
 
Damien : It helped us a lot, we were very lucky. They have been following us from the beginning, as Arnaud told them about the project even before it was created. He asked them for contacts.
Anthony : Yeah, we basically asked what we could do to be promoted.
Damien : Soon after that we recorded a demo. Not at La Carène, because we can only rehearse there. They really loved the demo, which made us happy! They offered us a place to work on the record. We were able to rehearse for three or four days in a row, just as if we were live on stage. It made us realize early what difficulties we were going to face. It is something that other bands usually cannot deal with before actually giving their first gig.
Arnaud : It is a brand new way of being promoted and it would have been stupid not to use it. After we met them, everything went so fast! The greatest thing is that they provide us with a place to rehearse.
Damien : Just like I Come from Pop and Rotor Jambreks, with whom we played last Saturday.
Anthony : There are two awesome venues, and some nice rehearsal rooms with good acoustics. It is a great place, very well structured - many people are working there. What is interesting is that you can just meet them and present your project. They will call you back if they are interested. If you do not go there, they will not do anything for you; their job is not to look for new bands. They are just here to help you carry out your project. It is just a start. We have rehearsed and played there 6 days in total, we worked on the interpretation of our songs and on the live show. We will probably keep doing that for the rest of the year.


8) Do you have a specific concert scenography, like Rotor Jambreks or Wankin Noodles?
 
Damien : You mean the stage set and all? We love the American stage style! With big pink baffles! (Ed: British band The Big Pink, who was playing after Mnemotechnic, has pink baffles). I think we are first and foremost a rock band. We watched a lot of video clips from the 2000s...
Arnaud : It is a purely physical aesthetic.
Anthony : We just want to work on our music.
Damien : Nothing more.
100% : What about your relationship with the audience? Are you building one?
Arnaud : You are not supposed to build a relationship.
Anthony : You have to know what makes you feel comfortable. Some people are shy, but are comfortable playing on stage. Some others are very loud. I believe you have that thing in you or have not. You can come up with something brilliant or end up talking about a serious matter. I do not think the fact you are standing in front of a microphone changes anything. As you were saying, some people build this relation, create a character and act when on stage. We do not. We are here to play music and give energy to people. We want them to enjoy being at our concert as much as we enjoy playing for them. If the relationship grows stronger, it is really nice; but when talking to the audience, we just say thanks, say who we are, and how delighted we are to play.
Arnaud : There’s no scenography.


9) Are you preparing a music video?
 
Arnaud : Yeah, we have a project. In fact, we are working on it with La Carène. We will probably work with a middle school, and meet teenagers, and we will interview them on their identities. I think it will be finished in May or June.
X : We liked the idea of bringing an educational aspect to our project. Our band will be working with kids from a school of La Carène. The video may not exist apart from that collaboration, but I believe the experience is worth better than the result.
Damien : We will see. If we are happy with the final product, it will be released.
X : What is interesting is the way we are making that video. We are not aiming for anything.

[ Ed: The Big Pink is playing “Velvet”, and Damien raises his arms. ]
100% : You are a big fan?
Damien : I am!

   
10) Is there a CD, band, video, event that you would recommend?

X : Videos of Omaha Beach or The Knife. There is a real nice video of one of The Knife’s songs that has a 1980s aesthetic, and I love it.
Anthony : The Patriotic Sunday’s last album. It is the lead singer of Papier Tigre’s side project. His new album has just been released at Effervescence, and it is really amazing.
X : The new Marvin is coming out soon.
Arnaud : Last night I watched the animated movie 'Peur du noir'.
Damien : I liked Health.
The others : Clues sound good too.
Damien : Health are weird, very... They are crazy, crazier than Animal Collective. They are darker too.


11) Do you have a destination in mind?

Anthony : I have had the chance to spend six weeks in Japan for work, it was awesome.
X : Yeah, mostly Asia. I am quite fond of it.
Damien : Quebec!
Anthony : Next plan is New York...


12) Can you give us a recipe please?

X : Verrines.
Damien : (Pointing to Arnaud) He is a vegetarian. Five minutes of Tortoise, five grammes of Mogwai...
Arnaud : Take some onions, tomatoes, carrots, mushrooms and some curry. Add coconut milk, and serve with a fine wine...

Itw by Josephine & LittleSyd.
Translated by Comète & Littlesyd.