Au Revoir Simone interview
Celebrating the release of their new album, Still Night, Still Light, the Brooklyn trio bring their keyboard-tastic sound to London town.
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Can I ask you about your name, Au Revoir Simone – it’s taken from the film Pee Wee Herman’s Big Adventure, right? Do people normally get the reference? It’s pretty freaky for a kids film isn’t it…?
All: Yeah!
Annie: I pretty much watched it at least three times a week for about four years when I was a kid!
Heather: I’d say most people in the US usually get the reference right away, but in Europe people usually think it’s about Simone de Beauvoir, which it’s not.
Erika: It’s very hard for us, because we try and explain, but it’s a very specific type of humour, so trying to explain Pee Wee as a concept to somebody who doesn’t know it is difficult. But the thing about it being freaky, I think parents should let their kids be exposed to really freaky shit, because the world is freaky. What is exciting, though, is Paul Rubens [who plays Pee Wee] might come to our next show in LA!
Heather: Yeah, so we can pretty much disband at this point because the goal has been reached!
Erika: I can’t wait to meet him! Once though, Heather got this wobbly head Pee Wee figure and she brought it to our show, and we had the worst show ever, and we were like, “This is not our mascot ever again!”
Heather D'Angelo
How would you guys describe your music?
Erika: Sometimes I say dreamy electronic pop.
Heather: I usually like that too, but electronic folk music perhaps?
Annie: Keyboard-tastic!
Erika: Yeah, a whole lot’o keyboard, and it’s not “lotta” either, it’s “lot’o” with an apostrophe.
Are people surprised when you start playing and there’s not an acoustic guitar or drummer in sight?
All: No!
Annie: I think people know us as the keyboard band.
Heather: I think in the beginning it was really confusing to some people, cause we used to have people come up to us after shows and be like “why don’t you have a drummer? It would be so much better if you had a drummer.”
Erika: I think that’s was an advantage for us though, because people would see us setting up and be really curious, and that curiosity allowed a lot of people to discover us.
Annie: And I think it also helped people take us under their wing, like We Are Scientist, Air and Peter Bjorn and John, so I think people thought we were kind of weird but nice, much like Pee Wee.
Erika Forster
Tell us a bit about the new album – what was the inspiration?
Erika: The new album is called Still Night, Still Light and it’s a new expression of our love, our collective love for the universe. And just being together and trying to take it up a notch, and experiment a little – that’s what inspired us.
Heather: And conversations.
Does the amount you guys travel have any influence on your music?
All: Yeah!
Erika: And I think lyrically travelling reminds me of the important things in life; cause you always having to re-evaluate your place in the world.
Annie: Plus you see sooo many bands, we’ve seen sooo many bands, and I think once you start playing music, you start paying attention to what people are doing, we don’t actually copy anybody, but we know that things are possible now that we didn’t know before.
Annie Hart
Are you guys playing any festivals this year? With new festivals springing up every year, many people think festivals are losing touch with their roots – what do you think?
Erika: The two UK ones that we know for sure are Indy Tracks and Secret Garden Party, and I think the UK does it best, and there’s not enough regional festivals in America. I don’t know how much it costs to get into festivals here, but in America they are really expensive. But I don’t think they have lost their roots, they are like an escape from society and there should be more and more of them.
Annie: For us they are really great because a lot of bands that we know are there, and it’s just a great excuse for us to hang out with our friends.
The album 'Still Night, Still Light
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Au Revoir Simone interview (text) by Ruth Carruthers is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.Comments (6)
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