Hi Alex ! First, thanks for the opportunity. We always like to talk about the band whenever we can. On a personal point of view, 2014 seems to be shitty as fuck, but hey, like the song says : life is life lala la lala! Ha ha ha!!!
If I am not mistaken your band's title is on japanese language, right? Who is this ramen lover that came up with this idea?)
Back in the days, we had about 10 songs but no name yet. I came up with the idea writing songs based on medieval wars and everyone was quite excited about it. But, during a hard drinking evening, i said something like "hey men, we are lazy bastards, we won't ever write lyrics. Remember that stupid videoclip with naked japanese singing "Yatta!!" ? Call us Yattai! Easy to remember, umlaut on the I for the grindcore spirit and let's blast !" That is that simple. That is that stupid. We learnt only much later that it means both "super" and "food stall". I believe what we appreciate the most is the phonetics, that's it.
Yeah, right now our "album" (coz' it's only 16mn long he he !!) is only released on vinyl and tape. Vinyl has always been what we like the most. And we are lucky to have friends to release it ha ha!!!
Tapes because we're geeks and we have geeker friends who give us the opportunity to do it so… Would have been stupid not to do it!!! Thanks to all the labels involved (see the list below). For a few weeks we're talking with Subordinate records and Grindpromotion, both from Italy, about releasing FMML on CD. This will be a new cover, it will contain the 16 songs of the album, the 23 live tracks taken from the "Alive and lovin'" Tape .We also record a bunch new songs of new songs with our new drummer. New drummer, new studio can't wait to get this recorded!
2013 was really prosperous for you, you gave your everything to the fullest. I even feel some discomfort of asking about your plans for this year. What're you preparing for the fans? Tour to USA, new LP, song with Tony Iommy?
2013 was incredible in terms of releases. Pure craziness. But it was a pain in the ass in terms of line up, concerts, anything live related! Man, it couldn't have been worth… Drummer stuff, schedule stuff, life stuff, everything has been made to be as shitty as possible! But hey, we're still there,. So, let's smile! 2014 will see the releasing of the FMML on CD. We should also work on stuff for the "one time aborted" split with Krupskaya ha ha !! Some other splits should follow. Hope to give more details soon. A few dates have been booked. A real few ha ha !!! Let's see what happen next! USA, you'll have to wait. And so do you, Tommy Iommy!
Integral part of underground grindcore scene is a monster (no, not that monster that lives under the bed:)) called DIY. What these three letters means to you?
I used to be more involved than i am now. To us, DIY has first been self recording and self releasing. Back in the days, i ran a small label and it was a pleasure to release the Yattai's stuff. But life goes on, then i had less time, so i decided to keep focused on playing in a band, that's it. We now work with small structures in cooperation. We still handle the promotion by our own, but it is really pleasant to see 10 labels joining their forces to release your stuff. Unity is strength ha ha!
We also, as you may imagine, don't have any manager nor tour man, we manage it ourself. We prefer to play in squats because we like and support that self-management principles. And believe me, we're better welcomed in these places! All the stuff we print is made by people involved their own small structure, never a big company. But we are not the most involved persons in the scene. Some do shows, some do shirts/printings, some do release stuff, we are just a fucking band evolving with all these people around and sometimes help these people whenever we can. We can't beg for the crown of the biggest DIY mofo of the planet, we're far from that.
Grindcore music is a field for experiments - do you agree with that?
Yes and no.
I mean, yes because even the way of playing such an intense stuff i an experience in itself ! Lot of things have been achieved. Some supposed different influences are now mixed as one.
And no, because the heart of the music is its main limitation. Fastness. I think we are now pushing the limits more than experiment and innovate. But that's no problem to me, i'd rather listen to simple and old school stuff. There are always exceptions but i am more into catchy basic crust/grind stuff. I believe the main reason i listen to grind stuff is that immediate pleasure in sonic violence. Real experiments are somewhere else to me but that is no insult to the genre.
Right now we only worked with friends' small labels. The cooperation way. To be honest this is the only way we know ha ha ! Distribution is made mostly thanks to the labels who sell and trade our stuff. I've been told that our split 7" w/ Trepan Dead is distributed by Ebullition in the US, which is a distributor i know for years and seems to be well structured but don't really know how it works nor the deal with the label behind it. I believe that any network can be good as soon as bands, labels and everyone involved can get stronger, and as soon as the sound don't stop to spread!
Everyone want to live peacefully and comfortably, so it's a necessity to have a job. Is it hard to combine everyday job and band's activity? 'Cause you're pretty active band.
As i previously mentioned, 2013 as been horrible and schedule has been one of the reason of that feeling. We are not pretty active right now, all these releases are just an illusion of it ha ha!!! An unique conjunction of events! 2014 doesn't start so good but we don't give up and keep it forward. There's a time for everything is guess. Touring may be something we couldn't do this year. You know what it is : family, jobs, distance (i and the drummer are living 500km away from the rest of the band)… But hey, that is the life of every grind core band ha ha!!! Tomorrow will be better.
Ha ha!!! You're well informed. I work as an assistant director. My ambition is to keep working on movies mostly. But right now i am more working for shitty TV shows, sets and series. Fun to make but nothing i could really talked about… Not interesting. Tomorrow will be better, i said that already, didn't i ? Ha ha !!! You never know what tomorrow will be made of. This is a chance to do something new every time. Or not ha ha!!!
Everybody knows that not every gig gather a huge crowd. Does the number of people affects your gigs? (I know it upsets some bands)
We are a small french band so when we have a 50 people crowd this is already amazing. I mean REALLY amazing ha ha !! But 2 or 200, we don't care, people in front of us are here for a show. And we always give our best for their dose of blastbeat! Sometimes having 20 crazy motherfuckers in a small room is far better than 100 that look at you like an animal at the zoo! The band has to make the difference. I wanna believe that sometimes we did.
Do you support your local scene, make gigs for each other etc?
As right now i don't live in the same city as the rest of the band, i don't organize any gig nor participate in organizing some but i do support the local scene as they are all great friends. I share any of their news on the internet, buy their stuff. We trade and distribute our releases. We sometimes share the stage. And when one of them can't play at a show, the members always introduce the organizers to the other ones.
I has been long before we have it but we can be happy it now is functional and can get more organized. The fact is that Angouleme, the city we live in, has been poor is places for gig for long. Now that the city has new places, the crowd for that kind of music isn't that important so we can't organize that kind of evening every week ha ha!!! You can find the list and the contact of the local bands below.
As in every scene, there are always some more extreme/underground stuff. Look at the noise scene, the punk scene or whatever one! That concept based on gore and porno aren't really my cup of tea, i have to admit. And yeah sometimes it really sucks and is poor on a graphic level. But there are also lot of shitty bands in the more standard scene, isn't it ? Ha ha !! The fact is i am not into gory stuff and think porn grind sometime develops ideas i can't adhere. I don't support any misogynous shit. That said, it would be stupid to spit on all these bands as some of them are really kick ass. Man, one of my favorite grind band ever is Regurgitate. It has been a real influence for Yattai even if we don't play the same thing nor have the same concept. But to be honest, right now when i read some gory or porn name, i don't hurry to listen to it. And sometimes, i miss great bands for years (such as Internal Rot, that name sucked to me… What an asshole i've been on that point).
I just have to ask about french cuisine. Which wine is better for Cuisses de grenouille?)
You talk to the worst french guy ever to choose wine ha ha!!! I'd say for sure a white one. I would have taken one from the north. A Pinot Blanc from Alsace would be good i believe ! And that one would be also very good without Cuisse de grenouilles!!!
Oh, I almost forgot! I put my hand in the year with a beer in it and congratulate you on your tenth anniversary! Cheers!
Thanks a lot man. As i said before, as we really don't know how will be the schedule for the next months, we remain discreet on this but we would really like to do something special. Not a recording or anything like that (except if some label want to do it but right now this ain't no objective), something live. An event with great friends would be great. Something like a mini festival. But there is nothing prepared yet.
Aaaaand cut! Thank you so much for your time and this conversation. A couple of words from you, Gautier)
Thanks a lot for.the interview Alex!!! I'd say that as long you believe in something, you have to keep it real. We hope to meet lot of new people in 2014. We hope to hit the road as often and as quickly as possible. And we hope to share lot of new songs with all the people interested in soon. Give us a chance if you don't know us already. All our stuff is available for free on our page.
