Your Favorite Enemies
Your Favorite Enemies formed the best part of a decade ago in Montreal, Canada, but only now is their music spreading across the ocean to Europe and beyond...
((o))): So, first and foremost, who are Your Favourite Enemies and what are your musical backgrounds?
We're six completely different messed up individuals who grew up on the wrong side of the rail track. Music has been the emotional ricochet by which we've been able to survive the social and economic disparity we were facing everyday.
I guess our collective background explains a bit of our musical background. The Lemelin brothers (Ben on bass and Sef on guitar) have been involved in some pretty hard stuff all of their youth. Ben was wearing t-shirts with impossible to read blood and HEAVY HEAVY band names. As for Sef, well, he was actually more into hair glam rock than heavy, even if he still believes Poison and Cinderella were heavy. So yes… we all have different issues!
Moose (drums) grew up with Rush and early 90's alternative rock and somehow ended up "studying" drums in university! Jeff grew up in a family environment where music was from the devil So like every kid who grows up in such very healthy and sane environment, he kinda missed a few years due to some undisclosed high time spent listening to non-evil and godly music such as Led Zep, Pink Floyd, Hendrix and The Doors. At least, that's what people told him he was into back in those so-called "frozen" years.
Miss Isabel (vocals, keys) is the daughter of some obscure preacher and she'd probably win the price for growing up listening to the weirdest and creepiest stuff ever produced. You know, the weird extreme of Jesus loves you and you better love him back or he will stick his holy finger in your eyes kind of lovely environment?
As for me (Alex, vocals), I grew up listening to old punk, hardcore and... The Cure (my gangster friends never knew about The Cure, but my girlfriends really loved that soft side of my bad boy attitude, it was a real win!)
(((o))): How did the band come together?
I guess it's fair to say we were a band way before we even tried to create some cohesive noise together. We've been in different bands in the past, but when we got together, it was more about being in a community than putting together a five year plan to become Vampire Weekend or another pink polo type of band. It was more about the mess we were in and the desire we had to get out of that. Music came together along the way. For an historical point of view, let's say Sef and I started the band when we met through social work. Saving the world was really tiring, so when we found out we were both into music, solving the world's problems became a part time hobby.
It's kinda weird to look back only to realize we didn't have anything in common musically or artistically, but we probably needed each other for deeper reasons than his devotion to Metallica and my desire to get him to understand about the social virtues of the Dead Kennedys and the artistic freedom of Fugazi. We still argue all the time, but at least he knows that a Boss Metal Zone ain't necessarily what heavy means! The rest of it was a happy accident.
(((o))): How has your local scene impacted you as a band?
For some, It's sexy to say you are from Montreal. Especially if you are not originally from Montreal and come to town to join all the other bands playing with mandolin and wearing a brand new Minor Threat or Black Flag t-shirt paid $75 at some hipster shop in order to look cool, indie and hardcore. But I would say that Montreal, for what the city used to be (or still is deep inside), had a tremendous impact on us…
Montreal for me, is the only place in the world where you were eating or sleeping anywhere in the neighbourhood without an invite. Maybe survival creates some kind of community values, but the openness and generosity of people who don't even have enough for their own is just another kind of community. It wasn't about the color of your skin or the uniform you were wearing, it was about living.
I guess this is what truly characterizes our band. The sonic collage, the mosaic of emotions, the different flavors of letting go. There are great sounds in Montreal, but the greatest ones aren't played on instruments, they are lived and embodied in the most unexpected places.
(((o))): You are releasing your debut UK single in October and I believe you have one EP out as well. What can you tell us about those releases?
We're defyingly independent and are doing pretty much everything based on our vision to musically commune with the people. We wanted to turn our releases into moments, not into commercial shots for stardom. Our EP "Youthful Dreams Of An Old Empire" and single "I Just Want You To Know" were moments we recorded in our own studio, a catholic church we bought and turned into a studio. We have the luxury of choosing the degree of let go we are ready to commit to and to embrace.
Ever since we decided to let go, it became somehow interesting and exciting again. We kept ourselves away from the neon lights and decided to go with what was real and honest, rather than trying to "fix" things up. That's why everything we do has the ability to become some epiphanic uplifting moment and why some pure catastrophe of incoherent noises defyingly became our art form of expression for being alive… to "be" and to "assume" what it means as we let go. It's honest and real, it's imperfectly human, it's as soulful as it can be self-deceiving…
(((o))): What do you think is the most difficult challenge facing new bands starting out in the music industry today?
Relevance comes to mind. I mean, it's been the very same story from the first time someone had a flash and told Elvis to wear a leather suit and pretend to play guitar… ELVIS IS BACK! It's show business… and when you don't understand what it means, well, you're up for quite a bit of disappointment. There's always a cuter face, a cooler pair of shoes to dance in and a brighter new savior of rock n roll emerging somewhere with a "genuine" Bieber type of story. If it's stardom you're after, you should have learned to kick a football, to create apps or to attend music business for dummies, as they are the new rock stars.
Since we weren't cute, didn't have cool dancing shoes and weren't eleven year-olds brilliantly playing bongos on YouTube, we preferred doing our own things and creating our own world. Being true to yourself might not be sexy nowadays but still, you can do whatever you envision based on your own values and measure of involvement. You can curse all you want after the state of the industry. You can secretly envy all the bands who are pushed and supported by big time corporations, but it won't change the nature of the business we are in. There are no equal chances, there are no fair deals, there's no "may the best one win", there are not even communities of artists. Everything is scripted in advance and you don't stand a chance at winning and keeping a straight face. That's why we created our own world. Would we make it, whatever it means? The best of all news is that I already made it, and that everything has yet to be discovered. That's my point of view. DIY is cool to brag about until you realize your van broke in the middle of nowhere and that you won't be able to play in front of the twenty-five people you've been able to drag to your show by begging them. But still, it's the best way to live it if you want to work it out. Otherwise, I've heard there's a whole lot of work for anyone able to repair ukuleles and mandolins nowadays…
(((o))): Every band has different aims. What would have to happen for Your Favourite Enemies to make you feel that you’d “made it”, so to speak?
As I said, I feel like I've made it so I never actually thought about it but since you're asking… winning grammys, having Jay-Z on speed call, having David Bowie wearing a t-shirt of me wearing a t-shirt of him... I'd lose myself in hard drugs for a few years then clean up and cry on Oprah (or any other late afternoon talk shows), get my shit back and headline all the major festivals (you know, those with the same bands playing over and over? yes, all those festivals), I would produce a bio-epic drama movie about myself, then, I would start thinking about falsely killing myself in some relapse episode to add to the drama of my legacy and to promote my new album/book/movie/web series/t-shirt/cat food brand and underwear series called "I HATE PAIN, BUT PAIN LOVES ME". Yes, that would be the starting point… I mean I'd never thought about it before, so these are just a few ideas!
(((o))): My housemates are my favourite enemies because they all have annoying habits, but ultimately I can't quite bring myself to openly dislike them! Who are your favourite enemies and why?
I used to think all that was fake and pre-fabricated was my favorite enemy. It's asier to look at from the other end of the spectrum, I suppose. Now though, I tend to see all my personal paradoxes, my own denied fears and doubts, all the times I hesitated for the wrong reasons, every time I lied to feed my self-created illusions and absurd make-believes. It used to be that faux-punk ethic. You know, when it's cooler to ditch everything successful for the sake of some pure ethos, when in reality it's the most ridiculous incarnation of envy and jealousy… It amuses me now, as I realized that being myself, in all the most imperfect and paradoxical way, remains the most amusing part of life. To assume what it means to "be" remains the most incredible act of defiance you can resolutely live by…
(((o))): You’re given the opportunity to create your own All Tomorrow’s Parties Festival. What would be the first five bands on your list?
Kim Gordon's Body/Head, Thurston Moore's Chelsea Light Moving, Lee Ranaldo & The Dust (featuring Steve Shelley), my new favorite band Savages and… well… Toto (so we can finally have Sef shut up about that freaking band…). It would be called "Let's subtly trick all the Sonic Youth Members into some kind of a reunion by having them all to listen to Toto's music for hours and hours". Guess we won't see that line up at all the other festivals this summer (thank you Toto!!!)
(((o))): What are the band’s plans for the near future?
I will try to finish the interview without having your website hacked by your regulars due to the endless answers and pompous way I answered your questions. (Ed: Don't mention it). Let's just say that a whole lot of things will take place before the official release of our new album "Between Illness And Migration" due out in the UK at the end of February. See, I did quick, a real pro!
