Interview pour Zillo

"2 Unlimited" is a perfect title for your album, as there seem to be no
boundaries when composing music and arranging vocal lines for Pin-Up Went
Down. You deal with metal, classic, funk, soundtrack and jazz elements (to
name just a few) - are there any musical styles that you would never
consider to integrate into your songs? How difficult is it to choose between
all those influences because the choices really seem to be unlimited?

Alex : I listen to metal music since I am 3 years old. Back in the days metal was melodic, but now it's getting more extreme and becomes more and more abstract, atonal with brutal death. I wanted, to mix melody and brutality kinda like Devin Townsend, and to explore other musical horizons like Faith No More ("King for a day"). I think that the best songs are those we can keep in mind-or hum while playing acoustic guitar.
There's still something to get from every music style : energy of metal, oppression of doom and gothic, party side and groove of disco and funk, beauty and depth of classical music, dynamism and spontaneity of jazz...
I think that the futur of metal is in crossing genres over. Pin-up Went Down has not to be summarized to a mix of styles. We play brutal, energic, melodic rock, but the aim is to stay in listeners' mind.
A style I wouldn't explore? None, or maybe operatic metal with a female singer. Pin-Up Went Down is completely the opposite of that.

Aspho : Sometimes the lyrical concept influences the style melted in the metal foundation. I don't think we have to choose a style, it's just getting obvious in the songwriting process and we just try to take advantage of it.
Vocally, I'm not deciding to opt for a specific way of singing on a particular passage. When I'm writing my singing lines, I have images in my head, scenes... Pin-up Went Down's music call up for situations, caracters and my voice naturally translates those images or feelings, and recreate with sounds the soul of the caracters that are expressing themselves. It goes way beyond delivering emotions. I have a roll film in my throat, and a kaleidoscope in my brains. Sometimes, I'm working the other way, describing a sinister situation on a fun, party kind of passage ("Yo-Yo Yes Then No").

Besides music, what other (everyday life) things do inspire you to write
music? I can't help myself but it's hard to imagine that an album like "2
Unlimited" has been created without the use of drugs for example ...

Alex : my only drug is love or the lack of love... I think that drugs lead to narcissism or draining you bank account. Moreover I'm not as talented as John Coltrane or John Lennon.
Every song has its own history, for "Esthete Piggie" I've been thinking to a s/m dentist, for "Serie Z", I wanted a parody of the atmospheres you can find in horror movies or in doom music. I'm simply trying to give the songs a cohesive harmony and a identifiable melody that go beyon the metal borders. I also make my best to make all songs sound different from each other, being on the theme, groove or atmosphere levels. I love diversified albums.
I tink we just simply play Rock music.

Not only your music but also your lyrics seem to be limitless. How does
someone come up with songs like "Nearly Dead Bat Make Up", "Pussy Worship" or "Only Some Shitty Chemical Stuff"?

Aspho : I really hate alcool and drugs. Alexis has his own vision of the music he writes but I don't live it the same way. Personally, what he has written helped me to talk about some personal issues and get rid of some old demons, or at least, to talk about some issues knowing I'll have to live with that shit all my life. Some lyrics ae total fiction, I've never killed any baby with a pillow, and I have no taxidermy room. The songs you're talking about deal with subjects that are very different from each other. NDBMU talks about bands such as Kiss that have been considered as nazis, while they were singing lame love songs, Pussy Worship talks about a question every girl has been facing being "what is i like being a man when you're having sex?", "Only Some Shitty Chemical Stuff " dissects the love feeling with the pure hormonal behaviour as main element. I know there ain't only that about love, but that hormanal approach of our love feelings described that way is just showing my negative vision of the subject. Those themes don't come to me instantly. Among all those songs, some of them talk about daily obsessions. Others are about some of Alexis' issues he absolutely wanted to express. I feel the urge to express daily all the different sides of my personnality, vocally or by writing them. I'm an emotion sponge, I'm absorbing them all. You've heard the result.

Alexis, you play all instruments, are the songwriter and also take care of
production duties. Where did you learn to play all those instruments so
terrifically? How difficult was it to find live musicians who're able to
play those tricky songs?

Alex : to teach drumming is my job, I've been to conservatory for years... I've learned playing bass when I was a teen with a Jazz-funk bass player who opened up my ears. You must attend keyboard courses at the conservatory. And I've learned playing guitar alone. Production? as most musician, i've had many opportunities to attend to the mixing process of my various bands and it's my favourite past-time...
I've found musicians in my area. It's impossible to make the band sound live as it does on the cd. It gonna sound more Rock, but it's no bad thing to get approached by other promoters than those organising metal fests that are very extreme nowadays.

You met only twice before recording the album. This question goes out to
both of you: What made you feel so confident that you had found the perfect
partner for this project? How did this spontaneousness affect recording "2
Unlimited"?

Alex : Aspho and I met on Meetic. It just clicked instantly and we decided to write an album that would talk about our lifes, full of schizophrenia, dreams, audacity and parody.
The first track we've been working on was "Intrusion". I was so touched when I've first heard her voice that I promised her glory, money and whores. She agreed and the rest is history...
Aspho : Mmm, it's not exactly the way it happened!! We met when I appeared on a project Alexis used to take part to. I'm not on Meetic but the first song I really started singing on is "Intrusion" and Alexis "got nuts". We're leaving 700 km from each other, so we worked through the intrenet. My leitmotiv was "let's feel totally free, I want to go beyond myself". He respected that and worked that way. Total freedom of expression.

How did you get in contact with Ascendance Records, and what do you think of
their other signings so far (Stolen Babies, Unexpect ....)?

Aspho : I sent a mail to Lee Barrett, who told me to get in touch with Sam Grant. Sam offered us a deal less than 24 hours after. Sure, that's an unbelievable story, but that's how it happened. I used to know Unexpect and Akphaezya a bit (I like what they do). I'm very glad to see that Ascendance has an eclectic approach of female-fronted bands, and I admire their way of being close to their bands. That's quite rare.