Daïtroby Matt
Dixon, June '09 Photos
by Burkhard Müller (except above)
Laissez Vivre Les Squelettes from Laisser Vivre Les Squelettes
1.
You're set to release a new record in a few months entitled Y. What
can we expect from it? I read that you don't necessarily consider
it to be a concept album but also more than a collection of songs.
Could you explain this further? How does the record differ musically
from past releases?
After the split with Sed Non Satiata, we started a new song that we
decided as to be the first track of the album. From there, we decided
that the 2nd one will be the second track etc. We also decided to
have a long text that will be spread on all the songs... So it's basically
a little bit more than just a collection of songs because we tried
to consider it as a whole, taking care of tempos and tonalities. We
sing more too, this is what excites us more as well because we were
tired of always screaming. This is the record we had the hardest time
with... Writing the long text was a difficult exercise, mixing process
was long too, long to get all the vocals recorded but we're really
happy and it was worth spending time on it because I really love the
songs. I think it brings a new perspective in musical terms to the
band...
2.It's clear
when looking at your lyrics and how you go about your business that
friendship is one of the main statements of the band. The DIY community
depends largely on hard work, honesty as well as friendship. What
was it about the DIY punk ethic that initially attracted you to it
and what does being Daitro mean to you?
We basically have few songs talking about friendship, and I'm not
even sure we have a single one about... because it's boring to talk
about that. Daitro is the band I do with friends, linked to other
friends in different places who make things happen and reciprocally
. Sam, Benoit and I started to play together ignoring everything from
punk and hardcore. We knew about it going to shows in our city, mailordering
records, metting new people at shows so it went pretty natural to
make the band work on this DIY basis because it was the one we were
totally immerged in... What does being in Daitro means to me ? it
means being in the best school you could dream of.
3. Along with friendship
it seems that communication is also a very important aspect of Daitro.
Though I've read that you do not specifically consider yourselves
as a political band per se you have all personally been very active
on a number of fronts as well as collectively by appearing on various
benefit compilations among other things. What are some of the things
you try to communicate through your music and on a more personal level
what are some of the things you consider worth fighting for these
days??
The main purpose of the band is to try to contribute to this international
independant network. . That's what we mostly try to say... as well
as the risk of becoming too much self-centred when you're over involved,
because sometimes it can threaten your personnal integrity. The balance
between the devotion for a cause and the effects this devotion can
have on you is really interesting... It leads to what we mostly spoke
about in our last lyrics, about how a passion can become extremely
dogmatic. This is what we consider worth fighting for today because
it creates crappy behaviours and lack of communication between people,
not only in the punk community of course... Worth fighting for ? wow,
I wouldn't know what to tell... I live in France in 2009, there are
so many things that are fucked up.
4. Do you ever
worry that the message will get lost when you scream the lyrics? How
do you overcome this? Does it come down to passing out lyric sheets
and/or explaining the songs beforehand or is it up to the listener
to read the liner notes for themselves?
Instead of sheets, we'd rather try to speak when we have some things
to talk about, to share it with people as much as possible, but we
try to keep it short so as not to break the spontaneity of the show...
we're first of all a band playing music feeling concerned by extra
other things that we try to communicate, like everyone. We're neither
artist, nor political leaders. I like to think that a show is a place
where you can learn a lot but there different ways of learning things,
lyrics are the only way to pass a message. For some it will be what
a band member will say to explain a song, and for others the only
attitude of the band will be enough. You know, one of the band that
changed my life is Amdi Petersen Armé. I saw them in a squat,
playing their rageous songs in front of my face without saying a word
and then got a 8 songs 7" for 18 francs (about 2.5€). I
learnt more with their humble and generous attitude than any other
speach about 'how cool DIY is' ... because I understood it by myself.
And I kept this image of a band changing my life just with the intensity
of their show and then getting a track of this show for so cheap.
I learnt that things can be different, with the same sincerity and
it opened me new ways to consider other things.
5. Daïtro
has been together for nearly ten years now. In that time you've thoroughly
covered Europe, and you've been to the US and Japan together. Is it
difficult to take time off and seemingly put life on hold to go on
tour? How are you able to handle it monetarily, emotionally, etc?
Essentially, what drives you to get out there??
I have to admit it's not always easy. Music is more than a passion
for all of us, it's a real obsession so it's a constant balance between
what we want to do and people we live with. The goal is not to act
like egoists and make our girlfriends suffer from that self centrism...
but on the other hand, we don't want to be frustrated... so we're
always making compromises, trying to arrange them considering each
person in the band. I think we all know when it's too much.... We
know we have some periods we cannot tour due to Gwen and Benoit's
work. So when everybody is free, we try to go on tour, but we always
have to think 6 months in advance. Monetarilly, we have a common account
on which each of us put 30€ every month that helps to pay studios,
or other stuff. Moneywise, it's really different than we started,
we have more records, more people come to see us or buy shirts when
we're on tour so now, we lose less money than in the beginning. Then,what
drives us to go on tour ? I would say curiosity, to see what's going
on elsewhere, challenging ourselves and our music to go in countries
where we know it won't be easy... Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, Poland
for example... We're really excited by what we don't know, this is
what pushes us to tour I think... and travel, being together as friends
is really important as well. About Japan, the USA, we never tried
to tour there by any means necessary, people who put out our records
there asked us if we wanted to come and tour there, and it was pretty
exciting to have the opportunity go that far thanks to the band!
6. You've done
splits with the likes of Ampere, Sed Non Satiata, Raein (twice), and
Lhasa. You've also contributed to over a dozen compilations. Could
you walk us through the thought process of putting out a split record?
What factors weigh on your mind and how do you go about deciding which
bands and compilations to work with? The split 7" is one of my
favourite records. How did you decide to hook up with them?
Every collaboration is different. About compilations, most of the
time, people write us to ask to contribute with a song and we 95%
of the time agree because if it makes the person happy, so that's
fine with us. Except if for some reasons we don't feel close to the
other bands or people who want to do it, then we say we're not into
the project. But I must admit I don't really care about compilations
because most of the people never send us copies and also because most
of the time, they have no specific interesting purpose like benefits
or stuff like that. About splits, it's a really natural process...
With Raein, I was in touch with Nicola because we were setting up
their show in Lyon with Funeral Diner in 2003. We started to write
each other really often and I was listening a lot 'Il n'y a pas d'orchestre'...
He asked me to send him a CDr of our last recording, which was a voiceless
and unmixed version of 'Des Cendres Je Me Consumme' and he came up
with this idea of doing a split together, which was naturally approved
by everyone. We unfortunately have less opportunities to see them
nowadays than some years ago but we'll always be linked to them and
reciprocally and I like to know it. They've been in Lyon to spend
some days so you know, a split really become 'more than music' when
things like this happen. Then with Ampere, it was the opposite process...
After our full length, Seb wanted to do another split. He had Kaospilot
in mind first but they couldn't because they were missing some material
and wouldn't be able to write some new stuff for a long time if I
remember well... Seb was in contact w/Will from photos he took for
the Orchid discography and they already met during the Yage US tour,
so he asked them if they'd be into the idea of doing a split w/us...
They didn't know anything about us but finally they agreed and it
led to the record and a tour together but also to a nice friendship
as well, since we visit from time to time outside the bands agendas.
With Sed Non Satiata, we played with them on tour and were totally
blown away by the guys and their music. We didn't have to decide or
speak about it, doing something with them was totally logical. It
actually first started with the release of their 1 sided LP on Alchimia
(the label we were doing years ago). And we finally approached them
to do the split together because they're one of the bands we really
feel the closest to. They're French too, so it helps! With Lhasa,
it's particularly because we were not supposed to be on that split...
It was supposed to be with another Japanese band, Lhasa and Raein.
The Japanese finally canceled the project and I was in contact with
Yoshi from Oto... and he asked us if we wanted to be on it, as we
were releasing the split w/Raein in Europe.
7.Having identified
lack of communication and bad behaviours as important problem areas
within the punk community, I'm wondering what other issues you recognize
as problematic within the punk/DIY community and how these challenges
can be overcome?
Lack of communication and bad behaviours are a not a cause, they're
a consequence of the punk folklore which is the problem in my opinion.
You know, slogans, politically correct, the 'more radical than thou'
attitude... DIY punk is not a wonderful world where everybody likes
each other and I'm ok with it. I feel good right now in that community
and its pros and cons actually, but it took me years. But some things
that I get pissed off about and think that could be challenged are
your integrity being judged from the music you play, how the concept
of local scene is totally poisoned by the internet, how some people
take the DIY organization as granted, how they see their own bands
as an end. How these challenges can be overcome ? Back to the roots
! Do It Yourself !! You think this zine is too much or not enough
radical or political or whatever ? Do one yourself ! You think this
band should play in a squat rather than in a bar ? Open a squat! etc.
etc..
8.
Speaking of splits, your record with Sed Non Satiata was a benefit
for a number of organizations including Spazio Autismo, Unhurt and
Food Not Cops. Could you talk about your connection with these organizations
and in particular Food Not Bombs/Food Not Cops in Lyon? What is the
importance of grassroots activism in the punk scene and do you think
it's something that is lacking these days?
I don't know if it's something lacking these days. Would it be better
if people feel kinda obliged to be involved, just to fit a punk tradition?
I see a lot of people around me involved in punk that go over the
punk frontier who make a lot of links between music and counsciousness
so I won't say that globally it lacks activism. In the scene we mostly
evolve, people are more generally less activist than in other punk
scenes but even if we feel concerned by things going on in our town,
we won't pretend to be activist at all, and more generally people
we meet at least always have a political or cultural awareness wich
is translated by the fact they want to achieve things on their own...
We were involved in Food Not Bombs/Lyon before to have this record
done and we were missing dishes to prepare/serve the meals in the
streets. We thought we could raise money from the next record and
from this point we thought it could benefit to local organization
of each part being involved in the record.
9.With the emergence of the internet bands and ideas seem to be
more assessable; speaking from my own experience I've had the opportunity
of interview bands from Italy, France, Germany and as far away as
Malaysia over the past six months thanks in part to the internet.
It also seems that almost every band has a myspace page (though I
noticed you do not). There are also huge webstores dedicated to selling
punk rock related products, the printed fanzine seems to be a dieing
out, and even printed show posters and becoming harder and harder
to find. What is your opinion on the effect of the internet on the
punk rock scene?
My opinion is that however cool it, we'll lose archives of these years...
I'm totally crazy about punk books with old pictures, old posters
and all that stuff. My boss collects Flipside and each time he gets
a new issue, we're all mad for it. What will our generation have to
show to our children haha!!?? This documentation of how was punk in
that time helps to go foreward and to have a critical eye on it as
well. I collect flyers and I have some for shows I've been 10 years
ago, I try to keep the posters of the shows we played with Daitro
too because there is not enough space in my memory to have everything
in stock and moreover, I'm not living with a computer neither. Real
flyers, zines, records offer punk public visibility, now if everything
stays computer based, these documents will only exist when your computer
will be turned on. I'm not saying to stop the use of the internet,
I'm just trying to say that relying on it as an unique media is not
positive for the documentation of punk and the way to understand it.
10.
Any final words you'd like to add?
Thanks for your interest! Unfortunately, we won't be able to play
that much but it's nice to have some quiet period too!
