Photography by René Habermacher.
Art Direction by Antoine Asseraf.

ROCKY SOFT MACHINES Cover Atwork by René Habermacher.

ROCKY SOFT MACHINES Artwork by René Habermacher.

ROCKY SOFT MACHINES Artwork by René Habermacher.

ROCKY SOFT MACHINES Artwork by René Habermacher.

ROCKY SOFT MACHINES Artwork by René Habermacher.

styling: Rogelio Burgos
make-up: Min Kim @ Airport
nails: Hiro @ Jed Root
hair: Chiao Chenet @ Airport
retouching: Dimitri Rigas
production: The Stimuleye

Pre-order CD & VINYL of “Soft Machines” from Fnac here.
Watch Rocky’s “Chase the cool” music video by The Stimuleye from their first EP here.

Photography by René Habermacher.

Styling by Suzanne von Aichinger, with Maison Martin Margiela.
Concept by Antoine Asseraf.

Transcribed by Amandine Flament. Translated by Edward Siddons.
Assisted by Amandine Flament & Ed Siddons.

read more on PARIS IS DEAD.COM

CHASE THE COOL, written & directed by Antoine Asseraf & Rene Habermacher.

Your EP is very diverse sonically – is it because you’re still experimenting, or because you refuse to choose one style ?
Let’s say you can find in Rocky the influences we wanted to play with: House, Pop, R&B. All these musics are not so different, they all have their roots in African American music.

Lille, Paris,… is it important where you’re from?
No. Today you can make the same music whether you’re from Lille, Paris or Madrid. Even though it’s true there isn’t the same energy in a big city like New York as in… Paris.

Singing in French…is it taboo for you ?
Not at all. We’re thinking about it for the next EP.

What’s it like playing the Olympia concert hall Jouer à l’Olympia? Inès, you mentionned you had already sung there before the Inrocks Festival…
You can say what you want, the Olympia isn’t a venue like any other. We were lucky enough to play it twice (the first time opening for The Shoes) and it was a great experience each time. The mood is peculiar, and you always get a reaction when you tell your family you’ll play there.

What’s your process, from writing to production ?
There are no rules. But generally we start from a base by one of us, we push the production further and Inès tries to lay down some vocals. We go back and forth like this a few times, until we like it enough to play it to Pierre Le Ny, the Art Director of the label, who’ll put it in the trash.

Sometimes, when he thinks the track is cool, he’ll send it Guillaume Brière (half of the The Shoes), who finalizes it and puts it on a record.
At least that’s how we do it now. It’s simple to tell, but in fact each step comes with its share of tears and despair.

Where did the name Rocky come from?
We wanted a name that was cool, easy to remember, that would work in any language. This one was already part of the collective imagination, so the work was already done, which made it easy. We also liked the idea of highjacking an already ultra famous name from its origins. It never fails to trigger people to ask us about the name.

What is the last thing which stimulated you ?
TRUE DETECTIVE !

Rocky, by The Stimuleye.

Rocky Tour Dates

But it was not until an unfortunate accident on stage deprived him temporarily of his Fender—namely, electrocution from an ungrounded microphone—that he turned back toward his roots in the visual arts, and picked up a camera. Initially documenting his own group while on tour, he was soon photographing the international rock scene at large.

Steve Hiett, by The Stimuleye.

Over the past four decades, Hiett has pioneered a signature style that has become instrumental to the global world of fashion photography. Favoringover-saturated images, off-centre framing, unconventional compositions, and dazzling flash work, his work has been featured regularly in renowned magazines worldwide—from Nova and Queen to British Vogue, Vogue Paris, Elle, and Marie Claire.

The Hyères festival 2014 will present the first major exhibition of Hiett’s oeuvre, emphasizing the unsung aspects of his images and re-establishing him as a figurehead in the history of contemporary photography.

Steve Hiett lives in Paris, where he continues to work as a photographer for renowned fashion publications (notably for Vogue Italy), as well as a musician, graphic designer, and art director.

What was the process behind selecting the images for your exhibition at Hyeres? What will the visitors see?

Steve Hiett: Raphaëlle Stopin came to my place and looked through everything I could find. She selected the images.

Steve Hiett, Vogue, 1979.

You didn’t plan to become a photographer, and it seems that your early photography was informed by your circumstances while you were on tour. Considering how digital and technological developments throughout media have changed the landscape of photography, what kind of career path do you think you would find yourself upon if you were only beginning your career in the present day? How would a young Steve Hiett go about his business in 2014?

SH: Starting today? I have no idea. Fashion photography is such a complex thing now; lots of politics and all the digital processes, which makes doing a photo so long and complicated. When I started, you just walked into a magazine and the art director would give you a job. I don’t think you can do that now. Also, to take a photo, you took a light reading, pressed the button and that was it; what you got back from the lab was it—end of story. Now you are dealing with all sorts of choices and the new world of retouching, which can go on for days. I worked for 30 years and never retouched anything. It never entered my head (or any other fashion photographer) as even a possibility.

Steve Hiett, 1979.

Looking back over your career as fashion photographer, is there a certain period in time that stands out for you in particular?

SH:Starting. I knew nothing, but it didn’t matter.

Having worked through the last few decades of fashion photography, what kinds of major aesthetic shifts have you noticed?

SH: Now the boss is the fashion editor. They decide who works and who doesn’t, but before it was the art director.

Steve Hiett, 1979.

There is always some sort of tension in your photography. How do you achieve it?

SH: Tension in my pictures? That must be subconscious: I never look for tension. I look for the right feeling.

What is the last thing that stimulated you?

SH:The last thing that stimulated me? Steve Cropper’s guitar solo on “Green Onions,” which I have listened to 1000 times. I listened to it again last night; still has that magic. OK, I know the notes he plays, but it goes way beyond that—it’s a magic thing.

NOTE: Interview questions were put together by this year’s Hyères Festival Blog Partners:
Malibongwe Tyilo, Filep Motwary, Branko Popovic, The Stimuleye, Sean Santiago, The Kinsky.

ROCKY EP1 by René Habermacher.

ROCKY – Chase The Cool – Video Teaser from LABEL G.U.M on Vimeo.

Rocky EP1 on iTunes

It doesn’t quite add up.

There are the many facets of Ryuichi Sakamoto, but putting them together, you still wouldn’t get a sense of who the man is.

He is both an icon of Japan’s 1980’s Bubble Era, and the one who moved beyond Japan and away from the spotlight, a consistent experimentalist and accidental sex-symbol.

Founding member of the influential band Yellow Magic Orchestra, Japan’s answer to Kraftwerk.

Musical innovator for over 30 years, mixing synthpop, Okinawan traditions, sampling, bossa nova….

Screen-mate of David Bowie in the cult film “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence” / “Furyo.”

Film composer for Almodovar, Oshima, Bertolucci, Oliver Stone and Brian de Palma.

Collaborating with David Byrne, Brian Wilson, Youssou N’Dour and the Dalai Lama.
Appearing in Madonna’s “Rain” music video.
Sampled by Afrika Bambaataa…and Mariah Carey.

And last but not least, well before the Fukushima accident, a prominent activist in Japan’s anti-nuclear effort.

It doesn’t quite add up, and that’s really for the best, as we found out after spending an afternoon with him in New York City

Left: inspiration board. Right: Ryuichi Sakamoto. Photography by René Habermacher.

The Stimuleye: When did you first feel personally concerned with the nuclear issue?

Ryuchi Sakamoto: Probably I started feeling anxious about it around the time of Chernobyl. Then I encountered the facts about the nuclear reprocessing plant in the northern part of Japan called Rokkasho. It was 7 years ago, pretty recent.

It’s not a usual nuclear plant, it’s to re-use, re-process used radioactive wastes. Through the processing, you emit hundreds of time more radioactive materials than the usual nuclear plant does. You get 365 nuclear plants in 1 village. Very dangerous.

So I started a web campaign, called Stop Rokkasho, I asked Kraftwerk to give us a sound logo, and they did actually ! The pretty famous graphic designer Jonathan Barnbrook had his assistant design the webpage, which was very neat.

As a web campaign it succeeded, my friends – photographers, musicians, stylists, creative people got to know about this plant. We decided to make a Stop Rokkasho tshirt, we asked more than 50 designers to make a tshirt. They needed phrases, so I gave them “No Nukes. More Trees.”
Everybody loved it, especially the second line.
It’s very easy to understand, and no one can resist.

So, I decided to form a company called “More Trees”, it’s been 6 years, and we’ve been doing mainly conservation of Japanese forests. We have now 11 forests in Japan and 1 in Philippines.

TS: Last time I went to Japan, I was very lucky because after the shoot we went to Nara, to the forest sanctuary. The idea that the temple was not the temple itself but the forest behind the door, because people are worshipping the forest and the trees…

RS: Yes because the worship of mountains was probably the oldest tradition of Japan. So still now there are still gods on mountains, mountains are gods. In Japanese mythology, some gods are really wild. They break things, houses, they even betray their higher gods. Very human, like in the Greek mythology.

TS: Was Rokkasho your first political implication?

RS: The first activity of mine was probably in 2000, when famous musicians like Bono were doing the Jubilee to drop the debt on poorest 40 countries, mainly African countries. So I was asked to do the same thing, in Japan, and I did.

When the Iraq war started, I did chain music on my website – like a chain letter – I posted a very small piece of music, then I invited other musicians to continue the music, the result was an hour and half of music with 50 musicians involved.

Down "memory lane" at Ryuichi's studio in the West Village. Photography by René Habermacher

TS: What do you think is the role of the musician in politics, in general? Where is its place, and where should it not go?

RS: My position is that, activism is social and political, but I don’t want to deal with any existing political parties. I don’t want to support politicians – that’s the limit. There will be some results, what we do is influencing political parties, that’s ok because it’s not direct.

TS: And what has been the reaction in Japan to your campaign?

RS: Obviously, before the Fukushima accident in 2011, the majority of Japanese people were allergic to discussing the nuclear issue. That’s why the Stop Rokkasho campaign was targeted to creative people, not the mainstream people. I recognized there’s a big gap, a divide, between people who access to the internet every minute every day and those who don’t, and there’s a big gap, in terms of sharing of information.

It’s interesting that Japanese teenage girls, they all have a smartphone, “Smaphone” in Japanese, but don’t really access the internet.

Also I saw a few months ago, 70% of Japanese people believe mass media, in contrast of 40% of French people who believe mass media, so it’s a big difference. For the people in power, it’s much easier to control the Japanese people than the French people !

We thought for 2 years after the accident that Japanese society would change, until the big elections of December last year.

Some believed that the pro-nuclears were a “nuclear village,” but it’s not a village, but an empire. All the big businesses, the banks, huge companies, everybody is part of this empire, so it’s very rigid. Of course we knew it’d be hard to break it down…

Still, it became free-er than before to discuss it, and it’s encouraging that former Prime Minister Koizumi is talking about “zero nuclear”. Anyone can change their mind, anytime, it’s not too late !

[NB: This interview took place shortly before Japan’s national security law was introduced and passed]

Ryuichi at work in the studio. Photography René Habermacher

TS: You’ve lived through the “bubble years” and now there is a generation which has lived through “crisis” years, how do you see that?

RS: There is a slow change occurring since the turn of the century. Less and less young people will buy cars, that’s a big change as cars were a symbol of progress, prosperity, and the American empire. Since 1945 every Japanese want to have a car and a big refrigerator.

Before, Japanese people would work for a company that would own them, which is strange, like feudalism. Then in the last 10 years they started to think they worked for their own life, pleasure, joy. It’s new for the Japanese people.

I think there’s a big divide in the young generation.
There’s a very conservative, a bit nationalistic, pro-nuclear part.
There’s another part, less about social climbing, more about co-existing with nature.

TS: Do you think there’s a denial in Japan of what is happening in Fukushima?

RS: Definitely there’s a before and after the accident. The majority of Japanese people don’t want to speak about it.

But I was surprised to find out that a lot of people already left Tokyo or Kanto area ! To the West, to Okinawa, Kyushu… A lot of people started to live in Okinawa and they don’t speak up ! Of course I understand their concerns, younger couples, designers, musicians, not employees of big companies, as salarymen cannot move, and in this economic situation it’s difficult.

TS: It feels like Japanese culture starting in the 70’s had an international impact, through the 90’s, but in the last 10 years not so much. Is it because people are looking at Korea?

RS: I think people are always interest in newcomers, me included. Thailand definitely. Conflict between modernity and tradition creates interesting things. I myself feel the Korean culture and music is so energetic. Korean movies are amazing, I’m a huge fan of Kim Ki Duk.

Ryuichi Sakamoto by René Habermacher.

TS: Your former screen-mate David Bowie just did a campaign for Louis Vuitton, is this something you would do?

RS: t depends on how or what I think I would be cool. So yeah, it’s possible.

Actually one of More Trees’ forests is incorporated Louis Vuitton. We had a party in the forest, we brought all the press people nowhere in the forest, with Louis Vuitton, so they served the champagne…

TS: You were involved in the development of techno music, which was important to nightlife. Do you think the nightclub still has an important place in society?

RS: I don’t know, you may know about the situation in clubs in Japan ? No Dance Society. Police comes to arrest you if you dance. Dance is not allowed. I’m a big Pina Bausch fan, and I’ve used Pina’s voice, saying “Dance ! Dance !” in my opera from 1999, so I really support dance culture, dance as art.

Ryuichi Sakamoto by René Habermacher.

TS: What’s the next project you are working on?

RS: I am not sure… I have many ! Since the end of last year, I’ve been doing a lot in art. I kind of curated a big exhibition, at MOT (Modern Art Museum of Tokyo) which opened in December last year. Then we went to Georgia, to show our installation and to perform with Carsten Nicolai.

And this year is the 10th anniversary of the media center in Yamaguchi, YCAM. This media center is very unique, there’s nothing like it in Japan, just a few in the world. It’s a museum with a lab, a staff of 20, they make hardware and software booths according to artists’ needs – it’s amazing. I am showing 3 different installations in YCAM.

I’ve also been appointed director for Sapporo International Arts Festival, next year from July to September. Please come to Sapporo, it’s a beautiful city, the food is excellent, and nice beer.

Obviously, I was a big fan of modern art in the 60’s, Nam June Paik was my hero. I always loved art but didn’t work in the art world for decades. Now i’m working with artists and curators which is totally new for me. I went to visit the Venice Art Biennale this year, it was very interesting.

TS: What is the last thing which stimulated you?

RS: Those curators and artists, much younger than I am, is very stimulating. But looking at my own work, it’s already been 4 years since my last album, so i’ve decided to make new album next year.

Do you know Paul Claudel ? A French poet and playwright. He was a politician too, the French ambassador to Japan before the war. He saw Nô theatre, he understood it very deeply and wrote essays, and it helped me to understand Nô !

It’s a totally new to me. I studied Japanese music as an ethnic music, next to Asian and African music. I was more interested in African or Balinese music than Japanese music, but now it interests me.

Ryuichi Sakamoto Official

Stop Rokkasho

Ryuichi with his Andy Wahrol doll. Photography René Habermacher.

‘Doctor’ Mulatu Astatke as he likes to remind us, is not only a jazzman, but a doctor in musicology, who is eager to add to the lists of achievements of his home country, Ethiopia: coffee, inspiration to the Rastafarian faith, the invention of the musical scale, and it would seem, music conducting.

The bushes. Debussy. In the the mouth of Mulatu Astatke, it’s hard to hear the difference between the two.

Doctor Mulatu Astatke, "Father of Ethio-Jazz" as his business Card states. Calvi 2013. 
Photography by René Habermacher.

Mulatu with drum sticks shortly before going on stage. The composer’s own signature instrument is the vibraphone,
a set of graduated aluminum percussion bars that resemble a marimba or a xylophone. Photography by René Habermacher

Mulatu Astatke received late recognition: Originally supposed to become an aeronautical engineer he was
the first African student in the late 1950s at Berklee College of Music — “the only place in that time,” 
he said, to study jazz. Photography by René Habermacher.

Mulatu in action at Calvi On The Rocks, Corsica 2013. Photography by René Habermacher

Mulatu at Calvi On The Rocks, Corsica 2013. Photography by René Habermacher

Mulatu at Calvi On The Rocks, Corsica 2013. In the late 1960s he had returned to Ethiopia with
the first Hammond Organ and Vibraphones. Photography by René Habermacher

Marios & the Music 

Giambatista Valli 

More on Joyce.com’s Special Features…

Interview by Filep Motwary & Antoine Asseraf.

Elisha Smith-Leverock. 

Your new video for Esser is very strong, and seems to show more confidence, perhaps because of the success of “I Want Muscle” ? I would like to hear your thoughts on “I Want Muscle”, how the story was perceived and how difficult or easy it was working for the film.

I think the Esser video and I Want Muscle might seem more confident because they are both very personal projects.

Making ‘I Want Muscle’ was a great experience. I set out to explore what physical strength can mean for women and I also wanted to challenge and expand peoples ideas of female beauty.

Obviously there were some difficulties, especially trying to find clothes for Kizzy to wear. Some designers just flat out did not want their clothes to be seen on a bodybuilder and others were willing to lend but sample sizes are generally tailored to fit a very specific kind of figure, so they did not fit her.
The reactions to the finished film were overwhelmingly positive, from winning the ASVOFF Grand Prix, down to the number of people that watched to film and how they reacted to it.

A lot of people have said to me that they had never seen a female body builder portrayed in this way, without the fake tan and irony. But there was a time when people were more appreciating of ‘strong’ women and different body types, just think of Lisa Lyon for example.

I WANT MUSCLE by Elisha Smith-Leverock.

You made, if I’m not mistaken, the first music video for Esser, as well as the one for his hit “Headlock” – how is it working with someone you know intimately, to be simultaneously in tune with his world and able to step back to connect it to a bigger picture?

It’s the best and the worst thing at the same time. It’s amazing because you have great mutual trust and it’s really easy to communicate and yet it’s the scariest thing because you feel so much more pressure. You don’t want to let the other person down when they have done something so great and have worked so hard for it. You don’t want to let them down by not getting your end right.

When I shot Ben’s first video and successively the video for Headlock the approach was somewhat naive. These were also amongst my first experiments with moving image and it was really fun because Ben was just finding his feet as a solo artist so we both didn’t feel any pressure going into it.
The process for his new video was more conceptual which very much mirrors Ben’s approach to making the track.

What are your inspirational catalysts and how they help you form what you do today?

Most recently I’ve ben watching a lot of Hans Richter films, this has been a great influence for the ‘Enmity’ video.

Esser: Enmity on Nowness.com by Elisha Smith-Leverock.

How do you approach making music videos versus fashion films ?

I think generally making fashion films gives me a little bit more freedom so my approach varies. It will alway depend on if it’s a personal project where fashion aspect is a byproduct to the story or the visual idea or if I am working with a specific designer to actually showcase their collection. With personal projects the idea is more important to me than the clothes but obviously if working for a designer then you need to focus on showing the collection as well. I think this approach bares similarities to how I do music videos.

With music videos, the idea/concept always becomes secondary to how the artist is presented.

How do you see the future of fashion film ?

I’m not sure how the future will be but I know how I would want it to turn out.
I would love to see a stronger move towards actual content. Director-driven fashion films. Less ‘moving photographs’ as I like to call them. Whilst these type of films can be beautiful, I personally don’t find it very interesting to make them or to watch them. Seeing someone swishing around for 3 minutes gives me nothing.

I think its far more interesting to watch something more abstracted, a story or mood film that tells me more about the ideas behind the collection. A well crafted film that really brings you into the world of the designer and the collection rather than just straight up showing the clothes.

What is the last thing which stimulated you ?
Charles and Ray Eames.

Elisha Smith-Leverock

Benjamin (left) and Guillaume (right) of The Shoes, photo by René Habermacher.

You guys DJ’ed at the Hyères Fashion Festival, then at Versailles for the end of Couture Week, are you infiltrating fashion ?

It was a fun DJ set, a bit camping/bar mitzvah, but well mixed.

We also played in Florence for Pitti, in a beautiful place.

Are you continuing to do production for other artists?

Benjamin: It’s a part of our identity we started and really want to develop, so we try to keep it going, in between festivals, concerts and other requests that come in.  We’re working on the WoodKid (Yoann Lemoine) album, a track with Philippe Katerine, very different things as long as we like the artist.

Guillaume: With Yoann it’s a bit different, as he’s also a friend.

How long has your album been out – you seem to have a lot of different videos already ?

B: The album came out in March, I think like Mylene Farmer we’re going to make a DVD with all the videos… (laughs)

G: We’ve done 4 videos already, preparing Time To Dance for the fall. In the end half of the album is going to have videos.

The Shoes ft Esser, STAY THE SAME. Directed by Daniel Wolfe.

Is Cliché one of the tracks for which you’ll make a video ?

G: a lot of people have asked, it’s a track that chicks like a lot because it’s the only feminine voice on the record, but it’s not in the plans right now, we think Time To Dance will work.

B: We’ve seen people go crazy on that track even though it hasn’t been played much. It has an old-school, Underworld-style crescendo that lasts 2 minutes.

I’ve seen you at the Nouveau Casino the first time around…do you manage to get some of the singers from the tracks to come sing from time to time ?

G: that was really at the beginning! We have Ben Esser who comes quite often, Anita from Cocknbullkid came at Nouveau Casino. But of course the audience likes to put a face on the song.

It’s a bit unusual to have the lyrics pre-recorded with live instruments, usually it’s the other way around — live lyrics with instruments playback. Especially because you guys really are hardcore on the instruments, while the voice seems to come from nowhere…

B: that was the main criticism aimed at us at the beginning, and we hadn’t solved it when you saw us.

G: we were a bit shy, now we sing it ourself, it’s not perfect but it works more with energy instead. Now we’re starting to more or less control the singing.

The Shoes performing WASTIN' TIME with Esser at Hyères 2011, with Stage of the Art.

Do you sing it entirely live now or do you mix with the recorded lyrics by the singer ?

B: you’re getting into our trade secrets… we mix the voices actually.
G: we don’t try to hide it. it was a problem at first, but now we’ve worked it out – though of course when someone like Esser comes along it’s great, it gives it more of a band feeling and we can concentrate on instruments.

So how did you choose the singers and bands with which you collaborated ?

G: it happened by itself.
B: we were spending time in the UK, we met lots of people, making friends. It started with Primary One, we did the music for the track People Moving, he came to the studio in Rheims and we realized we could never have this kind of result with our own voices, so it became our first featuring. Then we contacted the people we had met with some demos, sometimes with lyrics sung in “yogurt”. No real name dropping.
G: none of the featurings are very famous people, it’s rather people who are at a similar stage of their career… since then we see a lot more Cocknbullkid and Esser.

Singing in French, is that something you’d consider ? I imagine the collaboration with Katerine is in French ?
B: for The Shoes, no, but for other artists we do it.

G: Benjamin does it more than me, but it’s not something for The Shoes yet.

The Shoes performing STAY THE SAME with Esser at Hyères 2011, with Stage of the Art.

What’s the current program, festivals ?

G: [this summer it was] festivals, the WoodKid album.

I’ve also produced the album of this artist called The Aikiu, which is a complete transfiguration of the initial project.

Is that the first real album by The Aikiu ? It seems it’s a project that has been on the verge of happening for a long time, I remember hearing a single at least 5 or 6 years ago…

G: They’ve had EP’s only so far, they asked us to come work on the album, we arrived and blew the whole thing upside down. We broke everything and started from scratch. I think Alex has a great voice, and that there’s great things to do with his voice — but that’s complete now and we’re working on WoodKid.

And working on WoodKid’s album brings some extraordinary conditions, we get to use unusual instruments. Yoann also puts a lot of constraints on us too, he knows what he doesn’t want, which pushes us to do things in different ways.

I was also very happy to discover that you (Guillaume) were behind Gucci Vump and the track SHA SHTIL which was THE track of the summer last year… Is that something you’ll continue or are you focussing exclusively on The Shoes ?

G: I’m focussing more on The Shoes, but Gucci Vump is a funny project, a bit shapeless, Louis (Brodinski) and I run into each other from time to time, we get commissions for remixes from time to time — like WoodKid’s Iron. It’s a dilettante project.

Gucci Vump – Sha! Shtil! by quepasooo

So after the festivals you guys are focussing on your own tour ?

G: Yes we have over 30 dates in the fall, the climax will be November 9th at La Cigale in Paris. We also hope to return to Japan.

You’ve already played in Japan ?

G: The album did really well over there, Japan’s the first country to sign us besides GUM, and they didn’t want to wait so long for the album, so we released an album just for Japan, with B-sides. People try to get their hands on that album, which is a bit of a collectors’ item, with demos and beta versions of tracks which later appear on CRACK MY BONES.

But we’re very focussed on our La Cigale date – with almost all the guests from the album, extra band members…

We usually have 2 percussionists, but we’ll probably go back to 4 – visually it’s beautiful and in terms of sound it doesn’t hurt. When you have 4 guys doing a sort of choreography, it gives something unusual.

The Shoes, photo by René Habermacher.

The last thing which stimulated you…

G: a DJ from a rap group called 1995, a French group, which made an amazing mixtape for the summer.

B: for me, it was the Solidays concert of Ebony Bones – I usually don’t listen to her music, but in concert it was impressive.  It’s really made for a festival.

G: from time to time, you get groups that you don’t necessarily like that make a strong impression on you live, they transfigure their music. But you also get the opposite…

I had that with Gonzales. 10 years ago I liked his stuff, I went to see him live, and I hated it so much, I couldn’t listen to the music again for several years. And still now I like the music but I can’t stand his videos or his imagery in general.

G: it was really important for us to delegate the image to Pierre (LeNy), even if we have our ideas regarding what we like visually.

So far you haven’t appeared in any of your videos….but you’re not hiding either ?

G: You often see beautiful videos that fail as soon as the singer appears, the acting required from the singer brings the whole thing down. We want our films to be little bits of cinema – we’re not going to add anything to that feeling.

THE SHOES
Special concert at LA CIGALE
November 9th 2011
Opening act: ESSER

Photo credits:
STYLING: Michael Philouze
GROOMING: Tanya K @ B-AGENCY
PHOTO ASSISTANT: Fabien Campoverde
with special thanks to Pierre Le Ny & G.U.M.

Film credits:
Filmed by Jason Last & René Habermacher
Edited by Antoine Asseraf
Production Assistant Lynsey Peisinger
a THE STIMULEYE production

Lori Sean Berg and Shane Aspegren jamming on a cloudy day in Paris. Photo by René Habermacher

What was the last thing that inspired you?

S: That’s a hard one to answer.  As time goes on, it’s a lot harder to be really be blown away by things.  We just did the project with Le Musee Du Quai Branly in Paris and had the chance to dig through their audio archive.  This was really refreshing to work on to discover new sounds from around the world.  Also, Lori and I saw the Anish Kapoor installation at Le Grand Palais together and that was really amazing.  It was something that you needed to spend some time inside to appreciate the full effect. I suppose we like things without immediate gratification.

Can you remember a particular inspiration for your latest album BUILD WITH EROSION?

S: The record was created over such a long period of time that there were so many things that were poured into it.  In the end, the theme of erosion was really important.

L:  We use a lot of eroded musical equipment. I’m not sure how to say it? We love dust!

S: In a way it’s always been a theme of the band… using instruments that are on their way out, or loving the sounds that came from pedals with dying batteries…

THE BERG SANS NIPPLE in action. Photo by René Habermacher

Is the concept of “erosion of instruments” something that interests you conceptually or is it the frailty of sounds created?

S:  I guess it’s both of those things.  There’s always been a balance of harshness and beautiful sounds in there.  Also, lyrically, it all ties in together, but that’s all there for people to digest as they’d like.

L:  I love instruments on their last legs. I want to give them a second life

Tell us a little more about why you work with concepts. In advance of the album release, you set up a site for BUILD WITH EROSION incorporating the surrealist concept of the exquisite corpse.  You used this concept again for the promotional video for Change the Shape. Why?

The Berg Sans Nipple – Change The Shape from Clapping Music on Vimeo.

S: A band that I was part of back in the late 90’s used to make exquisite corpses in the van on tour and, at that time, I was really into the Surrealists.  I’ve always wanted to do a project like that and it worked really well with the “Change the Shape” theme.  It also gives a different energy to a project when you can get a bunch of other artists involved.

L:  Although “Build with erosion” is not a “conceptual” album…

S:  Maybe not conceptual in the sense of advance planning but, in the end, it developed into a unified concept.  Things become what they are and it all makes sense together.

Lori Sean Berg of THE BERG SANS NIPPLE

One of my favourite tracks on the album is DEAD DINOSAURS RULE THE EARTH.  How did that track develop?

Dead Dinosaurs Rule The Earth – The Berg Sans Nipple by blackmaps

L:  From Zari!

S: Of course, the title came from my daughter and I jotted it down in a notebook.  We had a bass line and drumbeat in a tape full of improvs that we had done together and I thought that the title was perfect for the bass line.  As always, it went through a lot of transformation to get to the end of that track, but it all stemmed from a child’s mouth and an improv.

L:  An old old idea. Probably recorded from my minidisc.

S:  Yep, that wasn’t one that we created from opposite sides of the world. Apart from the lyrics, it was worked on in an old fashion style, when we were together.  I think even all of the kalimba lines were from that minidisc!

Lori, you live in France and Shane, you live in Nebraska.  Do you work together while living apart by exchanging ideas or do you tend to do most of the work in the concentrated periods when you are actually together?

L:  We really need to be together for “the moment “. But maybe we could do a conceptual album through skype next time?

S: It’s really combination of the two.  The best stuff comes out in the concentrated periods of being together though.  The brooding and frustration comes at the other points, but then gets weeded out when we meet up again.

L:  That sounds agonizing. But when were together we have a lot of fun, we play pinball and drink wine and champagne.

S:  visit caves…

L:  and meet cavemen…

S: Cro-mags from the perigord noir!

Shane Aspegren has a fable for unusual soundtools..

The Berg Sans Nipple is known for its amazing live shows.  How do the two of you go out there and recreate the complexities of your sound?

S:  We started as a live band.  In fact the first few shows we did, we never repeated any of the music that we made, but were really just writing a set of music to perform live.  Now thing are a lot more complicated in that we’re writing in the studio and then trying to figure out how to transform that into a two person live setting.  I love both sides, but it’s become more challenging as things have evolved.

L: It’s always a “casse-tête chinois” when we play shows! I think it would be much easier for us to simply work in the studio.  But it’s important for us to play live music… to be connected with people.

S:  We’ve always tried to make a connection between each other, even through sampling each other live and setting up face-to-face. I think that was our first goal in playing with each other.  So the idea was the inception of the band.  And hopefully that’s how we connect with our crowd.

...and malt brew

You both work outside the band, including work in film and photography. Do you have any favourite photographers or visual artists?

S: I have a hard time pinpointing favourites of anything.  I was really into Robert Frank and Duane Michaels and photographers like that when I first started taking photos, but there’s a lot to love about so many things. I like colour a lot more now.  But speaking of visual artists, we’re really lucky to have been working with Cody Hudson and Stephen Eichhorn (who were responsible for the artwork for “Build with Erosion”).

If  THE BERG SANS NIPPLE could work with anyone who would it be?

L:  Johnny Cash.

S: That’s interesting. I feel like it’s always the thing that’s the most exotic that interests both of us, which is maybe why the trans-atlantic game works for us.  I’d probably say that scoring something with Ennio Morricone or maybe even moreso, Bernard Herrmann.  It wouldn’t necessarily be a film though… maybe something in a public setting.  Or we could score Johnny Cash’s life.

In what direction do you see THE BERG SANS NIPPLE developing into in the future?

L:  Pinball sound design. That is the future for me!

S: If Lori is going to go off on his own to get lost in pinball world, then I guess that it’s, the end!  We’re trying not to focus too much on the future but to work on the present as much as possible. We’re starting to do a lot more film work together and that’s what we’re really interested in.  I don’t see us ever stopping making music together, but we’re also ready for another step into other things.  We’ve got another project in the works as well… a new record with a different concept that won’t necessarily be the BSN, but will still be in the same spirit.

The Berg Sans Nipple – ‘Build With Erosion’ by blackmaps

She was discovered by the legendary illustrator Antonio Lopez, whom she considers to be one of the great influences in her life, as well as a very close friend. She inspired and collaborated closely in the design studios, with Christian Lacroix, John Galliano and Jean Paul Gaultier. Suzanne von Aichinger posed for iconic photographers Serge Lutens, Paolo Roversi, Mario Testino, Jean Loup Sieff, Ali Madhavi, David Seidner, and strutted down the catwalks of Yves St Laurent, Thierry Mugler, Claude Montana, Gianni Versace, Christian Dior (Galliano) , Hermes, Martin Margiela, John Galliano, Jean Paul Gaultier.

In Greek mythology, the Sirens with the irresistible charm of their song, lured mariners to their destruction on the rocks surrounding their island..

In modern mythology, Sirens are dressed in Rick Owens, pose for photographer René Habermacher and share their secrets and thoughts on current and past affairs with Stimuleye Filep Motwary…

SUZANNE VON AICHINGER feature, is a collaboration between Un nouVeau iDEAL and THE STIMULEYE
Fashion Editor : Ines Fendri ⎜ Make Up : Akiko Sakamoto ⎜ Hair : Karin Bigler
Production : Lynsey Peisinger for THE STIMULEYE
Special Thanks to Mr Rick Owens and Anne van den Bosche @ Rick Owens Press Office

KALI, Suzanne von Aichinger wears a Rick Owens cape and gloves, all FW2011. Photography by René Habermacher

I always liked her and when we finally became friends, I liked her even more. In the following conversation Suzanne shares her thoughts on fashion, music, talent, the water, mythology and other obscurities. You are about to discover the muse, the model, the artist, the stylist..

I caught her leg on her daybreak between styling for a Vogue photo shoot and organizing a major project.

FILEP MOTWARY: Hi beautiful? So it was very difficult to catch you in the past two months. What have you been up to?

SUZANNE von AICHINGER: I know Filep. I’ve been a little like Houdini…escaping. But for a good reason. I had plenty of work and styling projects

Tell me more about it please. It seems you work non-stop.

It’s been good for me lately. I’ve been styling some perfume campaigns, editorials for Russian Vogue, Italian Vanity Fair, doing photos with Dita, and now I’m preparing another perfume campaign, and a major photo shoot with one of the MOST gorgeous women on the planet.

Oh Gosh, indeed its a lot. You mean the actress, Elisa Sednaoui? Ali posted a shot of her on twitter…

Oh what a beauty Elisa is!!! But, I’m referring to another lady…very iconic. I don’t know if I should say who it is. I don’t like to talk about things before they come out…

I understand. How easy it is for you to collaborate with people. What a concept needs to have in order to get you involved in it?

Collaborating with people is my ultimate way of creating. I find the dynamic of working with another or others, stimulating, and proven a successful way of expression for me.

How do you make your choices? Is money an important motive or not always?

There has to be an element that compels me, something that excites my imagination. I also have to feel that I have something relevant to bring to the story. Money is very often not a motive. But, sometimes it is an essential part of creation. We must also live, make a living, etc. You have to know when to give and when to sell!! There is no shame in being paid for a job well done. Andy Warhol considered making money the highest art form. I’m not sure that I adhere to this philosophy, but I don’t love being broke either. I like the freedom that having some cash on hand can procure you.

On the other hand there might be talented people, who would love your contribution but, lets say, cannot afford you. How would you react in such conditions?

I usually say YES to a project, which stimulates me. It’s not about the $$$. It’s about the action. I believe in working with people that I consider talented or kindred spirits. As people of great talent have wanted to work with me, when I had no money to pay them. Just for the sheer joy of seeing an idea become a reality.

I wanted to ask you about the photo shoot you just did with René Habermacher. It’s so iconic, yet in a very special way. How was working with René?

I loved it. We had a beautiful day together, with a great creative team. We wanted to express in this series, something that is based more on personality, than fashion. I feel that there are many stories to be told in my future with René. There is a quality in his vision that is very strong and appealing.

CASSANDRA, Suzanne von Aichinger wears a Rick Owens dress, boots and gloves, all FW2011.
Photography by René Habermacher

Exactly my point. The photographs serve our conversation so right! I’m very happy that Rick Owens was so positive when I contacted him for the garments. He is always so nice to me. Also for the fact that we shot his winter collection which is by far my favorite!

So am I! I LOVE Rick! He is one of my favorites. And, his fashion is timeless. I know that this can sound cliché, but if you have some pieces by Rick from 12 years ago, they are as relevant as pieces that he has made 2 days ago. They don’t go in and out of fashion. They have their own essence and place.

Having in mind that Rick’s clothes are so special, yet the 2000’s are the epitome of diversity. Each designer points out a different outline every season, there is so much choice. How do you see fashion now yourself, as a stylist?

It’s hard for me to answer this. I see many great things happening, no doubt. But, I see a lot of nonsense going on as well. There is not enough power any more in the hands of the creators. Now, big design houses change designers like they change their underwear. Just ridiculous. There is no time for the designer in place to create a brand identity, that he is fired. And very often, they find out that they’ve been fired, by reading about it in the papers.

It’s as if the financial/commercial people at the heads of some houses, envied the position of creator, and wished to usurp it. They believe that they are capable of being the creator. WRONG!!!!

But most of the Houses belong in companies like LVMH or PRADA. I think it’s difficult to be the head designer, no matter where you work if the House belongs to someone else. No? For example Chloe changed designer four times since 2001…

There are, thank goodness, some examples where this situation is working favorably for the house and the designer, like Alber Elbaz at Lanvin, Nicolas Ghesquiere at Balenciaga, Marc Jacobs at Vuitton.

But in many cases, it has been very difficult for the designers. It can be financially rewarding, if you can stay in place for more than a few seasons, but you do sell a part of your soul to the devil. And then you sometimes lose your name, and have stylists imposed upon you to tell you what to do, and how to show your collection, and editors telling you they don’t want to see this or that. It used to be that if anyone tried to tell the big designers what to do, they would be told where to get off. No one dared anyway. They knew better I suppose. 
Now, there are sometimes treated like puppets, and not really given a chance to express themselves. It takes a few years to create a brand identity. I’ve seen some real talent thrown out of houses for no reason. It’s bewildering. There are so many revolving doors, my head spins just thinking of it.

You have my vote on that! How do you see the Gaga phenomenon?

To be honest with you, I don’t see it at all. I choose not to. It’s a lot of hype, that doesn’t really attract my gaze. And, don’t get me wrong; I think that she actually looks pretty cool as a woman. I think that I would like her very much as a person.

I like her too. Finally we have a great performer with a great voice, for a change.

What do you mean? That she has a good voice, or that she has an opinion?

I think she has a great voice, I saw her live with a piano and she rocks. But talking about Gaga, I don’t mean the person, I mean what has been caused to fashion by Gaga wannabes, the interpretation of her…
A great part of fashion as we see it today has become quite vulgar, don’t you think? There is a lack of allure and beauty for the sake of beauty. All is linked with business…

I can’t comment on Gaga. As I said, I know very little about her. If you ask me about The Melvins, I’ll give you a very enlightened answer.

Do you mind if we talk about your past?

(laughs) Let’s talk about my past Filep.

Tell me about you posing for Ali’s illustrations…You told me on the phone the other day that you were at a friend’s place posing for him…

Indeed for the last few days I’ve been posing for some illustrations, done by Ali Mahdavi and it’s been such a wonderful experience. It reminded me of when I worked with Antonio somehow. We had Lars Nilsson collaborate as art director, and Catherine Baba doing the styling.

I didn’t know that Ali is also an illustrator. He is such a sweetheart

Yes, Ali is a brilliant artist, who graduated from the Beaux Arts de Paris with the highest honors, and he was at one point selected to eventually teach anatomy classes…a great honor in view of the fact that it was the school of Delacroix, Géricault, etc.

Well, Ali is such an impressive and kaleidoscopic personality… How did you guys meet in the first place?

He was a friend of Lars Nilsson who at the time was the first assistant of Christian Lacroix. I thought that he was very moving and beautiful. We have become very close, like brother and sister, and are very inspired by each other. He also has a great sense of the absurd, which corresponds to me very much. it makes me feel at home.

It seems that you are one of those women that men become obsessed with. I know, cause this is what happened to me. At a younger age, when I used to see you on TV, especially doing Lacroix, there was something about you that in a way made me feel like we new each other from before….

Although I’m not very keen in believing past lives and so on… There was something about you.

Oh Filep, first of all, yes, I’ve experienced the feeling of meeting someone that you feel you’ve known forever, transcending time and lifetimes, meetings that happen on other planes, dimensions, dream worlds, which I believe to be as real, if not even more real than the world that we recognize as real.

Is this what happened with Antonio Lopez too?

Antonio was and continues to be a great part of my life and the same goes for almost everyone who had the great fortune of knowing him.

What’s the story behind your relationship?

We met through Bob Starr in NY, who spotted me shopping at Balducci’s, across the vegetable aisle!. I was sent to meet Antonio by Bob Starr. I had heard of him, of course. He was IT! A living legend! So I walked into his studio, and the first thing I saw on the wall was the Andy Warhol portrait of Antonio in the entrance. I was asked to wait in a little area behind a screen and when Antonio came around to introduce himself, he looked me up and down asked me if I wanted to pose for him right away! Of course I said YES! And he put me in a Charles James gown. The “Shrimp or Siren” gown. (…)

When Antonio started to draw me, he became possessed like a demon, making grunting and growling sounds, with his face distorting. He was finding the magic getting in touch with other worldly visions…the essence. It was very powerful! I thought that he was going to attack me, he was so intense in his drawing, so beautiful, and with the first line that came out of his pencil onto the paper, the essence of everything was there. He was a visionary and a genius; as well as his partner Juan Ramos, who held a primordial importance in this dynamic.

I had heard of Antonio and I realized that I was stepping into a world of incredible beauty, creation in the purest sense of the word. These boys were the real deal. And they were so kind, sweet, and lovely. It was sooo glamorous!

Nobody posed better than Antonio. He taught all the major models everything. He was infused with spirit. He saw things that were invisible to mere mortals eyes!

PYTHIA, Suzanne von Aichinger framed in a fur hood by Rick Owens FW2011. Photography by René Habermacher

Well, thought your career, you worked with the most peculiar creators from the fashion fields. I mean… Antonio Lopez, then it was Serge Lutens, then Lacroix, Galliano, Gaultier, Ali Mahdavi… All of these men had a thing with strange beauty… like yours allow me to say. You still work with some of them till this day.

But they’re all so strange, so individual and so strong. Their vision, their work. What do you thing they see in you?

Well, I don’t know if it’s strange beauty, although I take this as a compliment. Antonio once said that I was a classic beauty according to the standards of the great masters, and the sculptures of ancient Greece, and Rome

Yes, this is what my friend Rene told me about you too when I told him I wanted to interview you. We both agreed to what I baptized you: A Siren!

But it’s true that I was never considered to be the girl next door, I never saw myself that way

I preferred a woman with more mystery, and mythological dimension. I always, since CHILDHOOD, was fascinated with Greek mythology, ancient Egypt and magic

So Siren fits then?

Yes, Siren fits very well and swimming is one of my favourite things. I love the water: I miss it. When I haven’t had a chance to swim for a while, I long to meet a body of water again…

I saw some pictures of you in water. You looked ravishing with no make-up on. So lets go back to your story. After Antonio it was Serge?

I love to connect with artists who have very powerful vision like Serge Lutens, who is another incredible genius, and uncompromising in his vision or with Christian Lacroix, for whom I was one of his muses for the Haute Couture. It was a lovely time. Christian Lacroix, along with Claude Montana at Lanvin, brought the focus back to Haute Couture, which at that time had taken second place. Because of the great creators of the 80’s, such as Claude, Mugler, Alaia, Comme des Garcons, etc He had a very beautiful moment and important impact. Couture became alive again! It was so opulent

He was my second love after Montana. I was devastated when his House closed down. Lacroix always impressed me with his elegant frivolousness.

He had a very beautiful moment and important impact. Couture became alive again!

Yes, I agree on this one. So special and also very a sweet person. Very human. I interviewed him about a year ago. I still go back and read our conversation from time to time or exchanging emails.

His weakness was the ready to wear..

If only his Couture vision had been translated in a better way, to the RTW, it would have made more sense. I feel it is very sad and wrong for his house to close. Indeed a big mistake that there was no support there.

I so agree. It seems strange not to have been supported by the government or anyone who could buy the house. It’s a shame.

Shame!

SPHINX, Suzanne von Aichinger wears a jacket by Rick Owens FW2011. Photography by René Habermacher

And how did you end up with Galliano and Gaultier?

Well, after Lacroix, I was taking acting classes with a geat teacher, who had worked with James Dean, Elia Kazan, was the husband of Carole Baker (Baby Doll) Tenesse Williams, etc..

John was starting his first HC collection at Givenchy, and was looking for a muse. He didn’t care for the women that he was being introduced to. She had to be an actress, know how to move, be this and that. Basically, someone who could feed his imaginary. Lars Nilsson told the person at Givenchy, “Oh, just call Suzanne!” very simple..

So he wanted something more than a simple model.. But you ended up having more responsibilities there in the end…?

Of course! John wanted magic, inspiration. My job was to help them see the thing that they were looking for! By movement, voices, speaking, provoking. I also brought my own style, style elements, my experience, which at some points in my life, I thought to be quite absurd. I love to daydream and play. I love to make up different personages and create situations that amuse my friends and me. We would be very obsessive about things. When I started to work with John, I realized that all of this play-acting and invention had a purpose. He was receiving all of this and feeding off of it. And the exchange was mutual. His enthusiasm fed me, so that I could give even more.

Did you find it hard serving the role of the muse? Difficult?

it was fun and flowed beautifully, very rewarding as well. John was incredibly generous. And, when he trusted you and your vision, he really gave his full trust. So I was a part of his creative team. He was intelligent and had confidence in his team to delegate. Very rare!! The hard part was manoeuvring through some in house politics, and dealing with jealousy of some co-workers.

SIREN, Suzanne von Aichinger in a dress and gloves by Rick Owens FW2011. Photography by René Habermacher

How long was your collaboration? You walked his show for Summer 2011, you had the last exit. correct?

We worked together for 4 or 5 years..? And yes, I did his last show, and closed the show! What a great honour, because it was a show about his muses. It was a very emotional experience for me, because I hadn’t been back to the house of Galliano in 10 years, and to see all the people who work there, whom I hadn’t seen in such a long time. All those friendly faces… and Steven Robinson no longer there..

We were all genuinely moved, and happy to see one another again. It was really beautiful. I lived the best years of Galliano. Saw his great ascension. It was an incredible time with many stories to tell. Truly, I feel blessed to have worked so closely with such a brilliant magical man.

Gaultier was before Galliano or after?

Jean-Paul came after John. I was working with Maria Luisa for a brief moment- another very educational experience- when I got a phone call from Lionel Vermeil, who said that Jean Paul would like to work with me on his Couture collection, and if I was interested. Of course I was! So I started to do a few fittings for him, and manipulated the “toiles” and shifted them around to what felt right.

I had a point of view and strong opinion, and wasn’t afraid or intimidated to say what I felt. Jean Paul needed this. This was the reason why Lionel wanted me there in the first place. So Jean Paul asked me to do consulting mainly for Gaultier Paris, his haute couture collection. It was great!

I think all creators who are important need this

Yes, I think so too! You must have a woman involved in the creation. We are after all the ones who will be wearing the clothes.

Do you mind if I ask you about your music? Well I dont know much about it but I saw some videos on YouTube and its pretty intense. They way you perform with the rest of your team – Its three different music groups right?

Music has always, as far back as I can remember, been the NUMBER 1 important outlet and inspiration in my life.

I was obsessed with Snow White when I was a child. The music and story are very deep, profound, dark and romantic.

I always had quite an unusual, and relatively extreme, if not to say advanced taste in music. When I was 10 years old, I was listening to Pink Floyd, Santana, Dylan, Joan Baez, Thelonius Monk, Eartha Kitt, military marching music, and of course the music of Walt Disney.

Then one day, my sister told me about Alice Cooper. At this point my life changed. Everything made sense. Here was a man, so beautiful and his name was Alice. He wore corsets, makeup and high heels, had snakes, and was electrocuted, or hung at a gallows, or decapitated at the end of his shows.

This spoke to me in a way that I had never felt before, I related to this very deeply. I was Alice Cooper. My parents thought it to be a little unusual for a little girl. I wanted my room to be painted black, and thought it to be very Romanesque to sleep in a coffin, like Sarah Bernard.

I LOVE THIS!

I was then also listening to King Crimson, early Genesis (with Peter Gabriel only!), Johnny Winter, The Stooges, Brian Eno, early Roxy Music (the first 5 albums only!), which was quite sophisticated for a child really. I wanted to be a DJ, maybe even a rock star, but I liked the idea of being a male rock star.

But how did you get involved in it finally?

I was making music mixes and compilations. Some of them for Rick Owens actually! And then started to record some of my vocals, doing strange improves, etc…

I met Timo Ellis, who is a multi instrumentalist, prodigy, heard some of these recordings and he loved them, so we did some sessions together, with John Paul Keenon (Japa) an extraordinarily great drummer. I couldn’t believe that these guys would be interested in working on this project!

So we recorded Gluttonius “Roman Style” and I also recorded some things with their band The Netherlands.

When you perform you are in a complete disguise. Why do you hide your beautiful face? Also, like Lopez you become very intense, which is totally opposite from what I got when I first met you. Really impressive I must say..

Yes, I became The Face Of Wool”. I liked to perform this way because hiding my face brought out another dimension and power to the persona. It transcends sex, male or female, a being which is mythological, who can shift the elements, move mountains, etc…

Some people found it sometimes disturbing or scary, but in fact The Face of Wool is a positive, powerful, and very humorous person.

PANDORA, Suzanne von Aichinger all in Rick Owens FW2011. Photography by René Habermacher

Where can someone officially listen to your music?

Anytime. It’s on MySpace. I haven’t performed with the Netherlands for a while because I’m in Paris, and they are in NY. But, truly, they are one of the most prodigious bands on the planet. That is why I wanted to do a piece with you on this band. Very important! One day, people will be talking about this, and they will be hailed as geniuses. I know it. And I am NEVER wrong when I have that feeling.

I also performed with Billy Hough last summer in Provincetown. I had fans even (laughs) so great! He had Michael Cunningham reading poetry, and John Cameron Mitchell (from Hedwig and the Angry Inch) singing, ect

I performed “THE END” by The Doors, and it brought the house down, very haunting, like a witch almost, possessed. Wow it was amazing. Billy and Paul Hough and Sue Goldberg. They rule.

Suzanne I want to see one of these performances.

Well there is no video online of this that I know of. But there is footage, because there is a documentary being made on Billy Hough, who is another very important figure of underground stream of consciousness poet, musician. VERY IMPORTANT!!

And lastly there is THE SUZANNES, which is about film, music and pagan, experimental noise performance…

Named after you I suppose?

Well the name happened by chance. I was with Johnny Blueyes and Seth Kirby and Ana Matronic. We wanted to make a short film and so we went to my friend’s house near Stonehenge, and the vague story -line that we had drawn out, took on a whole other form, and became “The Suzannes”.

What was the last thing that stimulated you?

The collaboration with Haider Ackermann, whom I greatly admire, for Vogue.

And here they were – George, Thierry, the Lindas and Naomis, Shana, Eva, Rossy de Palma, Ivana Trump, Diane Brill, Lypsinka, Jeff Stryker and so on.

George Michael and Linda Evangelista on set of TOO FUNKY posing for the official picture. Photo by Erotokritos

The song features a sample from The Graduate; Anne Bancroft’s line of “Would you like me to seduce you? Is that what you’re trying to tell me?” – and YES we were, then and now, instantly!

When this video was released in 1992, it was both the epitome of a glamorous era stretching from 1988 to 1992,
and a marker for the end of said era.

An era that was no longer 80’s and yet not fully 90’s. What to call it ?

“80’s and a half” ?  that would suggest that this era was an extension of the 80’s, when in fact it was more of a break…

We settled for the “Mini Decade,” a 4-year period with visual, musical and cultural codes so unique that they deserved a decade of their own.

As a teaser for our Mini-Decade series, here is a teaser, pictures which have been sitting in a box, unseen, for over 2 decades…

Stay tuned for more.

Left: Ivana Trump, Thierry Mugler and Lypsinka stand in for another snap
Right: Linda Evangelista, always ready for her 'look'. Photos by Erotokritos

Left: Fierce Trio with Rossy de Palma, and Right: the very young Eva Herzigova. Photos by Erotokritos

He’s already worked with the likes of Richie Havens, Yelle, Katy Perry, Moby and Taylor Swift, done short films for kids, and been rewarded for a film about a dick graffiti… And now he’s releasing his first EP, IRON.

IRON EP cover, illustration by Stephan Balleux.

ANTOINE ASSERAF: The music video for IRON – is it strange to make a music video for yourself ?

YOANN LEMOINE aka WOODKID: Not that strange, because as soon as I started the WOODKID project, I knew I wanted to make images, so it made sense with the video, and it was the first time I could make a movie and control all the parameters, with a budget and without at the same time being told what I could and couldn’t do. Being both the client and the director was a crazy opportunity, so I’m super happy with the result.

To direct and to make music is a bit similar, emotionally you are touching the same sensible points, it’s just a different medium of expression.

You have a material theme going on – you are the WOOD kid, the single is IRON, the tentative album name wood and CRYSTAL…

The project is always evolving, but I really like attention to textures, I made a film once on the texture of rocks, in IRON there is a lot of marble, black smoke.  I love looking at textures and the emotions they create. The color, the complexity, what they evoke, mystical and dark things.

So did the song or the visual come first ?

I’ve had an image in my head for this project for a long time, I wanted to make a statement about heroic fantasy, not in a kitschy, elf and trolls way, but to explore what Tolkien, Final Fantasy,  and Matthew Barney did. How you create a world with social codes, in a documentary sort of way, with specific imagery, dogmas, political parties, currency, dresscodes, ethnic groups, races, geography… How you recreate these codes in a parallel world. And how to do this in a way that is less cheesy than we are used to seeing in heroic fantasy, more intellectual…

 IRON music video, directed and sung by Yoann Lemoine.

You once said on Facebook (laughs) that you were afraid that one day you would have to make a choice between music and directing, do you still believe in that ?

If I have to choose, it will be a matter of scheduling.

So a temporary choice ?

Temporary but… you never know how things evolve.

I come from illustration, and a series of circumstances led me to move to directing without ever deciding “I’m quitting illustration”, but I never came back to it… I just never had the occasion to do it again, a road built itself in another direction.

How did you make the transition between illustration and film direction ?

First it was animation films for kids, because I come from 3D, then I felt the need to make live films, with actor direction, a quality of photography, so I bought myself a camera and started making my own films. Then it turned into commissions, and I transmitted into real shooting my desire to compose images and artistically direct scenes….

At first jobs were appealing to your 3D and special fx know-how, but now on the Taylor Swift video you had no post-production special effects…

It’s all experimenting. What I’m trying to do in my career and in my artistic development is to reconcile a beautiful image, detailed and in good taste, with fashion references, in the air of the times, that people want to see, with a type of narration usually seen in Hollywood films. Postproduction effects, a bit WOW, symbolic narratives with visual trips… It’s part of my identity.

But I’m no Gondry either.

Yoann Lemoine in Erotokritos FW 2011. Photo by René Habermacher.

It’s as if there were different Yoann Lemoine signature looks – the 3D look, the natural video look, the fashion film look…

Less and less… What’s complicated, is that at some point you ask yourself “who am I ? what am I trying to say ?” and you realize that in everything you did before, when you were in the insouciance of discovery, you were leaving hints about what you wanted to do next. You did it in the moment, visions, and then you see it’s all linked, and little by little it becomes more uniform and it’s a battlehorse, that can take many forms, but always with a certain common ground. That’s what I believe will be my common ground — a relationship between a beautiful image and the impact of effects that you’re not used to seeing in fashion film or music videos. An important array of means but not used a cheesy hollywood way.

And yet you’re not exactly anti-Hollywood…

There’s good and bad in everything.
What I like in a fashion film is the demands of the image and its actuality.
In a Hollywood film, it’s the power of visual effects.
Together, it makes an unlikely mix.

LIGHTS fashion film for Vogue Italia - Light Series. Filmed at The Stimuleye headquarters.

How do you think having made your own music will affect your relationship with the artists for whom you make music videos ?

Well what’s changed already is that I have a lot less time so I can’t accept as many things, so I turn down a lot of projects. And I’ll only do projects that I’m really into and are in the path of the visual statement I’m trying to make. So right now my own music videos are my priority, it comes before anything else, because they’re the films where I have the most means of expression.

When did the musical project start — the song IRON goes back quite a long way…

I started 5 years ago… it takes some time… IRON was an old demo, which was completely turned upside down and re-worked, the lyrics changed 3 or 4 times, it had all the names you could imagine – TWO TIMES then TOO BAD…

Music takes a lot of time.

It started with Richie Havens offering you a ukulele….When did you know that music was more than a hobby ?

It came really little by little. At first it was kind of a joke, then I realized I loved singing, that I had a voice… People around me supported me…Things happen quickly, but not suddenly. It’s not an overnight process.

You trained quite a lot to play live, was it a shock for you ? When you’re used to 3D and illustration which are very studied, or even live shooting where you can do multiple takes…There’s no takes in live performance.

I actually did some theater when I was a kid, so I was used to the stage. I lost it but regained it very quickly.  I was very happy to re-discover this feeling of peril and excitement, of real and immediate stakes, which you don’t have in film.

BALTIMORE'S FIREFLIES live at Montfort 2010. Filmed by Antoine Asseraf, René Habermacher and Christophe Deroo.

You can tell that the music video is a personal project, but how about the music itself?

I want to avoid going too much in personal songwriting, I prefer having more epic and mystical things on the album. I feel like transposing my universe in a unique world, accessible through music. Even though a lot of the material relates to love in a covert sort of way, I keep my distance.

So this video is for the EP, what’s next ?

We’re waiting to see what the response is. This video has been 7 months of hard work in the making, it’s drained me completely. I see the projet as a fresco, so what I can assure you is that we will continue the imagery, it’s only the first episode, and I will develop what I have to say, trying to have returning characters.

But right now I can’t say if the next video will come from the EP or from an independent single before the release of the album.

Let’s be optimistic and say it will come out before the end of 2011.

What’s the last thing that stimulated you ?

Seeing THE FIGHTER at the cinema, for an American movie I found the mood and the artistic direction very British. Stylistically, it’s amazing, this sorority of 90’s chicks, very middle America, wild brushings… Some beautiful and emotional images, very well played, especially Christian Bale.

You want to make a feature film yourself, right ?

Yes I’m working on it, still writing – homosexuality, violence, USA, 80’s/90’s — it touches about topics which I appreciate. I’m working with a writer who’s injecting many 90’s references, especially on a musical level, which help me situate the story in a real context. I would like to film this project in the USA before 2013.

Yelle in Marios Schwab FW 2011. By René Habermacher, styling Ines Fendri, make-up by Akiko Sakamoto.

When you play live, do you try to add other things visually, like with the Katy Perry tour for which you’re opening ?

JEAN-FRANÇOIS: Well as opening act we have actually less means on the Katy Perry tour!

JULIE: Normally we’re 6 on tour, with the sounds, the lights, the stage, but on Katy Perry we’re just 4.
Also we don’t give our whole show away, it’s more of a teaser — anyway we know Katy Perry is following up with 4 trucks so there’s no use trying!

JEAN-FRANÇOIS:: We want to make our show stronger, so we have these suspended drums which are very visual, the logo, which is new – an inverted Peace sign. We like bringing in new elements, whether they cost 20 euros or 2000, but we’re not in a fantasy of something crazy. However from the beginning we’ve wanted to make one-off shows, like with a choir, big ensembles…

You were also mentioning new lights for your tour ?

JEAN-FRANÇOIS: We found this guy for lights, we were looking for a long time for someone who would bring something to our live performances,
someone who’s creative on his own but open to our ideas…

TANGUY: We need that extra, because we’re coming a second time around but without huge means, we want to make a show with songs we’re proud of — lighting is really the little ‘plus’ that we can bring.

So would you want to make a “live” music video to show people who don’t know how you perform ?

TANGUY: We thought about it at the end of the last tour, with all that footage [shot by “Ce Jeu” director Yoann Lemoine],

JEAN-FRANÇOIS: We just haven’t been able to edit it yet… we could have done as a single,  but not for the first single of the album — but we’ll do it eventually.

"Ce Jeu" music video by Yoann Lemoine. Photo by Antoine Asseraf.

I still have a hard drive somewhere saying YELLE with all your tour footage, I was asked to help edit it “when I had time”, I was really into it but documentary editing takes so. much. time.

JULIE: And you can’t do just one hour per day, you need to really get into it…

JEAN-FRANÇOIS: Even us,  we don’t even feel like going back in there right away, you kind of need to put those images aside and let them rest, but we would like them to show them at some point.

It looked like an amazing experience.

JEAN-FRANÇOIS: There were some beautiful images…

Trailer for the 2008 Yelle world tour, by Yoann Lemoine.

What’s your idea of the role of the record label, since you started without one and were without one for this album, you also released things without a label in between albums…

JULIE: We learned a lot from the time we had at Source, good things, bad things, some things we didn’t want to do the same way again, it was evident for us that we had to make our own structure, to get even more freedom.

JEAN-FRANÇOIS: To sum things up, on the first album we had ideas but not the means, now we have both!

For the first album you worked with Pierre LeNy, acting as an artistic director of sorts…

JEAN-FRANÇOIS: Yes Pierre brought a lot of ideas, a lot of contacts, a network, in fashion, which made it a lot of easier, now we’re the art directors, it’s the next level.

Second music video for "Je Veux Te Voir".

How was that experience of remaking the video for JE VEUX TE VOIR – doesn’t it feel strange ?

JEAN-FRANÇOIS: That was a flashback [a lot of time had passed since the original release of JE VEUX TE VOIR]. First of all we hate the first music video for JE VEUX TE VOIR, we hated it as soon as we made it.
But you’re not always in a position to say no to a label who’s invested, we still hate the fact that it has so many million views!!

The new video was made with Nicolas Benamou following the experience with Michael Youn, it’s the work of a label, who feels there’s a second life to give to a single,
it was so strange for YELLE, when they first brought the single to radios, they didn’t know what to make of it, but once they had gotten used to it it was ok… it’s really the work of the record label.

So are you at ease with that freedom ? Talking to Roísín Murphy who has done many things herself over the years in terms of styling and ideas for music videos, she was still happy to have worked with an art director on OVERPOWERED, to sharpen the image.

JEFF: We’ve never felt forced, we’ve never had the record label pressuring us, at first we were a bit naive, everyone’s nice, we were just happy to do things, and except for that first video we enjoyed everything we did.

We’ve always been masters of our image, but of course somethings get out of hand, get bigger than you expect them, doing things by ourselves is exciting, it makes us feel more responsible. the DIY style is very stimulating, you want to defend your project even more because all the choices are yours.

Of course it becomes 100% of your life! So when you say “I’m going to relax, i’m going to the beach” you’re not really relaxing because you’re thinking about what you could do. But that’s the case with everyone who’s a freelance or has their own company, it’s an obsession!

Work becomes a luxury.

It’s not work, it’s not labor, it’s energy!

For this 3 part interview, René Habermacher shot Julie exclusively for THE STIMULEYE wearing the new MARIOS SCHWAB Fall/Winter 2011 collection. Styled by Ines Fendri, Make-Up by Akiko Sakamoto.

Yelle in Marios Schwab FW 2011. By René Habermacher, styling Ines Fendri, make-up by Akiko Sakamoto.

ANTOINE ASSERAF: Let’s talk about your new album first, SAFARI DISCO CLUB, there’s an immediate visual concept from the name to the album and on to the double music video…

JEAN-FRANÇOIS aka “GrandMarnier”: Actually it’s something that was not there to start with but added at the end. We found the name SAFARI DISCO CLUB very late into the process, at the last minute almost. We thought we should keep things simple, find 2 tracks from the album to start with.

The most inspiring track in terms of visual adaptation was SAFARI DISCO CLUB. This double-theme made us naturally think of Jean-Paul Lespagnard [whose styles had inspired the CE JEU video] and his penchant for double-themes, for juxtapositions. So we discussed it with him, with some references such as the final scene of Luc Besson’s SUBWAY, in explorer mode.

The only thing I remember about this film is Isabelle Adjani’s punk  “fuck you” dinner scene…

JEAN-FRANÇOIS: It turns out that Julie’s hair in the video is not far from Isabelle Adjani’s, but that’s pure coincidence…

But the explorer look, that was something stuck in my head — it’s a bit why I started to get into music:  I was such a big fan of Jean Reno playing the drums in the subway as a kid, it left an impression on me. So this final scene where they play music dressed like explorers was the starting points for Jean-Paul to work from…

So, do you feel that this SAFARI DISCO name applies to the album as a whole ?

JEAN-FRANÇOIS: It definitely gives a tinge — from the moment we had the title, we listened to the tracks differently, you hear the percussions more. The word “safari” also brings the meaning of “discovery,” which works because we had applied ourselves to making all the songs very distinct.  We feel very much part of the compilation generation!

It all works out in the end, but once again it wasn’t thought out that way, we made the songs really one by one.

Safari Disco Club album cover by Grégoire Alexandre. Styling by Jean-Paul Lespagnard.

There are some African vibes in the title track and on LA MUSIQUE…

JEAN-FRANÇOIS: There is a percussion side, coming from the live… Julie has a Tom Bass, we have these suspended drums, we really base ourselves on the percussions for the live show, constructed a bit like a  DJ set, with transitions — that really rubbed off on the way we composed for this album.

TANGUY “TEPR”: We didn’t want to copy anything, it’s just a slight tinge, nothing too ‘in your face’…

JEAN-FRANÇOIS: On SDC itself, the most obvious thing in terms of inspiration is the guitar gimmick which is almost Zouk.

Both LA MUSIQUE and SAFARI DISCO CLUB are very instrumental tracks, very percussion-driven, you’re in a sonic trip with words just guiding you on your way…

JEAN-FRANÇOIS: It’s less constructed.

JULIE: Less of a traditional song format.

JEAN-FRANÇOIS: The voice is used more like an instrument, on POP-UP it was more spoken.

TANGUY: Julie’s way of singing changed, not in a calculated way but gradually while writing — it was very spoken and broken on POP UP,  on SAFARI DISCO you find this style only on one track really: COMME UN ENFANT.  We wanted to try new things.

And yet QUE VEUX TU is very classic pop…

JEAN-FRANÇOIS: SAFARI and QUE VEUX-TU are the 2 extremes on the album, that’s actually why we are releasing them at the same time. SAFARI is different for us because there’s a breakdown on the chorus, while QUE VEUX-TU is more classic… the album goes back and forth between these two moods.

Que veux-tu by YELLE

Safari Disco Club by YELLE

How do you feel you’ve evolved since your first album, musically, visually and personally ? It feels like you know where you’re going more…

TANGUY: We worked with [our label] Source before releasing POP UP, and then between the release and the last tour date in 2009, the label disappeared and we became “label orphans”… all the people at the label really worked hard for YELLE, we were in a kind of symbiotic relation. You start alone, you meet a lot of people, and the you end up alone…

It helped us find our ground and think things out a bit better – we created our own label [Recreation Center], and we realized we could do a lot of things ourselves…

JEAN-FRANÇOIS: For the evolution, we were touring to support POP UP for 3 years, we really gave it all our energy, with tours getting bigger and bigger each time: first 3 shows in USA, then 8 with Coachella, then 25, twice Japan, twice Australia, 3 times Scandinavia… bigger venues, more people… in the end we’re the ones who said “we have to take a break” – we were tired, thin even, we wanted to think about the next phase – so we went home, we got some rest, and then we started getting depressed…

Then we started writing, in a cabin in the middle of the woods of Brittany, to get things started. It was a mix of excitement over starting something new with the melancholy of everything that had happened, and you feel it in the album, this need for energy.

Often you hear about bands on tour who have tons of ideas and record right away — somehow it was not your case ? (laughs)

JULIE: We take notes, Jeff sings some beats, but we really need to be in the studio to get to work.

JEAN-FRANÇOIS: We don’t write on the road because it’s not as easy as picking up a guitar — we need to let it simmer, there are no rules for us, we’re not in a method of looking for riffs like a rock band. We find an idea, we put it aside, then we rework it in detail, and the boil it down to the essentials because we’re in a fantasy of “less is more.”

We got a bit older. POP UP was written 5 years ago, we’ve evolved visually as well – we try to refine things. We have another fantasy, which is to mix fun and elegance, that’s what we’re aiming towards… That’s also why we worked with Jean-Paul Lespagnard, we share that with him.

That leads to my next question – I’m tempted to call YELLE a project more than a group — so what is essential to the Yelle project ?

JEAN-FRANÇOIS: It’s funny because actually it’s something that comes up a lot – we don’t really like the word “project” because everything in Yelle is built on top of the music, afterwards. Never did we think “we’re going to make music in this style: colorful”…

T-shirt from the Recreation Center webshop.

With a friend of mine, years ago, we had decided to make a band but went about it all wrong, we spent tons of time choosing the name, then thinking of the music video… we were out of ideas before we even got to the music.

JEAN-FRANÇOIS: It’s a bit risky to begin this way, in fact everything that accompanies the music was done by excitement:
because when you have songs it’s nice to make cool things to go along,
when you’re on tour people you want to give tshirts that people are asking,
when you make a video, you want to learn something, not just make a video for the sake of it,
and the implication in all these elements which revolve around the music, they’re not things that are planned from the beginning, they come as the music develops.

We ‘re all musicians without being purists, we’re from an advertising generation, so we’re open to proposals for branding. Pop culture, logos… it’s our generation.

That makes me think of the opposite of PORTISHEAD  – Geoff Barrow announcing the next album by saying THERE WILL BE NO SINGLE THERE WILL BE NO EXCLUSIVES THERE WILL BE NO TSHIRTS THERE WILL BE NO REMIXES THERE WON’T BE, THERE WON’T BE, THERE WON’T BE…JUST THE ALBUM, AND THAT’S IT.”

JEAN-FRANÇOIS: That I can understand a bit, especially everything concerning extras, because we like making remixes, but we like doing them our way, through our own connections. But when it’s iTunes saying “you need 5 remixes and 1 cover”, because they need “versions for countries”… it’s something else if you can’t synchronize it with real connections. On this album we were lucky to do that with the 2 covers, “Low Fi Funk” and “Fortune”, who are friends, but on the first album we didn’t know anyone, and it felt bit random to go knocking on doors: “knock knock, could I get a remix please?”

When it’s forced it’s a real drag, but it’s no reason to become so reactionary…

La Musique (Discodeine remix) by YELLE

JULIE: Especially since fans usually love these small extras, the goodies…

It really depends on your audience — I’m guessing the Portishead audience loves it when they hear YOU WON’T GET ANYTHING. (laughs)