the MARCH

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE the MARCH
WEBSITE: www.myspace.com/themarchband
COUNTRY: France STYLE: Metal / Down-tempo / Screamo

HOW WOULD YOU SAY THE BAND’S MUSIC HAS PROGRESSED TILL NOW SINCE THE BAND STARTED?

SÉBASTIEN: the MARCH's current music has truly evolved and is different from the one at the beginning. Now it is more self-assured and assumed. We've succeeded to compose a coherent music in spite of our 5 different musical universes.

At first, we placed a lot of importance on the effects. But too much effects kills the effect. So we settled for just a good reverb, a good delay. Also, at first we wanted to be and we thought we were psychedelic, Post-Hardcore kind of band; it would have been a mistake to go on this way. We've refined our influences and our playing for something going more towards one direction only. From the 60's to Black Metal, to Folk music, to Metal / Hardcore stage in general, we think we might have succeeded to “think beyond the box” indeliberately.

We don't claim to be part of any particular genre. Whatever will happen to our music in the future, we will always be true to our personal musical culture; then people will like it or not. It doesn't really matter to me. We don't owe anything to anyone.

OLIVIER: It's true that at the beginning we tried to put different parts together although it didn't suit very well. Now it's more coherent. I think the best illustration of that would be the song “Ancient Seed” which is the last one we've written and of which the parts, I think, are the most coherent with each other in comparison of the rest of the songs of the EP. This is the most fluent song. Then, personally, I think our main influences are still around Post-Hardcore or Sludge-Metal...

DOES THE MUSIC YOU USUALLY LISTEN TO DIFFER MUCH FROM THE MUSIC YOU MAKE IN THE BAND?

SÉBASTIEN: I'm musically hard to please because of my very particular tastes. To pretty much situate my musical universe, I listen a lot to bands like for instance Acid King, Neurosis, Black Cobra, Ufomammut. But it happens to me to blow my mind listening to classical or solemn music…
Since I was a kid, I've always liked “the dark substance”. So I think that in some way I find myself in the MARCH's music.

OLIVIER: There is not any specific style of music that we all listen to, that we all have in common. I think we all listen to very different kinds of music. The list would be too long but I mostly listen to Post-Hardcore and Punk-Hardcore kind of stuff, in the middle of many other styles, while some of the other guys listen mostly to Rock music of the 60's or Pop, Folk, and so on... But there are bands we can just all agree on!

THE BAND STILL MANAGES TO KEEP THAT “HAUNTING” ATMOSPHERE IN YOUR SONGS EVEN IN SOME OF THE DOWN TEMPO PARTS. IS THAT THE TYPE OF FEELING THE BAND AIMS TO ACHIEVE WITH EVERY SONG?

SÉBASTIEN: I think there will always be an atmosphere both oppressive and aerial in our music; we appreciate it that way.

OLIVIER: It wouldn't upset me if sometimes we would play more loud, dirty parts (I really enjoy listening to what The Abominable Iron Sloth or Admiral Angry do) in a song but I believe this haunting atmosphere is a big part of our identity.

THE TWO SONGS THAT I LISTENED TO ON MYSPACE DON’T FOLLOW CONVENTIONAL SONG STRUCTURES. HOW DOES THE BAND APPROACH THE SONG WRITING PROCESS AND HOW DO YOU GUYS USUALLY DECIDE ON THE DIRECTION A SONG TAKES?

SÉBASTIEN: It's always chaos during the writing process.

OLIVIER: For the 5 tracks of the EP, most of the time JB (guitar) came up with a riff or a part of a song and we all worked out around it with our own instruments. And so we built each part of each song progressively. Usually the screaming parts came the latest but most of the time I write my lyrics before a song is created and I adjust them while the song is being built.

We don't agree all the time with what part to do, when and where but generally we modify it until everyone does agree. Now, the line-up has changed and Guillaume (new guitarist) is fully part of the writing process. He comes with new ideas and the music we are currently writing is definitely imbued with his musical identity.

YOUR LATEST EP HAS A COOL TITLE “DEAD ENDS AND BLIND SPOTS”. WHO CAME UP WITH THE TITLE AND HOW DOES IT RELATE TO THE MUSIC ON THE EP?

OLIVIER: When I started playing music, my personal goal was at first and above all to put a bitter, painful, intense and loud music on my lyrics, to express them (I started to write a few stuff before actually joining a band). And so the title of the EP is above all the title that I think suits the most with the lyrics I've been writing for the last years, that summarizes the best what I say through my words, how I sometimes feel.

WERE THERE ANY SPECIFIC GOALS THAT THE BAND WANTED TO ACHIEVE MUSICALLY WITH THIS EP AND HOW LONG DID THE WRITING PROCESS TAKE AND WHERE DID YOU RECORD IT?

SÉBASTIEN: The writing process was long because the line-up changed a lot and so we redefined the music in a more mature way thereafter. It took about 8 months recording the EP but 2 years to build the band. For now, it doesn't have any specific goal but to materialize our music on a CD. Soon, if it can help us to continue playing music, then that's perfect.

OLIVIER: It was recorded by Olive from ElectrikBox (http://www.myspace.com/electrikbox) in the area of Lille (North of France).

THE BAND HAS A “STANDARD” FIVE PIECE LINE UP WITH YOUR MUSIC BEING BUILT AROUND VOCALS, GUITARS, DRUMS AND BASS. DO YOU SEE THE BAND EXPERIMENTING WITH ANY OTHER INSTRUMENTS IN THE FUTURE AND WHAT GEAR DO YOU GUYS CURRENTLY USE?

SÉBASTIEN: Sometimes, we discuss about trying to introduce some Sampler-guy, I don't really feel like it, we'll see… What I would like is a symphony orchestra.

OLIVIER: I don't feel like recruiting a sampler-guy at all either. Actually I don't think I would like to experiment any other instrument of which I know the existence … May somebody prove me I'm wrong, you never know... I prefer the music to be raw.

THE PACKAGING FOR THE “DEAD ENDS AND BLIND SPOTS” EP LOOKS REALLY GREAT AS WELL. DO YOU THINK THAT IN AN AGE WHERE EVERYTHING IS MASS PRODUCED IT IS BETTER TO SOMETIMES STAND OUT AND OFFER YOUR “PRODUCT” IN A DIFFERENT PACKAGE TO WHAT IS NORMALLY AVAILABLE?

SÉBASTIEN: Thanks for the compliment. I wish in the future, if we can distribute our music on a bigger scale, to keep a strong visual, to give the people something else than just a 2-page booklet with 5 guys posing. I give a lot of importance to the artistic design. If we had more resources we would have gone more far in the concept of the visual of the EP. But I am shocked to see and to hear people for who the substance doesn't have any more importance. They only have the style left. This is the problem.

OLIVIER: Yes. I think that music is not only about the sound. It's a whole. I believe the lyrics and the visual make us feel the sound differently. When one soaks up this other sides of music, one has a better idea of what one band wants to express, wants to say as a whole. When you release something that's concrete it should be worked on as a complete piece of art.

I SEE ON YOUR MYSPACE THAT THERE ARE A FEW PLACES UNDER YOUR UPCOMING SHOWS SECTION THAT SAYS “BOOK US”. I GUESS THAT AS AN INDEPENDENT BAND ONE OF THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES IS GETTING SHOWS?

SÉBASTIEN: Yes, you're right, especially in France; I don't really know how it goes at your place or on other continents but in here everywhere you go you have machines that restrict the sound... (Decibel counters, they are machines that count how loud you play and in the bars, you cannot play if the volume rises to a certain amount of decibels). So you have a lot of bars where a lot of shows take place but they are not adapted for it. It's a paradox. Our music is pretty diverse, we need a lot of “power” in our amps; we can not do differently.

We don't run after gigs and they are mostly set in order to communicate with the audience. We have time; we're not in a hurry.

OLIVIER: Maybe it's going to be a bit easier since we've released something out. When you don't have anything to make people listen to, it's a pretty hard time to find some gigs. Moreover, France has never been a country where rock music (of any kind) is one of the prevailing music of our culture. So we might have less resources and structures adapted for loud music than in some other countries such as the US, the UK or Germany.

SÉBASTIEN: France has never been “Rock 'n Roll” and will never be. More ever, we can observe that we are unfortunately going back to a reformism that is of a conservative type, which makes the global culture regress. Soon, you'll see “Napalm Death acoustic show” written on posters. You know, in France people really like French singers who make Pop-songs. Heavy and loud sound “frightens” them or is not seen as serious.

WHERE WOULD THE BAND LIKE TO PERFORM IN THE NEXT YEAR AND ARE YOU PLANNING A FULL ALBUM IN THE NEAR FUTURE?

SÉBASTIEN: We would like to go and play in the south of France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, and the UK. A band must move around (get their fingers out) otherwise you stay in your cellar with your friends playing Metallica covers. A full album is conceivable but as we said, we are not rushing.

OLIVIER: I would go to the US, even though it's just a dream. I think it's musically the most innovative, original country. But if you can work something out in South Africa, we would be glad to come! About a full album, we'll see how long the writing process of the new songs is going to take. I'd like to experiment a new way of writing lyrics inspired of Surrealism and of André Breton's book Les Champs Magnétiques.