Sounds from underground/File N°63

straight to your heart pured these wonderful sounds of «überaffe». it's some kind outsider, some kind marvelous genuine record. absolutely dig it.


0. name of the band
Restroom music
1. where are you from?
I'm from Rennes, France and Chris is from Minnesota, USA
2. what kind of instruments/equipment you use? do you use
some particular record technique? which is your method of
composition?
Restroom music is a side project of mine with my friend Chris Ucis.
I use an accoustic guitar or a Fender Jaguar, Chris uses various Fender Jazzmaster. I also like circuit bent keyboards and their nasty sound.
We record on our computers mostly, I also use my phone and its headset quite a lot to record first drafts or ideas and most of the time i keep this first take as the final version, cos i like the feel of a first take, even if it's not perfect, I like accidents.

I send what I recorded to Chris and he add some stuff to it, or the other way around, sometimes I make the guitar part and sometimes I sing, it's all about fun and having to complete a song that is different from what you would do on your own.
We send MP3 files via email until we agree the song is done.
About method of composition most of the time it's having a melody playing in my head at work or while having a walk somewhere and play it on guitar and sing when I got back, it won't stop playing in my head until it's out. Sometimes i just grab the guitar, strum and hum and end up with something i like.
I also make songs on my own as überaffe.
3. what do you think about the music context nowadays and
how you place yourself in? do you feel a part of any
scene?
I'm glad that everybody can make music and share it on line with whoever wanna have a listen, even if it's a couple of folks, it's so cool. Hearing people recording songs at home with not much gear, with no great skills or out of tune voices and sharing it made me wanna do it too. The Music industry in general is loosing its absolute power and that a good think. I still buy records but I can also choose to give five dollars to someone relatively unknown.
I guess I'm part of the people that put lo-fi songs for free on the internet, not sure I'd call it a scene though, people that grew up listening to the same slanted stuff i was listening too, like Pavement, this kind of music. Is that a scene?
4. do you think that nowadays has still sense talking about
"underground"?
Yeah it does, even if it's easier to find underground music than it was before. That's because we talk about it.
5. do you play live? how public react to your music?
I never played live, I wish i had the guts to do it, I had a couple of opening act offers but I got scared and turned it down.
6. Genesis P-Orridge said "Our records were documents
of attitudes and experiences and observations by us and
other determinedly individual outsiders. Fashion was an
enemy, style irrelevant.". What do your records
represent to you?
It capture the way I felt at the time I recorded or wrote it, sometimes it makes me happy to listen back to it, sometimes it makes me blue. Now that I'm a dad I'm hoping that my daughter will listen to my stuff when she gets older, maybe she will like it, maybe she will be embarrassed, who knows.
Merci for this interview, it was fun to do.