{"id":2259,"date":"2018-12-07T13:27:44","date_gmt":"2018-12-07T12:27:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/elgarajedefrank.es\/?p=2259"},"modified":"2023-07-24T20:49:13","modified_gmt":"2023-07-24T18:49:13","slug":"interview-the-breath-of-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/elgarajedefrank.es\/en\/interview-the-breath-of-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview: The Breath of Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Breath of Life or the perfect mixture between ethereal dark wave, gothrock and post-punk, has recorded eight interesting albums that we always have an important place in our records collection. The Belgian band has walked their particular and dark road and the last stop, so far, it\u00b4s this marvelous album, poetically called Under the Falling Stars<\/em>. Their music is a real breath of life in these apathic times. We have talked with Isabelle Dekeyser, ethereal voice of the group and Philippe Mauroy, whose guitar that taken us to others impossible words. They will play on the 16th of August at the W Festival, sharing stage with Lebanon Hanover, Siglo XX and VNV Nation.\u00a0 What else can we ask for!<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014It too<\/b>k you a considerable number of years to release your first album, as the band was<\/b> formed in 1985. How were t<\/b>\"\"hese first years?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Phil:<\/b> Yes, it was just yesterday\u2026 The band was formed in 1985 but the first album was only released in 1992. At that time recording an album was more difficult than today. It was much more expensive and having an affordable home studio with a good technology didn\u2019t exist yet. As a student or young worker, we did not have the financial resources. So we had to be patient and during this time we made a lot of concerts in Belgium mostly in very small venues. It was a very \u201crock n\u2019roll\u201d period\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Isabelle<\/b>: Being in a band was very new for me. I had never performed before. We had quite a lot of small shows even though we were a young band so it gave me the opportunity to practice live. We also had the chance to have a tour in Czechoslovakia which was also a wonderful human experience.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014What were you listening to back in the day?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Isabelle<\/strong>: Back then, my favorite bands were Siouxsie and the Banshees<\/b>, Lene Lovich<\/b>, Killing Joke<\/b>, Cocteau Twins<\/b>, Dead Can Dance<\/b>, The Cure<\/b>, The Sound<\/b>, Xmal Deutschland,<\/b> The Clash<\/b>, Fad Gadget<\/b> and so many others.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Phil<\/b>: At that time I was mainly focus on post punk or dark wave bands. Do you believe it? We\u2019ll share the billing with some of them at W Festival and that is f\u2026g great. But I\u2019ve always been very eclectic in my listening. I think you can hear that on our albums.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014According to Discogs, in 1990 you released your first reference as a cassette. What can<\/b> you tell us about the recording of this first version of your songs?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Isabelle<\/b>: It was the very first official product we were proud of.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Phil:<\/b> This cassette was in fact the second one but the first one nearly disappeared from the face of the earth. If you have it, you are very lucky \u2026 or not! This first one was with the very first line up of the band. I was the drummer and not guitarist yet. For the one you are talking about, therefore the second one, you are right, it was like a training for the first album. It has been recorded in a very small studio, in fact a bedroom converted in a studio :-). The sound was not good enough for a CD.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014The Breath of Life started their \u201cofficial\u201d discography with a live album, that\u2019s not very\u00a0<\/b>usual. How did it happen?\"\"<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Isabelle:<\/b> You are right. We had the chance to have a first Czechoslovakia tour then a second one where the organizer wanted to make a live recording of the show in Prague. So we have been very lucky to be able to make this nice live recording.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Phil:<\/b> The promoter was very enthusiastic so he decided to produce it. The concert hall was full and the concert was great. Unfortunately the sound engineer did not have the good idea to install an ambiance mic to hear the audience on the record. But it\u2019s still a good witness of our music at this time.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Finally, that same year you published your first album, Painful Insanity<\/i> with some of the songs previously released on the cassette and the live album. Do you think that you arrived<\/b> at the perfect version of these songs here?<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Isabelle:<\/b> Perfect is not the word, I would say different. TBOL<\/strong> is a live band. We do love sharing our emotion with the audience. Studio recording is also a great time to try and add things to the songs to build something differently nice.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Phil:<\/b> The CD version is very similar to the cassette version. I think only 2 songs have been removed or added. But the good thing was that at least we had a bit more experience for the recording. We decided to go to a professional studio in Brussels but without a deal with a record company so we were only able to book 6 days for recording, mixing and mastering which is very very short. The great chance we had is that the sound engineer, Gilles Martin, was working for this studio and it was the beginning of a long story together. Immediately after we signed with a new Belgian record company called Big Bang and another story started.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"\u2014Your second album Taste of Sorrow<\/i> is considered to be your best one, and it includes your\u00a0<\/b>most famous song, \u201cNasty Clouds.\u201d According to you, which are the elements that make this<\/b> album so special?<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Isabelle:<\/b> It\u2019s difficult for me to say. It could be because we started to make our own sound and flow. If I ever had the answer…<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Phil:<\/b> I don\u2019t know if any artist knows why an album is better than another, or why it turns out to be the audience\u2019s favorite. For each album we always tried to do our best. It\u2019s really difficult to answer that question. So many elements can be involved. The sun has probably shined a lot that year giving a good product\u2026 The Sun and Shining are two titles from this album!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014You third album Lost Children<\/i> from 1995 presents \u201cmore delicate atmospheres in ethereal wave style.\u201d Do you plan to have different sounds for each album?<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/b>Isabelle<\/strong>: We actually don\u2019t plan anything. It just happened. We are used to creating new songs in a very simple way, all together in a rehearsal room.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Phil<\/b>: It\u2019s not a plan but we can\u2019t do twice the same album. We need challenges. Some people like to put bands in a box and keep them enclosed. I\u2019m claustrophobic \ud83d\ude42 For this album Isabelle sang in a more ethereal wave style as you said, Giovanni started to use more violins and I used more clean sounds. All this gave a different atmosphere.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Sweet Party<\/em> from 1997 is a bit more electronic and pop, especially in songs like<\/b> \u201cWorries,\u201d \u201cSweet\u201d or the industrial beginning of \u201cA world of her own.\u201d Why this change?\u00a0<\/b>Were you influenced by the music of the late nineties?<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Phil:<\/b> I don\u2019t really remember what the dominant style was at the end of the nineties but I\u2019ve always been interested in the music I hear around me. With some limits, of course :-). I really can\u2019t stand R&B and most of the things played by the commercial radios today. But yes, the time of the recording has for sure an influence on the album. Again we needed to do something different. This is the band dynamic. I think generally the first two albums are the easiest because you think about it for a long time and you have a lot of ideas and energy. After you have to choose between two roads. You can choose the highway, drive fast and do again and again the same albums. Or you take the mountain road. It\u2019s slower and more risky but you\u2019ll have the chance to discover a lot of beautiful landscapes you didn\u2019t know. I prefer that way.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014The album from 2000 Silver Drops<\/em> has some influences of trip hop like in the song \u201cThe<\/b>\u00a0Valley,\u201d although you always manage to keep your sound. Were you listening to bands like<\/b> Massive Attack or Portishead?\"\"<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Isabelle<\/b>: I like Portishead<\/b> and the Massive Attack<\/b> song \u201cTeardrop\u201d with Elisabeth Fraser is so beautiful but again I can\u2019t really say if this had an important influence on me.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/b><\/span>Phil<\/b>: At that time, trip hop was like a breath of fresh air. Silver Drops<\/i> is the first album we have recorded at home, I mean in the rehearsal room. We had more time to work on it. It was again with Gilles Martin, the last time before his comeback for Under The Falling Stars<\/i> album. And it was the same for me. I left the band in good terms for some other adventures and only came back three years ago. So I have not been involved in the two albums in between.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Another change and in your following album, Everlasting Souls<\/i> you go back to a more<\/b> goth sound. Where your fans happy with this return to your classic sound? Better with a<\/b> drummer than with a drum machine?<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span>Isabelle:<\/b> I guess playing with a drummer kind of drove the songs that way.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014For Whispering Fields<\/i>, you recorded again \u201cNasty Clouds\u201d in two different versions. Did<\/b> you think that the song needed an update?<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/b><\/span>Isabelle:<\/b> Actually we decided to make those two new versions as a gift for our fans. It was also a way to bring up this song with more actual sounds and mastering.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014For Isabelle: Do you like the new Dead can Dance album? We read some mixed reviews\u00a0<\/b>and haven\u2019t listened to it yet.<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span>Isabelle:<\/b> I haven\u2019t got it yet and I\u2019m so impatient but I\u2019m still one of those who buy CDs in record shops so it takes a bit more time.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014And about the lyrics, how do you write them?<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span>Isabelle:<\/b> I write my lyrics once the songs are finished. I do concentrate on my melodies I built up on the music and I put words on them. It\u2019s very important that the words fit perfectly on the melody.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014I read that you like The Sound. Lately everybody I have interviewed has spoken of them\u00a0<\/b>as an influence, even very young bands. Don\u2019t you think that they are one of the most\u00a0<\/b>underrated bands ever?<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span>Phil:<\/b> I think this is what Adrian Borland was thinking too and he couldn\u2019t stand it. I have discovered The Sound during a festival in Ciney in 1986. It was excellent.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span>Isabelle:<\/b> I love The Sound<\/b> very much. They were also such a great live band. I also have the chance to play a festival with Adrian Borland somewhere in Li\u00e8ge. He was a great man.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014You had a long collaboration with Hall of Sermon and published most of your records\u00a0<\/b>with them. What happened to stop working with them?<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span>Isabelle:<\/b> At one point Hall of Sermon decided to stop the collaborations they had with all their bands.
\n<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014The band has almost consisted of the same people for ages, do you find it difficult to play\u00a0<\/b>and tour together for so long?<\/b>
\n<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/b><\/span>Phil:<\/b> As I said I\u2019ve left the bands for a few years due to some other activities but we are three members left since 1985. I don\u2019t feel this is too difficult. We all have a nice character \ud83d\ude42
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span>Isabelle<\/b>: It\u2019s cool to travel and tour all together. It\u2019s still a lot of fun and full of smiles.
\n<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Only your bassist left a few years ago. Was difficult to continue without him?<\/b>
\n<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/b><\/span>Isabelle:<\/b> Well, Beno\u00eet decided to leave the band for personal reasons around the time when Phil the former guitarist decided to come back, so Didier agreed to play the bass and the band was ready to play again.
\n<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/b><\/span>Phil:<\/b> The result is Under The Falling Stars<\/i> our last album.
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"\u2014Under The Falling Stars<\/i>, your last record, was mixed, produced and recorded by Gilles<\/b> Martin with whom you recorded your first five records. Was it because it was easy to work<\/b> with him or you wanted to go back to your first sound?<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span>Isabelle:<\/b> We actually recorded at home then we send all the tracks to Gilles. We really enjoyed working with him a long time ago. We have always loved the quality of his work. Phil had the great idea to contact him again and see if he was enthusiastic to mix and produced Under The Falling Stars<\/i>. He was even more excited than expected.
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span>Phil:<\/b> We had not seen Gilles for fifteen years. During that time he produced some well-known French bands and artists so I was a little bit afraid about his answer. But after two words we felt like we hadn\u2019t stopped seeing each other. Everyone enjoyed working together. We spent a few days in his studio in France at the end of the mix.
\n<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Do you think that there is something Belgian in your music? I don\u2019t know how to explain<\/b> this question but some places have or had in some periods a special sound (like the<\/b> Canterbury Scene, or New York\u2019s No Wave). Do you think that being from Belgium has in a way helped your way of making your music?<\/b>
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span>Phil:<\/b> Belgium is at the crossroad of different cultures and close to England where many influences are coming from. That\u2019s why in the eighties Belgium was after England one of the first European countries to integrate the punk and post punk. I don\u2019t say that nothing happened in other countries but I think at least at the beginning it was most important in Belgium where a lot of bands have emerged. Because we also had some other influences, for example from Germany, this mixture gave something special and typical Belgian. It was not the same anymore during the late eighties, except for the new beat, and in the nineties when we released our first album. And we certainly cannot say that we have received a lot of help from the media especially in Wallonia.
\n<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/b><\/span>Isabelle: <\/b>Well, \u201cCrime Passionnel\u201d is a title of a song taken from a wonderful Belgian beer. Isn\u2019t it a part of Belgian culture \ud83d\ude09
\n<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Your music is often compared with the music of Collection d\u2019Arnell-Andr\u00e9a, do you like<\/b> them? They are also going to play at W Festival.<\/b>
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span>Phil:<\/b> They are also produced by Gilles Martin, maybe that gives the same color to the sound. And we really like a lot their music and we will certainly enjoy the concert.
\n<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/b><\/span>Isabelle:<\/b> I like them very much. <\/b>It\u2019s gonna be great to see them again.
\n<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014What can we expect of your concert at W Festival?<\/b>
\n<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Isabelle<\/b>: We are going to play a mixture of different albums and if we have time why not a very new song \u2026..
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span>Phil:<\/b> Yes we work now on new songs so we\u2019ll probably play one or some of them with our more \u201cclassic\u201d ones. Unfortunately I don\u2019t think our next album will be out at this time. And we hope to see the place full of people!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n