{"id":33755,"date":"2021-07-08T15:17:28","date_gmt":"2021-07-08T13:17:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/elgarajedefrank.es\/?p=33755"},"modified":"2024-01-31T20:47:51","modified_gmt":"2024-01-31T19:47:51","slug":"interview-the-names","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/elgarajedefrank.es\/en\/interview-the-names\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview: The Names"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oscar Wilde used to say that to define is to limit, so we can deduce that the first form of limiting something is naming it. Only a band called The Names would escape from limitations, as it would include every definition. Created in 1979, the Belgian band had a first run till 1982 and didn\u2019t come back till 2007, although in that time, we never forgot their name. We have talked with Michel Sordinia and Marc Deprez who will be playing with their band on the 25th of August at Sinner’s Day Special that will take place in Belgium. No limits.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"\u2014What can you please tell us of your first days as The Passengers?\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014We started The Passengers<\/strong> in the winter of 1977\/1978, with Marc Deprez on guitar, Christophe Den Tandt on drums, Isabelle Hanrez on vocals and myself on bass and vocals. We played a series of gigs that attracted much attention from the press and punk crowd. Soon we wanted to expand musically, with Christophe taking on keyboards (Luc Capelle becoming our drummer) and myself as lead singer.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Why did you change the name of the band from The Passengers to The Names? The Names is indeed a curious name for a band.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014A band called The Passengers<\/strong> got important press coverage in the UK and we decided to change our name to avoid any confusion. Facing a long list of potential names, a close friend simply suggested The Names<\/strong>. We shouldn\u2019t have made the change, since that British band disappeared after a short while\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Your first EP was released by a major, WEA label, but you preferred to continue with an independent label. Do you think it was the right choice? You also had the chance to work with Fiction later, right?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Spectators of Life<\/em>, our first E.P., was self-produced, and we got a distribution deal with WEA that soon proved unsatisfactory for both parties. Our aim was to work with either Factory Records or Fiction Records. With a preference for Factory, so when we got a positive reaction from both labels, we opted for them. Rob Gretton (Joy Division<\/strong>\u2019s manager) called us before Chris Parry\u2019s letter got into our mailbox. Also Factory\u2019s artistic approach and politics were most attractive to us.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014How was the band\u2019s relation with Factory Records? Is it true that instead of a contract there was only a handshake?\"\"<\/b><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Yes, a handshake with Tony Wilson! They did that sort of things, at Factory\u2019s. One of the reason they started suing each other after a while\u2026 Our relation with Factory was great from a human and artistic point of view. The money question was something else. But we were not motivated by financial priorities, three of us being students and one having a job.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Martin Hannett was definitely one of my favorite producers. How was your experience of working with him? He went to Belgium to work on some of your tracks, right?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Martin was very enthusiastic after listening to our first E.P. Spectators of Life<\/em>. \u201cMartin loves you guys!\u201d, Rob Gretton told me on the phone when contacting us. As a matter of fact, Martin remained our producer not only for Factory Records but also for Factory Benelux and Les Disques du Cr\u00e9puscule. Even coming to Brussels for the recording of The Astronaut<\/em> E.P. In Manchester where he produced our first album Swimming<\/em> and our singles Nightshift<\/em> and Calcutta<\/em>\u00a0(plus a few songs for collective albums), he worked at the Strawberry Studio, a great place created by the guys of 10cc<\/strong>. Working there with Martin was a fantastic experience. He heard things that nobody would hear, and knew how to produce very specific sounds while exploring all the studio\u2019s potential. Always experimenting, always open to new ideas. It was both exciting and challenging to us. I will never forget the recording of the guitar part for \u201cLight\u201d (on Swimming<\/em>) when Martin used several different amps in line, then knelt and shook Marc\u2019s guitar while he was playing, in order to produce more crazy feedback sounds!<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Where did you look for inspiration for your lyrics? Michel, you had cited French Surrealist poet Ren\u00e9 Char. Do you see other writers as influences?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014I love the surrealist painters (Max Ernst) and poets (Robert Desnos). Ren\u00e9 Char wrote \u201cD\u00e9veloppez votre \u00e9tranget\u00e9 l\u00e9gitime,\u201d inviting us to \u201cdevelop our legitimate strangeness,\u201d which I certainly did. For the lyrics, first I must have a title for the song. Then with the help of the music (always coming first in our first run as a band) words sort of came to my mind automatically, only rejected when not sounding good. These last years my way with writing songs has changed. The lyrics come first and then I work on the music. My favourite writers of lyrics are Lou Reed<\/strong> and Richard Hell<\/strong>. Bob Dylan<\/strong>\u2019s early words for songs are great too.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"\u2014Michel, you are also a film critic. Do you think that cinema has influenced in any way your music?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Inevitably! There are a lot of direct references (\u201cShanghai Gesture\u201d and \u201cLeave Her to Heaven\u201d are film titles), and other more subtle echoes are to be heard here and there. On the album Stranger than You<\/em>, a song like \u201cDie Mauer Is No More\u201d is clearly cinematic, like a short movie.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014The atmospheres are very important in the music of The Names. Is it something that you work a lot?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014I would say it is the atmospheres that are working on me! Marc and I are good at pushing the songs to their atmospheric best. I love that process, it\u2019s very organic and sensual. On stage, other dimensions are added. I love those intense moments when a song gains in atmosphere up to the point of surprising us, even though it\u2019s us playing it.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014What was Names in Mutation? There are some live songs released with this name in a compilation.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Those recordings were made (at Beursschouwburg, Brussels) during an international tour (called Dialogue North-South) involving different artists of or close to Les Disques du Cr\u00e9puscule (Paul Haig<\/strong>, Richard Jobson<\/strong>, Tuxedomoon<\/strong>, a.o.). We were supposed to play in a somewhat different mood, like cabaret. Hence the idea (not ours) of Names in Mutation<\/strong>. But audiences wanted us to \u201crock\u201d more, so on certain nights we did\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Was money the only reason why The Names disbanded?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014We finished our studies and music couldn\u2019t provide enough to live on. We had to find a honest job and so did we. Keeping the band alive became difficult, also perhaps because we had basically explored our potential at the time.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014In 1994, four of the original members reformed as Jazz. Why didn\u2019t you take again the name The Names? What went wrong with the album?\"\"<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014I had this stupid idea NOT to use \u201cThe Names,\u201d just because at that time I didn\u2019t like old bands making their comeback\u2026 I was wrong! Then I had my first child and I was so busy with him that concerts and promotion became very difficult to deal with. Maybe also our motivation wasn\u2019t as big as when we made\u2026 our comeback in the years 2000.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014How were your lives during these years until the reunion of the band again?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014We went our way through professional and family lives, keeping in touch with each other but not making plans involving making music together. Personally, I didn\u2019t realize for a long time how much I was missing it.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014The band reunited for the Factory Night in December of 2007, what can you please tell us of this experience? How did you feel together again?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Marc, Christophe and I had actually started playing together from 2005 on. Just for fun. When Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Cotton asked us to play at his Factory Night, we immediately committed. It was absolutely great to be The Names<\/strong> again, and even greater to realize, once on stage in a fully packed Plan K, that there were many people (including younger ones) actually expecting us, knowing our songs, eager to share emotions with us. We were a little surprised, immensely grateful, and moved to a point I can\u2019t describe with words.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014The first album that the band released after the comeback was Monsters Next Door<\/em>. But you were never really happy with it, weren\u2019t you? What went wrong according to you in this album?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014The songs were good, even sometimes very good, and the recording went ok. But the mixing stage was a little conflictual. To my taste, the album isn\u2019t as radical as it should have been. We were too shy, I think. Something that would not happen to us again.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"\u2014And the second album was\u00a0Stranger than You,<\/em> created in a difficult moment of your life, Michel. Did it help you get over your problems?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014This double album was a fantastic experience, with the crucial help of our sound wizard Thomas Neidhardt and the discovery of Noise Factory Studio, where we now feel at home (our next album will be recorded there in October and November this year). Every idea, every song, was pushed to the limit of what it had to say, of how it could sound. Stranger than You<\/em> was also, for me, a sort of therapy. Bob Dylan<\/strong> once said that if you felt like sinking, you shouldn\u2019t fight and instead let yourself reach the bottom, after which you would automatically go up. \u201cAnd on the way, he said, you might bring back a few good songs\u201d. He did that with Blood on the Tracks,<\/em> a great depressive album. I followed his advice and wrote a lot of songs while living difficult times. Most of them while staying in Berlin for two weeks.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Michel, you said that one of your favorite albums is Rock Bottom<\/em> and that it was an inspiration for that album. We also like it a lot, what do you find inspiring in it?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014I was always touched by Wyatt<\/strong>\u2019s music. From an early age on. Rock Bottom<\/em> is one of my favourite albums of all time. It was already speaking to me before I found myself living a depression like he did when writing and recording these songs. When I did myself, I found some comfort in listening to them again and again. Wyatt<\/strong> in Rock Bottom<\/em>\u00a0is the artist at his most naked and vulnerable, swimming in a sea of sounds that is both haunting, fragile and overwhelming (Mongezi Feza\u2019s trumpet and saxophone!). And the voice! The voice! I\u2019m getting shivers down my spine just hearing it again in my head while writing this\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014In that album we can find a song called \u201cThe Passengers\u201d, like your first band. Is it difficult to write about a past that some of the other members of the band have also shared?\"\"<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Not difficult at all! This song was kind of a joke and a journey through our past as a band. We had fun with it.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Marc, you released a very limited cassette in 1981 with only three tracks (reissued together with the Names In Mutation tracks). What can you please tell us about the creation of these songs?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014In those days I had been was very impressed by Vini Reilly<\/strong>, with whom we did share the stage several times. A simple (electric) guitar and a rhythm box. I also wanted to compose \u201cromantic\u201d music that didn\u2019t really find its place in The Names<\/strong>\u2019 repertoire, hence the idea of this home-made audio-cassette<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Marc, you had another band called No Tears that has released four albums. What can you please tell us about this project? Is this where you meet Laurent Loddewyckx, your new drummer?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014No Tears<\/strong> wasn\u2019t my band: it was a French band based in Paris and was formed by Kris Dernon and Paul Fiction. Those two also created their own label, Str8line Records, on which The Names<\/strong>\u2019 album Monsters Next Door<\/em> was released in 2009. The following year, No Tears<\/strong> had a new album just out and prepared to go on tour. They did not have a guitarist any more. So I played with them for a few concerts in France, the UK and Belgium. Afterwards, Laurent (who already was The Names<\/strong>\u2019 drummer since our reunion in 2007) joined us for another few concerts. I knew Laurent for a very long time already because we played together in different bands before he joined The Names<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"\u2014And to finish with side projects, Michel sang in By Chance, a band with Marc Hollander that released only one single. What can you please tell us about this short-live formation?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014By Chance<\/strong> was the idea of Daniel Fran\u00e7ois, guitarist of Jo Lemaire\u2019s band Flouze<\/strong> and a good friend. Marc Hollander joined in for this short time adventure. We gave a few concerts, including a great one supporting Joseph Bowie\u2019s band Defunkt<\/strong> at Plan K\u2019s. And we recorded this single that is now sort of a collector (specially the 12\u201d Japanese edition). Sadly, Daniel died at a very young age. I miss him.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014What are the future plans of the band now that Covid seems almost over? A new album as you said before?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014We\u2019re having a new collector album to be released this summer. It is called \u201cHidden Tracks\u201d and contains never released before material from the period 2009-2020. It\u2019s a limited edition of 200 numbered copies on vinyl. In the Autumn, we will be recording a new studio album.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014What can we expect of your concert at Sinner\u2019s Day Special?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014It will be our first gig since the pandemics started, so expect us to be hungry. Music has so much to do with pleasure and desire, with giving and sharing. We will make the most of these 50 minutes! Hoping everybody in the audience does, too.<\/span><\/p>\n

Photos<\/strong>: Peter Staessens<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n