Cyann and Ben
We caught up with Loic and Charlie to get their take on their music and their latest work, plus comment on perhaps some tour plans in the work
By Chris Chagaris
Published: April 3rd, 2007 | 9:07am
Paris-based foursome Cyann and Ben have made quite a splash with their third album, Sweet Beliefs (Ever Records). All nine songs have a unique power to them, thanks to the musical prowess of members Cyann (keyboards, vocals), Ben (vocals, guitars) Loic (guitar, keyboards) and Charlie (drums, samplers, synth). Soaring harmonies and innovative instrumentation leave definite marks on this CD. The songs vary from complex to spare; "Words" has a hypnotic drum beat and weaving instrumentation throughout, while "Sparks of Love" has a spare, almost spacey feeling to it that ultimately ends in a sort of symphonic cacophony, punctuated by a whisper-like ending.
We caught up with Loic and Charlie at the South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas to get their take on their music and their latest work, plus comment on perhaps some tour plans in the works.
How did Cyann and Ben come up with inspiration for the songs on Sweet Beliefs? Does each band member contribute to the writing of the songs?
Loic: Usually, Cyann or Ben comes up with songs. I mean the chords and some lyrics, and we try to rearrange those songs all together by choosing the instruments, changing the parts, the architecture. It's only when everyone is happy that we admit that the work is over. Sometimes, it takes months and sometimes we work for months to eventually drop the song in the trash!
Charlie: Yes, when Cyann or Ben arrives with the skeleton of a song, everyone is involved in the arrangements. We could sometimes change the structure, add chords or a bridge, or delete some parts that are too long. We often try different versions before we find the good one. For instance, we tried so many versions of the song “Somewhere in the Light of Time” then finally we decided that the best one was Cyann alone, just singing and playing piano!
How do you view this album as different from the previous two, (Spring and Happy Like an Autumn Tree) in terms of sound, song inspirations and overall feel?
Loic: Eventually, Sweet Beliefs sounds as a mix between our first two records but when we recorded it, we wanted to get something more powerful and less shy. The result is more intuitive (some songs were less prepared when we came in the studio) but you can always feel that we think a lot! The fact of living now in a big city like Paris has changed our music (I've been too busy!). It's less calm and it reflects the stress of being a citizen surrounded by cars, city noise, and pollution.
Charlie: I like to say that this one is the synthesis of the previous two. We worked in a good studio with a very good sound engineer for the first time. I think that the next album will be very different from this one. We reached the kind of sounds and songs that we were trying to reach these past years, now we are trying to find new orientations, new targets...
Do you plan a full-scale tour of the U.S. in the near future?
Loic: We hope so. Being invited to Austin for the festival gave us the will to come back for a U.S. tour. But it's not so easy to organize and we want to have time to compose new songs.
Charlie: Maybe this autumn, who knows...
Finally, a last question. The songs have an atmospheric, almost "trippy" quality to them but pack a definite punch. What's the your take on this?
Loic: That's what we are trying to do: combine atmospheric music, a kind of "inner mind journey," if you will, to the power of rock music. We try to create music that can’t easily be classified.
Charlie: Each one of us listens to a different kind of music. From ambient to post-rock, from free jazz to indie rock, from folk to contemporary music. We manage to mix those influences and to compose pieces that satisfy everyone in the band.
Issue #35
Comments
Please login to be able to comment on this article.
more