Eat Your Make-Up – Interview with Plag
Nattsol: I’ll begin with rather typical question. Tell me how did ‘Eat Your Make-Up’ begin to exist? What was the original idea? Who you were influenced by? And, of course, tell me the story of the name of the band.
Plag: The idea of creating a band came first to Mac Gregor (bass guitar). The first time I saw him was during a music meeting in ….Dijon…. and he immediately asked me to join as singer. J-F (guitar) and Thib (first drummer) were already part of the project. The band is officially born in January 2003 and we quickly got on as we had the same musical tastes with bands such as Shadow Project, Rudimentary peni or David Bowie.
My partner, Emilie, who is also part of « Somniloques », found the name Eat You Make Up as we were interested in John Waters’ early films. The band was looking for a name that would be reminiscent of self-derision and of the way we wanted our music to develop with sarcasm while keeping a glam imagery.
Nattsol: Tell me more about your first demo and first album.
Plag: We decided to record five songs in March 2004 cos we were meeting more and more demands. We chose to release it as an untitled cassette to pay homage to the early 80’s medium. We later re-released it in CD-R.
In the first album, you can find 3 of 5 titles of the demo. Roger was revised for the second album. Also, our debut album is a kind of digest of the first two years of works. Even if it’s filled with quite different songs, with quite different feelings and musical influences, this was the way we choose to share with audience two years of music composition. The name « First Dinner » shows exactly the thoughtless state of mind in which we were by recording it.
Nattsol: Now tell me why there aren’t any concert videos of the band? I saw just very strange video of “Vegan Hyena” and nothing else. None of amateur shots as well as professional ones….
Plag: I believe that you can find an extract of a gig we performed in Marseille. But I think that it is the only available video on the web. However, there is a recording of each of our concerts, but we’ve never decided to broadcast them, through lack of time or of means. The Vegan Hyena video is part of a few video clips J-F and I made for fun. In this case, it’s made of extracts of video of parties with friends.
Concerning photographs, as Emilie and I studied photography in a Art school , we’ve never thought useful to ask anyone else to do it.
Nattsol: ….France…. avant-garde post-punk scene always seemed to me one of the most individual and independent. And for now there’re plenty of absolutely individual bands with dark and obscure sound. So how can you characterize this scene? Do you have bands – friends there?
Plag: Yes, we used to play in pubs near our home-town with my brother’s trash-metal band « Acetylène » which helped us a lot at the beginning. We also shared several gig with « Varsovie » with whom members we quickly became friends. We wish we could play with « Castrati » for we’ve been friend with their guitar player Brïtz Mila… « Arwen »… ;))) for a long time.
And even if France remains a rather refractory country in post – punk styles and that it seems difficult to make live, the French stage is composed with very good bands such as « Rosa Crux », « Norma Loy », « Jacquy Bitch »… and of course those I’ve quoted which put themselves entirely as music enthusiasts.
Nattsol: I noticed that style characteristics on your myspace page tell that your style is ‘punk/new wave/progressive’. I wondered because I noticed that every band with related sound calls its style ‘post-punk/gothic’, and “Eat Your Make-Up” is probably the only exception. So what are the reasons to be this exception? Just those characteristics are closer to you or there’re some others?
Plag: Of course, our music sounds like old school deathrock but we never wanted to retreat in any particular style. And we don’t think our music really sounds gothic, even if we used to compose in a dark way and to mention bad feelings in our songs. That’s finally quite superficial to us, we could say we play some kind of « international variety » mixed with some dusty cosmetic psycho-blues in a punk state of mind.
Nattsol: You took a part in recent Christian Death 1334 show. As I could understand this show was important for you? Tell me more about it. Can you call me other shows with huge importance?
Plag: The best gig ever… amazing… the evening passed off so quickly. We are very proud of it and it’s still hard to tell you more about it. Otherwise, I don’t remember any amazing show, not especially one… They were all unique.
Nattsol: After the first album had been released you kept silence for rather long period (I’m talking about studio records). What was that?
Plag: We just decided to take the time to compose new songs as ..La Isa.. had fleshed the line up out. As well as regarding composition, as the mix, the first album was very raw and not very coherent. We wanted to work on this point, with the intention of creating an unit. Also, we had the opportunity of recording and mixing the new songs over several months. And even if we have wasted time in searching a label, the reason why we stood silent such a long time is because we decided to take the time.
Nattsol: As I noticed, ..La Isa.. joined the band just recently. What were the reasons to add female vocals? Were there other changes or replacements in the band?
Plag: When ..La Isa.. arrived in the band, we were not especially looking for a female voice or a backing singer. It happened that by having a try with her, she quickly managed to merge into the project. All over her own influences and her own wishes, she brought a new vocal dimension thanks to which I could develop in my turn. Also, new compositions became richer.
Anthony integrated the band in 2004 and replaced Thib with whom we had recorded the demo tape.
Nattsol: Are there some side-projects of the band members?
Plag: Yes, I know that J-F started composing songs last year, but I wish he answered by his self. And what can I tell you about Somniloques… It’s a rather different way of working. Emilie, ..La Isa.. and I are painters above all. And in this project, we’re using music as painting. Music can be a soundtrack to pictorial works and vice versa.
Nattsol: So now let’s speak about the new “Eat Your Make-Up” album “Things As They Should Be”.
Plag: It’s the new one… ;) Darker and uncompromising. It’s our second album how it has to be. Let’s see what people think about it.
Nattsol: Do you have your favorite “Eat Your Make-Up” songs?
Plag: No, not one particularly. They all have a history as well as their own interest in my opinion.
Nattsol: Now after the band broke up what’re you going to do? Will you stay close to deathrock or you’re going to try yourself in other things?
Plag: Of course, deathrock is, for all of us, a major influence. We had opportunity, with EYMU, to share other influences, to make us mutually discover different styles and to experiment together. Whatever we make in the future, our work will still be influenced by post-punk styles. At least, it is my opinion…..
Questions: Pall ‘Nattsol’ Zarutskiy
“Grave Jibes Fanzine”
