Vincent Fallacara (A Sordid Poppy, JefH, TORSO)
http://www.myspace.com/sordidpoppy
http://www.myspace.com/jefhfactotum
http://www.myspace.com/torsofactotum
The 90’s was really hard time for the new wave / coldwave music. May be, it can be called post-coldwave period for France. Many musical shops had been closing, labels dropping and there was the lack of parties as well. New musical movements such as grunge were taking their places with their own attraction.
But there still were post punk fans and new/cold wave bands still appeared and functioned. Vincent Fallacara was one of those fans, and, as it usually happens, he decided to form his own band. “Before being in a band, I’m a great music fan. Everything began when I was 12, my big brother brought at home «Pornography» by the Cure and «Still» by Joy Division. Since that day I knew that my life will never be the same and that one day I’ll be in a band”, – recalls Vincent. So the band, called ‘A Sordid Poppy’ was founded in 1989. The name is the combined titles of the two songs – «Poppy Days» of Siouxsie and the Banshees and «A Sordid Waste» of Babel 17. “I wanted a long and mysterious name (like And Also The Trees, The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Legendary Pink Dots)”, - the band’s founder explains. The original ‘A Sordid Poppy’ line-up was Vincent Fallacara (lyrics, vocals), his brother Marco (bass) and two Marco’s school friends – Renaud Bec (keyboards) and Yannick Cador (guitar), who wrote the music for the band. A listener can also notice the name Alexis Boxmann as the band’s drummer. Vincent explains it so: “Alexis Boxmann was the name given to our faithfully drum-machine, an Alesis HR16. There’s no drummer on the recording of the CD. Just our friend Alexis Boxmann. I still have it in my recording studio and sometimes use it…” The band released its first record, called ‘Dehiscence’ in 1990. It was the self-released tape with the limited edition of 500 copies. The contemporary listener can find Dehiscence in the anthology of ‘A Sordid Poppy’, called ‘The Holy Sides’ which was released by the label Brouillard-Definitif in 2008. The first song of the release, ‘The Holy Side’ is traditionally one of the catchiest. Powerful guitar & drum start adds with the appearance of the main lines of the other instruments one by one and, at last, Vincent’s vocals. This track 100% shows the whole bands potential and talent. Also this start reflects Vincent’s incredible ability to suddenly change his vocal manner from cold and neutral to sensitively hysteric. The song after, called ‘The old face’, has very Cure/Joy Division sound and well done ‘doubled’ vocals. Very coldwave song with touches of melancholy and solitude. Then a listener can notice the moodiest song of the release, called ‘Les restes’. Pressing but not swelling energy of the song has a bit ‘The Doors’ psychedelic keyboard background, which is wonderfully reflected in the psychic explosion after fading of the song. The next two songs ‘Walking across’ and ‘Silent Stairs’ continue the manner ‘atmosphere – dynamism’, and seem more like the interpretations of the previous ones, but in another way. ‘The square’ partly continues this tradition, but, as it can be seen later, changes the direction of the release. This melancholic song tells musically and lyrically about levels of repetitions which happen in life and about the exhaustion because of these repetitions. The words ‘I’ll try till the end of time… / Just one more time’, where tries happen not because of fails but because of running in the circle, can be considered as the key to this article and all Vincent’s artistic activity. The next two songs which close ‘Dehiscence’, the ‘deep’ ‘From asylum with love’ and nervous and mysterious ‘The older face’ develop the drowning atmosphere and finish the release in the best way they can, reflecting the music in the soul of a listener. The next part of ‘The Holy Sides’ is ‘Red Cloud Sessions’. This release never went out because of the band’s split and was kept in archives. Vincent tells the release’s history: “It was recorded in 1992. A young record label signed us and so we went in a recording studio as long as we wanted (3 months of madness, out of the world). That was a magical time. But unfortunately the band broke up and the record never went out. Some time later I was contacted by the label «Brouillard Definitif». They wanted to re-issue «Dehiscence», and I told them that I have un-released tapes. I remastered them in my own recording studio”. So it happened so that we can see ‘The Holy Sides’ as they are. The song ‘Dive!’, which opens Red Cloud Sessions’ combines in itself dynamism and atmosphere of the first half of ‘Dehiscence’. Very ‘new-waveish’ intro changes the song’s musical pattern with the addition of Vincent’s hypnotic vocals and softly flows into the main quite ‘touching pop’ theme of the song with beautiful and atmospheric guitar sound and ‘creaky’ vocals. The second song of the release, ‘Eros & Agapé’, combines in itself acoustic guitar sound with rocky keyboards and neutral ‘telling’ voice. This combination with some cynic notes makes this song probably the most decadent one of A Sordid Poppy. Two next songs of the release ’La Chambre’ and ’Dehors il y a…’ can be called the contraries of each other. ‘La Chambre’ is one of the coldest songs of the album. Steel intro, as it traditionally is for the release, flows into the deep and freezing song with its wonderful ability of going closer and move away from a listener. ’Dehors Il Y A…’, as it was said, on the contrary is the most ‘living’ song of the release. It combines in itself underground, psychic and drive aspects with very sincere performance. ‘Inside the Line’ has very interesting musical pattern and also has some echoes of many other A Sordid Poppy songs and echoes of different French coldwave projects of the second half of the 80’s, but keeps its unity as well. The next song of ‘Red Cloud Sessions’ is the one called ‘Un Peu Trop De Gloire’. If a one wanted to promote this song as the single one he exactly could call it ‘A Sordid Poppy as its best’. This song is also the last traditional coldwave song of ‘The Holy Sides’. The last song of ‘Red Cloud Sessions’ ‘Farewell’ has a touch of eastern music combined with noisy sound. It has A Sordid Poppy musical structure, but on the other hand the sound and the atmosphere is exactly the single chapter of the band’s musical activity. The bonus track ‘She falls at the edge of time’ closes ‘The Holy Sides’. It was recorded on ‘Red Cloud Sessions’, but didn’t fit the other stuff because of its grunge guitar part.
The single chapter of the band’s activity was their live shows. Vincent always came out of control, being filled with emotions and often drunk. ‘Mad frontman’, as he describes himself. Truly speaking, this aspect was the one of those which made the band popular, but it made some people hate the band as well. Yannick didn’t enjoy that mad atmosphere; he wanted it to be calmer. So once it happened that there was a fight between Vincent and Yannick, and Yannick had to leave the band after this. But Vincent wanted to keep the band so the line-up was renewed and consisted of Marco Fallacara (bass), Gilles Mislin (guitar), Christophe Marquet (drums) and Vincent on vocals. The renewed line up recorded the demo ‘Eros & Agapé’ and then the EP «Poussières». Both releases were recorded in 1994. Vincent says about the EP: ‘”Poussières» was recorded in 1994. In 2 days. But the sound producer didn’t care a fuck about us. He just wanted to take the money. The sound is pure shit. Release of this CD was the biggest mistake in my artistic life. But we engaged too much money in the project and my brother and I really wanted to keep ASP alive. We didn’t realize that sometimes it’s better to kill what you love instead of trying to keep it alive without the original taste. The old fans didn’t buy it and no new fans. But on the other hand I think that the songs of this EP are not bad songs. Maybe one day, I’ll re-record one or two of these song”. However, the music of «Poussières» is still A Sordid Poppy music, but on its other side. So it can be recommended to a listener.
After the release the band members decided that A Sordid Poppy is dead and broke up. In 2002 Vincent started his current project, called TORSO. A listener can be surprised to see the space in Vincent’s artistic activity between 1994 and 2002. So let’s give a word to Vincent again to let him answer on the question, what was he doing all those years.
“I was drinking a lot. Spared all my time in the pub. Smoked. It was the saddest period of my life. Tried to write a novel. But when you’re drunk all day long you can’t do anything good.
In 1996 I met my wife, and also Gilles the guitarist of the second A Sordid Poppy line-up proposed to me and my brother to create a new project that mixed indie-rock and French «chanson» (French singers like Jacques Brel, Leo Ferré or Serge Gainsbourg).
That was an interesting project (called JefH) far from Cold and New wave but I like experimentations. Marc Lindemann, the good drummer and Sam Dedieu, the virtuoso violinist joined us. I sang lyrics about alcohol, solitude and depressive feelings. In 1999 we recorded «le matin, les autres, mes clopes et moi» (The morning, the others, my cigarettes and me) a 10 tracks cd. We met a little kind of success and play a lot of gigs in France. People really enjoyed our gigs but at that time, I used to drink a lot and was often drunk on stage.
The biggest problem was that because we played a lot of gigs we didn’t find time to create new songs. So I was bored with playing the same songs again and again during 4 years. I discovered the sampling and wanted more experimentations, more darkness in music. So when we felt that JefH wasn’t able to progress we decided to close the case at the end of 2002.
In 2000 I started learning to play guitar and at the same time I discovered the incredible freedom and creative possibilities given by the samplers. I played guitar as an autodictat but few years ago I decided to increase my skill and took guitar lessons with a teacher and, since the last year I’m studying the rules of bass playing. I’m happy to do this way (autodidact first and after lessons) so I can keep a feeling approach of the instrument without being prisoner only by the technical approach.
So, being able to express emotions through the creation of the music on the one hand, and being fed up with endless repetitions of the same stuff on the other, I started developing the «TORSO» project as a personal side project in 2002”.
Originally “TORSO” was created as Vincent’s solo studio project, but a year after the creation Vincent felt himself missing the stage, so he asked his brother Marco and Marc Lindeman (the drummer of JefH) for their participation and they didn’t refuse. The only thing was that Marco was fed up with playing bass and he chose guitar. So “TORSO” on stage was Vincent (guitar), Marco (guitar) and Marc (drums). They played on samples, sequences looped and drum machine. Some time after Alyss (the singer of velvet condom) joined TORSO on bass for several gigs during six months. The line-up stayed till 2006 when Marco had to leave the music due to spending a lot of time with his family and for his job. He was replaced by Alex O., who was found by Vincent after a post on a musician forum. Few time after Marc left the band for the same reasons. So Vincent and Alex decided to keep up as the duo and they currently continue running TORSO.
TORSO has three CDs: 5-track self-titled EP (2004), which is sold out, and two albums – ‘9: Solfatares’ (2005) and ‘Eloge De La Compression’ (2007). All the TORSO releases (as well as the JefH CD) were released by Factotum Records.
It’s absolutely impossible to refer TORSO to any musical style. The project doesn’t have any relations with A Sordid Poppy, but it’s more ‘wave’ music if compare it with JefH. A one who would like to find in the project some styles can find there almost everything – from some dark/new wave to even hip-hop motives (which are mostly reflected at the end of every project’s release), but the music always keeps its French attraction and romanticism. Vincent’s vocal manner has absolutely changed too. It exactly keeps JefH ‘chanting’ references, but got more spoken style, as if it was reading poems. The music of TORSO can’t offer to a listener any musical ‘drive’, but it can give incredible expression instead.
Though all the TORSO releases have similar musical structures and don’t have any style differences, the EP and ‘9: Solfatares’ seem much more related to each other than to ‘Eloge De La Compression’. These two releases have more sampled backgrounds and more ‘fluid’ atmosphere while the stuff of ‘Eloge De La Compression’ has more fire element. The sound there is more obscure, strict and even a bit fierce. The second part of the release ‘La Compression’ even has some post-industrial elements. However, all the releases have their pearls. The EP stays in memory mostly because of ‘Combien D’années Au Compteur’, which seems the most sincere song of the release and has unforgettable touching guitar line. «9: Solfatares» couldn’t seem the unified release without its unreal and dreaming ‘Encore de L’air’ and the catchiest accented ‘Bukka White’. And «Eloge De La Compression» as well could loose its atmosphere without strict but hysterical ‘Nord’, lyrical ‘Egon Schiele’ and melancholic ‘Eloge de la compression’.
At the moment the project is about to finish the new album and is going to have a tour in the middle of spring. A listener can find the song from the future album on TORSO’s MySpace, called ‘Mona’. This track, dedicated to the birth of Vincent’s daughter, seems one of the best project’s songs, so the album can be expected as strong interesting work.
Though A Sordid Poppy time is over, it’s still important for Vincent. So it would be lovely to finish this article with his words:
“As I wrote it in the CD book note, ASP was and still is one of the most important parts of my life. It was the beginning of it all. Like the first love story you’ll never forget. My actual work is strongly influenced by this period. It was a kind of magical and weird period.
At this time, we where very young and full of energy, anger and arrogance. But I’m happy to see that I’m still in music with the same will, the same faith. A lot of my friends, my brother too, definitively left music because of their jobs, their wives or their children. I’ve got a wife, I’ve got a child and a job and I keep on rocking. I keep on giving concerts, recording, playing… just because music is an (the most?) important part of me. I need to play music like I need to breathe.
When I was working on the mastering, I didn’t listen to these tracks for a long long time. I realized that they still good and actual. I just regret the way I used my voice on some tracks. (too much forced). I re-discovered the strength of some songs (like «Un Peu Trop De Gloire» or «La Chambre» a song that we now play in Torso’s gigs).
So music is my all life and my life is music, I’m quite sure that I’ll keep onrocking all my life long. When I’ll be old (may be I’am allready old ? J )I clearly can see myself making movie’s music or as an old alcoholic loser singer in small and dirty clubs. Who knows? Not me!”
Pall ‘Nattsol’ Zarutskiy
Grave Jibes Fanzine
