I Am Stramgram's Interview

– "I am Stramgram", where does this name come from?
– In previous songs there was a connection with recollection. I liked to try and dig images buried in my head, linked to the past, so "am-stram-gram" was kind of the child song.
Then you’ve got the 3 kids Am, Stram, Gram in The Nightmare Before Christmas, who abduct Santa Claus.
And 3rd reason, "I am Stramgram", I liked that it was a bit complicated to say. And I found it aesthetically pleasing when it was written.
– You sing in English, but with drops of French from time to time. Why do you commit to this position?
– I’m part of this generation who grew up with the indie Anglo-Saxon artists. English is a language I like, which can be mistreated or twisted, and containing a natural musicality, with a connection to pop and rock.
And I spent a lot of time abroad. So, even if I still make somebody correct my lyrics, I manage to bring pictures I have into words in English, I like that a lot. But I always pay attention to the lyrics, to the pronunciation, to the tonic stress, to the subtleties of the language.
Then, the small French parentheses enable to bring the track elsewhere, to bring it back down in a concrete angle. I find it very difficult to write only in French because the first thing that hits you in your face is the meaning. I like it when it’s a bit more mystified, a bit more convoluted, a bit more poetic, so that people who listen have to find their own way of understanding.

– You explained the theme of your new album When the Noise Becomes too Loud was lack of oxygen, be it positive in aquatic environment or negative in urban environment. Was there a theme in your previous one Tentacles as well?
– It was more connected to recollection, be it "Pack Your Toys", which spoke of a house move when I was a child, or "Safes" which spoke of your estate of memories like a kind of safe you would carry on your shoulders and lug around with you while progressing in life. Then, "Saut de Ligne" speaks of a book called Karoo which is one of my favourites and "Camilla" speaks of Fante’s Ask the Dust. "Serra's Snake" speaks of Serra’s snakes at Guggenheim Museum: when you walk into this you feel like suspended, something cool’s happening.
This album supported an aspect of DIY-collage of memories, a patchwork, a bursting, which you find in the sleeve too.
– There’s a shouldered DIY side in your work.
– For sure! It’s part of the things which characterise me. We do DIY a lot on stage too.
– That makes all the richness of the thing.
– Fine. So it’s rather positive.

– You announced for this new album a more electronic sound. For all that, you haven’t become an electro artist.
– No no.
– You look for a place, or you don’t care and you do what pleases you?
– I don’t give a flying f***. If it touches people I am absolutely delighted, but the first approach is to do it because you fancy doing it. And indeed, if switching from folk guitar to DIY behind the computer is what speaks to me at the time, I’m going to do that.
I don’t look for a place, however I search in every sense. In sense experiment with my small means. By the time we recorded the album I couldn’t bear guitar and now I’m coming back to it. It depends on the mood.

– What’s your recipe to make a song? What do you put in your pot, and in which order?
– If there was a recipe, all pieces we make would be hits. That’s why the notion of research is important. You’re going to try a thing which works one day, and just doesn’t the day after.
– Because you are searching for hit?
– Not necessarily. I like accessible melodies, but a bit convoluted. But it’s the essence of pop and folk to have catchy melodies sitting on few chords.
My own recipes would be spending time, either on the guitar, or on the machines, and trying to find melodies, and above all self-surprising me. I like first drafts for instance.
– Your last album is not immediately accessible. You have to enter into it...
– True, I don’t think it is super accessible, it is kind of rough pop music which tries to avoid obviousness, which turns around rules of pop music, without actually being something immediate. I don’t want it to be cerebral, but I want it to be demanding. You’re right, it is not necessarily easy to enter it at first listening.
– It needs several listens, it takes some time to appreciate the whole interest.
– Yes I think so. My favourite albums, which marked my life, are albums I didn’t like at first listening.
– I had a debate with a musician friend who said basically you could end up liking anything by dint of listening a lot. That is debatable...
– That’s good thinking. I don’t think it’s always true. Otherwise the radio plugging would have worked...
– It does work a fair bit indeed.
– Actually if I choose something to listen a lot, it is because I detect something inside that’s going to interest me. If you impose something on me, there’s a good chance I will have the opposite reaction and close my ears.

– When I came across an unplugged video of "Wooden Gun" I realized that, beyond the songwriter, you are a real singer too.
– (laughs)
– According to you, which is the part of the one and the other?
– This is a very good question too. Firstly I’m flattered you consider me to be a singer. I never say that. I’ve never managed to call myself a singer, because I find it ultra-embarrassing.
– Why, embarrassing?
– Because it’s a talent which has been so abused that it’s become a bit kitschy. In my opinion the ones who call themselves singers are people from reality shows. Singer, it’s kind of a willy contest. You need to have a powerful voice, to be awesome, to make the vibratos... I can’t see myself in this qualification. On the other hand I love singing. And I can admit, considering how long I’ve been doing that, I’ve got some technique, modestly. Listening to myself enable to correct the mistakes. The concerts make improve.
– Have you already taken singing lessons?
– As a teenager, when I started my first bands. I sang very very badly, so I took a few lessons. Then, I’m really self-taught.

– I am Stramgram, it’s you solo; in concert it’s a duo.
– Yes, in concert it’s a duo on stage. A trio with our sound technician.
– And it’s even rather rock.
– Yes it can be. The same, it depends on the mood.
– Could the project progress to a band?
– It’s complicated to answer. I like solitude. I need to be alone, to experiment, to try things. There’s a saying that goes: “Alone we go faster, together we go further.” And as I’m very impatient, I need it to go rather fast.
But then I need group work which I find in live performance, in drama... But, at our level of modest artists, being three-four people on set plus a technician on tour, it’s expensive.
– Could you integrate other musicians in the band I am Stramgram, including in studio?
– In studio the drummer I work with, Paul Magne, who is the nicest guy in the world and the most talented guy in the galaxy, makes propositions. And even the sound engineer, Benjamin, does too.
– But the compositions aren’t done together...
– Seldom. In the new album, Paulo was all the same credited for arrangements of a few tracks.
– "Stories to Tell", I bet?
– No. "It's all Turning Grey"...
– This one is hit-like!
– And it wasn’t intended. And finally, chain of circumstances, we said to ourselves: “Heeey! After all it works rather well.”

– What do you think of the motto "sex and drugs and rock n'roll"?
– I think it doesn’t look like me at all. I’d rather be: cat, fireplace and hot chocolate. But it depends on the days: sometimes I like to drink a lot and make shit, and most of the time I like to stay home chilled out, stroke my cat and make love songs.

– Let’s talk about the news. What’s your personal antidote against Covid-19 and the anguish that goes with it?
– I don’t live it too bad, because in my room I’ve got all my stuff to work. Being locked up here is no problem for me because I can all the same work, make songs... I live with my partner Roxane in a small house on the outskirts of Bordeaux where we do some work, gardening, we’re often outside. I only miss the socialisation side a little, meeting the buddies. My worry is more directed to the upcoming months. For now, we eat well, we try to do a little sport. These are good antidotes yet.

– I propose you to have a look at the list of the albums reviewed in japprecie. Which ones do you know? Which ones do you like?
– I know loads of them. So Puts Marie recalled my name, I think, simply because we played together.
Stereophonics is one of the bands I’ve listened the most when I was a teenager. I loved the very 1st, Word Gets Around. It must have been in 96, the same year as Placebo’s 1st album, and 1 year before Radiohead’s OK computer, which are part of the albums that marked my life. I’ve got a lot of teen memories on Stereophonics’ 1st album, so even if I find this music has become a little kitschy I’ve got a particular tenderness for this band.
(Carrying on across the list) Hey, Rover too...
Ah, Tom McRae, obviously. His 1st album is one of the important albums of my life in regard to folk music. My 1st year in university. And I find this gentleman extremely funny. I recognize myself in this kind of rupture: he makes superb ultra-melancholic songs for he’s a real songwriter, and in the same time he makes shitty jokes. 2 days ago he posted a video with his ukulele, very nice song, beautiful lyrics, he sings deadly well I love it, and he embedded ultra-funny comments.
Franz Ferdinand, inevitably...
William Z Villain, in concert he’s an ace, he’s an oddity. We played after him, we should have played before, because... Very stunning on stage! I like less on record, I think production doesn’t do him honour necessarily.
– Do you have some more to suggest to Appreciators?
– I will surely direct you to friends: le Collectif du Fennec.