Von B.'s Interview

– Did your first concert as a singer go well? [on 04/10/2024 (Editor's note)]
– That was great. For a first concert I couldn't have dreamed of better because firstly I was opening for an artist I like, Arman Méliès, with whom we have a past, as you know, he had sung with Radiosofa [duo on "Voyageurs Immobiles" (Editor's note)]. I've been following his albums for 20 years. And the concert was at Trianon Transatlantique which is a venue in Rouen that I also like a lot, with a good sound system.
Playing at home sometimes is a double-edged sword. All your relatives come to see you, it can put pressure. But as soon as the 1st track ended, I felt kindness and a great welcome that gave me strength rather than anxiety.
When I wrote the album, I didn't think about the concerts. I sent it to Paul Moulènes, the director of Trianon Transatlantique, to get his opinion, and he offered me to play with Arman Méliès, I didn't expect it at all. It was a challenge, I never considered myself a singer before. I called Thierry [Minot], who plays with me in Foray, and who had done the mixes, to reproduce the sound of the album on stage.
I could have also chosen guitar-voice and just a piano. Maybe I'll make a formula to play this way in people's homes, remove tapes, purify. I think I'll work with a female pianist who can also sing, because there are a lot of female voices on the album. And I think it's great to try to move towards parity. I had hesitated between cello and piano, but it will probably be piano.

– Bassist at Radiosofa, at Claire Denamur and at the late Amara, multi-instrumentalist at the excellent Foray, do you have others that I forget, on your list of achievements?
– With Amara we did a side project, La Demoiselle de Wellington, which told the story of the soldiers during the First World War who hid in a cave in Arras. It was a musical piece told and I was the pianist.
Otherwise I did studio sessions on bass with Da Silva.
I accompanied Elsa a little bit, more in the French variety...
– The famous Elsa? Elsa Lunghini?
–Yes. She's the same age as me. When she brought out new material, I did a bit of radio promotion with her and with Mathieu, Radiosofa’s drummer.
Otherwise I did arrangements, album productions for Grapes band, in Le Havre. I've also written for orchestra, string quartet, and solo piano pieces, more in the vein of classical music but I like that too.
– You said Da Silva, should we talk about him, knowing what happened to him?
– You mean the problems he had with... women? I've heard rumors...
– There was an incriminating paper and an investigation in the newspaper Libération.
– Downright? So I met him at the beginning, made demos... He was the one who introduced me to Olive et Moi, a great artist. And he was the one who introduced me to Claire Denamur. He's someone I gravitated with but never really played. Afterwards, concerning his problems, I try to respect everything that is justice as much as possible. Let it be done.
– You didn't have any problems with him?
–No. I have not been around him enough to testify. I would have if I had seen things like that, of course. In any case, he's a special person.

– You have detailed all your experiences. What did each one bring you?
– I really like the bass, my main instrument, important harmonically and rhythmically. You're a bit of the drummer's buddy, but you're the harmony's buddy, you're the one who gives the basis of the harmonic castle.
After all, I'm eternally curious, so the fact that I also played other instruments gave me know-how in the arrangement of songs and in music production.

– What made you decide to grab the mike?
– For Radiosofa, I was the one who did the compositions, so I still threw out little vocal lines, melodic ideas. Of course, in a band, it's just a stone in the building and then you work again. But as I kept making songs, I thought: “Why wouldn't you do it?”
The 2nd thing is that some songs I had made for Radiosofa, in the end, were more towards French chanson than rock. So I kept them to myself.
With Foray too, Xavier said: “If you have ideas, it can come from you too”. I sent "La Pluie Avant qu’Elle Tombe". But Foray it’s him, it's his project, it's his songs. And, without it being a refusal, Xavier and Thierry said to me: “Why wouldn't you go on with this song and do it for yourself? It’s good the way it is. Make your album, man!” That really encouraged me.
From that moment on, I took out old demos and took the ones I liked best. And I wanted to make new ones too to boost the muscle of the composition, not to just do reheated leftovers.
That's why this album is quite eclectic, with drawers, you can see there are several periods. The next one will be more focused on a guideline.
– Are you already thinking about the next one?
– Yes. I think you have to be a little bit ahead. If you put everything into the promotion and in the concerts and if you let go of the other engine, i.e. creation, then you can have a kind of emptiness, and the muscle of creation cools down.

– Why did you chose this pseudonym "Von B."?
– My last name, Brosch, starts with B and my name is Ludwig. So it's funny to call me Von B., like Beethoven, it was a little humorous tribute. By the way, I should say 'fon B' because in German the v's are pronounced f.
There are other "Von B"... American rappers... It may be a problem for me one day.
In any case, I won't be called Von B. personally. Not like Arman Méliès who introduces himself as Arman now, he has taken his superhero alias.

– Why didn't you join Animal Triste?
– First of all, because I wasn't asked. In my opinion, the guys from Radiosofa didn't want a "second Radiosofa". They wanted to express themselves without me, who was the driving force of the band. If I had joined Animal Triste we would have done a bit of "Radiosofa without Thomas", with another singer.
I think it's great what they do. Afterwards, I also took a lot of pleasure in getting into French chanson, I might not do American rock anymore like I liked 10 years ago.
– Amara, it was a bit like Radiosofa with another singer...
– Yes, except that they were Akim's compositions. We made him a backing band and he liked this mix: French chanson and American rock influences (the Black Angels, the Doors...)
– And City of Exiles? Didn't Guillaume ask you?
– No, it hasn't happened, but it could. Matthieu, guitarist of Radiosofa, took over the reins.
– You could find yourself on a track or 2 as a 'guest'...
–Yes. Like Pauline [Denize], who was also supposed to play on my album, because she's a friend, but it didn't happen because she was touring a lot...
– Yes, with Pomme!
– Yes. As she is a talented person, she was spotted. By the way, with her project Denize she released something, but when you do several things it slows down a bit. Arman Méliès has managed to accompany Julien Doré on stage, and at the same time to continue to make his albums. I'm a pretty slow person. If I was completely touring with someone else, my next album I'd do it in 6 years.

– You have composed opening themes, film music, instrumental music for all kinds of images and shows. On Von B.'s album all the songs have lyrics, with some good formulas, such as “I liked the rain before it fell”. Was it a need for you to go back to words?
– Yes it was. It also tickles me to do a post-rock thing with very little lyrics, but here I wanted to make songs. Song implies lyrics.
"La Pluie Avant qu’Elle Tombe", I had seen the 2 Towers, on September 11, I had passed behind a shop that sold televisions, I saw the men fall without the sound and it made me think of raindrops. It was quite dramatic without the sound, like in some horror movies when you take away the sound it's worse. And "The Rain Before It Falls" was a little nod to a book that I really like, with the same title, by Jonathan Coe.
After that, there is a song that was instrumental, it's "Zombie Walk". The year of Covid, for a festival in Rouen called the 55, I created an instrumental music project with a flavor of horror film music, because I have a Master's degree in it, and some dance. The last track was "Zombie Walk": no text, an idea of a post-rock song that goes up more and more, and the dancers got closer and closer to the audience until they stopped one meter away from them.
When I made the album, I wanted to pick up this song again by putting spoken vocals on it. I had the idea of collecting #MeToo universal messages, I asked Einat [Klinger], and she gave me something that was exactly the opposite: a particular scene, and from that emerges the universal, because a scene like that thousands of people have experienced it. I'm very happy that she did that.
– That's the richness of working with others. It's not necessarily what you expect, but it can be very good, sometimes better.
– Well yes, definitely.

– How many instruments do you play? Shall we take inventory?
– Drums, bass, guitar, piano. I played the sitar on Radiosofa's 1st album, and in an album by a guy from Rouen called Mr Lab!, but I don't do it anymore.
– No other lesser-known, exotic instruments?
– I did gamelan. It's like a classical orchestra, but Indonesian. You have several different gong positions, which make notes. It opened me up to styles and modes of playing that are completely different from Western music. Gamelan has a hypnotic side, very close to repetitive music. I really like Steve Reich and people like that, Philip Glass, Terry Riley... who were inspired by repetitive music, and then rock is really repetitive music.

– You have other jobs, I think?
– I am in charge of Chants d'Elles Festival, where female artists perform for 3 weeks. That's also why I thought of this song "Zombie Walk".
I also do "educational concerts" to open up middle and high school students to the dangers of sound volume.
Otherwise, I make music for the screen. It's a branch apart. And music for the performing arts (dance, theatre).

– I suggest you look at the list of albums reviewed on japprecie and point out 5 that you particularly like.
• City of Exiles: corporate, I compare myself a bit to Guillaume, because he's someone who had the courage to get into it.
• Liz Van Deuq: you introduced me to it and it was a great discovery.
• Exsonvaldes: our paths crossed several times, great guys who make great music.
• Zaho de Sagazan: you have to detach yourself from the fact that now we only talk about her, but still, that's not a reason.
• Animal Triste: an American-style rock that is not an erstaz.
• Other Lives