Interview with Michel vocalist and Programming of the Band Trank (France)
By Mick Michaels
The Cosmick View: Hello, Michel and welcome to The Cosmick View/MBM Ten Pounder! Thanks for taking some time to chat with us!
Michel: Well thank you, Mick…always a pleasure to chat about music. I’m sure you’ll agree. By the way, we pretty much have the same name.
CV: Pretty close, yes… : )
CV: Describe your definition of the band’s sound and style and how does that definition uniquely describe the music?
Ha. That’s something we’ve struggled with quite a bit, because what we do sits at the crossroads of very different styles and references.
If you define it in terms of those styles and references, it’s alternative rock with a big, emotional, stadium feel, equally inspired by melodic metal and electronic post-punk; we recently jokingly described TRANK as the bastard child of Shinedown and Depeche Mode…with Muse and Porcupine Tree as midwives.
But we like to think of it even more as the rock equivalent of a Christopher Nolan film…well, one of the better ones anyway…it grabs you from the get go because it’s accessible and spectacular and immersive, but it also creates intense emotions and it makes you think a little. we love the idea that, with each new view, or listen, you discover a new level, or a new layer in it that adds to the depth of the experience.
CV: Today, everyone talks about artist and audience connection. Is such a level of connection actually achievable for an artist and if so, how have you made the connection to your fans?
Michel: Well, indeed everyone talks about “connection” with the audience, but these days unfortunately they mean it more in terms of “how do we find a way for people to buy the music by hooking them on social networks ?” Music fundamentally IS and SHOULD BE about connection. And yes, people connect with us through the song at a pretty deep level. We believe, if you present a song the right way, if the emotion at the core of it comes across, no matter the subject it may or may not be about – people WILL connect, and those moments of deep connection are what we seek to create.
I’ll give you an example. We have a song, “Bend or Break,” which was written about something very personal, emotional and in fact sexual – about the strength and resilience expressed on both ends of an S&M relationship. But it has that chorus “You will not bend, you will not break, and I’d love to see you try – ‘cause I don’t know what it takes;” and when we played it in Eastern Europe, it resonated so deeply with those crowds, because they’ve been through so much, politically and socially, that it resonated with them as sort of an anthem celebrating their resilience. It was very emotional.
CV: Is fan interaction an important part of the band’s inner culture?
Michel: We love our fans. They’re usually very curious about how we do things. I mean they’ll respond to the songs emotionally at first, but then they’ll realize the level of intricacy of the sound – and they’ll ask all sorts of questions about how we did this or how we created that. We spend a lot of time crafting the songs to really get the best out of their potential, so it’s always a pleasure to have those chats.
CV: Can a band truly interact with its fans and still maintain a level of personal privacy without crossing the line and giving up their “personal space” in your opinion?
Michel: Well, it depends on what you mean with “personal privacy.” We put a lot of ourselves in the songs – to that extent, like any artist who means what they say; we do expose a lot of our own privacy. Not that the lyrics are autobiographical…they’re not, they’re usually composites of different people, experiences, moments and observations, but the very act of putting your music out there is very personal. That said, we don’t feel the need to expose our personal lives to attract people to the music; that’s the pop-star model and it was never something we felt was appealing or necessary…which is just as good, because our lives are pretty boring.... That’s the beauty of starting the band at an age where most bands kind of stop, usually because they’re dead – from this or that excess. Everything that’s interesting about us is in the songs.
CV: Is music, and its value, viewed differently around the world in your opinion? If so, what do you see as the biggest difference in such multiple views among various cultures?
Michel: I think there is a universal truth about the emotional cathartic power of music…wherever you go. What may be different is how a given country’s culture, at a given point in time, might lend itself to expressing that power through different styles of music. What that means is that different countries or regions will have different profiles in terms of what styles are big or not, culturally and commercially. Even within Europe – these days, Eastern and Northern Europe are rockier, Western and Southern Europe are now more into pop and RnB or electronica. That’s OK – all of us in TRANK have very eclectic tastes anyway, so we never feel out of place anywhere.
CV: Do you feel that a band that has an international appeal, will tend to connect more so to American audiences? Would they be more enticed or intrigued to see the band over indigenous acts because of the foreign flavor?
Michel: I’ve really no idea. I think that would hugely depend on the listener. I do believe there’s much more of an open-minded, alternative market in the US than the rest of the world usually thinks. My favorite band of all time is Depeche Mode, who to everyone’s shock turned out to fill stadiums in the US as of the late 80’s already, when the charts were full of things much more classic rock or AOR. So the whole thing about the chauvinism of US listeners – I’ve always viewed that as excessive generalization.
CV: Has modern-day digital technology made everyone an artist on some level in your opinion? Have the actual lines of what really is an artist been blurred ?
Michel: Technology makes it easy for everyone to make something that sounds like a song even though it may be garbage. But it’s also made it much easier for people who had great ideas to express them and spread them around; so in the grand scheme of things I’m a huge fan of it. I’ve always loved electronic music in almost all of its ways, shapes and forms…you should see my synths collection. So even though technology has given us masses of auto-tuned jerks desperately trying to hide complete lack of talent behind layers of cheap laptop sheen – I’m going to choose to be happy with the fact it’s given us tons of fantastic music, from Kraftwerk and Pink Floyd to Grimes and Kelela, via house and techno and trip hop and EBM and IDM.
CV: How would you describe the difference between an artist who follows trends and one who sets them?
Michel: The latter’s an artist. The former’s a salesman. But more seriously - most of the artists I love just do their thing, and one day someone looks back and goes – “Hey! You started a trend.” The exception would be Bowie, who was a genius at spotting trends before anyone else, incorporating them into his music by means of partnering with whomever was the best at what he was trying to do, then he moved on to the next thing. But he never lost his identity in it – from the first few seconds you always know it’s a Bowie song, even before he’s started to sing.
CV: Has music overall been splintered into too many sub-genres in an effort to appease fan tastes in your opinion? And has such fan appeasements, in actuality, weakened music’s impact as a whole by dividing audiences?
Michel: We choose not to care. What interests us is to create music we’d love to hear. That, almost by definition, requires blending or ignoring genres. As a journalist or a listener with an extensive collection, you’re going to need some sort of labeling to help you sort through stuff – I myself have a pretty extensive record collection here and I do classify by genre / decade / sub genre / artist / chronological order of release. But I find it’s really rare that people will decide they don’t or won’t like something because it’s the wrong sub-genre. From the outside, a lot of metal fans look like that – the people who can actually tell, and actually DO care about the difference between industrial power-grindcore and post-doom-stoner-death, that sort of bullshit, and who will call you a traitor if you play the wrong sub genre with the wrong guitar tuning. In real life I find that sort of snobbery not as widespread as you’d think – in fact metal audiences tend to be much more open-minded than anyone will give them credit for.
CV: What can fans expect to see coming next from you?
Michel: Even better songs. Our first album, “THE ROPES”, is just out as a Deluxe “MONOLITH EDITION” – because even though it was released independently, it did get enough rave reviews that it attracted the attention of a distributor who offered to release it with more scale – which we thought was a cool opportunity to give it even more beautiful packaging, and complement the original 12 songs with 12 really cool remixes, most of which were in the making when we were approached. We’re very proud of that and how it lays down the foundations of the TRANK sound. But because we can’t play live these days, we’ve been putting all our pent up energy and frustration into the writing of the second album. It’s shaping up to be just as intense but catchier and more direct, without losing the sense of layering we love in a well-made production.
CV: Thanks again Michel for taking some time and talking. It is greatly appreciated.
Michel: No problem. Thank YOU for truly unusual, very interesting questions.
Check out Trank at:
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/trankmusic
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/trankmusic
Official: http://www.trankmusic.com
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/trankmusic
BFan: https://bfan.link/the-ropes
Like The Cosmick View on Facebook at:
The Cosmick Voice
Music, Talk & Nothing But Business
www.thecosmickvoice.com
www.anchor.fm/the-cosmick-voice
My name is Mick Michaels...I'm an artist, music fan, songwriter, producer, show host, dreamer and guitarist for the traditional Heavy Metal band Corners of Sanctuary. Writing has always been a creative outlet for me; what I couldn't say in speech, I was able to do with the written word. Writing has given me a voice and a way for me to create on a multitude of platforms including music and song, articles, independent screenplays, books and now, artist interviews. The Cosmick View is an opportunity to raise the bar and showcase artists in a positive and inspirational light. For me, it's another out-of-this-world adventure.
Spiritual Counseling and Sessions Available
www.pamelaaloia.com
 |
| The Cosmick Voice Music, Talk & Nothing But Business www.facebook.com/TheCosmickVoice |
Comments
Post a Comment