Barði Jóhannsson, alias Bang Gang, nous fait l'honneur de répondre à nos questions. Sous ses traits de parfait nordique à l'allure réservée et nonchalante, l'homme a réussi à nous démontrer un humour en plein décalage ... déroutant !
Bang Gang - I Know You Sleep
A l'évocation de sa déjà longue carrière, puisqu'il signait déjà en 1998 un gros tube FM intitulé "So Alone", et surtout en abordant la sortie de son 3e LP "Ghosts From The Past", nous avons échangé avec lui sur sa vision de l'artiste qu'il est aujourd'hui. Voici les meilleurs moments de cette interview très spéciale ! Une bonne occasion de révisez ensemble notre anglais ...
Where have you already played in France ?
BG : La Cigale …
SK : … Good !
BG : MCM Café, Nulle Part Ailleurs …
SK : Oh ! That was a long time ago !
BG : Yes. And I went to Hit Machine also …
We listened to your songs, and we are a bit worried about you … Do you have any problem with Love ?
BG : No I have no problems, I never had problems, only solutions ! In France people like to have problems, you always say « The problem is … », but in Island we would say « What we have to find a solution for is … »
SK : So your songs are just solutions ?
BG : Absolutly, when you’re searching for something you listen to records and you find your solution.
SK : And writing songs are your own solutions to problems …
BG : Yes, making music is like therapy, you put your thoughts and feelings in the music and then you clean yourself … Well true artists put their emotions in their music, if they don’t they’re fake !
How do you deal with both electronic and acoustic music ?
BG : Sometimes I write songs with just an acoustic guitar and other times I will compose the whole backing track and then I put a melody on top. Sometimes I even start with an electronic beat and in the end I put everything away and replace with a live drum and acoustic elements.
SK : And would you still be able to use some old jungle beats and electronics sounds like you made years ago ?
BG : I could because I’m an artist and so I am free to do whatever I want with my songs, but I don’t want to put things I will hate two years later. In my new album I used a lot of vintage analog synths, which I know will still sound good, forever.
And what about your collaboration with Anthony Gonzales, aka M83 ?
BG : I liked his work a lot, so I talked about it to my publisher, EMI, which is also M83’s publisher. So we’ve decided to try and see what would happen if we spent three days writing songs together.
And what would be your perfect Love Song like ?
BG : I think the perfect love song as already been released.
SK : Who made it ?
BG : Frankie Goes To Hollywood, « The Power Of Love » is the perfect one and it’s perfectly produced.
SK : And would you cover it ?
BG : I have a rule : if I can’t do a song better, I don’t do a cover ! I once wanted to do a cover of « Riders on the Storm » by the Doors, but I don’t see the point of doing a bad version of a good song …
Frankie Goes To Hollywood - The Power Of Love
Une longue parenthèse sur Claude François s’engage alors, où l’on apprend que « Stop in the Name of Love » sur son précédent album « Something Wrong » (2003) est en réalité une reprise de notre Cloclo national, puis il s’étonne d’apprendre que c’est bien le même Cloclo qui est à l’origine de « My Way ». Il achèvera le sujet avec une grande vérité : « Each contry have his own local Star that no other country would like to listen to … like, for example, you also have johnny hallyday ! » … no comment.
Enfin la fatidique "Kiss in Concert Question" viendra clore cette rencontre pour le moins marquante ... magnéto Serge !
L'ami Barði sera à la Maroquinerie le 26 Octobre, alors si l'envie vous prend, faites lui la bise de notre part ! Il appréciera de reconnaitre que tout peut arriver dans la vie :)
Bang Gang on MySpace