A Bridge to Many

A Bridge To Many from Toulouse, France released their demo just a couple of months ago and play hardcore in the vain of bands such as Carry on, Internal Affairs or Champion. Fast, but never losing the sense for melody.
Check them out here: www.myspace.com/abridgetomany

Nab –  I play guitar, I’m often out of tune, but that’s because Wilo always bumps on me on stage. I’m a 21 years old student, I work in a junior High School near Toulouse. I have the worst jokes ever.

Nico – My name is Nico, I’m 24, I play bass in ABTM. I’m a hard working student in Toulouse, I’m doing my thesis in geography/environment, and I just came back from a 3 months trip in Chile. 

Wilo – I’m Wilo, I’m 26. I’m a union leader in a fast-food restaurant. I sing in ABTM. I’m the oldest, but also the cutest, the coolest and the smartest in the band... when I’m sober ahah! We also have Bastien on drums, he’s 16 and we hate him for being young, talented, cute and smart. Kevin plays guitar and has the worst haircut EVER. 

Nab – ABTM started in February 2008 and played its first show in April. We recorded a demo in June and went on tour in France & Spain in August. Right now we’re writing new songs and plan to record a 7” early 2009. We’re still looking for someone to help us putting it out though. We’ll be touring Europe in August 2009. All of us are involved in the scene, organizing shows, putting out fanzines, doing radio shows etc. 

Tell me some words about the release of your newest demo. For the artwork, you’ve used some famous covers. What was the idea behind the artwork, and why did you pick these covers? 

W- Nab is a tyrant and he decided we were gonna do it that way PERIOD.  

Nab- Yeah, I thought it would be fun to do a rip-off cover. Since we couldn’t agree on one we decided to do 4 different covers. We picked classic rock records instead of obscure underground hardcore bands. Being cool is overrated.

Nico- We recorded it with our friend Laurent from Fire At Will in our drummer’s basement. It was really cool, his mom provided us so much food, and we went swimming and shit...  

Nab- Looking back at it, the songs are a bit sketchy and the sound could be better, but we were excited to have our songs recorded, so it was cool,

How would you describe the hardcore scene in Toulouse or in the south of France in general? How has it evolved in the last years?

Nab – It’s only my second year here but I love this city and I love its scene. Everybody is so supportive of each other, there are good bands and very nice & interesting people. Punk, emo and hardcore bands are often playing mixed shows. Toulouse is probably the second biggest city for Hardcore shows after Paris in France. As far as bands go, everybody should check out Fire at Will, Alea Jacta Est and Through My Eyes.

Nico – The shows are quite mixed yeah. There are a lot of shows and a lot of promoters. There’s an average of 2 shows per week and there’s a good range of underground bands. For the last 6 or 7 years there's been more and more shows, but unfortunately it’s always the same people attending them, people aren’t curious enough. But it's the same everywhere in France. Anyway, we have an active scene and active people in their own way! 

Wilo – I didn’t know the scene before, I came to the shows, I played in bands, I got involved organizing gigs with THS and I still do. I think it’s really good, but it doesn’t represent what happens in France in general. It could definitely be better,

In the last years the riots in the suburbs of French cities caused a lot of media attention. How is the situation right now? 

Nab – I don’t really know if it has to do with our current government, but the media is even more corrupted and still brainwashing people, what else do you expect from mainstream media? They’re just doing their “jobs”.

Nico- In France the media is talking about topics in a cyclical way, it depends on the current political climate, you’ll get insecurity, the homeless issue...There’s no point in talking about suburbs right now because nothing’s burning there. But the problems remain and to avoid talking about them they talk about other topics, also because they need to renew their news so people stick to the screen... There’s a background problem and when the government is in danger, the media is the tool they use to control their image and to hide the real problems. When there were these riots in the suburbs, the newspapers and TV exaggerated it, and they put the blame on youngsters and immigrants. The Media was simply backing the French government on installing a climate of fear and insecurity. 

A lot of these riots were attributed to immigrants. What is your opinion of the causes of the bursts of violence? What is the role of the government? 

Nico – When there are serious issues in so-called democratic countries, when there’s violence acts against the establishment, it is necessary to find a scapegoat. Our favorite in France right now are Arabs, but it used to be Italians, or polish people in the past, They were pointed out for being responsible of stealing jobs and creating delinquency. I always lived in a calm city and I had a sweet and nice childhood. Yet, with everything I see everyday, all the injustices, it makes me angry and  makes me want to break everything. So if I’d put myself in a suburbans' shoes, I’d probably set everything on fire too, even if it’s not a solution. 

Nab – I think what triggered these riots were a declaration of the French president Nicolas Sarkozy that was really insulting. I think at some point he called yougsters in suburbs “scum” and said he was gonna clean up the streets. It’s probably the same thing that’s happening in Greece right now. People are demonstrating their anger and frustration until it reaches a breaking point (the declarations of the president in France, the cops who shot protesters in Greece).

What would you say about your relationship to the USA, on one hand you criticize it in your song “life counts” on the other hand many of the bands you reference as influences are US-American. 

Nab – It’s two totally distinct things. The idea behind this song is that no one has any sovereignty over living beings. We used the example of death penalty in the USA,  also because they are supposed to be the best nation in the world and shit like that… It’s a call for humanity, when we say “The USA is not different than the rest of the world“ it’s clearly because they are not the only one who have this hegemonic attitude. As far as American bands go, we do love the music, but most of the bands we refer to are critical bands in their own way. It’s not like we’re supporting pro-American or nationalist bands. I don’t really see how this should interfere with being critical over something, we don’t boycott American bands, just like we don’t boycott French bands even if we’re critical about the government, 

Nico – There’s no connection between our musical influences and the ideas we have towards a government. When we talk about the USA, it’s more its government than its people. I have the same confrontational relation, on a ideological level, with the French government, yet I’m not gonna generalize and put French bands aside.

 

France has always been a country with a rich culture, famous poets, singers. Does this influence you in some way? Have you ever thought about writing a French “Chanson”?  

Nico- I think you are a bit generalizing or maybe I don’t have much hindsight on my own culture. When you’re young everything you learn at school has an influence on you. The classical literature had no impact on me, but it’s a different story with economy and political sciences... shout outs to my economics teacher in high school ahah! As for writing in French, I think it’s hard to come up with something good in hardcore music. I used to sing in French in a punk/hardcore band and I came to the point where I realized I couldn’t sing french lyrics on fast stuff, but on slower stuff it can work. Usually it’s easier to sing in English.

Nab – French “chanson” sucks and I hate bands that sing in French. There’s nothing wrong with it, it just sound awful to me.  

One line in the lyrics of “straight to the wall” is “We can't fight this rising sun.” Could you say more about that song and especially that line?

Nico – BUSTED!

Nab – ahah yes, this line doesn’t really mean anything. Wilo wrote the lyrics as we were recording it, and Matt from Fire At Will came to sing on this song. He ended up singing this line and we didn’t know what he was saying. But I think it makes sense... to him... I guess.

Like Germany, France has always had a strong state and social security system, which is often seen as the reason that not much progress has been achieved in these countries in the last years. Many “experts” suggest to change the system and to make it more liberal. What kind of future do you see for France?

Nico – Fundamentally, France never stepped away from a liberal system, even if it preserved an important political machinery in regulating the social system. It depends on how you define « progress ». Is it about establishing a super-competitive political & economical system where the market would decide everything and would rule the world order? Or on the contrary, would progress be taken into qualitative considerations, and would worry about improving people’s lives, developing culture and maintaining an equal social system. ? In the last 30 years or so, the liberal political system has known a significant success, mainly in occidental countries, but it happens to be an unequal system, constantly stretching the gap between the bourgeois, the powerful ones and the have-nots: the people. With an exponential functioning, this system can go very far, but can also brutally collapse, we’re getting to it.

Nab - raise your hand and say “whouhouuuuu!”

Nico – yeah right. I don’t really care about the future of France as long as we stay in a shitty psychological pattern of domination and power. Should we change for a system that have the same force, domination and submission scheme or should we envisage a totally different path that would tear down these walls ?

Nab – PC as fuck.

Nico- DIY

Nab – Touch my penis

Nico – You can do it yourself.

Nab – Whatever, I think the French people are used to say “NO” to anything, without envisaging a sustainable alternative. So progress in the sense of “time marching on” isn’t achieving much. People are scared of reforms and anything that means change. It’s too bad sometimes that people can’t see that even if some changes appears bad for them it can be for the greater good. But I admit that this “saying no”-thing helped us keeping the government from fucking us even deeper.

The song “Throw of dices” is about how mankind treats the earth and resulting environmental problems. How do you see the chances that mankind changes its behavior towards earth? Which environmental problem is the most pressing one in your opinion?

Nico – I could go on for hours about environmental issues, so to cut it short I’d say that there’s no environmental issue that matter more than another. It’s a combination of local problems that are affecting the whole world. Politicians are talking about sustainable development saying “think globally, act locally”. I disagree with that; we can’t think on a two-speed way, environmental problems are way too complex for a one size fits all policy. On a bigger picture, global warming is the most remarkable phenomenon and the one the media is talking about, but it’s not the only one!

Nab – I don’t see mankind changing radically, unless the whole world population decides to go Vegan. Humyn occupation on this earth is damaging on so many levels it’s ridiculous. We need radical changes but our society brainwashed us and tied us to a material way of life so we can’t give it up. But on the other hand we can’t blame human beings for being human beings. It’s good that people are starting to realize we’re going straight to the wall, but it’s definitely not enough.

Thank you for the interview, do you have any last words, any recommendations of local bands etc?

Nab – shout outs to Niclas, AYS and Sink or Swim from Germany. Thank you for the interview. Go vegetarian

Nico – I just wanted to say that our songs are more about encouraging people to be critical than expressing what we stand for. Every one of us stands for different things, some of us are straight edge, some of us are vegetarian. I personally boycott Coca Cola and Nike shoes, which is why we fight most of the time with xNabx ahah! It’s a personal struggle because it fits with my ideology and whith who I am. What matters is to increase awareness more than converting people.