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GOLDEN DAYS
Exclusive interview for the Turquoise Fields website
1986-88 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991-92-96 | 2009-10

As their fourth album Out of the Blue is released, the four Little Nemos are interviewed especially by the Joker, the webmaster of this website. The reunion, concerts, their audience, the writing and recording of this new album... All topics are discussed in this overview of Little Nemo's reawakening.
An (almost) neverending flow of questions and answers about this maritime album, what could be more obvious?
Olivier's absence in the reunion has lead you to reassign roles. Why did Vincent and Nico switch their respective instruments (guitar and bass)? Was it difficult to reappropriate songs you hadn't been playing for fifteen years?
Nico: We were already used to instruments exchange twenty years ago, but not on every songs as it is today. I find it easier to sing while playing the guitar than to sing while playing the bass.
Vincent: The aim of exchanging bass and guitar was to bring some "new blood". Personally, I've always had the will to come back to bass guitar (as in the beginning of Little Nemo) because I like this instrument rythmic and melodic at the same time (I enjoy bass players in a general way, as in The Stranglers, The Cure, etc.). In fact, we have been sorting our setlist to make it harmonious and rythmic...
Yves: This recovery was surprisingly fast, considering the challenge to do it without Olivier.
Ronan: Yes, it came back quite fast but as we rehearsed different versions of some songs for live performance (structure, introductions, etc.), certain tracks did set up faster than others. Furthermore, we wanted to play songs we had never performed live (at least in this configuration) so it involved a little bit of extra work too.

What are this songs never performed live before and why did you choose them?
Nico: "September", "City lights", and all the new songs I believe. In the early beginning, we also played "Bed in summer" from the K7 Froide and "Mad master".
Vincent: A few oldies from Past & Future, but if I understood well, it came as the expectation of a certain "gothic" public. I think about "Empty house" or "La ballade des pendus" especially... and it has been a pleasure to cover them. It seems that "La ballade des pendus" is considered a "gothic anthem" ... It's true that performing "Alan's waiting" and "Be seeing you" is a real "strangloïd" pleasure...
Ronan: For me : "Mad master", "September" (althought it was rapidly set up), "Alan's waiting"… (K7 Froide or Past & Future era). The choice was more based on the fun we had to play some songs, or melodic or rythmic criteria... by and large, the ones which appeared the most obvious to the four of us.
Yves: In fact, for me who joined Little Nemo after the album Turquoise Fields, almost all the songs priors to Sounds in the Attic where with few exceptions new to me (I even discovered some gems such as "La ballade des pendus"). We even did "Bed in summer" or "Mad master" but eventually, we didn't keep these songs... for now at least.

Since you reunited, you have been playing live in France, Italy and Spain. Who are your audience today? Is it different by country? What difference do you see with the 80s and 90s? In the way you are acting on stage, what are you doing today that you weren't doing then? Contrary, what are you not doing anymore nowadays?


Live at the Bus Palladium in 2012 (photo Fred B.)
 Nico: The italian audience is 80% gothic, as in Vicenza. In Roma, there were many of them too. In Barcelona and Paris, the audience is more mixed! According to the feed back we received, the audience find the sound rockier than in the 80s-90s.
Vincent: It was a wonderful surprise to be expected in various European countries. Our audience remains quite mixed, however with a strong "new wave" mark, as in the beginnings ultimately. Maybe more extrovert in Spain ... What's new? Beeing at ease on stage is new for me! I am less staring at my shoes today, I think at least (I hope...)
Ronan: Part of our audience has aged with us of course, but there are younger ones who dicovered us through parties and DJ set… It's particullary true in Spain. We also have several contacts in other countries with people in rather young age. I don't find any big difference between them. In any cas, one of the major changes is the direct relationship between the band and the audience, especially via the Net, social networks... In the way we play, I think we are more at ease on stage now and that we find each other more easily. What I am not doing anymore: pogo dancing with the singer!
Yves: The audience is less dressed as crows (smiles) ... such a pity, it made a super show for us to see! In fact, we are more playing to have fun without taking care of an image or an other... and the audience seem to have also evolve in the same way, so that is good. Together, it is curious to have a whole new generation.

Your first recent recordings published were orders for cover compilations, Joy Division's "Love will tear us apart" for the Infrastition tribute to Ian Curtis (a song to pick up in the band's repertory) and "Puppet queen" by the french contemporary band Dorcel for the Str8line sampler (the band to cover is randomly chosen). How did you tackle this task in both case, especially the risky one or pitfall to cover Joy Division's great classic? Nico, how did you approach these tracks, the first ones other than songs sung at first by Olivier that you could appropriate singing?
Vincent: Very interesting exercices: how to appropriate an external idea! Regarding our Joy Division cover, I don't think one may call it a "pitfalll" ... Fortunately! A beautiful tribute I think.
Ronan: I had real difficulties choosing a Joy Division song, I also liked "Transmission". And "Love will tear us apart" has been so much covered ... But we played it several times with an ambiance we liked, so we got into it without asking ourselves too many questions and as we felt it. For Dorcel, we had especially noticed two songs on their EP, and this one won... with a few structure slicing from us!
Yves: It seems to me that it has been pretty quick, spontaneous and without headlock. With Joy Division, we played it on our setlist before and eventually, we came back to our common roots, at least with the idea treated in a Doors kind of way. Honestly, we can't cover songs like that taking ourselves too seriously. We even had a chorist at the last moment in studio. For Dorcel, I love the original song. We tackled the structure to shorten it and adapt it to our current feeling.
Nico: In fact, I had before already sung Little Nemo songs on stage at various concerts so I was trained at singing. Anyway, I have been taling lessons with Lara Piombino, our vocal coach with Vincent, before singing live. For "Puppet queen", I had made a home demo to train before the recording in studio....! For Joy Division, I have tried changes in the vocal line. I am eventually rather pleased with it.

Those were the first songs not sung before Olivier that you were able to sing. It must have allowed you more freedom on the vocal part…
Nico: In fact, many Out of the Blue demoes were recorded in 2009, including "Last sunset", so it wasn't my first attempt in 2010 when we recorded these songs! And as they were covers, I had to follow a certain frame anyway even if I changed the melody a bit on certain verses of "Love will tear us apart".

We are now discussing about the songwriting of the new tracks. In the interview for Elegy in 2009, when you were talking about writing new songs, the approaches mentionned were amongst others rerecording songs from the early demoes (La Cassette Froide era or before) or covers. Eventually, there is no such thing on Out of the Blue. What was your initial musical idea? Revisiting old demoes, trying to sound like on Sounds in the Attic and Turquoise Fields, or finding another way? Did your renenewed and international audience influenced your composing?
Vincent: Well I don't think so. At least, as far as I am concerned, I have always been trying to "invent", that is to say imagine new idéas. The fact that the album has been thought as "Mediterranean" has nothing to do with sollicitations from Mediterranean countries. On the other side, one thing is clear, you can always try to sound like this band or that band (ex: Beach Boys, Rolling Stones, Stranglers, …), in the end you always sound like yourself, even twenty five years later, and that is quite funny!
Nico: For my part, the initial musical intention was a kind of electro new wave mixed with rock. For the new songs, we worked from demoes recorded at my place, based on ideas coming from each of us, so the working method is closer to the one used for Sounds in the Attic and Turquoise Fields that for The World is flat, althought these demoes were more sounding like a pre production than four-tracks demoes, the technological means having evolved over the twenty last years. Thus, certain parts recorded at home were fully used on the album.
Ronan: My aim was clearly to explore new ways, while keeping the old albums in mind. But it was certain that the processing would be different due to the four part collaboration, with our different musical cultures. I don't think we were influenced by the audience ; I think that "roots" from former songs can be found to some extent, but they have evolved differently. We are more on electric tones than "new wave" ones, such as drum machine and synths.
Yves: Yes it's true. The initial idea was just to reunite and play live : "let's play some concerts and off we go". Composing means playing songs noone knows and as i have said before, there are real gems in the old Little Nemo. Then, we found a real desire to write songs.... Mediter ranean (untranslatable wordplay, something like Meditate eranean)… or in one single word ? If we had listened to the audience, we would have rather chosen colder waves.

In this 2009 interview, Vincent also talked about coming back to more ancient themes from Little Nemo's early history, ancient civilizations. The only obvious "concept album" in your discography was Past & Future. Is finding a concept a need or a help to find inspiration? Or did you all had fantasies of being antique storytellers? Vincent, how does this concept about ancient civilizations relate to the beginnings of the band ?
Vincent: I don't think that this concept of ancient civilizations does relate to to the beginnings of the band... In fact, each album was a "concept album" and I remember talking sometimes all night long with Olivier [Champeau] about the theme we wished to developp, especially for Turquoise Fields, but also of course for Past & Future and Sounds in the Attic, these "sounds in the attic" referring to the titles we created in his parents' house in Orsay, a bit like in an attic.
Ronan: I wasn't that much attracted by the antique side (I am rather a "futurist"), but I liked the idea of an underlying theme for the album, a story told from song to song.
Nico: The antique side was indeed an initial spin from Vince, to travel back in time further than the Middle Ages, cherished by the gothic scene!
Yves: I've always liked albums which have a concept... But it has to be discreet otherwise it can become damn boring (Do you know Magma...?). Personally, this theme has inspired me. I have read lots of stuff upon this and the fact that we have a remote collection of the theme helps keeping it light enough. A question for you : on listening, do you hear the concept ?

At the Bus Palladium in 2012 (photo Fred B.)

Yes, in the title of the songs, the lyrics... But musically, it does never take over the best possible concept: a collection of varied and consistent songs.
Ronan: Absolutely, it makes sense (a "binder") for the whole album, whithout being repetitive for almost an hour long...

There is a lot of allusions to mythology on the album, some explicit ones, other more symbolic or hidden. What is the song sung in greek langage, "Diskover" about? Who is the female caracter in "We love us" and what does the Trojan Horse in "Trojan waltz" stand for?
Vincent: Here, the song sung in "proto-greek" is a "free" rendition of the clay tablet originating in 1700 BC which was found in the palace of Phaistos in the south of Creta, in front of Lybia (Africa then)... I have translated it using an syllabic hypothesis, each "hiéroglyph" is supposed to be read by its name, (the easiest way possible in order to remember it, in greek by hypothesis) and you pick up the first syllable, and so on. The text translated this way differs from one side to the other (as a CD with an A side and a B side, the size is similar anyway!): The first side recounts a human sacrifice to make the rain come and foster life and harvests, while fighting against Antares' devilries (I could talk to you about it for hours...). the second side tells the attack of a horseman named "Philip", mad and monstruous, who is mastered by the hero of the crowd, the one who has been able to read in the above (omen) and prevent his assault: we are not far from the "Trojan Horse" ... which can be found in "Trojan waltz": it's an allegory which depict the great wave (Tsunami in its time) which rolled in, penetrating the Black Sea (following the tearing apart of the Bosphorus Strait (at least I think) separating the Aegean Sea and the Black Sea by a huge horse one hundred meters high, nearby... the city of Troy (3000 BC). It's the flood myth, who only the sailors escaped, thanks to their boats. They were forced to escape this cursed place and travel the oceans looking for more peaceful places ... and so on, Creta, Greece, Italy, and why not Portugal, Britanny, Ireland ... In short the famous "people of the sea" of who no trace was found ... except maybe the Phaistos Disc (this is my deep feeling). That's it! I stop here for historic digressions ... "We love us" lyrics were written by Yves, broadly, it(s about narcissism, and the "United States"...
Yves : Venus...and Iliad. In fact, "Trojan waltz" is a chanty, which happens in the Black Sea. Then it becomes gently apocalyptic.


Phaeton's legend is a tragic one : he dies because he can't master the chariot he borrowed from his father the Sun. In the song "Phaeton and Sun", The Sun and Phaeton are said to be driving together. Is it the legend or an imaginary and comforting rendering evocation?
Vincent: It's indeed a picture of the legend, about the parents-children transmission, and mainly a strong nostalgic imprint upon my daughters' childhood which won't last for ever ... By the way, Stephane Marchi [writer of the "Berlin" lyrics, flute player on "Pray for the great day" and "Trojan waltz"] specified me that, in this legend, the chariot and its sun fell ... in Lybia (in front of Creta then) and that's how the African people became black ! I think this story is very strong and touching.

In the Turquoise Fields days, Olivier said that each of you (Olivier, Vincent and Nico) were wtriting their own songs and that everyone like the others' style. Today, does anyone write his own song or are songs composed collectively from the start ? How are the music composing and lyrics writing assigned ? This album is the first of its kind, among other things because Nico is singing and Vincent is singing a larger part of the songs than on the previous albums.
Ronan: From the start, the basic idea is always proposed by one of us and usually completed by the others, either during rehearsals or "at home". Vince's songs are an exception : he usually have a mature idea from the start, his tunes have a strong personality and our contribution is mostly arrangement. For the other tracks, we allow ourselves the freedom to test ideas, structural changes… There isn't really a predetermined distribution of roles, we listen to each other's ideas, and we keep them or not. The lyrics writing depends on the inspiration ; I have been inspired at once by the "Eyes and heart" tune, it gave me the idea of a story to tell. Vincent participated too ... For the songs I brought, I had already written 80% of the text ans I had only had to complete it. Nico also did a big job with the recording in his home studio.
Yves : On The World is flat, there was quite a collective work on the songs, that was super nice but as simple as it seems. We would soon jam on some Led Zeppelin with Nico ! On Out of the Blue, each of us wrote songs on his own indeed, then we worked mainly by pairs (sometimes in a team of three but never the four of us). Nico was part of all the pair and did a great work with the software, bringing coherence at the early stages. Nico excepted, we mixed permanently the teams, so that everyone almost fulfilled every role. It may appear complicated but in fact it went on quite naturally. Just to let you know, I worked on an early version of "Pompei" with Stephane Marchi, version that I love but very different from the final one that I love too. It's more difficult for the lyrics. Fortunately, Ronan helped us for the english lyrics. I am not at ease with writing in english. There are certain songs that the four of us never played ("We love us" for instance). It's not a problem for me : we are now playing Little Nemo songs never played live before, so maybe it's just a cycle? I really enjoyed the freedom it brought us.
Vincent : All the titles of Out of the Blue were initially written either by each of us independently, in gross two-three tracks by band member (which gives twelve) then they were shared and above all "matured" collectively, either by pair initially (Nico especially brought a lot of decisive arrangement ideas on many songs). Anyway, I found the "Band" side particularly efficient in this Out of the Blue experience, even if from time to time, it wasn't always obvious sharing ideas, which is human after all. But, as man has a "numinous" spirit (after Carl Gustav Jung I believe), he is able

Yves searching for an arrangement for "Le dormeur du val" in rehearsal (Photo The Joker)
to adapt to visions initially external to him. In short, I consider this a collective achievement and wish we persevere still to reach collective perfection ... sorry if I'm inflaming. In the previous Little Nemo era, I think this collective side already existed but to a lesser extent because there was firstly a quite clearly bipolar tendancy (Olivier and I had rather distincts ideas), then tripolar (with Nico), and eventually multipolar.

This album contains tracks evocating your usual style ("Last sunset" has roots in "Sandcastle" and waltzes such as "Le dormeur du val" or piano pieces like "Phaeton and Sun" were already part of your wide musical spectrum). Are the twelve songs on the album new or old songs ? Other tracks as the the theatrical "Diskover", "Pompéi" and its reggae style chorus or "Billion seasons" (whose atmospheric intro leads to a psychedelic 60s jingle) step aside from the 1988-1992 era style. What did inspire musically your songwriting? Were your more private musical experiences after Little Nemo's split in 1993 useful for this new album or do you have more contemporary influences ?
Yves : They're all new except a few songs. For instance "La nuit opere" was initially played with Aqualites [project featuring Vincent, Ronan and Yves after the 1993 split]. We still love turnings in ternary, especially live. For me it gives a natural pulse. Ternary reggae is the thing for me. It may seem awkward but it flows very naturally in the end. It's true we listened to, played and wrote many stuff. Playing live really differs from our influences. Personally, I am more influenced by travels and meetings than by stuff heard on the radio or bands. In fact, it seems to me that we were very pervaded by the old Little Nemo. It's a kind of chemical thing. We are machines inventing from what we experience... aren't we ?
Nico : The twelve songs were written in 2009, except "Billion seasons" and "Golden days" dating from 2010. To give your an answer, I think you start a song, you let your inspiration guide you without really anticipating which style it will sound like, you are led by your composition and not your will to make it sound like this ou like that... Of course, the latest musics you've heard and liked may have an influence, as well as the tools you're usiong to compose (the home studio in this cas).
Yves : I thought "Trojan waltz" had come later... tune written in fifteen minutes while thinking about a band I adored: Resistance.
Ronan : They're all new compositions, but I have had the idea of "Last sunset" and "Golden days" for some time yet (I have piano versions very different from the studio final takes). I think that if there are similarities, they are related to everyone's style and musical references, which result in ideas with some common. I especially like "Billion seasons" and its three successive atmospheres (kind of song "Turquoise fields"-like), with a more Beatles touch in the end. Another way to pay tribute to the past! "Diskover" and "Pompéi" have really beautiful cello lines which strenghten the overall colour of these songs. Anyway, I don't think the post Little Nemo 1992 experiences were a guide for these tracks, for me it would rather be a question of mixing contemporary influences with more "classical" ones.
Vincent : They're all new songs, excepted "Le dormeur du val" that I wrote about ten years ago for a friend who lost her lover in the moutains. In brief, she loved this Rimbaud poem and I had a great desire to perform it as a song. Otherwise, all the songs are "novelties" (four years old now however). There are certainly past reminiscences indeed and inspirations from the old Little Nemo period (Past & Future for instance), where we can still draw ... Concerning "Pompei", it's indeed a "Ternary reggae" idea from Yves I joined at once, especially due to a niece singing the famous "oh oh" I adore, now sung by my daughter Clara. And of course, the lyrics are admirable: the natural beauty of the Mediterranean sea and the pervasiveness of death (the ancient people had the unfortunate habit of settling on the slopes of volcanoes to promote agriculture, which was often fatal: natural paradox). Theatrical "Diskover" ? That's exactly the point, as in my mind these ancient songs should be declaimed in a theater located high at the level of the temple of Phaistos. The "Theater and its double" wrote Artaud... "Billion seasons" is a pure Nico work I adore as well, which inspired me this very Pharaonic text, also about the passage in the above, the weighing of souls just after death ... Has one been good or bad ?... About the Aqualites project, I think it prevented me from turning off from poetry [the band was playing poems put into music]. However, Nico told us not to perseverate in this way too naive or "french song" (and I am thankful to him) and inspired us with his natural "rock" energy, which prevented us from drowning in a kind of quite muddy melancholia, although I don't disown the songs we recorded with Aqualites: it's just that it was lacking a bit of energy. Anyway, as far as I am concerned, I have been very much inspired by the Beach Boys for this album (even if I think it's absolutely not hearable in the end ...).

Rehearsal with the violoncellist Iann-Elfinn (photo The Joker)
I hear some Beach Boys in your vocal harmny on "Billion seasons", but it's fugitive...
Ronan : Actually, this vocal harmony does more remind me of Lennon ...

Nico's home studio often recurs in your answers. How did it influence or change the way yours songs eventually sound compared to the 90s? Which ways has it open you?
Nico : The software (Sonar) was used for pre-production of all songs, that is to say gross initial ideas have been developped trying different ways, to find what made them more efficient. For instance, on "Last sunset", I've tried several bass or guitar lines before choosing the ones which sounded best. You can also try several vocal tunes or choral harmonies or various arrangements that we often "bounced" for the studio (that means we kept them as they were made with the home studio), for instance the percussive arrangements on "Golden Days".
Ronan : It allowed us to produce more quickly resulted demoes with a "sound" already close to the final result, and then react more promptly on the changes needed, or even in some cases to be convincted at once taht a song "sounded well". In the 90s, we had to record ourselves as best as we could on 4-tracks, which was quite binding. Furthermore, current softwares include many things (rythms, sounds...) that let us work as in a laboratory : you change the rythm, explore sounds… and without having to pay for hours of recording studio, and (almost) at any time ... much more convenient !

While talking about songwriting, what is the ideal song you would have liked to write ?
Nico : Right now I'm fixated on "Ramble on" by Led Zeppelin...bass, vocal tune, guitar riff everything is excellent in this song I've rediscovered lately!
Yves : Excellent choce.... And second Led Zeppelin quote in this interview (you can't escape yourself, can you?), gothic have rock roots indeed.... A difficult choice but eventually I pick up "Space oddity" by David Bowie.
Vincent : The one we're about to record ... Just joking ! Well ... well ... difficult exercice ! I would maybe choose "Melody Nelson" [de Serge Gainsbourg], but it is restrictive... let me think again ...No, I give up, let's stick to "Melody Nelson".
Ronan : Ha tricky question ! Go ahead! "California dreaming" by the Mamas and Papas! Otherwise : "Street spirit" by Radiohead and "Velouria" by the Pixies.
Nico : Otherwise, as number two, "Enjoy the silence" by Depeche Mode I'm soon going to see play live... But my tetish song is still "Moonchild" by Fields of the Nephilim, at the time, their guitar playing had inspired me the song "Hillside manor"!
Vincent : OK, if I'm granted a remorse, that will be ............ "Rosalie" : "Rosalie, Rosalie Oh!, Rosalie, Rosalie Ah!" of our greatly missed Carlos. Admirable Carlos ! He is the one who understood everything in LIFE !

Vincent, how did you choose the poem "La Nuit Opère" by Antonin Artaud (see the References page for details) ? It's a crude and surrealist text who lead you to sing it in an unusual way. Yves reminded us it was from the beginning an Aqualites song.
Vincent : Oh yes, I had forgotten: this one had already been recorded with Aqualites (a very different version, more folk-rock than Joy Division) ! So I was mistaken, there are at least two "old" songs on Out of the Blue... I love Artaud. For me, Ian Curtis and Antonin Artaud are equally tortured spirits who gave birth to an art raw ... and pure !

Where did "La Cloche Felee" disapear?(a song from Vincent's 1992 unreleased solo album, played live since 2009 but who did not make it on Out of the Blue) ? Does covering 19th Century Poems make it harder to write original texts in French ("Pompéi" is the only original French text on the album) ?
Vincent : I really like "La cloche felee", but I find it too "dusty" to fit in Little Nemo's 2013 universe. Anyway, he wouldn't have found his place on Out of the Blue I believe.
Yves : Excellent question!

In your first incarnation, the themes of yours songs were the nostalgia for childhood, the uncertainties of the heart and time that passes, which are teenage and individualists concerns. Death as a passage to another world comes back several times in the album, either through a caracter ("Billion seasons", "Last sunset") either collectively, human beings facing a disaster or a cataclysm ("Golden Days", "Pompéi", "Starship"). Yet there is also a kind of tongue in cheek detachment ("we're the fool angels of the century" on "Starship"), Sisters of Mercy-like vocal modulatiosn on certain part of "Last sunset"... Is it an escape from despair and destiny?
Vincent : Maybe it's our half-century age knocking at the door ? ... I think we are more influenced than before by this kind of philosophical frame... and this look towards the above. We're becoming more philosophical, aren't we, guys ? Hmm I believe.
Nico : In a far away future, dear Joker, there is no future but a past! Time is somewhere an illusion. The great leaving is happening as a wavelenght, a light or an equation...
Ronan : Well I don't know ...As far as I am concerned, there are quite strong images that have inspired me, either in my personal life, either in a future I hope very hypothetical. I have been quite marked in my childhood by stories of apocalypse, of Nostradamus… And as time goes by, concerns or topics of interest have certainly evolved and "matured" ; it does not prevent me from claiming more childish aspects of personality that are in my opinion essential to continue to dream and not to end up as a "desesperate". Perhaps also a bit of nostalgia, too...
Vincent : YES me too !
Yves : I'm going to read Freud and then I'll come back. Not sure that it is so complicated. It seems to me there's romance and humour too.

Water, the sea appear as a refuge in your songs (the ocean who's waiting in "Golden days", water that quenchs thirst in "We Love us"). Did you choose the cover picture with the maritime view from the start or was it coincidence ?
Vincent : What is certain is that I have been inspired from the start by the Aegean Sea and antique Creta for this new project. the choice of the cover picture was anyway a bit of a coincidence while looking at several pictures sent by Jerome Sevrette, and there : I flashed ! I think this picture truly embodies the album: what do the others think about it ? I really like the idea of the "mer(e)" as a refuge (wordplay on "mer", sea in French and "mere", mother in French) indeed.
Ronan : I absolutely agree with Vince ! The picture perfectly stick to the topic ; it's called "The island" et that's good, we still are in the refuge from the vastness... And then I have a great affinity for seashores... (well, not those who are concreted !)
Yves : It's the Mediterranean theme. I realy like the lighthouse that looks like the arm of a turntable.


In the studio Val d'Orge,talks about ideas of 'arrangement, Jean TAXIS on the console (photo The Joker)

Why and how did you get to collaborate with the singer Aurelia and the violoncellist Ian-Elfinn, at first for the 2009 concert at La Locomotive, then in studio for Out of the Blue ? Was it a particular musical color you were looking for?
Ronan : We met Ian-Elfinn through Daniel Gouyette [film director who filmed the concert at Locomotive in 2009], he was playing at the time in a band called Les Fragments de la Nuit. He was very interested by our project and by playing with us, although (and maybe because) it was far from the music he was playing. He played with us on "La ballade des pendus", which was the track where the cello seem the most obvious at La Locomotive, and we enjoyed the way he was playing and his "feeling". Then we sent him our demoes and he brought very good ideas on several tracks. I admit that the sound of the cello in studio is physically impressive! Nico recruted Aurélia I believe, at first we wanted a female voice on "Tales of the wind" at La Locomotive, and finally we thought it was an interesting addition to some tracks on the album.
Vincent : In that case : a childhood dream for the cello and I must admit that Ian Elfinn has impressed me : I love his touch and the tones he was able to bring, especially on "Diskover" and "Le dormeur du val". I also love Aurelia's voice, and she was able to embody the evil incantatory witch in "Diskover"... (frightening laughters) ! But also the softness of her voice in "Eyes and heart". She provides a necessary charm! I think it is imperative that they are again part of the future Little Nemo...

Why did you choose to work again with Jean Taxis (producer of Turquoise Fields and The World is flat)? What were you able to do on the recording of this album that you couldn't do for the previous ones ?
Ronan : Jean Taxis, it's essentially because the band and him know each other very well, and that we understand each other very quickly on all parts of the recording, which accelerates the process. And his listening skills (double meaning) are very appreciable and we work with him with great trust. We also like the sound of his studio and its console. In studio, the essential contribution has been for me on the voices and the drum sound, more natural. We also had the opportunity to introduce more acoustic elements (piano ...) and add cello and a female voice, new things to us.
Vincent : Jean know us well and we know him well too: his gifts of sound silversmith especially ensure the final excellence ! He helped us a lot in producing and mixing and contributed to give Out of the Blue this special and initimate tone , so I am very grateful to him ! For this album, we clearly had the time to settle, think about it, without getting bored, which is not an obvious exercise. I remember that in the past, it made (quick recording) or broke (weariness inexorably settling). But for this album, the flame was there all the way, that is to say three years of slow cooking, like a recipe which would stretch three years long... Master Chef I tell you !
Yves : Jean is first of all a friend. He has great listening skills and he's an ace.
Nico : Jean is a perfectionnist and a friend, he was also very motivated by our project after demoes listening!
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