Published
Name: Coilguns
Members: Jonathan Nido, Kevin Galland, Louis Jucker, Luc Hess
Interviewee: Louis Jucker
Nationality: Swiss
Current release: The new Coilguns album Everything We Love, We Destroy is out via Humus.
Hometown Recommendations: Come say hi and hang at Humus Records, in our old warehouse in the city center. It’s a cool example of all the DIY places that our cities try to get rid of. We share it with funny neighbours, a motorcycle repair workshop, a social restaurant, some rehearsal spaces … it’s an interesting social mix. Then we’ll go for a drink at le vostok, la société de consommation, or krabowsky, our favorite bars.
If you enjoyed this Coilguns interview and would like to know more about the band, their music and upcoming live dates, visit their official homepage. They are also on Instagram, Facebook, and bandcamp.
When the first time you noticed you were drawn to darker themes and moods in music, literature or the movies?
I guess when I discovered the music of converge.
How would you describe the physical sensation and possible attraction of being exposed to darkness in music?
It’s a purge, or a cure.
It embodies darkness, gives it a physical existence that doesn’t last more than the duration of a song. It sort of drains it from the ether, turns it into sound, which makes it then more easy to handle.
Does your interest in darker musical themes extend into extra-musical fields such as fashion, or politics?
Not really. I like being an easy going person who listens to pretty dark music from time to time.
I’m rarely attracted by dark movies, dark paintings, dark poetry. I like life.
Who/what are currently artists, labels or even genres which draw you in because of their darker approaches, aesthetics and sound(s)?
Not many.
But I can cite for example Backxwash, Hildur Ingveldardóttir Guðnadóttir, or Thou.
[Read our Hildur Guðnadóttir interview]
I have had a hard time explaining that listening to death metal calms me down. When you're performing a piece with a darker energy, does it tend to fill you with the same energy or feeling – or are there “paradoxical” effects?
I (as a solo artist) like the feeling goosebumps playing dark music. Being frightened by the very sound you are yourself producing. Shaping the horror.
But to be honest I only rarely feel the need to do it. I mostly play positive, happysad, exorcizing music.
When it comes to exploring darker themes, what's your approach to writing lyrics? What makes lyrics good in this regard?
We (as coilguns) write about the decay of values that we thought were sound.
We try to reactivate solidarity, complexity, multiplicity by naming all the bullshit toxic theories and public lies we hear about. In a sense we put this darkness into light.
Tell me about the creative process for Everything We Love, We Destroy, please.
We question the failure of reality that’s currently dominating our Western countries politics.
We have all the proofs, all the knowledge, all the experience, all the numbers to know we're doing something wrong (talking climate justice for instance), but instead of acting we hide away in complete denial. And the more our perception of this guilt progresses, the more we spread fake theories that help us avoiding to fix or face it.
As a punk band, we believe a possible role in this mess is to bring this reality back on the table, and fight it back with noisy riffs and loud beats. To sweat that guilt away.
For Everything We Love, We Destroy, how did you realise your goals in terms of the production, including effects for your current release?
We achieved it by recording everything at home, in the studio spaces we built ourselves, in our hometown, in our own label’s headquarters.
It took us a while to make it a functional and inspiring place, but we finally made it happen. I can say we’re a bit proud of it.
Exploring darker themes in the music often goes hand in hand with the accompanying artwork. Tell me a bit about this relating to your new release.
Exactly not haha.
We asked our friend Jessica Vaucher, if she’d be ok to collaborate with us on the cover. She’s making this cute looking embroidery that turn any sad or ugly word into a bittersweet candy.
We loved the idea of writing this depressing “Everything we love, we destroy” sentence with a soft wool thread and a lot of care. It’s quite paradoxical and reflects us well : we’re putting a lot of effort into generating some kind of a crafty chaos.
Throughout the history of art, there have been artists who did not want to exorcise their demons, afraid they might lose their creative spark. What's your take on that?
That’s bullshit. Music should be a healing process, both for the artist and their audience. To capitalize on deviances and fuel the downward spiral is nothing but a toxic behaviour.
I hate seeing artists performing in a negative way, I mean using their darkness to attract other’s attention and create fascination with their psychiatric problems.
If you use darkness, no matter how raw you perform it, do it with care, try to transcend it. Don’t stick to it, thinking it might make you look cool. You will only attract sad souls and make them sadder in the end. In short: fix your shit.
And if dark music helps you on the way, then don’t refrain it. But don’t let it bring you down, and do not aspire us in the hole with you.
