Name: Edgär
Members: Antoine Brun, Ronan Mézière
Nationality: French
Current release: Edgär's new single "Russian Roulette" is out via Grabuge. It is the first harbinger of new full-length studio album Edgär Is Dead to be released in March 2024. Pre-order on vinyl here and on CD here.
Recommendations: I’ve been blown away (again) by the last Archive album: Call To Arms & Angels. And recently I’ve been to Brussels and re -discovered the paintings of Renée Magritte that I recommend to anyone who likes surrealism.

If you enjoyed this Edgär interview and would like to keep up to date with the band and their music, visit them on Instagram, and Facebook.



When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening? Do you listen with your eyes open or closed?

I mostly listen to music with my eyes closed. Sounds tend to become movies or paintings in my mind.

Entering new worlds and escapism through music have always exerted a very strong pull on me. What do you think you are drawn to most when it comes to listening to and creating music?

When listening to music I often feel immersed in the music, creating like my own bubble and disconnecting from the outside world.

Music can also become our own life ´soundtrack’, as it can play an important part in our life and be strongly associated with some memories. For example, many of us might remember fondly the songs that we heard as kids, and hearing them again can make us relive some happy moments, like driving with the family on holiday and singing along together.

Writing music for me is more about creating and immortalising some of these emotions and important moments in order to share them with my loved ones as well as strangers. A lot of my music is about expressing my emotions, and talking about things that make me happy, sad, or angry. And sharing such things I think are important as they are not only a way for me to express myself but also hopefully create art that resonates with others.

What were your very first steps in music like and how would you rate the gains made through experience?

I started violin lessons when I was 6.

I think that learning to play an instrument as a child is an amazing way to increase our sensitivity to music and our appreciation of it.

According to scientific studies, we make our deepest and most incisive musical experiences between the ages of 13 -16. What did music mean to you at that age and what’s changed since then?

This was the time I started to listen to music I was discovering by myself, and not the one my parents were listening to. It was also when I started to write my first songs. Maybe it comes with ´coming of age’ and the beginning of our quest for identity in our teenage years. I think that part of my life influenced me the most to become the musician I am today.

The biggest change I can see nowadays is that I am less inclined to discover new artists and new songs than I was at the time when I was constantly listening to new (and old!) music and genres, discovering new artists and further developing my knowledge of music. Today I don’t do this as much, although I am still always interested in discovering good music and artists. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m less curious now or because I’m not as easily surprised and captivated when listening to a new song or artist.

Another big change I think is also that since becoming a musician and writing music myself I don’t listen to music the same way as I did when I was a teenager. Now I am more likely to also pay attention to the exact sounds, the composition, how the song was produced etc. which I suppose also makes a difference in what I look for and what I appreciate when listening to something new.

How would you describe your own relationship with your instrument, tools or equipment?

Unlike many musicians, I don’t really have an emotional attachment to my instruments. I see them as tools.

But I’m very attached to the way they sound and we spend a lot of time in the studio designing the sound of each instrument for our albums and our live shows. Somehow it still makes me dependent on my equipment, but it is perhaps less about the instrument itself.

Where does the impulse to create something come from for you? What role do often -quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics, etc play?

It can come from anywhere. For me writing music is always an emotional response to something that happened in real life or in my dreams. It could be brought about as much by a painting as by a cat crossing the street, anything that makes me feel something that I want to express. It can be serious or silly.

But most of the time, I’m inspired by what makes me sad or angry.

Are you acting out parts of your personality in your music that you couldn't or wouldn't in your daily life? If so, which are these? What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music?

Yes, totally. Sometimes songs are dialogues I’m not able to have in real life.

It’s easier for me to express my feelings through music.

If music is a language, what can we communicate with it? How do you deal with misunderstandings?

We can communicate everything with music. I even think that sometimes a melody can be more accurate than words to express an emotion.

A listener can misunderstand the main intention of a song but when a song moves us, we kind of absorb it and the meaning becomes personal to each
person.

Making music, in the beginning, is often playful and about discovery. How do you retain a sense of playfulness and how do you still draw surprises from tools, approaches and musical forms you may be very familiar with?

I used to write songs with many different instruments or sounds because today with only a computer you have access to so many resources so it is easy to do and fun to play with. But while that can be very fun and exciting to play around and see how far we can go with these tools, it’s also easy to do too much and lose the essence of the song.

Today I like to keep it simple. I use fewer instruments and I try to push them as far as I need so they become a real part of the song. I think that the most important thing in a song is the melody and that a great song can be played with only a guitar and vocals.

Sound, song, and rhythm are all around us, from animal noises to the waves of the ocean. What, if any, are some of the most moving experiences you've had with these non-human-made sounds? In how far would you describe them as “musical”?

The sound of waves has a really powerful impact on me. It can influence me the way that music does, and makes me feel serene.

In music, there is a sort of exchange between a creator and a listener, an emotional connection between two human beings. I’m not sure that waves intend to have an emotional connection with us. But who knows …

There seems to be an increasing trend to capture music in algorithms, and data. But already at the time of Plato, arithmetic, geometry, and music were considered closely connected. How do you see that connection yourself? What aspects of music do you feel can be captured through numbers, and which can not?

I think that like every language, music is designed to be shared between people so it requires some rules to be understood by most people. But like language, music is a living thing and we have seen these rules get broken over and over as it evolved across time and cultures. While rules are useful, the rules of music like that of maths are often man-made and meant to be broken or to change as new discoveries are made and the boundaries are pushed.

I deeply believe that we are moved by art because it is a human experience, and we know that there is a human being behind it who has a feeling or a message to share.

Sure algorithms and data sound fancy, but I’m not really afraid of music made by an AI. Somehow, knowing that a song is made by an algorithm takes away the human element and the magic of music.

How does the way you make music reflect the way you live your life? Can we learn lessons about life by understanding music on a deeper level?

I write music because I need to. The way I need to sleep or eat. So, it’s a part of who I am.

I think that making art is always about introspection, it’s a way of getting to know yourself better. And when you find what moves you, you often want to share it with people or at least externalize it. And we all learn by experiencing and sharing things with others.

So I think music can teach lessons to both artists and listeners. Sometimes you can even learn from others’ interpretation of your own work.

We can surround ourselves with sound every second of the day. The great pianist Glenn Gould even considered this the ultimate delight. How do you see that yourself and what importance does silence hold?

My mind is an ocean of noise. It’s really hard for me to stop the machines in my head. So being outside with a lot of different sources of sound can be very difficult to handle sometimes, especially when your head is already full of sound.

For me silence is an essential part of in my life because I need it to rest.

Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

Making a great cup of coffee and writing or performing a piece of music are very different things to me. It doesn’t take the same emotional involvement.

But I think that a person can be moved by anything, even things others might consider ´mundane’. One can be moved by a good meal just as much as by a great song or a painting. We all have different responses to things that move us, and what one considers mundane or boring can be a great source of joy and inspiration to someone else. Even something as simple as making a cup of coffee.

I think we can find beauty in most things, it all depends on the person. For example, I’ve had conversations with people who put sports and art on the same emotional level. It goes over my head because nothing has more impact than music on me. But we’re all different.

If you could make a wish for the future – what are developments in music you would like to see and hear?

I’d like to see more passionate people. Including in the music industry.

Today people tend to favour appearances over the art itself which can become just a common product to sell. And I think it kind of takes away the whole meaning of making art.