Scandinavian Indie - Yvonne Interview


Scandinavian Indie Presents: A short interview with
Yvonne

by Erik Söderström (chief@lysator.liu.se) 
after a gig at Herrgår'n, Linköping, Sweden, 02-Dec-94.

Yvonne are:
Henric de la Cour (vocals, guitar)
David Lindh (guitar, effects)
Tobias Holmberg (guitar, synthesizer)
Anders Nilsson (drums)
Claes Boklund (bass)
Rikard Lindh (synthesizer)

(c) 1995 Scandinavian Indie

If the answer is "A." it was answered by the group as a whole.

Q. YOU WERE TO PLAY HERE LAST WEEK. WHAT HAPPENED?

A. Ah, we couldn't make it. One of us was caught up doing the final military service week and weren't allowed to leave.

Q. WHAT DID YOU THINK ABOUT THE GIG TONIGHT?

A. It was great. A lot of people, though the stage was a bit small. And we couldn't do our soundcheck, but it sounded good anyway. They used up the smoke before we got on stage. We couldn't see a thing when we got up there! And we wanted smoke for our last song, along with the strobe, but there wasn't any left! After the last song, we went off stage, but left a guitar on. It went Wzzzzzzzzzz, and the audience loved it! I didn't know it was the guitar, so when I decided it was time to turn everything off, I got really puzzled when the sound was still there after I had turned the synthesizers off, because I thought it was one of them (ha ha). When I finally turned off the guitar, everyone got disappointed.

Q. WHAT SONGS DID YOU PLAY?

HC. 'Inner Cold', 'Drifter', 'Unbounded', 'Frozen', (nameless), 'Systematic', 'Veins' and '...In Grief'.

Q. NO EXTRA ACT. HOWCOME?

HC. No. It just feels dumb to do that. To go back and play some more songs when the audience already are on top would be a let-down. Both for us and for them.

Q. ARE YOU TOURING RIGHT NOW?

A. Sort of. We'll play in Uppsala at Kalmar Nation tomorrow and in Eskilstuna on saturday. Then next week we play in Lund at Blekingska Nationen (Friday 9/12) and in Växjö on the 10th. After that we're going to Stockholm to see Orbital on the 12th and Cranes on the 13th.

Q. WHEN DID YVONNE START AND WHERE ARE YOU FROM?

A. We're from Eskilstuna and we have played like this for about 1 1/2 year now. With the same line-up. When we started we were only three though, Henric, Claes and Anders, but it took only about a week before we were six. You know the group "Kent" are also from Eskilstuna, but they moved to Stockholm. They got signed to RCA recently, though that is not official yet. They called themselves "Jones & Giftet" before. Did you know that?

[Here, two 'journalists' from a local paper barged in and asked three questions for their weekend edition. After they left, some comments about them and their journalistic work were made that I leave out.]

Q. HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH YVONNE, AND WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

HC. Nothing. It doesn't mean a thing. And there's no story behind it either. It's not important. It's just a name.

Q. HOW ABOUT RELEASES?

A. Well, we've been on the "Kittenish" compilation (with 'Drifter') and that's it. We're working on an EP right now though. We don't know when it will be out. We have two demo cassettes though. One that we made a long time ago and one more recent, and no, you can't have the first one (ha ha). The other one have 'Inner Cold', 'Drifter', 'Unbounded' and '...In Grief' on it.

Q. HOW ABOUT INFLUENCES?

A. Orbital, Prodigy, Orb, Black Dog, Brian Eno, System 7, Blueberries, Underworld, Bauhaus, Birthday Party, Nick Cave, Tindersticks, Spiritualized, Spacemen 3. And 80's bands like Simple Minds, Visage, Ultravox, and 70's Kraftwerk.

Q. ONE WOULDN'T THINK THOSE ARE YOUR INFLUENCES LISTENING TO 'DRIFTER' FOR EXAMPLE.

A. True. But 'Drifter' was written about 1 1/2 year ago, and that's when we sounded like that. Our sound today is a lot more mixed. Guitars and synthesizers in a bundle.

Q. WHAT WOULD YOU CALL YOUR MUSIC?

A. Naked. Frustrating and Cold. It's hard to describe really.

Q. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE BRITISH/AMERICAN/WHATEVER INDIE SCENE?

A. Not. We don't like it at all. When we made 'Drifter', Claes were out in Europe, and that's when we sounded like that. Now we don't feel right when people put us together with the indie scene. Linda Norrman [media indie-kid] helped us from the start though. She started it all, so we have a lot to thank her for, really.

Q. HOW ABOUT SWEDISH INDIE GROUPS?

A. Puffin? Bear Quartet? Naked? No thanks. Though 5/6 of us like Crush. Broder Daniel is good. Bob Hund and Gentle Tuesday are also great. They had a video on PM a long time ago and they have a demo out that is great.

Q. WHO WRITES THE LYRICS?

HC. I do. I write them after I hear the music - they're kind of a reflection of the music, though I don't need the music to write lyrics. They're not for someone, or should be taken as something special. They're just lyrics. Rikard has helped with a couple of them as well by the way. Otherwise, I write them alone. Well, I am the one who's going to sing them, so? When we write the music we're all together.

Q. HOW MUCH DO YOU GET FOR A GIG LIKE THIS?

A. In money, from 3.000 SKr to 7.000 SKr. If we had released an album or something like that, it would be a lot higher.

Q. YOU HAVE SOME VINTAGE SYNTHESIZERS THERE...

A. They're gold! A Roland Juno 106 (that we bought today even! We've used it for a while though, but we bought it today) and a Korg Poly-6. That is a wonderful machine! Better than the rest!

Q. ANYTHING ELSE YOU'D LIKE TO TELL ME?

A. We loved playing at the Hultsfredsfestivalen this year. Though we had to use tape to get the mixer table to stay put, because there were over 1.000 people there. Too many! We got that gig just by sending down a demo tape and wait for them to tell us that they wanted us. The Emmaboda festivalen this year was also great, though the sound traveled through our equip' again and again and there was too much smoke! But that was a really great gig.

[Yes, Henric de la Cour is related to Micaela de la Cour in Army Of Lovers, and Rikard Lindh is David's older brother. They're all 19 except for David who's 16 (!).]


Scandinavian Indie Yvonne interview 02-Dec-94



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This page was last updated Dec 26, 1995 by Erik Söderström