“I Me Mine”: not the song! But the fantastic band from France | Interview

December 6, 2018

Questions by Haroula Nikolaidou (για ελληνικά κλικ στην ελληνική σημαία).

Hello Sam, Guillaume και Frédéric.

With this interview I want to introduce you to the Greek music audience. I have already received very good comments for you from the listeners of my radio show, every time I play on air one of your songs. So I believe that it’s time to get to know you better. So let’s begin.

-Who are I Me Mine?

“I Me Mine is composed of Guillaume Thiburs (drums and backing vocals), Frederic Schang (keyboards, acoustic guitar and lead vocals) and me, Sam Deverell (bass, electric guitar and lead vocals).”

from left to right: Sam Deverell, Guillaume Thiburs και Frédéric Schang

-The name of the band obviously comes from George Harrison’s song “I Me Mine” from the Beatles album Let It Be. Do you love specific George Harrison or the Beatles in general? And why this song? What does it mean to you?

“We like all the Beatles songs. They has always been a huge influence for us because of their great songs and because they where innovative in so many ways. Bands like ours wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for them. We liked the sound of I Me Mine and it was a good way to represent our three very different personalities.”

-Describe in few words how did you make your band and when?

“We already knew each other because we all played in bands in Toulouse and often played at the same venues. All our bands kind of fell apart at the same time so it was the right time to start something new. We started rehearsing in 2012 and it sounded right so we kept on playing !”

-Let’s talk about the first of the two albums you have released. It is called I Me Mine and it was released on 2015. I feel like I am listening to pop music of the 60s in a brand new way by adding electronic music elements in it. So tell me about your musical backgrounds. What is your music base?

“Well obviously we’re huge fans of 60s pop music but we never wanted to sound like something that’s already been done. Our influences are quite diverse. We can listen to Fatboy Slim as well as Radiohead or Dr Dre, just to name a few. I think our music is just the result of a weird mix of things we like. Because we grew up loving bands like Pink Floyd and Supertramp we still have a solid base of pop melodies and vocal harmonies but we like to add weird sounds and mess it up a bit.”

-Who writes the songs mostly? Can you describe the process of the song writing as well as the recording?

“Fred and I mostly write the songs but there’s a lot of team work involved. One of us will start by recording a demo on our computer using Cubase or Logic. After that we send it to the rest of the band, if they like it we start working on it. We go back and forth between practices with the whole band and recording new demos at home until we’re satisfied with the result. Because we use a lot of different instruments and effects it can take a while before we get to the final version. We always have a pretty good idea of what we want by the time we start recording the album.”

-Songs like Waiting For The Summer, Interlude, The Sun Behind the Clouds, have a psychedelic pop touch and allow me to say references to a Beatles, Pretty things kind of feeling. Even Syd Barrett’s Pink Floyd. Am I correct? Is it hard to get plays on french radio stations?

“Yes, you’re right. On the first album we had quite a big Syd Barrett and Beatles influence. We get plays on french radio stations but now the big stations mostly play R&B or hip hop so it makes it harder for us.”

-One more characteristic of your music is the beautiful multi vocals. Do you all sing or is it one of you double or triple recorded?

“We love vocal harmonies and we all sing but we still double or triple our vocals in studio to get a dense sound.”

-The song Waiting For The Summer from the I Me Mine album has 40188 views on YouTube. Congratulations for that. Describe me the impact you have in your country. And what about the other European countries?

“Thank you. We’ve played around 300 gigs since we started the band in 2012 and mostly in France. We’ve played in all sorts of venues, big and small. We’ve never had a record label so for a band like us it’s all about making ourselves heard as much as we can. We get new fans at every gig we play so we keep on playing. We’ve also toured in Spain, Italy and Switzerland.”

-Your second album “Ellipsis” has a more modern sound. You have promoted two singles from it Expectations and Up to You. I want to congratulate you for the video clip of the song Expectations. You have done a fantastic job! Tell us about it.

“The video clip for Expectations was directed by Stephanie Artaud and she did a brilliant job. She also worked on Up To You and Orchestra. We wanted to represent the feeling of dreaming of escaping reality. There where lots of ideas flying around until we came up with the idea of a kid escaping in a makeshift rocket. We didn’t have a huge budget and didn’t have much time but we were lucky to work with an amazing team. There was a huge lightning storm the night we were filming the last bit so we almost didn’t get to finish it.”

-What were your intentions for this album? I mean you wanted to change something on your sound? Did you feel you wanted to be more radio friendly?

“We wanted to get rid of the heavy 60’s references and do something that was more personal. It wasn’t about being more radio friendly but we wanted a more modern sound. Actually most songs on the album wouldn’t be played on french radio.”

-Do you know that the word Ellipsis is Greek and that it means a feeling or the state of somebody missing something or someone?

“Yes, it’s a powerful word and suits well what a lot of our songs are about on this album.”

-Name some of your favorite new bands from the 2010’s. Is there a collaboration that you wish to make?

Alt-J, Mac Demarco, Tame Impala, Arcade Fire to name a few… We did a collaboration with General Elektriks on our first single Expectations. We’ve been fans of his music for a long time so it was a great experience. I’d love to collaborate with Danger Mouse one day, he’s a great musician and producer.

-I follow you on the social media platforms and as far as I can tell, in your concerts you look and sound like a very professional band that has spend lots of hours on stage. What is the feeling of a live performance? Tell me your experiences.

“We always try to do something different from the album when we play live. We love to be on stage and we’re always trying new ways to improve our show. After spending time in studio and working on our songs it’s a great feeling to just let go and play. We’ve played in Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Monaco and China. It’s always fun to play in other countries because the audience and venues can be very different. In China the stages were huge and the people where really into the music, it was great.”