Parlor is a really nice french noisecoregroup or what to call the music they play. Anyway here´s an interview with Boris and Guillaume done in may 2020

Please tell me a little bit of the history of the group?

Guillaume: Parlor was created back in 2016 in Paris. We already knew each others thanks to previous bands we had, we were rehearsing at the same studio at the time.

We were all playing Post-Rock/Post-Metal(-ish )music and I assume we all wanted to create a more intense/aggressive/energic piece of music.

Boris: Arthur (singer) and Guillaume (drum) were playing in a Post-Rock band named Observer while Yann (guitar) and me (bass) were and are still playing in a Post-Metal band called SaaR in Paris. It is Yann that came up with this idea of forming a more extreme/hardcore-punk band - he had all these riffs with silly time-signatures in his pocket and that’s how we came up with Parlor.

Please tell me a little about every member in the group right now, age, family, work, interests and something bad about everyone? Earlier bands? Other bands on the side?

-I’m Guillaume ( how French!), 29, single, I work as a Director of Photography for Video clips, Commercials, short movies… Music and shootings take most of my time!

I know Arthur (singer) since Middle school, we learned music together back then! We’ve had different bands through the years but now play in Parlor together and also Gibier, a rock band on the side!

I really have ugly feet, and due to a surgery 10 years ago I spent a week with a urinary catheter. Having a stem inside your dick is… an interesting experience!

B: I’m Boris, 32, I am a sound engineer. I worked in several recording studios in my twenties and also recorded and mixed many local bands - that’s how I first met Yann, recording a track for SaaR, which later led me to play the bass in this band, from 2014 and up to now. We became very close and he naturally asked me to join Parlor when he created the band two years later. Now I mostly work as a Radio Producer, but i still

record friends’ bands every now and then... I really suck at making correct

impersonations and quoting film dialogues, which is a shame because Guillaume masters this art like nobody else in the game… I’m very envious of his brain, but not his feet!

I can hear much different influences but mostly hardcore or shall I call it noisecore?

Favorites from the past?

-G: I think you can call it whatever you’d like! I don’t think we fit in any “traditional” hardcore scene. Nor in any “post-something” scene. To be honest we sometimes wonder to ourselves what kind of genre we play.

The only sure thing is that we worship Converge, Botch and Breach! It can give you a clue of how we sound!

B: We are often labeled “Chaotic-hardcore” on flyers because we do use some unconventional song structures, asymetrical meters, and there is definitely a “chaotic” element to our live shows, with Arthur going in the pit and assaulting the audience with his mic… But noisecore is surely an important part of our sound - Am Rep label, Helmet, Big’N, Unwound or Jesus Lizard are personal favs and surely had an impact on the sound of the band.

Parlor are you satisfied with the name? How did it came up? You weren’t afraid that some other band would be named like this? Which is the best band name you know?

-G:I remember that we agreed to use Parlor as a name… in a kebab restaurant! Haha we just went out of a rehearsal and were searching for a name for weeks! There’s apparently another band called Parlor, and another one called “Parlor Snake”.

We don’t really play the same stuff nor have the same audience so I don’t think people will get confused.

We found that Parlor would reflect an allegory of a prison’s parlor: a place where you can speak to someone after being locked for weeks, but you still have to pay attention, everyone could be listening. So it would be the main thing, to send or receive a message, to express a lot of things due to frustration.

We had the same approach with our very first LP “Zamizdat”: a russian word that refers to un-authorized books sold on the black market under USSR regime. The best band name I Know is Satanic Escalator but I just made that up!

B: I would say Master Musicians of Bukkake !

What's the best thing with playing live?

-G: Cheap beer!

I’d say to see people react, dancing and enjoying your music. It’s the best way to see if your music affects people (or not). We love to give everything that we’ve got on stage, to be sincere.

There're so many bands - all styles included- that don’t really “live” their music on stage…

B: The feeling of the four of us locking together and raising hell on stage is one of my best experiences as a musician. Because there is just one guitar, one bass, one drum and a crazy singer on top of that, it can get really intense but we really have to make it happen as a band, there’s no gimmicks that we can hide behind... Sometimes we feel that the audience wonders who the fuck are these four fragile guys, a few seconds

before the show begins, and it’s such a joyous moment when the first chord starts and people get stuck on their feet and throw their beers on the ground; the element of surprise is part of the fun. Guillaume often takes the shirt off after the first song, it gets hot very quick on stage!

And where is best to play? And the worst place?

-G:We never played outside of France yet! But so far with Parlor or previous bands I’d say Northern France! There’s a lot of great venues, festivals, and people are so welcoming! Even though they seem to have some consanguinity issues there… haha

And never play at the “Gambetta Club” venue in Paris, it’s the worst place ever!

B: This memorable night yes! That moment when the bartender told us “You guys lower your amps or I call the cops” was pure gold…

How is to play this sort of music in France right now? Which types of bands do you have concerts together with?

-G: It’s pretty easy for us to play in Paris and nearby cities. I think that thanks to social media it’s way easier than 15 years ago to promote a gig. You don’t have to spend hours giving flyers after some shows!

The “scene” stays more or less underground but step by step mentalities change… For instance a band like Birds in Row gave an interview to Telerama, that is the n°1 fancy cultural magazine in france. Festivals like Hellfest helped to spread Hardcore and Metal music to big medias. But France, unlike scandinavian countries or the UK, doesn’t have a “rock music culture”, that’s for sure!

We’ve been playing with Hardcore bands like Merauder, Death Metal bands like Implore or Crust bands like Martyrdöd but I think we have more in common with bands that mix-up differents influences like Inter-Arma, Lo!, Conjurer or Fange for whom we opened for instance!

And we love to play with our friends from Pyrecult, a Paris-based band that is a perfect mixture of Hardcore and Black-Metal, check them out!

And we’d love to tour with Point Mort, a great Post/black-metalish/hardcore band with a female singer, we’ll try to make that happen!

How would you describe your music in three words?

-G:Violence/Catharsis/Funny time! (okay that’s 4)

B: Coarse-grained/Rugged/Bleak

What does punk mean to you, is it only a word or is it a lifestyle?

-G:Punk, for me, is the synonym of DIY. You can do literally everything on your own, you don’t need anyone to tell you how to do it, and you can make things happen in so many different ways than the “norm”.

That’s how we get our stuff done with Parlor, on our little scale.

But putting things into perspective I think this word doesn’t mean anything anymore unfortunately. Like those people who use terms like “karma” or “being zen” without having a fucking clue of what it is really about, “punk” has become a marketing word, almost meaningless.

There’s “punk fashion show”, Vodafone’s Ads on London cabs that say “London Calling”, Fancy stores that sell “punk items”, Misfits shirts in H&M stores…

Which song/album or group was it who took you into punk/hardcore?

-G: Leeway’s “Born to Expire”!

B: Guillaume even has a hoodie with that album cover that he wears all the time in rehearsal! I’m not sure we wash it between sessions though... For me, it’s “Dead Man Walking” by belgian band Arkangel that blew my mind when I was 15.. I finally got the chance to see them in Paris last year, that was an intense show...

What shall a young guy do today to shock their parents the way we did when we were young? They have already seen everything ?

G: I’d say to do the exact opposite of what we were doing at the time!

When I was a 14 years old Metalhead, I just wanted to listen to extreme stuff, get high and try to score ( without much success…)!

But when I see kids nowadays, there’s a lot of them going vegan, ecological activists, creating associations to help refugees… Civil Disobedience! I’m pretty impressed by the Youth of today on this scale, they are not as selfish as we were, I think!

B: I didn’t really feel the urge to “shock” anybody as a young dude, I just got in love with all this bold, heavy, experimental music and underground culture - but I was first and foremost a curious boy wanting to dig deeper… Always been an active temper, not a reactive one. I couldn't care less for people who felt “shocked” by my musical inclinations! My parents never discouraged me from doing all the experiences I felt I needed to, so I guess I’m a lucky lad. If i were a father, I would encourage my kids to

forge their own taste and seek after confidence in themselves.

How is it to live in France right now? Politically? Fascists? Corona?

-G: Pretty messed up. There’s a lot of anger throughout the country. We used to have douchebags gouvernements but this one is particularly dangerous. This Neo-Liberal government is trying to take down all the public service, tries to make everything private.

They’re not here for the people, but for the lobbies.

The way this covid pandemic is handled is tragic. The government has been lying about everything: masks for the hospitals, saying that it’s ok to go to vote on the 15th of march (!), saying masks were useless… causing the death of thousands.

France is well-known for its almost folkloric sense of demonstrating. It’s something we are used to. But I never saw this amount of violence and repression during demonstrations. Every demonstration now ends up with flash-ball shots ( 25 persons lost an eye during the last 18 months), abusive use of grenades (+5 people lost their hands), and specially beating (more than 2000 injured during the yellow vests protests).

There’s hours of videos showing police beating up pacific nurses, ecological activists, eldery people, kids, firemen…

The covid-19 pandemic makes things even worse. We can’t go out with a permission here. A lot of police officers abuse their power and beat-up people every day in the streets: kids from the ghetto, elderly sitting on a bench... And they always get away with it. You can’t imagine all the videos we see every single day and the way they disrespect the people. They killed +10 unarmed citizens in less than a year.

That being said, We don’t really speak about politics in Parlor, We leave it to other Hardcore or Grindcore bands who do that way better than us.

But if you read between the lines, you’ll find politics in some songs! Zamizdat again!

Is there any good bands from France right now? Is the punkscene/metalscene/hardcorescene big? How is it in your hometown?

-The scene is pretty active! There’s- like everywhere else- some big headliners that you have obviously heard of (Gojira, Rise of the Northstar, Alcest etc…) but once again festivals like Hellfest or Motocultor helped the scene to get bigger! Just to speak about Paris there’s Wolpack or Worst Doubt that really deliver a N°1 Quality Hardcore straight in your face!

And a lot of great bands that could be related to hardcore (but do their own stuff!) like Birds in Row, Oddism, Fange...

And bands we love from our place: Hangman’s Chair, Cowards, Pyrecult, Point Mort, Filthcult, Forge, Mauvaise foi….

What do you know about Sweden? Have you been here sometime?

-G:(I won’t do any Ikea’s joke, I swear!!)

I’ve been to Finland and Denmark but not Sweden yet! I’d love to go there, you seem to have some incredible landscapes!

We went to Copenhague last summer with Boris (bass player) and attended to a Hardcore show from a Malmö’s band, Hag, we loved it!!

I hope we’ll play there in the future!

B: I actually went to Sweden in 2012 with the girl I was dating at the time to do an interview with Cult Of Luna for a french webzine, called “Metalorgie” ! The story was kinda crazy. I wrote an email to Johannes Persson to say we were big fans, and were willing to go to Gävle to see them play a swedish festival, and do an interview with them, just for fun… That was DIY as it gets! Quite unexpectedly, Johannes said he was

ok, so we took a plane to Gävle and did the interview which turned out to be quite an incredible moment. It was a few years after the “Eternal Kingdom” release, and he revealed us that the story behind this “concept-album” was just a giant hoax he invented to make fun of music journalists... This and the whole interview was hilarious, Johannes

is a great guy. We really had a great time there and Swedish landscapes were wonderful. The funniest part of the story is that the show they were supposed to play that night never happened, because bad weather conditions had made it impossible for some members to get to Gävle! Still one of my best trip memories !

Have you heard any good bands from Sweden?

-G: Dude, your country is full of great bands!

I grew up listening to the Metal classics: Bathory, Entombed, Dismember, Grave…

I love Nasum, Sayyadina, Victims, Martyrdöd but also Halläs, Witchcraft or Cult of Luna, Breach, Terra Tenebrosa… Your country is musically so rich ( and I didn’t mention Abba!!)

B: So many great bands from Sweden I can't even begin to name all of them… Culf Of Luna and Breach are also personal favs, as you can expect… I used to listen a lot to Opeth, Entombed, At The Gates or In Flames, and still listen to Meshuggah (who also come from Umea!)… Also Candlemass “Epicus Doomicus Metallicus” is a milestone of doom metal fuckery!

Your lyrics, who does them and what influences you? Never in french?

-G:Arthur (singer) and I write most of the lyrics. We don’t want to write in french for this project, fuck Baudelaire!

There’s various themes like the way technology alienates us, police brutality, domestic violence but also silly topics like a no-good cook, or “tough-guys” posers!

We also like not to take ourselves too seriously and we write with a lot of second degree.

The meanings are not always obvious!

Is there any subject that you never will write anything about?

-Politics. Once again we don’t want Parlor to be a “political band”.

Best political band/artist?

-G: Earth Crisis or Youth of Today! Hard choice!!

B: Fugazi!

Do you think that music(lyrics and so on) can change anyone's life, I mean people who listen to music?

-G: I think music is a great medium to open your mind and help you think.

But the key is always inside you!

I love this Frank Zappa’s quote : “ There are more love songs than anything else. If songs could make you do something we’d all love one another.”

Your favorite record cover of all time? Who does your record covers? And do you have any good record stores in your hometown?

G: Oh man! That’s a tough one…. Ok I’ll make it 3 then! Joy Division’s Unknown pleasures, Frank Zappa’s “ Ship arriving too late to save a drowning witch” and Thelanious Monk’s “Underground!”

There’s a great record store called MusicFearSatan in Paris, that is a music label as well.

I loved a Funk/Soul/Jazz record store called Groovestore, it has been closed down now unfortunately.

We’ve been working with Vaderetro for our first EP and Fortifem for our latest release.

They are both really talented and have been working for huge Metal bands, we have been really lucky to work with them! Check them out!

B: Yes tricky one! I absolutely love looking at cover artworks while listening to records, that’s one of the reasons why I collect vinyls, although i’m absolutely ok to listen to digital music on my phone too - these are two distinct ways of enjoying music in different contexts and should not be opposed. My favorite cover is definitely Refused

“The Shape of Punk To Come” (hey that’s another great band from Umea!). The composition, colours, with the collages of photos from France’s May 68 social crisis matches perfectly with the political themes of the album. I would also mention the minimalist beauty of Fugazi’s “The Argument”, and the surrealist edge of Miles Davis “Bitches Brew”’.

Is it important to get out physical records of your stuff? Why or why not? Vinyl, CD, cassette, what do you prefer if you could choose whatever ?

G: I’d say Vinyl! It’s expensive to produce but without even speaking about the sound quality, I love the Object. When I was a kid I spent hours reading the lyrics, listening to the records and enjoying every single detail of an artwork… But it was mainly Cd’s…

For me it’s part of the whole thing, the visual gives you a band’s identity and helps you to escape from the reality!

B: Vinyl for me too! As I said in the previous answer, the object is absolutely crucial for me. For the same reasons as Guillaume. I used to have almost a thousand CD’s as a teenager, but I only kept around a hundred which had strong sentimental value, and began collecting vinyls for their special sounds around 8 years ago. Despite the fact that

it costs a lot of money to press your record on vinyl, I see it as a kind of achievement of all the work we’ve done on a project, and especially when you work with graphic masters such as the duo Fortifem, it’s worth watching the artwork in all its cardboard glory better than through a small thumbnail on Spotify… Cassettes can be fun, very punk to do, the sound quality is really shitty though… We may try this one day with Parlor!

Please tell me a funny thing which have happened during your career and under some gig?

-G: We gave a gig in a small venue two years ago, Yann’s girlfriend and 5 years old son attended the show. His son fell asleep after two songs, right in front of the stage! It was so much fun to see this kid peacefully sleeping while we were playing so loud!

How does your audience look? Which people do you miss at your concerts? Which is the biggest band you ever have played together with?

-G:I’d say Merauder or Inter-Arma.

Our audience is pretty eclectic: some hardcore kids, some nerds, noise fans, metalheads… That’s great! We don’t want to play music for a particular type of audience

B: We played with Conjurer and Pijn who are quite famous UK bands, very nice guys too. Also with swedish crust legends Martyrdöd, and french metal act Fange who are quite big around here and tour a lot.

Please rank your five favoriterecords, five favoriteconcerts and five most important things in life?

G 1/Joy Division/ Unknown Pleasures

2/Leeway/Born to Expire

3/The Meters/ Rejuvenation

4/Ténébreuse Musique/Ténébreuse musique

5/ Baby Huey/The Baby Huey Legend

1/Obituary Paris ‘06

2/Cult of Luna Paris ‘08

3/Leeway Paris ‘15

4/The Headhunters Paris ‘013

5/ Converge Viveiro, Spain, ‘014 ( or 15?)

B: 1/ Fugazi - “The Argument”

2/ Pink Floyd - “Meddle”

3/ Tool - “Aenima”

4/ Isis - “Oceanic”

5/ Cult Of Luna - “Salvation”

1/ Cult Of Luna - La Locomotive (Paris) May 2006

2/ Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Le Trianon (Paris) August 2016

3/ Isis - La Maroquinerie (Paris) December 2008

4/ AmenRa - Dour Festival (Dour, Belgium) July 2006

5/ Mogwaï - Dour Festival (Dour, Belgium) July 2011

G and B common values:

1/ Love

2/ Friendship

3/ Care (and specially for the weakest of our societies)

4/ Respect

5/ Partying!

First, last and most expensive record ever bought?

-G:First: Morbid Angel “Abominations of Desolation”

Last: Arkangel “Dead Man walking” reissue

Most Expensive: Tangerine dream “stratosfear”

B: First: The Cranberries - “To The Faithful Departed” … in Cassette! The beginning of the opener “Hollywood” still sounds heavy AF for a mainstream pop-rock band!

Last: Star Of The Lid - “The Tired Sounds of”F. Triple vinyl reissue from this ambient masterpiece on Kranky records, found on a record store in Berlin, a few days before covid pandemic).

Most Expensive: Mogwaï - “Central Belters” vinyl box set

Which bands do people compare you to, is it boring that people compare you to other bands or is it understandable?

G: Converge, obviously! One of our friends from Filthcult even calls us “the Parisian Converge!”

It’s understandable but our sound is made of a lot of different influences!

If you could choose five bands from the past and the history and nowadays and both dead and living bands to have a concert together with your band. Which five would you choose?

G: So the 5 Headliners of the Guillaume’s Fest would be: Money Jungle (Mingus, Roach, Ellington), Fela Kuti, Breach, Black Sabbath and Last days of Humanity! It doesn’t make any sense!! Haha

And Rest in Peace Tony Allen!

B: The Ex, Sonic Youth, The Meters, Minor Threat and N.W.A ! And we would all come together on stage to sing “Fuck tha Police” !

Is music a good way to get out frustration and become a nicer person outside the music??

G:Obviously music is a great catharsis!

And there’s always a way to become a better musician, to work on your technique and to have discipline! It’s a great way to learn patience, personal achievement and to meet new people!

B: Absolutely. Working your skills “in the shed” takes your soul to great lengths… It takes hours of practice to master any instrument, and you have to be humble with this, accept failure, work hard and regularly… Then playing and understanding other musicians also requires social skills that can be useful outside the stage. And of course, particularly for DIY bands, it’s very formative to learn how to manage your band, which choice you make - what gig you take, where you record, how you handle the release of

your LP etc… These are all qualities that translate very naturally into other parts of being a responsible human being.

Which is the most odd question you ever have got in an interview?

-G:This one? Haha

Which is the question you want to have but you never get. Please ask it and answer it?

-G: Like in Monty Python’s “Holy Graal”, what’s my favourite colour?

Futureplans for the band?

-G:It’s hard to see where we’re going with this pandemic situation but we will record a new EP by the Fall and hopefully get it out by early 2021 and tour!

There’s a lot of gigs and festivals where we had to play that have been cancelled due to the pandemic, we really hope to give them in the future!

For yourself?

-G: Quit smoking! (but not pot!)

B: Make up for the lost time with my girlfriend who I have not seen for almost 2 loooong months because of the quarantine in France. We were 350 km apart and we’ll finally meet again tomorrow, I couldn’t be a happier man!

G: (Boris got blue balls!)

Wisdomword?

-G: “Talk shit, get shot”. No, I’m Kidding. I’d say "l'enfer est pavé de bonnes intentions".

That would be roughly translated by “The road to hell is paved with good intentions”

B: I repeat to myself the last phrase of Spinoza’s Ethic like a mantra for every goal I’m reaching for in this life: “Mais tout ce qui est beau est difficile autant que rare”, which could be translated by “But everything of some beauty is as difficult as it is rare”.

Something to add?

G:Thank you so much for taking the time for us, Peter!

I hope we’ll meet someday in Sweden or somewhere else!

You’re welcome in Paris anytime!

Take good care of you and your relatives, stay safe!

B: We shot a home-made video during the quarantine for the title-song of our album “Softly”...! It’s allmost as stupid as our first one where we were dressed like chefs in a restaurant. You can check that out! Big love Peter ! And thanks for the interview!

Some videos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQ8KkGPSQfQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Rtm3zFb8Zs