interview with Noblesse Oblige
What´s the name of your band? Noblesse Oblige
What made you call the band "Noblesse Oblige"? It reflects perfectly who we are
How was the band formed? Valerie Renay was performing an extended stylised orgasm on stage at a masked ball in east London when she first saw Sebastian in the audience.
Can you tell about your band? We are an electro pop noir duo
Where are all band members from?/Who does what in the band? Sebastian lee philipp is a German producer, multi instrumentalist and singer Valerie Renay is a French performer, singer, song writer, keyboard player and percussion expert!
What was the ambitions of the band when you started? Make the music we love and play concert around the world
Could you explain your music to someone that haven't heard you? We make music to dance, dream, escape reality. Mixing electronic and acoustic elements, exploring vocal harmonies and heartfelt lyrics with emotional content.
Where was your first gig? In a small dirty punk pub called Spread Eagle in east London
Where was the latest gig? In a very posh club in the center of Moscow
Who writes your songs?/ who writes the music who writes lyrics? We both write music and lyrics together
Who has the best since of humor in the band? Valerie’s sense of humour is often ironic, Sebastian’s sense of humour is more surreal. Humour is definitely an important part of the band and our lives in general.
What's good/bad with the band?/What genre do you feel you are? We try to re-invent ourselves for each album, exploring new genres and different approaches of making music. It’s very exciting for us, but some people might find it confusing.
Why did you pick that particular style?/What are your songs about? Our songs are about us and what touches us, very often influenced by books or films.
Do you write your own material or mainly covers?
We mainly do our own writing but we have recorded a few covers, like Hotel California by The Eagles on our latest album.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1F8GilIfAlI
And also Arnold Layne by Pink Floyd for a Canadian compilation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vViinMt156s
As Tears Go by by the Rolling Stone also for a Canadian compilation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vDevoVR7mo
Gloomy Sunday. The Hungarian suicide Song featured in a radio play
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhQUA8kFBu8
When I was Young by Eric Burdon featured in a film
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVO0LK8fpFg
and a few more…
Have you made any albums?/If yes what are they?
We have made 4 albums
Privilege Entails Responsibility (2006)
In Exile (2008)
Malady (2010)
Affair Of The Heart (2013)
You can listen to all of them on Spotify, Last FM etc
http://open.spotify.com/artist/6MRCf5XfOHlVLTeDtxD0qd
They are available to buy on I-tune, Amazon and all usual platforms
Do you have any clips on YouTube?
The last 2 singles from the album Affair Of The Heart:
Runaway:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04ttYFAE1M4
Mata Hari
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SDyEqTmhrM
From the album Malady
The Great Electrifier
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBLp64i0pgY
From the album In Exile
Tanz Mephisto
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruv9Qy4SfvQ
We have a lot more videos you can check on our youtube channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/noblesseobligevideos
How old are you?/What got you started in music? Sebastian is 31, Valerie is 47Music was always there, we can’t remember life without music
At what age did you start playing? We were both very musical as children, trying instruments, singing
How old were you guys when you first stood on stage? Sebastian stared in the musical Tommy as the tender age of 12Valerie appeared in theatrical productions in London in her mid twenties
What year was the band started? 2004
Best/worst gig you've played? Best 2 gigs were headlining at Decalage festival in Poto Alegre, Brazil and receiving the Steppenwolf award for best foreign band in Russia at a televised concert
What places will you be playing in the immediate future? We will be playing in Berlin our present home town on 21st of February at Schwuz and in festival in Bucharest in April.
Where have you played from then till now? We have played in most countries of Europe (UK, France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Swiss, Luxembourg, Poland, Greece, Czech, Slovakia, Hungary, Portugal, Denmark, Sweden, Russia, Latvia) and Brazil
Witch band is the best you´ve seen? Prodigy in a park in London, New Order at a festival on the Isle Of Wight, Liars at the 100 club in London.
Is it always the same songs live? We change our live set for every gig to keep it fresh and exciting.
What has been the best/most promising gig so far? It was really fun to play at Bestival on the isles Of Wight where New Order was also playing. A lot of our heroes were there!
Have you had any bigger tours from start to now? Our first tour was a UK tour supporting Dresden Dolls, that was a fantastic start for us and a great experience. Our latest support tours where with The Irrepressible in Uk and Europe tour with IAMX. We now prefer to play headline shows or festivals.
How big crowds do you usually play for? It really depends. We’ve recently played in Portugal in front of about 5000 people. For headline shows we usually have about 500 people.
What are the plans for the rest of the year? We will keep on promoting our latest album Affair If The Heart and play live shows, as well as doing various collaborations and working on theatrical performance projects.
Where do you usually play? We play all kind of venues, concert venues, festival, clubs, fashion show, art galleries, museums
How do you get psyched up for a gig? A nice long shower and rest in the hotel followed by a couple of stiff drinks usually do the trick. Valerie likes taking her time getting ready, putting on her costume and make up, it’s like a ritual and she needs to be left alone.
Sebastian likes to mingle with the crowd and get in the party mood.
What are your sources of inspiration? The films of Claire Denis, the paintings of Tamara de Lempicka, the books of Philip Ridley, the productions of Romeo Castelluci, Body Weather, cooking great food, trip to the Baltic sea. If you live in the moment, you can feel constantly inspired.
What's the first step when making a new song? Always a simple melody on guitar or keyboard that will grow slowly, lyrics always come last.
How do you feel about the downloading of music instead of buying albums? Downloading is quick and easy like fast food burgers but it will never taste like a 3 course meal in a beautiful restaurant.
What would be your dreams for the band? We hope to touch people deeply with our music and give them as much pleasure listening to it as we’re having making it!
Besides your own music, what genres and bands do you listen to? We have a very eclectic taste in music. We love film soundtrack, classical music, Michael Nyman, Abba, Joy Division, Pink Floyd, Throbbing Gristle, Gesafelstein, Rita Mitsouko, Marie Laforet, Austra…
What do you hold most dear? Our freedom of making the music we chose to, without following any rules.
What would be your greatest fears for the future? We try as much as possible to live in the present. Fear stops you from achieving your dreams.
When you are on stage, what do you fear most then? Technical problems with sound, something we cannot control…and spoil the experience, but we have learnt to deal with it, and we can stay quite relaxed and talk to the audience even when a massive feedback destroy a song, we can make a joke about it!
Have you been part of any other projects?
Yes, it’s always exciting to have other collaborations.
Valerie has been a guest vocalist with Rummelsnuff (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2dOhqdM1mc) Funker Vogt (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zo4zEHcd8H4) the Italian singer song writer Marti and has written songs on Takatsuna Mukai’s latest album (https://soundcloud.com/takatsuna)
Sebastian is part of an other band called Der Räuber und der Prinz (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Der-R%C3%A4uber-und-der-Prinz/128478097201466)
What do you work with outside of the band and the music?
Valerie creates theatrical performances and appears regularly at international performance festivals as Femme Façade (https://www.facebook.com/pages/FEMME-FACADE/7290680886?ref=hl (http://www.youtube.com/user/valnoble)
Sebastian makes music for films, radio plays and soundscape for Valerie’s shows.
We also both DJ all over Europe.
http://www.mixcloud.com/noblesseoblige/noblesse-oblige-summer-2012-mixtape/
https://soundcloud.com/noblesse-oblige/noblesse-oblige-dj-mix-august
What would you do if there was no music?
Valerie: I would be a dancer and a painter maybe…
Sebastian: as a child I used to think I wanted to be a clockmaker
How important are your fans? We love them! We are very touched when they gives us gifts.
What's the funniest/most memorable thing a fan has done for you?
Someone gave us an amazing cake with our name written on it in Germany, In Portugal someone gave Valerie a handbag made with a vinyl. We get lots of great gifts!
How often do you rehearse? Before gigs we spend quite a lot of time reworking our set, and we always try new equipment that we need to practice with, and new arrangement of our songs.
Where do you rehearse? We now have a beautiful home studio. You can get up and drink your coffee in your own studio, and before you know it, it’s night time and you’ve just been in there working, it is sometime dangerous to be able to work from home you can feel a little disconnected from the outside world, lost in your little bubble.
Name 2 of your own songs you like at the moment? Chasing Shadows, there’s a beautiful remix by Andrew Poppy (free download here: https://soundcloud.com/noblesse-oblige/chasing-shadows-andrew-poppy) And Voices In My Head, we’re thinking to make a video for it.
What do you feel is the best live band you've seen? Last Portishead concert in Berlin last summer really blew us away!
Do you have any webpages? www.noblesseoblige.co.uk
Any pearls of wisdom for all other bands out there? Make music for the pleasure of making music forget about the rest!
Would you like to add anything else? We do everything we want to do, we don’t give ourselves any restrictions Life is too short to not try to realise all your dreams.
Describe your show, visually and musically Our shows are very theatrical, and extravagant visually, Valerie has a real sense of drama and glamorous outfits, we have a good chemistry between us, we swap instruments and we get quite energetic.
How do you view the musicindurty of today? It is changing rapidly because of the digital downloads. There’s nothing we can do to change it, things are always changing it’s in a natural process, we go with the flow like in tai chi!
What advice would you like to give other bands? Keep focus, don’t lose faith, enjoy making the music you love, make no compromise, follow your dream
What are the biggest obstacles for a band? Bad press and reviews or no reviews at all, that is really hard to take.
What is best/worst with playing the clubs? It’s fun, it’s a party atmosphere, you get exposed to a new audience.The bad side is you can’t always take them on the journey you would like to…and play some slower or more delicate songs.
Tell us about upcomming gigs and why we should be at them? We will play in Berlin on the 21st of February at SchwuZ, they have the best sound system in the world and a new venue in an old brewery, the space is amazing with a cool stage. We are very excited about it!
How would you describe your sound in one sentenceSensual electro pop that gets under your skin