The definition of what constitutes a band seems to get harder and harder to determine these days. The advancement of technology makes it possible for one person to produce the sound of an entire orchestra, with even a basic home studio set-up.
We sing in English because most of the music we listen to is in English, and our rock culture is mainly Anglo-Saxon, anyway
Then there are actual groups that, despite having a minimal number of members, manage to create music that is as powerful as the traditional four-piece band and beyond. French duo Côme, who will be gracing our shores next month when they fly in to perform at the Rock the South music festival in Marsascala, are a fine example of the latter; a guitar-and-drums act that is much larger than the sum of its parts.
Guitarist François Byrski and drummer Lucas Barbier met during an internship related to their studies. The setting was a classical music festival, for which Byrski was setting up the website, while Barbier was in charge of recording the performances.
As the story goes, they started to talk about music and struck a friendship. They met up again in Paris later and had a go at making music together, which felt “like we had always played together”. In no time at all, they produced their debut EP, 2007’s Cancel, and proceeded to play gigs at the French capital’s underground haunts.
In 2009, they released the Cows EP, which attracted a lot of good reviews and encouraged Côme to venture beyond the city confines, gigging all around the country as well as in Belgium. Their 2012 self-titled EP, produced by François Ernie of popular French band Stuck in the Sound, again drew rave reviews, boosting Côme to new heights within the alternative rock scene in France and mainland Europe.
Their sound has been compared to the likes of Radiohead and Placebo with a hint of grunge, but there really is much more to their self-styled brand of indie rock.
Côme is a rather unusual name for a band…
Well, when we were looking for a name, Côme was one of the options. We liked it more than the others because it’s unusual and has a great calligraphy with the circumflex accent.
What attracted you to operate as a duo rather than expand the line-up, and what are the pros/cons – in the studio and in a live setting – of having this minimal formation?
What we like as a duo is the energy we create together. It demands 100 per cent of our presence, with no possibility of hiding behind anyone; we cannot lie.
However, when we record our sound we cheat a little bit, as is the case with most of the recorded music you hear today. We play several guitars and also synth-bass to get a fuller sound spectrum. On the live front, we’ve started to bring in a friend of ours, Seb on the bass, to get a more powerful live sound.
You’ve also opted to sing in English rather than French. Was this always the case or did the language transition happen along the way?
In the past we wrote a couple of songs in French, but man… it’s difficult to extract yourself from this old and conservative French culture and history. We decided to sing in English because most of the music we listen to is in English, and our rock culture is mainly Anglo-Saxon, anyway.
The five songs on your latest EP suggest a multitude of influences – from punctuated indie rock on Presto and Who Wanna Dance to the hybrid production of I Kill You and the toned-down mood on The House and Childhood. Where do Côme’s musical bearings lie and what would you say have been your biggest influences?
Our combined musical backgrounds bring together a taste for indie pop, folk, noise and indie rock. We could name a few bands, such as Smashing Pumpkins, Sonic Youth, Sebadoh, Pavement, Slint, Nirvana, Eliott Smith, Beck and Cat Power as some of our influences, but this is just a tiny bit of what the real list would be like.
The song I Kill You seems to have a boxing connection. What’s the story there?
The actual lyrics don’t really have any connection to boxing. The main topic is love and hate between two very close characters, who could be a boyfriend and girlfriend or maybe two siblings.
Arthur, the guy who takes care of our visuals onstage, had suggested some old movies about boxing to project while we played the song and we liked the idea. When we came to record the song, François (Ernie) started to find some old boxing radio programmes to replace what happens onstage. We think it works pretty well.
Having toured extensively and played alongside some significant acts, are there any memorable performances that stand out in your mind?
We believe the most memorable performance is still to come, because since this year kicked in we’ve played on some real big stages and this shows our project at its real magnitude.
You’ll be giving your first-ever gig in Malta very soon. What can we expect from Côme in action?
We’re really excited about coming to perform in Malta because we met a couple of Maltese bands in Paris (For Strings Inn and No Snow/No Alps) and we had a great time together.
t will be great to see them again, and also, it’s always great for us to play in front of a new audience. They don’t know us so we’ll try to set them on fire… and we have a brand new album to promote.
Côme will be performing on Saturday, April 6 at Zion in Marsascala as part of the two-day Rock the South festival. For more information and a full list of bands performing, look up the event page on Facebook.
www.come-sound.com