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Featuring Thierry from Groupe T Interview by Ruud Dreessen aka ebm-industrial.nl Date:09-12-2009 23:59

Thanks Thierry that you have found time to give answers to these questions,For the first question will be - do you know the netherlands

I’m sorry, but no, nothing beside the usual clichés of windmills, Dave and the like !

Greetings Thierry could you please shortly introduce our readers your music project Groupe.T?

Groupe T is a Electro Industrial band born in 2001, 6 albums are available on our myspace page, and they’re all free, so if anyone wants to have an idea, please download and listen.

It all begins with an urge to make some noise, maybe to cry out some political frustration, especially at the start, the music could be qualified as an “extremist”-in an artistic sense-Electro/EBM style.

What and who are some of your influences in EBM

As it should sound obvious, Front 242 is still the reference, the first three albums are, from my point of view, the best of all time, marrying a near future science fiction atmosphere with powerful/rythmic music, all with a cold war apocalyptic background.

Tell one secret about Groupe.T that you have never told to anyone?

Secrets are to be kept secret.

What is the main idea, the message you want to leave to people who listens to you? What is your motto?

De Oppresso Liber could be a fine motto! Political message are more explicit when you use words and arguments rather than lyrics, wich are always too simple to express complex ideas, so I have no “message” that words could tell, take the whole music as a message and if it tells you something, fine.

As an example, when “Expression Totalitaire” was composed, I had no idea that it would incarnate the securitarian bend of the French state with the rise to power of Sarkozy, but when we play it now live, it becomes obvious.

What’s the name of your band? What’s the origin of that name? Have you changed the band’s name before?

The name of the band come from a special squad formed in the 20’s by the KPD (the German communist party), that were to prepare the workers’ uprising infiltrating the army and the police. Some people have been speculating about the T, (terrorist?) that’s interesting !

Groupe t/Fraction Disco has been the only other name used to mark the more “dancing” albums, with the intent of saying that we knew what we were doing.

When you start to record a new album, is all the writing done or does it continue in the studio?

I ‘ve no ‘studio’, all is made at home using a unique computer and almost no hardware ( a mike !). Composing is a part of my life, I do it because I must, it’s like a drive, so it’s perpetual and without forethoughts, when I think I’ve enough songs to release something then I put it on the web, trying to build an unity through all the titles.

Tell me why this title "electronic warfare"? Tell us a few words about the concept of this album?

With the arrival of affordable and powerful computers I realised that I could make one of my dream come true: recreating an electronic studio and make covers of my favorite band (see above) so with EW the concept was to plagiate 242 earlier albums, it was really a pleasure to do it. The whole thing has been done in a very short time (two months, including voice recording), I think I held it in my mind since the beginning!

Do you have a record label? so tell me about te labels? How is the current promotional tour going for supporting this albums alone in myspace? How do you see the future of download / Copyright in area of goth-industrial music ? What are the best ways to develop it in your mind ? and your 6 albums for free download?

Record labels, well, at least records alone, are more and more obsolete, nobody listen to CDs, even when I buy a CD, I convert it in a mp3 file to play it on a USB player, a computer, an auto radio…With the lossless format, CDs are really relics from the past. The EW album has been downloaded more than a thousand time from the myspace page, (a hundred time just for the first day of its release), and it is easier to find on Soulseek than some famous and commercial bands, with the advantage of being legal to share !

Music labels have to evolve, I’ve no lesson to teach them, I’m not in their business but obviously the above performance could’nt have been made with a commercial label. We’re proud to be listened to in many parts in the world -not to say the Netherlands !- we make people dance in countries we didn’t suspected there was an EBM scene. Internet is an international distributor that is covering more and more regions of the world and it reduce the cost of production and distribution to nothing…a serious challenger indeed!

Being free means no money for the artist, but in the perfect world the workers will build one day, everyone will earn enough from its job to live its passion freely, without commercial considerations, so I really don’t care about all these famous artists crying about the money they no longer make selling albums.

You want a better living ? Don’t make music but a revolution!

What do you think of a modern EBM and about gothic scene ? Our usual question - what is EBM for you? What are your views on the current state of this EBM scene in Frankrijk .in terms of creativity and audiences? And the scene in other countries?

Beside all that we could hear about the commercial trend of the gothic scene and all the cross-genre that are usually associated to it, I think it’s still a dynamic cultural milieu, with open minded people that are not easily rebuked by “out of the norm” music.

The fact is that it’s more and more difficult to organize successfull events and gigs, famous bands are expensive and youngsters don’t have money. Maybe it’s a reason of the actual decline of the genre in France, or maybe we just lack of skilled and courageous organizers: the “Messes Synthétiques” in Marseille gather more than 250 people every session !

What was your best live experience so far?

We have had very few live experiences, three at that day, but all were different, and all were great, thank to the audience, it will definitively influence the future of the band.

Out of all of your album,ore your up coming album,which album would you say is your favorite album? Why The first, because it’s the more creative. Inferior material and equipement force to greater inspiration…Do you think that people from the music press didn't expect you to grow up musically?

No, I won’t say that, since the beginning we’ve been supported by a strong if rather small community of french “Stompers” and it has been noticed by “the press”, but commercial publications work with commercial bands. And to be honest, we don’t meet the criterias of commercial releases: not politically correct, too much independence, not to mention the sound “quality” ! (though I hope you’ll find that the live set approaches the usual standards)…groupe T’s music is not for everyone! But it seems that it’s just what our supporters like.

What do you do in your spare time?

Oh, maybe you’ve noticed that I’m a political activist ? And, as it doesn’t earn a living, I’m also a schoolteacher. (Yes, I take care of your kids J)

Please let us know about your upcoming plans, some new releases you like to confirm here. Tell me, are there any new bands out there lately that you're into, any tips for the future? Are you working on any current or future projects?What is the future for your music?

We’ve been busy those years with live shows and repetitions so our next album will be a compilation of the best recordings of our “world tour”, old songs almost exclusively in unreleased versions. (Do I need to mention that it will be free again ?)

About “the studio”: I’m lending my voice for the new Thanacid album, I’m working on remixes for Lith, Schwester Seziert and of course a new album is in preparation, I wish I could tell you something about it, but I’m not sure myself of what it will look like !

I hope I could summarise all the enriching musical experiences we had these years.

Any famous last words for your fans that read this? and any last words for www.ebm-industrial.nl

Thank you.

Again.

Thank you, because you just keep us on fighting.And don’t forget: we’ll play at the Familien Treffen 6! (july 2010)

Groupe T, France, december 2009