eng - Grave Jibes

2 Ain Soph Aur
2
“Cold-wave and postpunk
feelings, metal approach,
electro experiments, shaped guitars,
lysergic voice and esoteric
questions since 1994” - that’s
how the French duo Ain Soph
Aur describes itself. For many
such coctail may sound really
weird, but it’s not that easy to
find another band which
could sound so organic in its
own style, as it does Ain Soph
Aur. And their latest album
“Des Pierres Blanches” underlines
that the band is on
the peak of its creativity.
ID
Name: AinSophAur
Place: Paris, France
Time: 1994 - ?
Close to: post-punk ; coldwave ; dark rock
Current Label: Manic Depression
Web: http://ainsophaur.free.fr/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/AinSophAur/285537499566
Nattsol: Greetings, Phil and
Toy! To start this interview,
please tell how you started
to play music and what were
your initial references.
Toy: I started playing music with
my father’s guitar when I was 10.
I was in my first band when I was
15. Even if we used to lesson to
different kind of music at home, my
first revelation about dark music
was “17 seconds” by the Cure, I
was 12 years old.
Phil K.: At school first, using flute
and xylophone as every other child.
When I was 15, I started to play in
a punk band, like occasional bassist,
and to scream some bullshit in a mike.
Nattsol: How did it happen that you
formed Ain Soph Aur, and how did
it happen that the band turned into
the duo?
Toy: ASA was created after a jam
between 2 bands at the end of a gig.
The perfect mix between dark lyric
new-wave and lysergic speed metal.
The band started with 6 members,
and life made some of us leave the
board for different reasons (jobs, families,
other bands, other artistic activities...).
Gio (bass/guitar former
member) was the last one to leave.
Nattsol: You started in 1994, and
the mid 90’s seems the
most underground
and mysterious
time
for the French cold/goth scene with
cult bands, such as Corpus Delicti,
Martyr Whore, Brotherhood of Pagans
etc. So how can you describe that
era, and did you feel yourselves a
part of the “movement”?
Toy: I think everything starded in
France in the 80’s, not in the mid
90’s, with bands playing different
kinds of “dark music”: Nox, Treponem
Pal, Neva, Tanit, Marc Seberg, Jad
Wio, Kas Product, Clair-Obscur, Trouble
Fait’, the bands we were playing
in (Francis Massacre, Requiem) and
many many more...
Phil K.: Not really a part of the movement
for me. We are inside and outside
at the same time. Maybe too
different for most of them.
Nattsol: How can you describe the
1994-2000 period of the band’s
activity?