NYC based synth pop trio Au Revoir Simone are tall and wear pretty dresses. I think that’s why we feel we have to extensively cover them at any opportunity. Ok, it’s also because they write good songs. Annie, Erika, and Heather are back in town to headline a show at The Rock an Roll Hotel tonight (Sept 5th) with openers Oh No! Oh My! and Mikal Evans Band. Doors @ 8pm, Show @ 830pm, only $10

We got Annie to hook us up with a little commentary on the first three tracks of their sophomore album The Bird of Music. And for some reason she wrote it in third person. Sweet.

Erika came up with the melody for this while walking home from a long day of recording. The beat was just a better sounding replication of the rhythm of her footsteps. The lyrics were written while being nostalgic and looking through old love letters from her ex boyfriend and the ending chant is sort of like a reminder for acceptance and appreciation for the beauty of life in all its ups and downs. It was intended to sound like a group of friends late at night trying to sing and play disco music on various percussion instruments they had around. Whether that effect was produced is up to the listener to determine.

Annie fell asleep on the floor next to the microphone while listening to late-night playback on the clap track she had just recorded. She woke up at the producer’s feet around 2am. Though Memphis is named in the song, it is actually written vaguely about a Greyhound ride to Nashville where Annie and her friend went to catch a Ryan Adams concert.

This song came together when, in one of those hilarious cosmic moments, both Annie and Heather had written two different songs separately on the same night, and the next day, together with Erika as a unifying force, they glued them together with patience and a couple of extra chords and the world was blessed with a whole new song.

But Cale, I’m not sure if I would consider that a steamy love affair, more like seven minutes in heaven with Boof. Ok, here are some photos Joel took and an interview Svetlana did a while back for their show at the 9:30 Club opening for Peter Bjorn & John.

1. First things first, as we want BYT readers to get to know you. How did you 3 get to know each other? And form a triple keyboard band?

Heather: I knew Erika from the neighborhood and i didnt meet Annie until our first real ‘band practice’ which consisted of bringing tiny casios to Erika’s apartment, and drinking tea and hanging out while figuring out how to cover pop songs in a melancholic fashion.

2. And the name? the name is perfection. We MUST know all about the name

Heather: we got it from pee wee’s big adventure…its a line that Pee Wee shouts to a waitress (simone) as she leaves Texas on a bus, headed for her final destination of Paris. pee wee completely butchers the french pronunciation, as do most people with our band name. (including me)

3. Just how French are you?

Annie: 1/8th, Alsace-Lorrainian
Heather: my great grandmother was apparently a ‘pinch’ french, which i suppose means that i’m not french at all.
Erika: I speak french pretty well and enjoy very much a french pastry called chausson aux pommes which is kind of like a croissant with cooked apple inside.

4. You are currently touring with Peter Bjorn and John. 3 girls for 3 boys. It is like a 50s musical comedy waiting to happen. How is the going thus far?

Annie: We’ll see in late April when it starts!
Heather: its a tried and true formula, already established when we went on tour with We Are Scientists. that tour was non-stop hilarity, and i’m sure this one will be too, but of the swedish variety. whatever that means. it’ll be cuter, maybe?
Erika: cant wait!

5. You guys were just in the beauty issue of “BUST” wearing pretty dresses and not talking about your music. How important is your style to you? And does it influence the music you write?

Annie: I prefer to talk about music to style. I have a lot more knowledge of the musical world than the style world. I find that cultural style, in the way I interact with people and vice-versa, has a much more profound effect than fashion on my writing. In fact, I’d say clothes and fashion have about zero impact on my writing. Except both tend to be nerdy.
Heather: i would say that fashion profoundly affects my song writing. for instance, everytime i buy a new pair of pants i write a song about it. i’ve got “song for skinny white levis” which sounds quite a bit like “love for lee”. they both go something like, “i’ve got a new pair of pants! now i can reaallllly dance in france!” our next album is going to be AWESOME.
Erika: i like wearing pretty dresses, and its difficult to control how people are going to interpret you in the media, but in general, i think most people find us through our songs which are influenced by nature and wonder.

6. Do you ever worry some people come to look and not listen to you (tho you all are fabulous to listen to, don’t get us wrong, but we read that Vice article which seemed to center on “sausage fest” audiences and serious crushing on Simone)

Annie: Not at all. I think that if people want to see girls they go to a strip club and if they want to hear music they come see a show.
Heather: i worry about strippers, generally speaking.
Erika: that guy from Vice who interviewed us was really sweet. whoever wrote the headline was probably just bored and not really a music person.

7. Onto more artistically rewarding topics:I also read that you are David Lynch’s favorites. Have you met the man? Did he seem like of this planet? Have you maybe discussed collaborating? (a dreamy film score for you guys to do would have been something by Sophia Coppola or a all-girls-boarding school movie by Wes Anderson, if you ask us)

Annie: We have met David Lynch and he seemed very much of this planet. He is so nice and kind and easy to talk to. We are sort of collaborating with him this May in Paris, when we play at his art exhibition. We are really looking forward to it.
Erika: he is totally inspiring and has really been encouraging us as artists. we would love to make some music for one of his projects someday.

7a. Do you yourselves ever pick favorites?

Annie: My favorite is Doug Marvin.
Heather: i’m obsessed with metronomy right now. three boys on three keyboards.
Erika: soul train

8. What is next for Au Revoir Simone?

Annie: Touring like crazy!
Heather: eating like crazy!
Erika: trying to find the notes for a song that i wrote to work on it. i think its in the back pages of this trashy novel that i bought at the airport and im afraid i threw it away it was so bad.

9. And now in traditional BYT for we will ask you a slew of seemingly pointless and immature questions which will, we hope provide some insight into the depths of your soul (or not, either way).READY? (you are never ready): ok.

music:
a. The band that changed your life? (heck, it could even be the shins)

Annie: Silent Majority.
Heather: bjork
Erika: the beatles

b. First record you ever bought?

Annie: Mariah Carey Self Titled on the same day as C and C Music Factory. As for actual vinyl it was Bouncing Souls The Good the Bad the Argyle.
Heather: i cant remember the first record, but i do remember buying a single tape for “3 AM Eternal” by The KLF when i was about 12. i was a jazz dancer between the ages of 6 and 13 so i was always very serious about my dance music and finding creative ways to incorporate step-ball-changes into everyday life.
Erika: tape actually, MC Hammer, Please Hammer Dont Hurt Em

c. Best band we have never heard of?

Annie: Snowblink.
Heather: detektivbyran
Erika: (obviously realizing we have heard of everything)

d. Song you wish you had written?

Annie: Today I’ll say “Cowboy Dan” by Modest Mouse.
Heather: ‘Earth Song’ by michael jackson
Erika: “Straight Thin Line” by Frida Hyvonen

e. Guilty Pleasure music?

Annie: No music makes me feel guilty. Even Hall and Oates.
Heather: Sting, like, ‘fields of gold’ Sting, not only the police. and i feel more guilty about being turned on by someone who is far too old for me than being into adult contemporary rock.
Erika: Disco

Movies:
a. I will see any movie with….

Annie: Gael Garcia Bernal.
Heather: johnny depp. cause i came of age in the 90s.
Erika: scarlet johansen

b. Movie I have viewed over a million times. And why?

Annie: Pee Wee’s Big Adventure. We were obsessed with it as a family growing up. It practically raised me. I saw it on my first date with my husband. I said the lines when the sound went out briefly and he asked me out again. Fate.
Heather: The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. it makes me cry everytime.
Erika: Its a wonderful life, because my dad made us watch it every xmas

c. If there was a movie made about Au Revoir Simone who would play you?

Annie: Woody Allen.
Heather: hey! that was my answer!! wtf?! fine. since woody is taken i guess i’d have to say larry david.
Erika: yuck, i guess i don’t want to be in it then.

Style:
a. Style Icon(s)?

Annie: Hot librarians.
Heather: and zookeepers.
Erika: 70s bond girls

b. Our wedding dresses will be made by?

Annie: Robert Helm. I think that’s what I got married in…
Heather: faires.
Erika:

c. We smell like?

Annie: Autumn Breeze natural deoderant.
Heather: i know you want me to say teen spirit. but i’m not gonna do it.
Erika: neem oil

Geography:
a. Happiest place in the world?

Annie: My apartment in Brooklyn
Heather: absolutely the amazon rain forest. i love every humid putrid part of it.
Erika: sweden

b. Saddest place in the world?

Annie: My old dorm room.
Heather: the bottom of my ‘boyfriend’ box. oh, the memories that live down there.
Erika: slaughter house towns. ps: heather, you should throw that box away

c. Being on the road is like being …..

Annie: Happy and in love.
Heather: having an itch that is impossible to scratch.
Erika: a kid again.

That would be all for that….THANK you for indulging the tiget beat interviewer in us.
And finally we usually try to get someone randomly off the streets and have them review one of your songs (but it basically just turns out to be HUI, Cale’s awesomely awesome Asian, married, suburban mom of a coworker).
And you get to pick the song. But be careful, as she is sometimes hard to please (she notoriously ripped the Raveonettes apart giving them only 2 out of 5 possible dumplings)

girls: She can review:”Fallen snow”

Take it away Hui

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I don’t want to write review for this song because I am mad at Cale right now, he was rude at work. But I like the song.

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Au Revoir Simone
Rock and Roll Hotel

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