Pierre- and Jean-Marc Pauly set up Parade Ground in 1981. The Belgian brothers were part…
Pierre- and Jean-Marc Pauly set up Parade
Ground in 1981. The Belgian brothers were part of the early new-wave and EBM
movement. During the 80s they released several noticeable maxi’s and finally
released their successful debut album “Cut Up” in 1988 on Play It Again Sam. We
next had to wait till 2007 (!) to welcome their second album “Rosary” released
on Sleep Walking Records. A few more new releases saw the daylight, but always
at irregular basis. Parade Ground is now back on track with a ‘live’ album,
which brings some of their most famous songs alive next to a few new cuts,
which can be seen as an appetizer to the next full length. Here follows a chat
with the Pauly brothers and the least I can say is that they’re not afraid to
speak their mind.
Q: Parade Ground has been set up nearly 40
(!) years ago now! What does Parade Ground anno 2019 stands for and do you
still have new artistic goals and dreams you want to purchase?
Jean-Marc: We feel new. Our artistic goal
is still the same; turning the people upside down with music as a wild, wild
dream.
Pierre: We are a young band, with all the
specificities of a young band. Creating is de-learning. We are like the futurists:
we have to drive fast and catch the moon. Our main aim artistically is to
release a new album that would be better than the one we released 30 years ago.
Never a band does succeed in doing that… We, ourselves, determine our
meaning.
Q: You’ve just released a new album
entitled “Life”, which also is the band’s first official live album. What does
this album mean to you? What’s the impact of a lice-CD today and how did this
album came through -regarding recording, mixing, mastering…?
Jean-Marc: It means everything to us. We
wanted to leave a trace of this repertoire we’ve been fighting for during the
last 4 years. The re-mastering of our live backing-tape by Patrick
Codenys has brought a lot of punch and energy to it. We feel boosted on stage,
ready for the ‘Choreography of chaos’.
Pierre: It’s unbelievably important for
us. It’s amazing the amount of fantastic and true great live bands which never
succeed in catching their savagery on a recording. We achieved that! All of our
energy, the tension, the melodies are on this recording “Life” . We create what
cannot be created.
Q: “Life” is a live album, but how do you
consider Parade Ground as a live band and how did you evolve throughout the
years?
Pierre: I do believe Parade Ground are the
best live-act right now! We put our skin on the stage. We have to pay for it.
We are the most under-rated band. We forgot to be re-born. Our life is
avowless.
Jean-Marc: I think we’ve always been a
live band, but we really tend to play better and better. It becomes close to
Artaud’s “Theatre Of Cruelty”. Before, we were more of a guitar band,
especially at the time of “Rosary”, our second studio album. Today, we play a
mixture of both styles, cold-wave and old-school EBM, even though we always
feel a new band.
Q: I think it’s interesting to get some of
your very early ‘hits’ from the 80s next to new songs. How much of ‘early’
Parade Ground do you recognize in the ‘new’ songs? Tell us a bit more about
these new songs, which are supposed to get featured on a new full length
album?
Jean-Marc: To us, it’s the same Parade
Ground, with all the rage, the grace, the passion, repetitive melodies and
Pierre’s personal touch of madness. The new songs are meant to be hammered on a
log. On a full length album they would be worked out differently, with more
accuracy and edge .
Pierre: All of our 80s songs have been
boosted and uplifted, but we kept the charm of their analogic sounds. The
new songs are part of 15 songs ready and recorded except the vocals. The Ariane’s
wire is the same. The melodies and the vocals. Jean-Marc’s voice is still the
same. It’s 80 percent of the band’s touch. We’re not transparent through pain.
Q: What can you tell us about a new studio
album when considering important aspects as composition, equipment, lyrical
themes and finished songs?
Pierre: We want an anti-art; anti-music!
As far as the equipment is concerned, we are working without a computer.
Only with the samplers we used to work
with for ages. You know, nowadays with a computer, everyone is an artist, a
little genius. It’s much more onanism than creation. We become ants for the
cruelty of becoming ants .
Jean-Marc: To us, a song is never
finished. It really stays alive in the people’s hearts and minds. Our main
inspiration remains the stay that I made in a psychiatry unit and the recording
of “Rosary” in a church in France. Faith pours out of every light .
Q: Do you think people are still waiting
for a new album, especially in times physical releases no longer sell and ‘music
lovers’ are using streaming platforms? What’s your perception on this
(r)evolution?
Jean-Marc: Vinyl and cassettes will be
back soon. We have a very faithful public that will truly love a new album. We
owe them all. I don’t think things have changed that much. It’s still to and
from enjoyment .
Pierre: One doesn’t ask a corpse what it
is doing in its coffin…
Steaming is fast-food music for sure. To
be understood is prostituting oneself. Through this we don’t belong to music
anymore.
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