In full possession of their artistic freedom, the Amiens duo EDGÄR releases a new direct and powerful album: Behind The Wall. Antoine and Ronan explain everything.
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This new album is very concise and effective. Did you think of it for the stage?
Ronan: We wanted to recapture the energy we had when we started in music. Speeding up the songs was the subject of a big discussion. It requires crazy energy live, it was designed with this in mind, so much so that we didn't add any superfluous arrangements to the recording.
Antoine: Our first album goes a bit in all directions, we had to rearrange the tracks to play them on stage. Here, the urgency is the same on CD and live. It reminds me of the Bad Nerves concert I saw two years ago. They play 40 minutes without timeouts.
This urgency is palpable in the opening title: “Enemy”.
Ronan: “Enemy” was the first song we wrote for this record and set the tone for the rest. This is the common thread of the record and we are very happy to have so much positive feedback, despite the angrier side and the different sound.
Antoine: At one time, we were thinking about the “radio potential” of certain titles. Since then, we have detached ourselves from it, we make the album we want to make, without hoping to get through it. It turns out that now some stations are putting it on rotation. It’s nice, but above all we are happy with the feedback from the public.
Where does the title come from? Behind The Wall ?
Ronan: At first we were thinking of splitting the record in two. One part, “Inside”, is focused on introspection, and the other, “Outside”, looks at the outside world, allows us to settle our scores and confront the outside world. Then came the idea of the wall that we build ourselves to protect ourselves.
Antoine: It also represents a gap, through which the exterior and interior worlds look at each other.
What do we gain from this confrontation with the outside world?
Ronan: Lots of anxiety. It is of course found on “Enemy”, which shows the paranoid side, in which we have the impression of being in a war in which we never see the enemy. Many people feel out of step with the world, even with society. This gives an idea of the feeling on this piece.
Behind this surge, we end delicately on “Porcelain Doll”.
Ronan: This pressure from the outside world and the anxiety it generates was exacerbated by the fact that I knew I was going to be a father at the time of writing this piece. I want to protect my son from this, but I know he is not a porcelain doll.
Antoine: This is why we chose to turn to the outside world in this album. We can stay locked in a cocoon that we have created, but when you become a parent, you have to support your children well. So we end this record on a note of hope, with a little sweetness. Whatever happens, we will be together. And this “set” is universal.
Find EDGÄR in concert at La Maroquinerie (Paris) on December 4. Places are available.
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