The blonde, the brunette and the music. This could be the name of the Western of Mensch. Well the West is not really the place they come from. The girls’ band from Lyon, South-East of France, puts their love of international into their own heavy music. Girl power but not Spice Girls low-cost pop, their rock seduced the team of Paris Is Burning, the French monthly gigs.
With Bons Baisers From London as the woman of the photo, we had a long talk with Vale and Karine on a sunny day in Hackney, a few hours before their gig on June at the Lexington. Time to go back to the origins of the band and argue about music and being scared before their first meeting with the Londoner audience…
A story of a band is like a love story, it’s a story after all. How did yours begin?
Karine: We met at the Fnac, the large French music store, when I was a sales assistant there. As we supported “autoprod” music, Vale came with her first solo cd and I liked it. We stayed in touch maybe because she spent her life in the music shop! It was really an artistic meeting.
Vale: For my second album, I wanted a band bass-drum. With Karine, we used to talk about music and when I found out she plays bass guitar, I told her: “Come and make some music with me!”
K.: I didn’t have to make an audition, she hired me directly. Pure favouritism. (Laughs)
V.: Musically speaking, everything was fine. But, few times later, the drummer left the band. We were left all by ourselves. But we got on so well as humans and musicians that we couldn’t stop it back then! We wanted something new and, from the scratch, a sound came naturally with drum machines. That’s how things began for Mensch in Lyon in 2010.
Karine, what attracted you in the music of Vale?
Something moved me: her musical approach, her voice… I still found her music very innovative for a girl, it doesn’t look like Cat Power, PJ Harvey at all! Most of all, there was this human being I’ve met – it’s a whole package!
Vale: For me, it was the same story. I didn’t know how good she was as a musician. But we spent so many times talking about music without doing it then we knew that we really have the same view and taste in music. After a while, we figured out our ways of playing were complementary. I had nose since she is the best bassist ever!
K: After all, it’s a love story: we “dated” for years before getting married each in Mensch! The old-fashion way! (Laughs)
How are your making your second album?
Karine: Before, Vale was in charge of that, because she plays the guitar and sings which is very complementary. But things have been changing.
Vale: I come with an idea and Karine adds some bass notes to it so that I can change the initial sound. Things are balanced now. We are working on our second album and we want a big change. For the drums, we want to go further. We are aware we can’t do minimalist drums again. We are still looking for how exactly we want the new album to sound like. People would possibly think while listening to our new sounds something like: “Oh! It sounds like Mensch though!”(Laughs)
Vale, do you think that working with Mensch is very different from collaborating with others artists, like with Mansfield TYA?
When you work with other people, it’s not the same investment. With my friend Mansfield TYA, I tried to do my best to stick to her universe. This invitation opens my mind to new music and arts; this new practice has had a deep influence on my work.
Talking about arts, we must speak about the music video of “Swim, Swim” which is similar to animated gifs with “so natural” movements…
It’s Vergine Keaton, a friend of Vale, who made it. I have already made the music of her cartoon film “je criais contre la vie ou pour elle” (I was crying out at life or for it), it was cash back! We wanted something in the swimming pool to stick to the words, she gave us this offbeat picture, very close to her universe. Her short film was also made with old animated prints, picturing hunting, a very unique universe.
There is a very particular aesthetics in Mensch …
It was a huge hard work. Laure is in charge of our covers and the whole website. Sarah Bastin makes our live pictures. We really enjoy their universe and like a lot all these people as artists. And it’s so easy to understand them. Laure on our logo’s design brought her own universe with this triangle. It’s like a little family, we don’t see each other very often but there is an actual bond between us.
What is like to be a girls’ band?
Vale: We are told that every time, we don’t care, we don’t focus on that, people get across this image. We have been deeply influenced and are still projecting with girls’ bands, our Spiritual Mothers. But I wanted to be Jim Morrison.
K: I didn’t want to be only Janis Joplin but Robert Plant too. We obviously listen to girls’ bands because they have a particular insight of music in general. But I didn’t set upon each female singer because they were girls. After all, we totally claim being girl with all the feminine commitment. We completely stand this scene. We don’t just want to be part of this scene only though.
Which are your influences?
K: I listened to all « Riot grrrl » movement: Bikini Kill, L7 a lot, a band I was really, really fan of, the Lunachicks. I was really in US punk rock, a big fat rock sound.
Vale: I was more English sound: Elastica, PJ Harvey or Björk and, of course, the Pixies and Nirvana.
K: We have never listened to the same things at the same time, because of that, we could discover more and more things, every day.
And how do you listen to it? And which format?
V. MP3 on IPod. Always CD.
K. Lots of vinyl but also CD because of years spent as a sales assistant at Fnac. Mainly on mp3.
V. I tend to listen to digital music but I really love discs for its physical appearance, I have the feeling that I listen to discs in a different way. When I’m at home, I can have a general look at my whole music library and choose what I have most forgotten!
K: That’s more solemn and it must stay this way, the way to take your time when you play your vinyl. Put a disk on my record deck is not the same thing that turns the scroll wheel. It’s the same practice but a different gesture. For me, mp3 is just a selection tool.
V.: On the other hand, mp3 and streaming are so much more useful. We used to import music from Japan and the US and it took ages to get the right disk. And when we got it, we have to enjoy a real listening time. You put “a pony” for it, a fortune for this time! And you waited for about a month for the import and 6 months to find the right disk. You obviously wouldn’t listen to it for just 6 seconds! To sum it up, mp3 is like going to the music shop before and listening to the music before choosing it. Now you listen to it at home and buy it just after, it’s a thoughtful purchase that you would keep after forever for the object and the feeling. On top of that, making a record takes time from the preparation, the composition to the launch. In average: 4 years long. It could sound daft and romantic, but when I buy a disk, I really take all these points into account.
It’s not your first gig abroad, you have already performed in Switzerland, in Prague, in Berlin, to Canada or in the US. How do you feel the differences between the foreign and French audience?
V. That’s totally different to leave his own country and so you don’t perform in the same way. We still learn how to perform lives in other ways. In Germany, well in Berlin, the audience is very different from France. They are more expressive, more attentive, more « into the music ». In France, it depends where you play. In French Brittany, in Tours, the audience is just crazy. At Lyon, it is freezing.
How do you feel for your first time in London?
K. It’s the first time in front of an English audience for Mensch. We are a bit under pressure like in New York or Paris because England is so legendary and symbolic. We felt the same way for the first part of Kim Gordon, we were so afraid.
And what about “Paris is Burning”?
K: This concept is a very, very good idea. Especially in London, the best place concerning the musical psyche.
V: Why not? In France, there are gigs made in Belgium. For us, it’s very good, we tend to have hang-ups as a French rock band while the new musical scene is very rich and is trendy in the international market as never ever. Now this scene is not hung-up at all and can do whatever it wants, like us.
The Mensch interview ! As they said
Why did you choose this name “Mensch”? Mensch is a German word which means “human”. It was Vale’s idea. We didn’t want an English word but rather a mysterious and different name because we are a two-girl band which is not really common.
We decided to do a “nobody” interview with silly puns and French songs following by some odd questions. Sorry about what’s coming…
A dead artist to whom you can say “personne ne te remplace”? (Nobody
can replace you)
K Gainsbourg
V Yes, Gainsbourg! Bashung and Hendrix too…
In the musical industry, can we say « besoin de personne“? (Nobody
is needed)
K. Unfortunately not! On the contrary, we need a lot, a lot of people!
A disc, a song in your musical library « à ne dire à personne » (Not
to tell no one)…
K. I’m looking for a really shameful band. I can tell: L7. That’s
almost put me into fights!
V. That’s so easy and not ashamed at all! I know something shameful
you have but I don’t know if …
K. Ah Vale, maybe, you can snitch on me …
V. Lionel Richie!
K. True! In a compilation!
V. I have something very shameful too: Chris Rea and Christopher Cross!
A song that « Nobody Can Do It Better »
V. (Very long silence) That’s VERY HARD! There are some many! …
Ready to start by Arcade Fire these days.
K. I think it would be impossible to choose (Vale urges her to say
something)… Oh, I know The Dock of the Bay by Ottis Redding; for me,
nobody can do better!
A question that you have never been asked but that you dream to answer?
K. What is your beauty secret?
BBFL: And so?
V. Beer!(Laughs)
Sometimes that marked you recently?
K: Mendelson, a French artist who just released a new album.
What slap say-so!
V: Too many things, I can’t choose!
K.: Chris Rea, she just discovered it! (Laughs)
London keeps rocking 
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