KWOON

Tell us something about Kwoon?

Yoann : Kwoon is deep, Kwoon is dreamy, Kwoon is about musics, noises, and pictures of some places and times, but we barely know these. So we have to travel there : hope you enjoy the ride too!

You are often compared to bands such as Sigur Ros, Explosions in the Sky and Godspeed You! Black Emperor. How do you feel about that? Are these band someone you look up to?

Yoann : It indeed feel great to be compared to such bands, we worship them like a student worship his master. Still we try in the same time to bring a different identity, and climb up their shoulders. There's no point in being ersatz, even a good one.

It is not common for post rock bands to have vocals. How did you decide on this?

Sandy : That's maybe we're not really a post rock band, what do you think about this ? ;)

What bands do you listen to these days?

Sandy : Patrick Watson, Arcade Fire, "Les extras terrestres sont invincibles", "Puissance maximale".

Yannick Puig did a wonderful video for your song ''I Lived on the Moon'' from your first album "Tales and Dreams". Video recieved many awards on festivals around Europe. Could you tell us more about this collaboration and how (or if) success of the video affected Kwoon? Do you plan to do another video like this for your next single?

Sandy : We find Yannick by surfing on the web, and found a pretty video called "Krapooyo". We just asked Yannick if he could work with us. He just said : "Let's do it". So we have been working for 1 year on the "I lived on the Moon" project. Could you select one film, one book and one album among your favourites?

Yoann : The film is : "Being John Malkovich" , I like these crazy movies! A more funny and classical one could be "C'est arrivé prés de chez vous" or "Spinal Tap"

Sandy : The fountain, The labyrinth of Pan, and recent french movies : "Ne le dis a personne", "2 jours a tuer", "36 quai des orfevres"

Yoann : The book is : "1984". It's important to read that one. One album is hard to choose. Why only one? Can we choose a double-album?

What are your plans for the future?

Yoann : Setting up more great shows anywhere we can...

What happens to the person who we hear walking through the snow at the end of ''When The Flowers Were Singing'' album?

Yoann : We won't spoil the story!

Sandy : You have all the clues into the digipack (Sounds and pictures…). You just have to know that these flowers are not as nice as you believe…

There are often comments that post rock as a music genre is 'stuck in a rut' and has nothing new to offer. What are your views on this?

Yoann :We can't do rock since Rolling Stones, we can't prog-rock since Pink Floyd, we can't hip-hop since Wu-Tang…

Sandy : Yes, exactly, hard to add something new in any kind of music but as we said previously, There are some titles very post-rock in Kwoon BUT other titles have an indie/rock / pop/rock structure so we have many faces and many things to show…

Yoann : There's always many very good reasons to get stuck. We try to find the reasons to advance.

Is it possible for you to live in Paris from music or do you have 'day jobs'?

Sandy : We're actually working…

Tell me something I would never guess about you?

Yoann : I took almost half an hour, to fail to find an answer to this question.

ana + glass // 26/10/2010