Clermont Ferrand, France based hardcore band BRIQUE are releasing their debut EP today on APB Records and we have teamed up to introduce their project, discuss their ethics, lyrical content, and more!
Started in 2019 and caught off-guard by the pandemic, BRIQUE‘s members have been active in their local scene in various different ways, with a strong focus on alternative and independent music promotion in their area of Clemont Ferrand. With experience in other punk band, including No More Waiting, Foolish, and Like Wires, BRIQUE hit the Good for Nothing Studio in early 2022 and tracked 7 solid tracks, then mastered by North London Bomb Factory.
Though feeling a bit uncomfortable about talking about themselves, the band’s guitarist Racine agreed to reveal some details about BRIQUE, how it started and what are some of the core assumptions for this project.
“I’ve played in lots of bands in Clermont-Ferrand since my youth, all varied stylistically, with different longevity and legitimacy.” says Racine and admits that punk was always in the very heart of their craft. “While being o tour, we have experienced many amazing places and met a bunch of great, diverse people, who keep the punk movement alive. We feed on that, push forward, and honestly speaking, sometimes it’s even dangerous to be a part of such a countercultural movement, speaking our minds and taking real actions. We form bands, we organize concerts, etc., but inevitably, and as for a lot of things in life, we are struck by a certain routine.”
“So Brique, in that sense, is also a critique of the punk music and music in general.” – continues Racine. “Doing punk is, I think, trying to emancipate one’s self and trying to break some rules: compositons, stories, organisations, etc. The reality is that many subgenres of extreme music are very stereotyped, everyone has the same studio sound, every band is dependant on social media especially if you want to export and introduce your music to others. Even ourselves, we can’t totally avoid those rules. The culture of competition also exists, and that’s a real pain in the neck, punk doesn’t escape the culture of gain and ways typical for businesses. It annoys us to imagine that we would need a community manager, a tour manager, a big label, nice tee-shirts, fastidious visuals, some teasers, to have a band « as you should ».”
“The cover of our first EP is almost that. The gross brick is us and the setting, the shot, the accessories are what it takes to make it beautiful, to sell it. So with some off-beat humor, we’re at least trying to appropriate our communication, to play with those stereotypes, with those “obligations”.” – saddens Racine.
Brique was planned to be a project that creates music differently and give more space to various important messages the quartet wanted to convey. “When Julien (drummer), Nono (bassist) and me started to consider adding a singer, the first criteria was « if you have something interesting to say, come and join us. » I think it was a realization: we are lucky, locally we have places, associations, labels, fanzines etc which allow us to have genuine small opinion column, so it wouldn’t be wise not to use it”.
So when Max joined the band and BRIQUE gained a legitimate voice, they started rehearsing playing shows, and reaching out to independent media to spread the word about their work.
Their lyrics tackle issues like madness, uneasiness, climatic urgency, a world of distress, pending for extinction, rebellion, rage, injunction of virility, and toxic masculinity.
“We are standing in the path of nasty punk flirting with hardcore, trying to free ourselves from those stereotypes.” – says Racine.
