One year after “Negative 384,400”, the third and last album to date, Parisian post punk / post hardcore band LAST NIGHT (members of Frustration, Jetsex, M-Sixteen) is back with “Dernière Nuit”, the result of a failed year and interrupted moments. With organic, back to basics approach that primitive impulse without make-up or pretense. “Last night” is an exposure, the outlet of the neuroses accumulated and materialized by the group itself from A to Z in 8 tracks.
“We have played together since 2012.” – the band introduces themselves. “We have released 3 LPs, one EP and a split record with Jc Satan. And now we have a brand new EP out.”
“Dernière nuit” marks their first record with their native French lyrics. “This EP was a good occasion to sing in our mother tongue.” – comments the band. “Circumstances and attitudes change over time and we felt it was the right moment to give it a try.”
“Last Night” was recorded at the Mains d’Oeuvres studio by the band itself and mixed by Jonathan Lieffroy. Mastered by Daniel Husayn at North London Bomb Factory Mastering. Graphic design by Arrache-toi un oeil. The album is ot now via Viro Major Records.
“It was also the first record we recorded and mixed A to Z by ourselves in our rehearsal studio.” – they continue. “For this one, we wanted to get back to something straightforward and spontaneous. We did not spend that much time writing and we tried not to do a lot of arrangement. Our motto was to keep it simple and to maintain a nice sense of urgency and dynamics. We spent a lot of time composing and recording our previous record; we wanted “Dernière nuit” to be the antithesis of “Negative 384 400.””
Track by track commentary:
1 – Echec (Failure)
First song composed, first song recorded — you know the rule. This one is a classic punk song, like the ones we did 20 years ago when we all started music, and it’s a good feeling for us. But the paradox is that we are talking about a really adult-related topic: parenthood. Pat, the singer and guitar player, is the father of a two-year-old. The song is about getting your shit together from a perspective of self-improvement, because all of a sudden you are responsible for a brand new human being.
We’ve been crazy kids for so long — playing in punk rock bands and hanging around was everything we knew. Now we are dealing with something where messing up is not an option. Maybe the most heartfelt and personal song we ever wrote. Well, I guess we are getting old.
2 –Dernière nuit
The record’s title track is about going through the night and not making it till dawn. We are talking about living under a constant depression and taking your life. This is a serious topic; we are not trying to be gloomy or whatever. Suicide is anything but a relief, nor a solid solution. It was the last song we wrote, and it’s a post-punk song — although we have always brought in some post-punk influences since the early days of the band, we’ve never got this close to a classic post-punk song. But I guess you can feel that we are not really a post-punk band and we are playing it like a hardcore band, which makes sense to me.
3 – Demain
This is about not living with meaning and purpose and going through a daily routine without perspective. You don’t need to care about tomorrow if it’s a carbon copy of today. I love this one because I found it moving, and you can also feel a bit of horror-punk, especially in the bridge. It reminds me that when I met Pat 20 years ago, he was really into that and never gave up on it.
4 – Magnétique
If you feel like you always attract trouble, you’ll easily get the lyrics. We are talking about being the black sheep of the family, the unlucky one, the one who, like a magnet, attracts the worst. This is clearly my fav song on the record. This one is pretty raw and aggressive in a way, but can also sound smooth and weird. We did a modest music video supporting this song.
5 – Horizon
Here’s a song about paradox and despair, when a part of you feels confident while part feels empty. In order to talk about this topic, we did an analogy with space and black holes, because our singer is really into astronomy and space. Intro aside, this is a fast and short song. We’ve never really played such a thing before. You can feel the D-beat influence on this one and I was surprised we played that fast when we mixed it.
6 – le pire, le mieux
We played the verse loop a lot without any real aim for a few rehearsals in a row. We felt like we needed something more to add variety but we wanted to keep it simple because that was our purpose for this record. So we ended up doing something quite new for us, especially the way Pat sings — and in my opinion, French singing takes full effect at this point. We could not have done such a thing in English. This song is about doomsday — I mean that not as in how the bible is talking about it, but in a more realistic way, which is even more scary. We are a bunch of happy pessimists, I think you can probably guess.
7 – Regards
Despite numerous changes in our society, people’s attitudes toward people with disabilities is still an issue, and that’s what we are talking about here. People’s attitudes are mostly ignorant or paternalistic, both ways in which people are not treated like peers and are reduced to only their disability. Yes, things change and more people are speaking up about these issues, but the way we perceive people with disabilities is still something to improve. The song starts like a classic one but ends with a long bridge embellished with synth and strings. It sounds more like we did before and offers a glimpse of what’s coming next for our upcoming songs and records.
