SARKOZY... NOT SO COSY!

BLACK LIPS
INTERVIEW
SEPTEMBER, 20TH 2008
RENNES, UBU

STAGE INVASION : First, do we have to say Black Lips or THE Black Lips?
JARED : It doesn't matter.
JOE : Yeah, doesn't matter.


// Why did you chose Black Lips as a name for your band?
JARED : Honestly we can't remember, we were just kids when we came up with this, so I can't remember. If we could get back in time, we might have changed that.
COLE : Yep


// You're coming from Georgia, right?
JOE : (showing Ian) Well, he's from Louisiana.
// Oh yeah, I heard you were Ian St Pé...
IAN : Yeah, I'm pretty much old French, and I got a little bit of Scottish.
// Do you speak French?
IAN : Noooooo...
// What a shame, you should!
IAN : Yeah, I know... (not really convinced)
// So how is Georgia, in one word?
JOE : Awesome
JARED : Singular
COLE : Hot. Plenty of things to do.


// What do you know about French music?
JARED & IAN : I like French music
COLE : A lot!
// Jacques Dutronc ?
BLACK LIPS : Yeeeeaaaah!
// Okay, that's what we wanted you to say!
JOE : ...Plastic Bertrand
JARED : He's Belgium!
// He's kind of dead right now ! Musically dead.
JARED : Pierre Henry
COLE : Yeah Pierre Henry!
JARED : Serge Gainsbourg
COLE : Jane Birkin is cool. Oh, and Justice.
// Yeah, everyone knows Justice by now. There has been a big buzz.
COLE : Yeah, it's a big band in the States.

// Can you sing any Jacques Dutronc song?
(...)
IAN : Et moi, et moi, et moi...


// Everytime we read a review of one of your concerts, the main word is "wild", all the time. Are you wild?
COLE : Hum... yeah.
JARED : Yeah, but "wild", it has to be tempered


// Is there any song you're particularly proud of?
JOE : Happy birthday !
COLE : No...
JARED : Of our songs? Pretty much the whole thing.


// I read that you often finish your gigs kind of naked... Is that right?
JARED : Oh no, no !
JOE : That's a lie !
// That's not a lie, I saw you, Cole!
COLE : No, we don't do it every night, no.
// Tonight, are you gonna get naked?
COLE : No! No!
// Fuck, I wanted to take pictures...
COLE : It costs more money!
JARED : We don't wanna be indescent when we're in another country. I don't like to take my shit on the road with me. But it'll be okay when I'll be at home.


// What is the best gig you've ever seen?
JARED : I saw the Beatles at Shea Stadium, it was their last public performance, and that was amazing.
// (doubtful) Mmmh... How old were you?
(collectif laughs)
COLE : ...I've seen them on dvd still.


// And about your gigs, do you have a best memory?
COLE : One time, I was playing, we played a show in a city, and someone brought out a dog, and I got the dog's hand and strummed the guitar with it.
// We saw your gig in Tijuana...
IAN : Were you there?
// No! But you were playing just in the middle of the crowd, people were having sex right at your feet...
COLE : Yeah!
JARED : That's how all the club are in Mexico ; you play in the middle, and that's weird.
COLE : Mexico's great!
JOE : Sure, it's awesome!


// Do you guys mind stage invasions?
JOE : It's alright
JARED : That's okay. As long as they don't touch... You keep your hands, and I try to keep my things.
// We've got some friends coming for the gig tonight and as we always play Bad Kids in parties, they're probably going to be wild at the beginning of the song. And so they could come on stage...
JOE : That's okay, as long as they don't touch our shit...
IAN : The spirit of the revolution !
JOE : One of them touch, then we touch!
IAN : Every single time we play in France, people come on stage. The French people are wild! Yeah, we like this in France. Paris, Marseille, Bordeaux…
// Alright, because I tried once, with one band, in this club but they kicked me out of the stage. I felt kind of ashamed and lonely at this moment...
(collective laughs)


// Which one of the members will end up completely drunk as hell tonight?
JOE : Ian!
IAN : It's not right!
// ...Some more wine Ian?
JARED : I'm not drinking a lot, I'm smoking... I'm trying to find God! Through the use of psychedelic drugs, it's a therapy!
// Oh, and did you find him?
JARED : Not yet !


// Is that right that you can't play gigs in Atlanta anymore?
JARED : Oh no, we were banned from a few places, but we can always play there, we play wherever we want. No one can hold us down, especially not in our town where money talks. Every place we got kicked out of, they ask us to come back now.
COLE : ...And they say they are sorry.
JARED : Yeah, we never apologize for anything.


// Obama or Mc Cain?
JARED : Oh... Mc Cain. ...I'm kidding.


// What is the matter with moustaches if your band?
JARED : Oh yeah, I cut mine in half! Because it's really hot in Georgia, so, like a waterfall!
// Actually I thought that the guy from Magnum, the tv show, traumatised you when you were kids...
JARED : Oh, no no... I think it's Paul Reynolds who inspired me! ...No, generals, old generals, they inspired me.
COLE: Hey, from the 1800s...


// In one word, how would you describe your band?
COLE : Beautiful!
IAN : ...Kids are beautiful.


// Can you find a name for our webzine, because we don't find anything...
COLE : Mc Cain... hum, Mc Cainette.
// What? How do you spell that?
COLE: ...I don't know! ... Or, John-Mc-Cain-As-President! That's it!
// Yeah, it would be fun!
COLE : People would love that!


// What is the worst band at the moment?
JOE : Vampire Weekend.
IAN : They're cowards.


// Do you have any ritual before a gig?
JARED : We're trying to find God


// You wrote the song O Katrina just after the hurricane. Where you in New Orleans at the moment?
JARED : No, we were in Holland.
IAN : All the French people told us what was happening, we were touring, at Bordeaux.
// Are you going to write a song each time there is a hurricane?
COLE : Ike ! (singing) "Oh Ike why are you so mean ?!!"


// What is the stupidest thing you've done in your life?
COLE : I went to jail. I was drunk. I stole a lipstick and I got arrested. We were working in a restaurant, in Georgia, and I wanted to go outside for a minute, I went next door, and stole some lipstick and I went to jail. In the old times they used to cut your hand off for stealing! We got it good.
Oh, and I had a Fender Jaguar, like a $6,000 guitar, and we were going to play to a club in England, and I just set down and just left it. For no fucking reason.
IAN : The stupidest thing I ever did was... all I can think about is when I thought I had something (he shows a scar at his thumb), so I thought I should cut myself... He took me to the hospital (showing Cole)
COLE : That was fun!
JARED : One day I got really drunk, because my mum gave me a babysitter whereas I was like... I was a-grown up. And I went to a party, got taken on by the police, so I got mad, I jumped on the stairs and destroyed my face... Gorgeous!
// How old were you ?
JARED : Like... 17.
// You had a babysitter at 17 ??!
(collective laughs)
JARED : My parents... they didn't trust me.
COLE : He was older enough to screw the babysitter!
JARED : Yeah, she was 22 and looked good.


// What is your favourite alcohol?
COLE : Scotch
JOE : Scotch
COLE : Absinthe.
JARED : We can find it in Georgia now... It's illegal.
COLE : It's the same in France, no?
// Yeah. But you can find it legally in Poland, Germany...
COLE : I'll find it for you in France if you want...


(A roadie enters into the conversation) : Can you see that all we eat is candy?! (there is a plate full of sweets on the table).


// What do you think about France?
JARED : We love France.
COLE : We've been here before, you know.
IAN : No, it's our first time in here.
// You'll have to come back.
COLE : Yeah


// What do you prefer about France?
JOE : The women, the wine... I like the women.
IAN : I like the language
// You should speak French if you like the language...
IAN : I like to listen to it. Well it's not really practical in Georgia, Spanish is more practical...
JARED : I like when French girls speak English with French accent.
// I hate my French accent. I should go to the US or to England to lose it...
IAN : No, don't go to England. You'll get the worst accent ever.
JOE : You'll be like : (with the British accent) "HELLOOO"
// You don't like England?
IAN : No
// Do you play in England?
JARED : Yeah, all the time, all the time.
// You shouldn't then...
JARED : Well their Pound is worth a lot of American dollars...
// Yeah, with the bank crisis...
JARED : Yeah, we should be okay by now...
JOE : We're just still fucked!
JARED : We don't like the Russians...
// Oh yeah, you mean your government don't like the Russians?
COLE : Yeah, and you know who they do like? Sarkozy!
// That's the question I wanted to ask you! Can you give the name of the French President?
COLE : Sarkozy. I call him "not so cosy", because he wants to make you guys work!
JARED : Sarkozy is famous in America.
// He's a friend of Obama...
COLE : Oh yeah?
// And Bush...
COLE : I think you guys don't like him, but I kinda like him.
JARED : Sarkozy?
COLE : Yeah. He's cool.
JOE : His wife looks GOOD !
COLE : Oh she's hoootttt !
JOE : She's gorgeous!
JARED : I like him way better than Jacques Chirac...
// Oh my god, do you know all the French presidents?
COLE : Chirac, he liked the Busch beer, he really liked the Busch beer. He liked American Busch beer.
// We don't like Sarkozy...
COLE : I know that. Maybe because he's not so cosy!
IAN : He's a slut!
COLE : Yeah, the kids don't like him...
// In France we have two political sides... you've got the right, and the left. In France, Obama is like part of the right. You don't have a left side in the US, like socialism...
JARED : I prefer socialism, but in America, it is associated to communism. When you say socialism in the US, they go crazy and they think it's communism... I think you guys have a good system, we're just fucked in America. What are you gonna do?


// Do you think Mc Cain or Obama is gonna be elected?
COLE : Obama.
JARED : Obama.
// If it's Mc Cain, you're fucked.
JARED : Oh we're fucked already.
// Come live in France if Mc Cain is elected!
JARED : I'll try... I want to marry a French girl. I'll be thinking about that...
// But American people don't like French people...
IAN : That's not sure...
JARED : People in America love France, but they don't like German.
COLE : We naturally love France.
JARED : We like French people so much, we're so close. It's like fighting with your brother or something. D'you know what I mean?