[Interview] Guerilla Poubelle: "We had no choice but to do punk"

Sunday, October 7 at Rock N' Eat (Lyon), we met the French punk band Guerilla Poubelle. We talked about today's punk, Nirvana, Sexy Sushi…

After the interview, we saw them play on stage and it was monstrous! When Guerilla Poubelle is around, no doubt, we have proof that punk did not die with the 70s and that it continues its way.

What do you listen to in general as music? Only punk?  

Antho (bass): It's very diverse and varied. 

Till (vocals, guitar): Yeah, very diverse. I listen rather than punk, almost. Paul, the drummer, listens to a lot of rap. A lot of US rap, French rap too, modern stuff.

Antho : Rock, post rock…

Till : Bands like Radiohead, not at all in the punk world like that. I listen to much more indie stuff, not necessarily at the bottom of the box all the time, and then stuff more… there I have an Oathbreaker t-shirt for example, darker stuff like that.

Is it hardcore? [deduced by the graphic design of the logo and T-shirt]

Till : Yeah, hardcore, current black metal. 

You're part of "My Other Band", and within this band you play post hardcore right?

Till : No, it's hardcore… bottom of the bottom. Laughter

What a beautiful definition. (Here a link to a title of My other group because it is not "bottom of the bottom", and even that we like it)

Till, at full speed : One two three four! One, two, three, four!

Antho : I listen to a lot of classic stuff. Guys who do hyper technical stuff (necessarily guys who do folk…). That and then more posed sounds too.

"You have the politically radical punks and the ones who talk about skateboarding and drinking beer"

[Paul's entry]

Till : Are you coming with us? Answer questions.

Paul (drummer): I hear talking, talking…

Till : He's the one who listens to Booba. 

Is punk still alive for you? We hear a lot of speeches coming from people from the punk scene, or not, claiming No Future and claiming that punk remained in 78 with the political battles of the time… Well, it depends on what you mean by punk I guess.

Till : yes, that's right, we're not going to start trying to define punk. No, it's clearly not dead and it's clearly a bit like all styles of music and all forms of art: it constantly reinvents itself until in the end, the label doesn't mean anything anymore.

And eventually we're going to end up doing things that are from punk and aren't punk anymore. Let's put acoustic projects, there are plenty of musicians from punk bands who do acoustic, folk, country, solo projects, it's nothing punk in aesthetics anymore.

These are guys who, like they did punk or grew up listening to punk, well we classify them in this register because they play in punk concerts in front of punks, while it is a little absurd.

Antho : It's always funny but afterwards, there is always this label "folk punk" that exists precisely, especially for these bands that are from punk, when in fact, you do not make punk with a folk guitar. 

"The way of making music, it's evolving thoroughly"

Till : It's dead and not dead and at the same time, we can decide what it's all the time each on our side too, like metal you see. It's so broad, there are lots of metal styles and even hip-hop which is a little more music… Recent we will say, that metal or rock.

There are starting to be so different things in hip-hop that actually have nothing to do at all, in the ways of doing things, in as you said politics, in the musical aesthetics… The way of making music, it's evolving completely.

Antho : It's a bit like bacteria that evolve.

Till : Or sourdough. You remake yourself culturally with a little flour and a little water every day. Necessarily you have some kind of branches, mini, let's say, punk cults, which will be ultra radical politically, and others who will just talk about skateboarding and drinking beer.

Paul : It's living music.

"We had no choice but to do punk"

I was reading Punk à singe, a book that transcribes an interview with François Bégaudeau, the singer of Zabriskie Point. He said something that struck me: for him punk is linked to the body. Punk manifests itself physically in him.

Where did you get from to make punk? Is it because you were listening to this kind of music, or was there a purely physical side? 

Till : Physics I don't know, but then when he says it like that, it's a bit poetic too, you know. It's a way of saying that it's a visceral movement, it's something that you don't necessarily choose, as you choose to do this study or wear this hat today.

You find yourself in there a little in spite of yourself. After I don't know, I always listened and did it as music. But you Paul, your first things that led you to make music were not punk rock at all.

Paul: Nirvana, I think it has something to do with punk rock. I was listening to Nirvana. And that's what made me make music. 

Till : I listened to punk before Nirvana but I never wanted to play guitar or play in a band and sing. It was when Nirvana arrived I wanted to, I loved Nirvana.

Antho : You had a click.

Till : Exactly, it triggered something: "I have to do this too, actually." 

Antho : For me, it was two clicks. First on the music I listened to and then on the desire to play it. First click I remember, at one point I said to myself: "this kind of music is exactly what I need".

Till : That's my cam!

Antho : That's my thing. And then, second click: "I have to do it like this, I have to do that".

Till : We've all said, "We have to do this," you almost have no choice actually.

Paul : It was a no-brainer.

"Punk is not a diploma that you pass"

Can we say that it was a necessity?

Till : A little bit. 

Paul : Nirvana, there's a good connection with punk anyway.

Till : Yes.

Paul : When they played in squats.

And then the provocation side too.

Paul : yes.

Till : An anti-establishment thing and all, even though it became the biggest rock band in the world at the time. And I had read something where Kurt Cobain said that for a long time, he said he was punk, he was punk and he did punk.

He thought that was punk, what Nirvana was doing, until he got interested and listened to what the Sex Pistols were doing, what the Dead Kennedys were doing, and he realized no, "I don't do punk at all, why did I say that for years". You see, sometimes even being in this thing… He claimed to be punk at first without really knowing what it was.

You see, "punk" is not a degree that you pass, it's not a label.

Antho : It's not a competition to pass.

Till : You have bands like The Wampas, somewhere it can be considered punk and bands like Sexy Sushi, they don't even have guitars but it's ultra punk.

In attitude.

Till : In the attitude and the way of playing music even if it's with machines. Pro DJ was hyper punk actually, even if it moves away aesthetically in terms of music. It is an endless debate.

That's why it's interesting.

Till : It was Frank Turner who said, "If all the time we spent trying to define punk we spent trying to cure cancer, we would have eliminated cancer. We still have no idea what punk is but it doesn't matter. "

"We were looking for a band name like Marilyn Manson"

And where does the name, Guerilla Poubelle, come from? I tried to search the internet before coming, but I couldn't find anything.

Till : When we started the band with the guys who were in the band at the time, we made a list of everything that came to mind trying to mix up words that had nothing to do with each other. We wanted a name like Marilyn Manson, a little you see, you have Marilyn and Manson, it doesn't fit.

Antho : It's not supposed to be side by side.

Till: yes that's right, that kind of supposed to be the idea. It doesn't mean anything, it's just two words stuck together.

I think it goes well together, it makes sense.

Paul : It goes together, yeah.

Till : In the end it works. And it's been fifteen years and I've never thought we're sticking to that name. A lot of bands, especially those who choose their name at a very young age, end up having super bad names where you have 60 other bands that call themselves the same. You see, we had friends who played in Black Sheep, the band is great, the guys are great, but the band name… You have 100 bands in each country called Black Sheep.

Paul : Plus 100 bars.

[laughs]

Till : And associations.

What else did you have as name proposals? Other cool things have emerged?

Till : Initially it was Guerilla Industriel Poubelle, the full name, the first idea we had. And it was too long, we did well to remove the "industrial".

And then it didn't have the same rhythm as Marilyn Manson.

[laughs]

Thank you for your time. See you later at the concert!

Paul : So I burst in during your interview.

That was the purpose of having all three of you.

Paul : I started taking my nap and then 4 minutes later I hear at the door "boom boom boom".

[laughs]

Another category of "Boum Boum" sounded in the dressing room: the drums of the group Lily Carnage. The indie-punk band was starting the party right downstairs, so we left ourselves on those words.