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A conversation between Emmanuelle Antille, Jean-Luc Manz and Franz Treichler Jean-Luc Manz : The first thing I would like to ask you before we start is: why did you choose to bring us together today? Emmanuelle Antille : I’ll start with you, Franz, because it’s all linked to music. Especially the Young Gods’. In the band you’re the songwriter and also the lead singer. Franz Treichler : I am. E. A. : In fact, the Young Gods’ music has been a part of my life ever since your very first album, back in ’87. I was 16 when I listened to it for the first time, and it has accompanied me ever since. I was listening to it again only the other day and I was struck by the same strength, the same energy that had so completely overwhelmed me when I was a teenager. The only thing is, maybe, that today I’m better able to describe this energy, and to absorb it. There are several elements in your music : the melodies, the lyrics and the sounds. And they complement each other and become something tangible, build sceneries in which the listener is invited to dive. There exist very complex links between the lyrics and the sounds that underline the melodies, like sound effects. For example, on “Percussionne” one can hear breathing sounds. And on “Envoyé” gunshots, explosions. These elements, together with the rhythms, the melodies and the strength of your voice, turn into living tissue. It’s very tactile. Your music operates like a trigger, a catalyst that allows me to plunge deeper into myself and dig up feelings that I can then let free. I feel very close to this creative process. With you, Jean-Luc, it’s also linked to my teenage years, since we met when I was 18. I was just starting my artistic researches and we’ve followed the developments of each other’s works over all these years. You’ve often given me your opinion, and especially on this project that you’ve watched grow, as it were. We’ve also worked together. And our respective artworks have got one thing in common: everyday life, its details, tiny actions, repetitions, the tension or emotion that can arise from perfectly banal items. This conversation is a way of carrying on our exchange. J.-L. M. : Emmanuelle and I had a Young Gods afternoon the other day. F. T. : You did? E. A. : It was quite amazing listening to that first album because it’s… F. T. : Intense. E. A. : Very intense. Energetic and alive. Extremely powerful. F. T. : Indeed, it’s like raw material. At the time, it was also due to the fact that the technique of sampling was new, and people would only use it as additional flourish on their compositions. For us it was a revelation, a discovery, to see that it was possible to give a rhythm to illustrative things. That’s why it has remained one of my favorite albums to this day. E. A. : And the band’s image, too. For example, the CD cover, it’s still very up-to-date now. On one side the band’s name carved on stone, and on the other on a human torso, presumably with a cutter. F. T. : Yeah, it is raw. These are simple pictures, without any graphic design. E. A. : Your identity thus affirms itself in a very powerful and intuitive way. With regard to my current researches, this type of approach is a great source of inspiration. J.-L. M. : This cover is very close to what some young artists are doing at the moment. E. A. : Yeah, that’s funny. J.-L. M. : We were wondering how, at the time, you got the idea for this cover. Do you remember ? 1 / 8 F. T. : I wanted to avoid any graphic work by taking a picture directly, that would show something concrete. In this case, it happened to be stone and skin. Other times it was metal. I wanted to develop a whole series on the elements. The idea was to reveal a content via a single picture. Today I would have a different approach, maybe, but back then I wanted people to be drawn to the sheer simplicity of this cover. It was pure picture, full stop. If I could have avoided putting the band’s name on it, I would have left it blank. E. A. : What appeals to me most is your identity, going all the way with such strength. It works so well. F. T. : Yes, I guess it’s the basis of it all. A conjunction of individuals. I was bringing more from an artistic point of view, others from a technological one. That’s how the Young Gods began. But to go back to the texture of the sound, at the beginning we were talking about sound architecture because we were trying to work, as you just said, on visual and tactile impressions. We were making collages of sounds in order to create environments in which it would be possible to enter. E. A. : An engulfing space. F. T. : Yes, made up of several rooms, through which one could walk. E. A. : That’s really what one feels when listening to your music. J.-L. M. : About sound architecture, and about Angels Camp, the soundtrack is very important for me. There’s the music written by the band Honey For Petzi, the backgrounds, the characters’ voices and also sounds from nature getting mixed up in there. How did you feel all this ? F. T. : As soon as music is written for another medium than vinyl or CD, it’s there to support an image, to add emotions. It’s an approach that I’ve never attempted myself, but in Angels Camp it’s done in a very subtle way. The Honey For Petzis have really managed to develop an atmosphere. They did a great job. J.-L.M.: Emmanuelle, what’s behind this development of the sound? E. A. : Well, it all started when I first saw Honey For Petzi on stage. Completely by chance, I went to one of their concerts as I was writing the scenario for Angels Camp, and I immediately fell in love with their music. I knew at once that their melodies would be perfect for my stories. One month after the concert, I contacted them and asked to meet them. I presented my project and invited them to write the music for the whole movie. We talked about the scenario and the characters. I had shot next to nothing yet, but I described some of the scenes to them, like the one with the dead girl lying on the snow. The softness and the melancholy of these images. A few weeks later they sent me a proposal with eight original tracks. It was a ‘draft’. Then I started shooting. It was done on five different occasions, throughout the year. After each session, the images were edited according to the storyboard. And then we would think about the music, how it was to fit in so as to best build links and give a rhythm to the narrative. The Honey For Petzis would bring me new proposals, based on the original ones, which I would paste onto and coordinate with the images. We looked at what happened with the melodies and remixed, if necessary, to intensify the links between them and the images. This kind of work is very close to what the first cinema and radio sound-effects people were doing, and I like this idea a lot. One theme per character is developed throughout the movie, like a musical alter ego. The melodies become the characters’ souls. It was great to be working with the band over a whole year, to watch things take shape little by little. J.-L. M. : It is obvious that the movie functions at the level of the emotions, of the perceptions. Very often, it’s the music that brings us closer to the characters. One can feel the scope of your collaboration there. 2 / 8 E. A. : Collaboration was of three types, in fact, as far as the soundtrack is concerned. The first was with the band, as I’ve just explained. Our conversations, my suggestions and their proposals. There was real complicity between us. I was moved by their sensitivity. They got into the story and into the atmosphere of the movie at once. I felt that we were able to understand each other tacitly. They were able to render through their music all the emotions and sensations present in the images, and even beyond. Another instance of collaboration was with the movie-maker, Sandrine Normand. We worked together on the editing. She helped me with placing the sound with regard to the images. I learned a lot from her and it was fascinating. How to produce an emotion, stress a feeling. The third instance of collaboration was with the sound engineer, Alexander Miesch, who mixed and masterised the entire soundtrack. He balanced or intensified the different voice overs and the tensions between them. But to go back to the band, an important aspect of my collaboration with them was the relationship between their interpretation and the stream of images generated by the movie. They wanted to give their music a sort of raw energy. A bit like Neil Young did for Jim Jarmusch’s Dead Man. F. T. : You mean they wanted to record live, with the images directly in front of them ? E.

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