KALTBLUT presents an interview with Armelle S. and Belo Bel of Armour Propre for this week’s Educate Your Ears! Stylish Parisian electro-pop duo Armour Propre are pushing the boundaries of current electronic music by incorporating art, literature and films to create a new poetic format. The two take on a romantic approach, using distinct 80s culutural references and throw in additional layers of computer generated animatimations to top it off. Formed in only 2013, Armour Propre already have their first EP released, along with several visually pleasing video clips. With the planet Venus being listed as one of the places they’d most like to take their music to, the pair have their sights set on big things this year!
KALTBLUT: Who are Amour Propre?
Armour Propre: We are a Parisian synth pop band made by a girl and a boy, playing keyboards and singing in French.
KALTBLUT: What does your name stand for?
Amour Propre: We wanted something very simple and related to love which guides our life in everything. The particularity is that there’s no hyphen between those two words as it is normally used in French. By erasing this little thing, which is not even a letter, the meaning of those words (which become two without an hyphen) totally changes. Indeed, ‘amour-propre’ in French is related to someone who is proud of himself, usually very well confident and having a big self-esteem. For us it means literally ‘clean love’ in the purest definition.
KALTBLUT: What made you decide to start producing your own music?
Armour Propre: We had played together a few years ago in another band, but after trying to play with different kind of musicians and producers it just came out naturally that we will be happier to create music together, knowing that our sensibilities were quite the same and complementary. We would say that more than deciding to produce our own music – because in a way we always did, we didn’t have other choice – the big thing was when we realised that we didn’t need anybody else to do what we really wanted. But, in another way, it will be fantastic today to work with a producer! At one time we think we’ll need it to pass one step forward.
KALTBLUT: What does your music explore?
Armour Propre: Our music is connected to love & spirituality (relation between us humans, universal love). Some of our songs explore art, cinema or literature. For example, our song ‘L’Effrontée’ is a tribute to this French movie from the middle of the 80s by Claude Miller (with Charlotte Gainsbourg when she was like 13 years old, Claude Brialy and Bernadette Laffont). This movie was really important for us when we were teenagers.
Another song is a revisited wink to Pier Paolo Paosolini’s movie, ‘Théorème’.
KALTBLUT: Tell us about your new EP
Armour Propre: Before all, listen to it our first EP! We are working on two other music videos which will come out before the end of this year. We wish that it will give a new impetus to this EP before releasing the new one!
KALTBLUT: Are visuals important when accompanying your music?
Armour Propre: Yes, it serves a purpose, our vision of our music. It is important, constantly in evolution and at the same time really into the present we’re living.
KALTBLUT: Do you make your own visuals?
Armour Propre: Yes indeed, in a very DIY way. We working with people who understand us and going in the same direction as we are.
KALTBLUT: How do you decide what you want to show?
Armour Propre: We let our emotions talk when we have to decide something.
KALTBLUT: What do you think of the synth-pop/electronic routes in Paris?
Armour Propre: It’s a very interesting period for the last 2 or 3 years. Many new bands have come out with a very special way of doing music as it was 30 years ago in France. Everyone is called the “new Elli & Jacno”, the “new Daniel Darc”, the “new Etienne Daho”… it’s always has to be a reference to the past, and that’s not bad even if your music doesn’t really sound alike. We all need to catch attention, but at the end the most important thing is when you are just doing the music you like to do ! Doesn’t matter if it has a reference or not. The really good thing is that now you can hear again really good bands singing in French which was after the last decade was a bit disappearing!
KALTBLUT: Do you think anywhere else is similar?
Armour Propre: Yes we guess it is similar. We are all children of our own cultural background. By using the benefit of the past to create something related to the present is an inner thing really cool.
KALTBLUT: Are you touring at the moment?
Armour Propre: Actually, we cannot say we are “on tour” because we do not have any manager or tour producer, but since the last past months we are really happy to play in cool venues in Paris (Espace B, Flèche d’Or, Trabendo, Pop in, Carreau du Temple…). Our next gigs are coming in the fall (Nuba, Les 3 Baudets…).
KALTBLUT: Where in the world would you most like to take your music to?
Armour Propre: Germany of course (ah ah)! Japan, US, Jupiter… and all the places where love is the essence, like Venus.
KALTBLUT: What do you want to explore in 2015?
Armour Propre: We want to be deeper in our music, passing by more electro sounds, from darkness to luminous light, from an very dark blue to a very light pink through all the colours we could find on an emotional range. We just made a cover from a very girly naïve song from the 80s and we put some darkness on. This track will be one line very soon. But you can already feel that gloom twilight in songs like ‘Anonyme’ which is on the EP. And for sure we’ll keep a poetic side in the lyrics and still sing in French!
Armour Propre’s EP 1 is out now!
Contact
soundcloud.com/amourpropremusic
facebook.com/amourpropremusic
