Les Operator Please ont pris le temps de s’entretenir avec le Bar Cult alors qu’ils sont en session d’enregistrement pour leur second album chez eux en Australie. Il nous faudra donc attendre 2009 pour les revoir sur le territoire français avec en première partie les Dodoz.

Le Bar Cult: The last time in Paris you made an huge impression! You did the support of Mystery Jets but it seems that a lot of people were there for you. How does it feel to see the crowd singing for “Just a song about Ping-Pong” with you?

It is crazy to come to another country and just have people stay around to watch you play and clap after a song. Then to go to say the UK and people sing your songs is even more of a shock, then to go to a European country where not everyone speaks English and have French people sing you songs in the cutest accent ever, it’s awesome! We get pretty chuffed and are really grateful for the support.

lBC. : What are your relations with French public?

We love French people. The crowds here are amazing, people really let go and have a good time. We have this special group of people that come to all of our shows and crash our stage for a song that they want to sing with us. We love coming to France.

lBC. : You’re Australian but a big part of your fanbase is in England…

It’s good that we are able to make it out of Australia to play shows, you know it doesn’t happen all the time when you can play internationally, so we are just happy that people have been interested in what we do.

lBC. : Your artwork is made by Elvira Wilkinson why and is she from Amandah’s family?

Yes Elvira is Amandah’s older sister. She does the artwork because she knows the band better than anyone else does, she knows our style, she knows what we like and she collaborates with us. She is a very talented graphic artist and we trust her with our artwork.

lBC. : You’re a “young” band. Did you have problems with your parents about touring, missing school… Now and at the beginning.

In the beginning it was a little tricky with parents and school, but most of us have finished and our parents don’t really know what goes on, during tour. I think after they could see we were pro active with what we were doing, they trusted us more.

lBC. : How do you write? Did some of you have specific places?

Writing is very organic for us, we never sit down and decide when to write and we don’t try specifically to write songs in a certain time frame. We just write as it comes to us, usually when we have been mucking around in rehearsals. But as for the process Amandah writes all the lyrics and most of the music. She could write a full song and then bring it to the band or it could stem from an idea and then the band build on it, it is very much a snowball effect.

lBC. : Do you prefer live or studio?

Live. You get to play and deliver the music, the studio is also good though because you have time to make sure you are doing what you want to do.

lBC. : What about the historic of your band? You started by a battle of bands and won donuts?

Ha ha ha. No the price was actually donuts, we didn’t get them though. But we just started to enter a school battle of the bands competition, we didn’t think we would end up pushing it this far.

lBC. : And now the question of the moment: where is Sarah? Is she going to leave the band?

It was a mutual decision with Sarah and us for her to leave. We all felt that it would be better for her if she was no longer a member of the band. Touring takes a toll on your physically and mentally and if something is not working in the internals of the band something needs to be done about it.

lBC. : Does your video clip have a big importance for you? Does the idea come from you? Like “leave it alone” is pretty violent?

Videos again are another art form that you come across when you are in a band. We collaborate with our video people in order to make a video that we are comfortable with. The violence is all really a bit of fun, I think it’s more funny than violent, it’s just scary cause it looks a little bit real.

lBC. : And to finish which band do you advice for the reader of “le Bar Cult”?

Which band? I have no idea. Ummm. I don’t know. I guess that would be a little condescending.

lBC. : No but australian ?

Oh favourite Australian band is – a solo artist actually WHITLEY and Red Riders

22/07/08, interview mailée et photos par Sabine LG