CHAD PARKHILL grills ARMELLE PIOLINE of French group HOLDEN about their upcoming Picasso Up Late show.

CHAD PARKHILL: Your upcoming appearance at GoMA will be your first Australian appearance. What do you expect to encounter over here, and how do French musicians generally view the prospect of touring Australia?

ARMELLE PIOLINE: I really don’t know what to expect … Australia is so so far away from home, I’d never thought our music would take us there. I’m just very curious and very impressed.

CP: Your first album, L’Arrière-Monde, contains several compositions in English, but in all releases since you’ve stuck to French. What motivated this change, and will you record in English again?

AP: Mocke and I were living in Dublin when we started Holden in 1997, and the first songs we wrote together were all in English (my English was much better back then …). In 1998 we got signed on a French label and went back home and decided to try to do something special in French, as personal as possible. But I like the idea of Holden keeping trying to find a way to translate strange feelings in French and make it sound good musically – it’s not that easy, but I like the challenge.

CP: Your current album, Chevrotine, was recorded in Santiago, Chile, and many Chilean websites report that you have a special affinity for Santiago. What is your connection to Santiago? Have you recorded your next album, Fantomatisme, there?

AP: Yes, we do have a special affinity with Chile, for some irrational reasons. We went to tour there four or five times, each time having a bigger support from Chilean people. Our producer, Señor Coconut, is living there, even though he is a German guy, so we also have to go there to record our albums, which is absolutely great, as we love Santiago. Fantomatisme was also recorded there, two months ago.

CP: What kind of sounds will be on Fantomatisme? How does it differ from your previous work?

AP: Fantomatisme sounds like a rainbow after a huge hurricane: we recorded it right after the writing of the songs; no one in the band had heard a note of it before the studio – neither had Señor Coconut – so it sounds really spontaneous, really raw. It went directly from our hearts and brains to the tape, no artifice, no intellectualisation, just pure natural music. Uwe [Schmidt, AKA Señor Coconut] is a great producer, and we really consider him as a member of the band when we’re in the studio. We met him about seven years ago, when he released his great El Baile Alemán (covers of Kraftwerk), and decided to work with him forever.

CP: In the studio, Holden is a quintet, but in your upcoming GoMA show, you will perform as a duo. How do you manage this change of cast? Is the show stripped back, or do you use samplers and so on to recreate the full band sound?

AP: The duo set is the most bare and bald show you will get to see this year: one voice, two guitars ... but in the French way!

HOLDEN perform as part of the Picasso Up Late series on Friday July 11, at the Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA). CHEVROTINE is out now through Village Vert/Valve.

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