MOPA
Questions asked by Jon Wilde, added to Rock Realms 24th February 2010.
French band MOPA - My Own Private Alaska - play an intriguing music that combines breathtaking piano and death metal vocals. Their new album Amen is out soon. We thought it only fair to find out what makes them tick.
Vocalist Milka answers questions on behalf of the band.
Hi Milka, thanks for taking a moment to answer these questions. Hope you are well?
Milka: Hi dude. I'm answering you with my baby child sleeping beside me. All is well, thanx.
The band is called MOPA (My Own Private Alaska). Presumably this is a play on “My Own Private Idaho”? Why that name?
Milka: Exactly. We loved the Gus Van Sant movie. Something fragile and strong at the same time. Then we wanted to give the impression of something very personal, and also very crude, rough. So we chose Alaska, with its vast spaces, snow, rocks, lakes... That sounded good to us.
How did the band form, and what is the present line-up?
Milka: The idea came up in the minds of the pianist and I. I liked how I screamed in my metal band, and I discovered the great pianist he was. We wanted to build something brand new, something never heard before: some guy screaming on beautiful piano parts. We also searched a long time for a drummer. A guy who got the same savage feeling as drummers of TEAM SLEEP, HELMET, FOO FIGHTERS, WILL HAVEN, or of course NIRVANA. So we found Yohan. And from this moment, we're 3 sitting guys. Drums / Piano / Voices.
How long have you been together?
Milka: First rehearsal... March 2007. First EP June 2007. That was quite quick!
Did you come together with a shared love of one particular type of music, or do your tastes vary wildly?
Milka: Of course they vary, we're not clones ;-) But we agreed on the idea focusing on a precise feeling, working on MOPA. So yes, for MOPA we concentrated on just a part of what we're listening to: noise music, experimental or grunge music, hardcore and screamo, and also sad piano singers!
What is the music scene like where you live?
Milka: Kinda rich, culturally! Tons of rock bands here in Toulouse, and especially in "loud" music. There were lots of metal bands, hardcore bands, screamo bands, post "..." bands, etc... That is quite cool.
There are good musicians, even in other styles, cause we also listen to folk music, pop rock music, and we find that in Toulouse too! Listen to UNIFORM MOTION, MANIMAL, DONA CONFUSE, NOLENTIA, PAAMATH, PUNISH YOURSELF, CATS ON TREES (the other band of the drummer)...
Was there a vision for the MOPA style and sound right from the start, or has it developed considerably since the band’s early days?
Milka: At the beginning, MOPA was built on anger, hatred, extreme feelings. It was the darkest darkest darkest side of the moon! Of our moon. Concerts were terribly gloomy, rough and extreme... Kinda autistic, misanthropist, and selfish on stage. But it began to change with the help of Ross. We understood who were our real enemies. And it was obviously not the audience. It was more ourselves than the people. And we learned how to change depression into salvation. Anger into force to forgive. Hatred into willing to bring dead people on Earth... things like that... So that philosophy changed a lot, and helped us in a way to be more savage, more natural, and also stronger on stage, cause we don't fight alone, we don't burn from the inside, we fight together, and try to give some inner fire for the ones who need some.
How would you actually describe your sound?
Milka: Wow... I don't know. I prefer to play my music rather than to talk about it... I said savage... Yes, I think we can say so. Visceral. Our sound can be blood red sometimes, and also as blue as a pale blue cloudless sky.
You released an EP a couple of years ago. How was that received, both critically and with the fans?
Milka: Really, really well received! That was amazing. We didn't expect much of this, although of course we were really proud and tried to promote it as hard as possible. But we easily found gigs and gigs, and the reviews were most of the time really good. Because it was maybe fresh and new, quite experimental at that period.
Is the new album Amen a continuation of the themes explored on the EP, or have you gone off in a different direction this time?
Milka: It's similar. The way of expressing things, singing songs, cannot be exactly the same. It's still very dark. I guess it's even darker, and hard to listen to, psychologically... During the mix, Ross told us it was kinda hard for him to work on our record mentally cause the lyrics often use words like "hatred", "murder", "blood", "kill", etc... I wrote the end of the Amen album during a period of real concrete mental depression. And the MOPA sound helps me to get my head out of the water, but I had so many scars to cure, so many nightmares to forget, so many people I had to forgive... The "Amen" record contains also a lot of scars. Some scars you might hear!
What is the story behind the songs and lyrics? Is every song a standalone entity or is there a common thread?
Milka: One common thread is my life... and the way I felt it through the eyes of MOPA. Every song can be understood as a standalone entity of course. It's not always the same theme (thank God!). A common thread we finally found is in the power of signs. I mean: the fact of accepting life as it flows, with coolness and hardship, the fact of taking opportunities as they come. All is written, Mektoub, Amen, you know...
How long did the new album take to create from start to finish?
Milka: A few songs were written a long time ago (the ones from the EP for example). Then, we wrote the other half of the album in the 2 last months before going to L.A. to record. Once in L.A., we stayed there 2 more months. We spent 20 days rehearsing 8 hours a day with Ross Robinson coaching us. We changed details, here and there, but above everything we tried to change some of our philosophy. We tried to forget everything that was not "us", and deeply "ourselves" in the songs. We took a lot of time to get mentally undressed, and be finally prepared to give everything.
At the end of the summer, Ross began to mix it with Daniel Sternbaum and Ryan Boesch. It took 3 months I think. And finally Alan Douches took care of the mastering 8 months after the first day of recording.
Did you all have a hand in writing the tracks, or is there one main creative force behind the band?
Milka: We have all a hand in the writing of the tracks. Yohan composes the drum parts, Tristan the piano parts, and me, the vocal parts and the lyrics. But the base is of course the piano most of the times, even if songs like "After You" began to be written with only the vocal parts. Then we jam around what Tristan plays, and we talk about the instant we created playing it together, and we also talk about the architecture of the songs, etc, etc... Lyrics come afterwards, once I understand the emotion given by the song.
Did you have any guest performers during the recording?
Milka: Kourtney Klein and Sonny Mayo (ex-SNOT) helped on a few songs doing percussion.
Did you use any special techniques to get your sound?
Milka: We add different piano sounds, one above another. We've got one clean voice, and another channel with the voice "through an old guitar amp"... we've got other secrets, but we keep them! ;-)
Any favourite moments on the upcoming release?
Milka: You know, up to now, every moment is magic for us, cause we waited for so long to have this record released. We cannot believe people will finally be able to listen to our record... We're so excited. To play live, to see our record in the stores, to receive feedback from our fans, etc...
How did producer Ross Robinson get involved? What was he like to work with? Is he more of a demanding perfectionist, or a laid back guy who lets you get on with your thing?
Milka: Ross is the kind of guy who gets involved 200%. He's absolutely not a lazy guy. If he says yes to a project, he doesn't say it by half. He wants to understand every word of every lyric, he will think on every detail on every drum part or piano tune, ... but the main thing is that he will come inside your brain, and dig deeper and deeper all day long to understand the reaaaal meaning of it. Cause he will try to push you to your limits.
He wants to you to play with the biggest truth possible. No tricks, no cheats... He proceeds with "mental surgeries" (that's his word!) before each song during the recording process. He becomes more than a psychotherapist... I must tell you 1 song recorded with Ross is more useful and "curative" than 3 months with my shrink...
What do you think he has brought to the band and sound that was otherwise missing?
Milka: I don't know if something was missing... but I could easily tell that he gave us a part of "emotional soul", that we couldn't easily touch with our old sound. Now we play as if we were naked, with open hearts. We come as we are, like the poet said ;-)
You have a lot of live gigs lined up. Is the live stage what you really live for? Is that where you feel most at home?
Milka: Haha ! You know, I feel at home when I'm... at home! I sleep so often in beds which are not mine, often on tour... But we're definitely live musicians. We come from there. And stage is through our eyes the clearest reality in music. That's where you can reveal, and directly give your feelings. We really like to be on the road, doing our music, even if it's exhausting, even if we don't sleep that much nor that well. We like to see so many different people, coming from so different places, enjoying the same moments, the same music. We like to travel and discover new landscapes, new languages, new 'local' meals! Yeah, we like 'local' food and drinks ;-)
What is a MOPA show like?
Milka: I think it's an experience. More than a normal concert. Because we sit to play. Because we don't talk between each song. People we usually don't move, we close our eyes sometimes, we stay focused on the paintings of the drummer that we use on stage... Like every music based on fragility and power at the same time, you'll be able to go deeper in yourself to feel strange feelings, some brand new, or some you thought buried and forgotten for a while...
Anything else?
Milka: I just want to say thank you to all the people who still buy CDs, support artists, and pay for concerts tickets without asking always to be on the guest list... Thanx also to the people who consider the artists and who don't spend their time stealing from musicians, collecting MP3s in their hard disk.
Thanks again to Milka for his time. Make sure you keep an eye out for MOPA's latest album, Amen.
http://www.myspace.com/myownprivatealaska
