Visceral, pounding rhythms envelope Daisy Mortem’s record – it is hard to pin them down to one confined description and that is exactly how they like it. Concocting various tracks over two years of touring and personal turmoil, the January just past marked their collective release on a debut LP, titled Faits Divers, that reflects these moments with distressing intensity. Cindy Bluray and Vampiro Maracas, who comprise the Bordeaux-based duo, speak to METAL to let us know more about their sonic evolution, influences and the origins of Daisy Mortem.
I was interested to read about how you’ve been making music together longer than I realised: a few years as Daisy Mortem, an additional member who is no longer involved, as well as working on music together for over a decade. Where does your relationship with each other originate?
Daisy Mortem is a story of friendship and adolescence. Together, we discovered goth and industrial music when were around 12 years old. We started by recording toilets flushing with a flanger effect while stealing makeup from our mothers, trying to become the coolest and most terrifying band possible. We were super bored in our little town in the suburbs, which is how this all started. This environment made us turn to music to escape and release our frustrations.
Once you’ve tried drugs, flirting and vandalizing in your neighbourhood, you realize that music is actually the best option to escape in a constructive way. But it also caused us to end up in pretty crazy situations, like playing in goth bars and raves when we were 12 years old! Silvio, our former third member, is still close to us. He joined our band as a keyboardist who had never played the keyboards before, but despite this, he was a lively part of the group. It later became more practical to continue as a duo.
Once you’ve tried drugs, flirting and vandalizing in your neighbourhood, you realize that music is actually the best option to escape in a constructive way. But it also caused us to end up in pretty crazy situations, like playing in goth bars and raves when we were 12 years old! Silvio, our former third member, is still close to us. He joined our band as a keyboardist who had never played the keyboards before, but despite this, he was a lively part of the group. It later became more practical to continue as a duo.
Similarly, your new album brings a lot of different musical lineages and influences together, whilst I’ve seen you note a love for a variety of artists from JPEGMAFIA to Marilyn Manson. Can you talk about your background and how you got into music? How has your sound evolved over the years?
We were always hanging out in different scenes, never really finding our place. The only thing we were looking for was something exciting and new. When Marilyn Manson hits you at 12 years old, you start to always look for intensity. That could be JPEGMAFIA, or that could even be the Pet Shop Boys. Genre doesn’t matter. Our sound has evolved because of discovering these artists. All of our influences have kind of blended together. We will never make music that fits into any specific genre.
Artist/band names are always enjoyable peeks into the minds of a creative. What have your previous names been? And how did the name Daisy Mortem emerge?
We’re sorry to disappoint you but we will not be revealing the names of our old bands. But, if anyone is interested, we’re sure you’ll be able to find some traces online. As for Daisy Mortem, we liked that it sounded like a character in a vampire porno. It kind of gives us the freedom to be as extreme as we want in our project. It’s also an oxymoron, otherwise very classic, which is a good reflection of our approach to music: extreme, full of different influences, contrasting, contradicting – also, a confrontation between an English and a Latin word.
Coming back to your sound now. Your debut album, titled Faits Divers, was released in January. When listening, I kept thinking it would be great to experience it in a live environment, so I was happy to know the album was developed for a live environment. Could you tell me a little bit more about the album and your process to creating it? What was the thinking for your debut LP?
Our first release was in 2018 with our EP La vie c’est mort. We made it during a very happy period of our lives, which you can hear throughout it with the punk and fun vibes. Faits Divers, on the other hand, was made during a much darker time in our personal lives. Things were respectively difficult both financially and romantically.
Cindy: For me, it was really a very gloomy period in my life. I wrote the songs around the same time that I moved to the worst neighbourhood in Bordeaux. I would hear screams all night – it was in the centre of gang activity. I would often witness fights outside the cigarette shop downstairs. At the same time, I was getting fucked up. I think the tone of the album really corresponded with this passage of my life. For the record, I’m actually moving out of this neighbourhood right now!
We were touring non-stop for two years in squats and clubs while producing Faits Divers. We started to feel like we were doing all that for nothing. We still didn’t fit in anywhere; we still weren’t making any money. We just tried to be as raw and authentic as possible. We wanted to produce more and more intense tracks to get reactions from the crowd, to confront them, and to transcend our reality… which was becoming more and more frustrating.
Cindy: For me, it was really a very gloomy period in my life. I wrote the songs around the same time that I moved to the worst neighbourhood in Bordeaux. I would hear screams all night – it was in the centre of gang activity. I would often witness fights outside the cigarette shop downstairs. At the same time, I was getting fucked up. I think the tone of the album really corresponded with this passage of my life. For the record, I’m actually moving out of this neighbourhood right now!
We were touring non-stop for two years in squats and clubs while producing Faits Divers. We started to feel like we were doing all that for nothing. We still didn’t fit in anywhere; we still weren’t making any money. We just tried to be as raw and authentic as possible. We wanted to produce more and more intense tracks to get reactions from the crowd, to confront them, and to transcend our reality… which was becoming more and more frustrating.
Looking forward now, your latest music video – premiered with METAL – is for your new track, Prohibition 2050, released on August 1st via the La Souterraine compilation album Allopop. Punk artist Brigitte Fontaine features prominently through lyrical inspiration and the video itself, where she is rendered to great accuracy! What can you tell us about this concept? Why are Brigitte Fontaine and her work important to our contemporary world?
The media often paints Brigitte Fontaine as a peculiar character, an eccentric satirist, but we see her as a serious artist. She doesn’t fit in any box; she never puts up a façade. She’s brutally honest and raw. This is what we love about her, and what matches us and our principles. She’s 81 years old, still touring, and more punk than ever. She reminds us that art is made to disturb and excite us.
Artistically, the lyrics are incredibly well-written and relevant. Brigitte sings about urban misery, concrete, cigarettes, alcohol, and nursing homes in a raw, brutal, and almost fantastical way. She’s at a point where she can sing “I’m an old lady and I fuck your ass” without it even being vulgar. It’s funny, it’s poetic and it’s brutal.
Artistically, the lyrics are incredibly well-written and relevant. Brigitte sings about urban misery, concrete, cigarettes, alcohol, and nursing homes in a raw, brutal, and almost fantastical way. She’s at a point where she can sing “I’m an old lady and I fuck your ass” without it even being vulgar. It’s funny, it’s poetic and it’s brutal.
Finally, following this debut LP and touring with the likes of IC3PEAK and GFOTY, if there is one thing you want people to know about Daisy Mortem, what would that be?
One thing we’d like people to know? Turn on the subtitles.
