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QDRPD New Album ‘Interiors’ Due November 15th Via Santé Records
Interview + Album Release Special
Casting back to January 2013, we discovered a band that enriched our lives. A new year was made better by hearing the fresh new sounds from Le Mans based omnipotent instrumental duo Quadrupède. Since then, the band consisting of Joseph and Damien, have worked tirelessly to provide some of the best releases and live shows with their relentless tours across Europe all of which helped gain the pair their solid fanbase. The two went quiet and there was a huge hole in their absence, something was missing within the noise/electronic/ math rock world.
Fast forward 5 years since their triumphant release of T O G O B A N and now we are just days away from Quadrupède (or QDRPD for short) long-awaited recorded return. This Friday, November 15th will see the release of QDRPD‘s new album ‘Interiors’ due via Santé Records.
Interiors Track Listing
01. Central Massif
02. Interiors
03. Yau Ma Tei
04. Your Middle-of-the-night Drifting Mind
05. Four Phones
06. Capitapica
This album will change everything. ‘Interiors‘ the new 6 track release is sonically striking on all levels. The album in its entirety is equally momentous as it is moving. Interiors is a 6 track journey- a platform that shows how much QDRPD have evolved, developed, progressed and conquered and we’re pleased to see the pair are days away from unleashing the album of the year!
A new, fresh and bold direction from the duo which reveals the musicians’ courageous step to take their experimental process to the next level. Bringing in more technical creations- big brassy synth sounds, epic electronics, and vivacious layers and textural depth. Each track develops its own unique atmosphere from dark and gritty orientation to elevated and engrossing elements. Cleverly constructed compositions and intellectually performed.
Having caught the duo live numerous times on various tours and festival appearances, we know the pair implement the most crushingly intense shows, feeding off one another’s energy. QDRPD have managed to replicate that intensity and that energy effortlessly into their entire new recorded album. That power mixed with their muscular guitars, lustrious looping, synthesize oddities and skillfully controlled abrasive drum beats gives you a flawless album shaped with wholesome heaviness and crucial experimentation.
Interiors is boundary-breaking, it’s the next stage for this explosive act. Well developed, genre-defying and beautifully bold. Each release QDRPD has given to their fans has led to this new augmentation of their musical direction- a masterpiece.
Ahead of the release, we are thrilled to have spent some time chatting to the band to find out more about the evolution of QDRPD, teaming up with Santé Records, performing live and their united workmanship….
- It’s been a while! You guys are no strangers to Circuit Sweet but for those that need reminding, and for all to familiarise themselves with the band, tell us of the background of QDRPD, how did you both join forces?
We met around late 2011 I think, Damien replied to an ad I left on a local musician directory. I was looking for people to start a band, and we both shared similar influences, so from there we worked on a few tracks and released a first self-titled EP beginning of 2013. We started off like many bands, playing in every local venue possible, and got really positive feedback and support from the local scene. We ended up playing at a bi-annual festival that takes place in our home town, called Festival Teriaki, and basically that’s how Black Basset Records (our former label) got to know about us, as some friends of theirs attended the festival. They got in contact with us to talk about releasing our follow-up record, so we worked our way into making “T O G O B A N”, that came out in december 2014. We got amazing response for this record, loads of reviews, and played loads of shows across France, UK, Belgium and Germany.
- Since we first introduced you to our readers 6 years ago- how have you found QDRPD has evolved during your time together?
Difficult one, i guess we don’t really think about these things ! I think we’ve evolved quite naturally, adapted ourselves to each other over time, with all the changes that occurred within that life span : musical tastes and aspirations, different lifestyles, professional and family life… it takes some effort for us to stay in sync and keep the whole project interesting for both of us, and I think we’ve managed quite well up until now.
- We want to know what are your collective influences that shine through in your work?
We both love a lot of different things from electronic and experimental music to violent rock bands to bad eurodance or mainstream pop-rock. I think we both used our experience in our solo projects (Joseph with S T Ø J and me with Serguei Spoutnik) to explore and assume more and more our individual tastes inside QDRPD and it works wells!
- You’ve announced details on your new record ‘Interiors’ due November 15th and we can’t wait- Regarding the forthcoming album, what do you think we can expect from Interiors?
The tracks on this new record are fairly different from our previous material. We’ve focused more on the different atmospheres, emotions, and textures we wanted to convey. Our goal was to reinvent ourselves, whilst preserving our “trademark”. So, to summarize, i’d say these new tracks are globally “darker”, grittier, less focused on technique. A friend of ours reckons this new record is like the “upside down” version of what we previously released, in reference to the Stranger Things series. It seems quite accurate !
- Listening to the record, we find this has become a vital record of 2019 already. It’s a necessity to absorb interiors and to us feels like a huge milestone for you- but what does the release mean for you both personally?
It’s an album that we have been working for a long time. We tried to reinvent ourselves. There was a lot of testing and a lot of stuff going to the trash. After long periods of composition, then recording, we had a lot of difficulty to create Interiors as it is today: we really wanted to succeed to obtain a strong and unique atmosphere. Meanwhile, Joseph had an accident that prevented him from playing for 6 months (he is totally OK now 🙂 ) and our former label did not want to continue with us on this new album. So I will say that the creation of Interiors was a long way. That’s why we are extremely happy that it can finally see the day.
- When creating Interiors did you feel any pressure surrounding your creativity with the new follow up to your 2014 release?
I won’t say it was a pressure. We caught the attention of a few people with T O G O B A N. The positive feedback of these people has given us confidence. So it was the perfect time for us to try to push our limits to try to come up with something new at least with respect to T O G O B A N. And it was very exciting to do that from an artistic point of view.
- It’s been a while since the last release and you guys have worked hard towards this. Has your writing techniques changed throughout your time together?
The way of writing has not changed so much: our tracks were composed as a ping pong game between Joseph and me by email. The only thing that has changed is that when we wrote the new album we were just focused on the artistic direction of the tracks and not on the live interpretation.
- Have you been experimenting with new electronic devices for this record?
Yes, I think there are more hardware synths in Interiors. Joseph have a nice custom modular system with which he can create truly magnificent and unique and weird sounds. He is using trigs on his drums to have an hybrid acoustic-electronic sound more than before.
I used a lot a JUNO 106 coupled with a OTO Bam reverb (amazing effect units from France) on this album. For the live version, I use a Korg minilogue for the polyphonic stuff, a teenage engineering OP-1 for samples or euro dance sounds and a make noise 0-coast that is very violent for a synth that is perfect for a « rock » band like us !
- Can you describe the recording/mixing process of the record- the influences/workmanship etc
All guitars and synths have been recorded during the composition since 2015. We re-amped all the guitars in my parents’ living room during their summer vacation. And Joseph spent a week locked in the countryside in his parents place recorded the drums in a barn while I was on vacation. we can thank our parents warmly 😉 Our friend Jérémy Cabaret who worked on T O G O B A N too helped us just to put the microphones on place with the nice preamps. Then we tried to obtain with these drums and guitars recordings a mix that sounded like our demos but with a better sound. We had a very precise idea for the mix and Matt Calvert helped us a lot to obtain the result we wanted. He did a great job.
- You’ve returned to Matt Calvert for the mixing again on this record- can you tell us more on your relationship together?
We were very happy with the mix he had made on T O G O B A N. So much that it seemed logical to work with him again for Interiors. We are lucky that he is still accepted to work with us on Interiors. I think that on Interiors it was more difficult for him because we had an extremely precise vision of the sound that we wanted. But he managed to mix the whole thing in an incredible way while our recordings were not of very good quality. For example, thanks to him the drums and the guitar sound great, heavy and effective.
- Tell us about your song titles and name of the album, where have these come from?
The song titles usually come right after we’ve finished a track, and don’t necessarily have a major connexion with whatever we tried to convey through it. I think we try and find titles mostly with aesthetic value in mind, rather than try and make proper sense.
- What are you guys looking forward to the most with this release?
We’re already very grateful of being able to release this music on a physical format. We’re very proud of how it all looks and sounds. So really we’re looking forward to share it all with whoever feels like giving this record a listen ! We’re also super excited to play these new songs live, It’s been a challenge but now that we’re starting to feel at ease with them it just feels super rewarding.
- How did the artwork for the record come about?
I met Fiona Crott, who did the artwork, because I have the same artistic agent in Brussels with my project Serguei Spoutnik. We did a small exhibition with her and all the artists of the agency. We both love her job and we ask her to work around the idea of “Interiors” and the feeling to be totally free when we are alone at home.
- Releasing the album on vinyl (limited copies be sure to pre-order yours now) – Why is vinyl the right format to release the record on?
We’re so proud of the artwork, so the bigger it can be printed out the better ! Other than that, we don’t think it’s necessarily the right format to release a record on, we both listen to music through various formats. It’s a privilege to be able to get our music on vinyl, since it’s such a nice, collectible thing, that will hopefully pass on to younger generations, or end up in a charity shop like many others !
- With the new release you’ve joined forces with Sante records- how did the collaboration come about? And how has the unity affected the band so far?
Rémi, aka Apollo Noir, is a very close friend. He followed all the creation of Interiors closely. The idea of setting up a label with Clément, aka Botine, was born a few months before we started looking for a label. When Clément and Rémi listened to the mixed version of the album they were convinced almost immediately, we had a lot of luck. We then had the chance to master the album with them and Maxime Maurel in their studio. We are a great team, full of humor and love and passion. We love them so much!
- Are you currently supporting the release with any live shows? (Please tell us about Battles support which took place Oct 30th)?
Yes, we’ve played our first gig in a couple of years last week, opening for Battles in Paris! It was quite a lot of pressure, but we worked really hard a couple of days before the concert, to work with our sound engineer on the live mixing of our new tracks. It went really well, we had such a blast, and the audience was great.
Then we’ll have a couple of release parties, on November 28th and December 11th, respectively in Le Mans (our hometown) and Paris. We’ve got some more gigs programmed, but they’re still TBC 😉
- Will you be coming back to the UK in support of the new release?
We’d love to ! Nothing planned yet, but hopefully it’ll happen.
- You’ve previously toured UK several times in the past and bought the crowds to the tent and your ArcTanGent performances- How do you find the UK DIY scene compared to that where you are based?
Since we almost exclusively toured UK within the “math / post-rock” network, it’s kind of difficult to compare. Here in France there isn’t such tight networks for one particular style of music, or at least we’ve not come accross that with QDRPD in France. I think that DIY venues and promoters here tend to be slightly broader on the music style spectrum perhaps.
- We wish the best from this standout release but for now, enlighten us to what can we look forward to from you in the future?
Time will tell to be honest, but we will pursue our work together and at some point maybe release some more stuff, if the music sounds right to our ears. Nothing planned yet in any case !
- Any last words?
I would like to thank you guys, from Circuit Sweet, Nam and Oli. You are there from the beginning of QDRPD and it’s for people like you we want to try to produce the best thing we can!
Editors Note: Such a lovely thing to say, it’s our pleasure and we wish you all the best with the new record and opportunities which will arise.
Be sure to pre-order your copy of the album now via bandcamp.
Release Party – https://www.facebook.com/events/436854057043915/
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