Beat Mark… Read all about it!

Interview: Beat Mark

Published on February 25th, 2013 | Jonny Abrams

Two girls and two boys from Paris make big, fuzzy pop racket, get picked up by Cornershop‘s remarkable Ample Play label, release damn fine debut album Howls of Joy, answer Rocksucker’s questions.

Think that’s concise? Well, check out Beat Mark’s delirious distillation of the last six decades of guitar music – all shot through with their own invigorating energy, enthusiasm and sense of fun – and have yourselves an early summer soundtrack…

Congratulations on the release of your album in the UK. Are you pleased with the response it’s been getting?

YES, people seem to pay more attention to our music in the UK than in our own country, which is surprising, in a good way.

How do you all know each other? And how long have you been playing together?

Gaëtan and Julien have been best friends since they were 11. They had a hardcore band when they were very young, Chloé attended one of their gigs at that time. They really met a few years later, as in Bordeaux everybody who is into music always ends up hanging out with every single person going to shows and to record stores. They grew quite close over the years, and they moved to Paris the same year. That’s where Karin and Julien met and fell in love and they’re never going to part.

Chloé already knew Karin through mutual friends. One day we got drunk all together, then we shared dinners, breakfasts and thoughts, we also went to the beach. That’s how Beat Mark was born, out of love and hangovers. It’s been three years we’ve been together.

Where was the album recorded? Who produced and mixed it?

Howls of Joy is home-recorded and home-mixed, but the mastering was done by Stéphane, a Bordeaux-based guy who is very sweet and talented.

Are there any plans for you to come and play in the UK? And are you playing any festivals this summer?

There are, but we don’t want to spend tons of money we don’t have over there, so we’re still studying our options. No plans so far for festivals this summer, except maybe one in Berlin in June? And we might be going to the Liverpool Psychedelic festival in September!

Have you given any thought yet to your next project?

Yes / no, songs are still in the work, it’s still a bit blurry, we’ll take it as it comes – hopefully, it’ll come quite soon.

Which were your favourite albums of 2012, and/or which are you most looking forward to in 2013?

White Fence‘s Family Perfume 1+2, Faraway Land from J.C. Satan which was released on the very cool Paris label Teenage Menopause Rds, Total Control’s Henge Beat (but that may be 2011). Looking forward to a properly recorded album by Hellshovel, a Canadian band whose bass player is a good friend of ours, and the reissue of the 100 Flowers’s 1983 LP.

Finally, if you had to spend the rest of your life with the entire works of just five different artists, whose would you choose?

Gaëtan would rather hang out with people, either fictional or real, such as Keith Richards, Philip Marlowe in Raymond Chandler’s novels, Chris Marker’s cat Guillaume-en-Egypte, John Fante and Zelda Fitzgerald (Gaëtan). Then, Neil Young, Monica Vitti in Antonioni’s movies, the Pre-Raphaelites as a whole, Otis Redding and John Cassavetes (Chloé), Lou Reed’s early stuff, Robert Ashley, William T. Vollmann, Henri Michaux and Robert Altman (Julien). The good thing is that everybody appreciates what each other is into, that helps.

Beat Mark, thank you.

Beat Mark - Howls of Joy

Howls of Joy is out now on Ample Play. For more information, please visit www.facebook.com/beat.mark.1 or ampleplay.co.uk

Artists: beat mark

About the Author

Jonny Abrams Editor of Rocksucker and the website's founder, Jonny is passionate about the music he listens to, both good and bad, as well as interviewing his favourite musicians.