The first interview of 2014 is here and it's with the fantastic French band Lion's Law from Paris! Altough it's the first interview of 2014 the questions were already mailed out in november 2013 right after the bands debut album "A Day Will Come" came out. So I didn't had the chance to ask the guys about Beyonce, but I did had the chance to ask them about way more import things like the new album, the lyrics, a bit about the history of both Lion's Law and French Oi! and punk music and about the future of the band. So enjoy!
Thanks for your time to do this interview! How are you guys doing?
Thanks to you for the interest ! We’re good, hope you’re too haha
First of all I’d like to start off with some basic questions since Lion’s Law is still kind of new to the scene. Could you first introduce the band’s members and their history prior to the band?
Of course, so in the actual formation there is Wattie, as a singer (you may already know him as he is singing in maraboots too), Daick as the second guitarist (he is playing in french hardcore bands like MOWOL and DIG), Swan the bassist (playing punk rock and kicking asses in Street poison), Thomas the drummer, from the legendary french punk/oi! band Komintern Sect (and a kinda big punk/hardcore band called Burning Heads) and me, Louis, guitar solo, i used to play in Street Kids and i’m playing in HardxTimes too. And don’t forget our first Bassist Pipa, who used to play guitar in Maraboots as well. So we’re all pretty busy in the music thing !
Also can you give us a brief history of Lion’s Law?
Lion’s Law started in April/May 2012, my first young band, street kids, was finished, HardxTimes was doing a break so I had no music projects, but i was still composing, writting some songs, as Wattie Pipa and i were always hanging around together i showed them the songs i had and asked them if they were okay to do another band, they said yes, and that’s how Lion’s Law is born.
A few weeks ago your new album “A Day Will Come” came out, congratulations, I think it’s fan-fuckin’-tastic!!! How are the responses to the album so far?
First, thanks a lot for the compliment ! For now the responses are really really good, Contra records and UVPR (our labels) are already doing a repress of the vynil so that’s a good news, we hope people will keep on like it and that we won’t disapoint them.
Pretty much all reviews about your debut EP “Watch ‘Em Die” were great as well. Did you feel any kind of pressure while writing and recording the new record?
To be honest, i’m the kind of guys who’s really hard with himself when i’m doing music, so the answer is YES, our first 7” has been more or less good received so we had to confirm our sound but i’m lucky to do music with such great musicians and good friends, so everything was going well. And you know, it’s a music we all love, i think that when you do something you truly love it can’t be wrong, well, i guess.
Maybe it’s a silly question, but all lyrics are in English and I was wondering how the writing proces goes of your songs since Lion’s Law is a French band. Do you work ideas and lyrics out in your own language first and then translate those ideas and lyrics into English songs or is it directly in English?
No, in fact, i play guitar and sing some “yogurt” things, once i found a good melody, i start to write the lyrics, we wanted to do it in english, it was a choice.
Do you have any songs in French? If not why and is it something that in the future possibly will be done or do you want to keep Lion’s Law strictly as a English band?
i’m thinking more and more about doing a 7” in french, maybe one day, and the thing is that our singer already sing in a band in french so if we do that it would have to be different than maraboots. But we’ll see.
I received the cd version of your album from Ben at Une Vie Pour Rien? (thanks!) so unfortunately I don’t have the lyrics to your songs. Can you explain what my two favorite songs of the album, “Lafayette” and “1789”, are about?
Haha as you might have guessed they are historic songs, Lafayette was an important figure for the French history, but the thing is that he is an important figure for the American history too, that’s what the first verse is about, it’s about his role during the independance war. Then he came back to France and for some he was considered as a man close from the people, and for others he was considered as a king’s servant, he was the first to write a version of the humans right and he was the first who wanted to stop the slavery.
1789 is about the french revolution, the death of the monarchy and the bravery of the people.
France is the home of some of the greatest Oi! and punk bands of all time like Komintern Sect, Snix, Warrior Kids, Bleach Boys, Camera Silens, Taxi Driver etc…, what are your favorite French bands from “back in the day”?
We all have kind of different tast but we all love our classics, i know that Wattie’s favorite are Snix, L’infanterie sauvage and Camera silens, for me it’s Komintern sect, Camera silens and Warrior kids or Snix maybe.
Is the scene in France now very different of how it was like back in the 80’s and 90’s?
The majority of us was not born at this time haha, but it depends of people i guess, i know that Thomas would say the Oi! Scene is a way better than before, some says it has no interests nowadays, it’s a matter of taste i suppose.
And how do you see the future of the French scene with all these great new bands out there like Maraboots, The Headliners, The Janitors and yourself?
I hope we’re all gonna keep on rockin’, French Oi! represent !
Okay I’m rounding this interview up. What are your plans now that the LP is released?
We’ve got some plans yes, we will have 2 songs in an Oi! Ain’t dead compilation on rebellion records, then we’ll do a split with Old Firm Casuals on Pretty shitty town records and surely a new 7” on Contra records and UVPR !
That’s it. Thanks again for your time! If there’s anything you’d like to add tot his interview, feel free to do so! Cheers!
As i already said, thanks to you and thanks to all the guys who are listenning to us, we will keep doing our best to make good music, cheers from Paris !
