Thee Maximators: “We don´t play happy music”
Alejandro De Luna
“I write songs to squeeze myself, to tell the story of my life; bad things, bad experiences. We don’t play happy music. We haven’t got an easy life, and music is the only thing that helped us”, says Arsène Welkin, guitarist and vocalist of Thee Maximators – a French duo of distorted and lo-fi hysteria that comes from the isolated streets of Bourges, but that found rest in Paris or as they call it, “a jungle of dreams.” Signed by the spectacular, Black Totem Records, this couple seems to be part of a counterculture movement in the city of the Seine and beyond that shouts out loud their boredom towards society. Just watch this disturbing video and you will know what they mean.
Arsène is one of those tormented souls who truthfully believes that “good songs come from pain” and real sincerity, but not from any vestige of enjoyment. He seems to be quite a a character: Just with 20 miserable years of existence, he´s a multi-instrumentist and a painter in charge of the band´s nasty artwork and other sinister pieces – he praises himself as Matisse´s secret son. But there´s even more in the afflicted mind of this french teen: he is the frontman of Thee Maximators. He has a solo project called Trash Bloom and he´s the founder of Black Totem Records, a French label with the brilliant philosophy of reviving rock ‘n’ roll´s viciousness. Is it relevant to mention that he hates police and the law more than anything? But who doesn´t?
Beyond their pessimistic sound, the story of Thee Maximators seems to be the classic story of a rock ‘n’ roll band. Hugo (drums) and Arsène met at an early age and the relationship between this duo developed through rock n roll clichés: “we discovered women and drugs together. Hugo played drums and I played guitar, so we started this project when we were 17”, says Arsène.
With a name inspired by a cheap beer when they were younger and without any money, these guys were touched by the sensual claws of autodestruction and a fucked-up lifestyle, but still, without even playing a chord: “You know, Maximator´s the beer in France with more alcohol, around 11,6%, and just with 2 you’re fucked up. In a year we drunk it all the time – maybe around 300 beers. We just wanted to get high for a cheap price and to escape the desperate feeling of this little boring city”, proudly recalls, Arsène.
And instead of recalling the infernal sound from the godfathers of madness personified in psych and garage, they took as an influence, revival bands: “at the beginning, we were very influenced by Thee Oh Sees and Thee Vicars – our favorites bands at this time – that’s why took the «Thee» in our name. It was also because of Billy Childish that we love so much (Thee Milkshakes, Thee Headcoast).”
Despite they describe their sound as “heavy melancholic stuff and grungy”, they still have their doubts when they need to recall a specific genre: “Hum, it’s really difficult to do it. When we described ourselves playing garage or psych, i don’t know if it’s really true, for sure we are in this big family of music, I guess, but when i write song, i really don’t care about sounding like any other band.”
Do they feel part of a scene that kills south korean clowns and twerking teens? “To be sincerely, I don’t recognize myself in the actual scene. I think a lot of bands play music just to be cool and hype, and they are copy of copy of copy of the Californian scene [whatever he meant with the Californian scene.]” But if you push Arsène a bit, he will give you another answer: “Recently we heard about a lot of bands in England, where there is a grunge revival, I think we’re near this scene, but we don’t want to be as Kurt Cobain.” Any names? “We really like Slim Customers [signed by his own label], who are really sick on stage! [and indeed, they´re pretty good.]” They also praise their love for a band called Nerve City.
What about the catalogue of Thee Maximators? “We started with a split with Burnside Eleven. We recorded all our songs in Corsica, at the top of a hill, in Aspadda Studio, with Jacco Cab, the father of Burnside Eleven. We also have an EP called God Raped Me [sweet] last year and we are on a compilation from Désobeissance Records and Retard Records, from France too. But now, the goal is to record our first album in July, with our new sound engineer, Pierre Dessauny. It will have a huge sound, and of course it will be out on Black Totem Records on vinyl. I think it will be out on October.”
Beyond the infernal sound of Thee Maximators hidden between druggy guitars that transit between surf, psych, garage and grunge with incomprehensible vocals and drumming madness, his comments on French record labels brought the opportunity to really know what´s going on in the country of Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot where it seems to be lots of pissed off bands looking ugly and sounding angry: “A lot of things going on in France. [Labes like] Retard Records and Howlin Banana Records, we helped each other, and this is creating good connections to play all around France. The scene is growing up really seriously”, positively confirms my suspicions.
Psych, garage, grunge, lo-fi? Altogether? It doesn´t matter. Just listen to Thee Maximators and the catalogue of Black Totem Records to understand that music is not about genres, but about telling relevant stories. And if they are bad experiences personified in layers of madness, then, it´s better.
