Nemo

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This French band was rooted in '99 when Pascal Bertrand (drums and percussion), Pierre Louveton (guitar and vocals) and Guillaume Fontaine (keyboards) decided to make progressive rock music. 

Seven albums has followed and Nemo has developed into one of the better bands in the scene. I got in touch with the band and Jean Pierre Louveton answered my questions.
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Your
biography has been covered in your ProgArchives profile so let's
bypass the biography details. But which bands were you influenced by
and why did you choose that name ? 

When
we met with other members of the band, we were all loving Led
Zeppelin, Genesis and Yes music, so that’s how the band started. At
this time I was listening to Transatlantic, Spock’s Beard, The
Flower Kings or Dream Theater and I wanted to create some music with
that high level of quality. When we had to find a name, we searched
for something that could remind great explorers, because of the
experimental side of our music. Nemo was the perfect name, because of
the captain and because it is an international word. It’s a long
time before the fish...

How
is the music scene in France now and is it easy to get gigs there for
your band ?

It’s
almost impossible to tour in France for us. There is only a small
audience for our kind of music, and it’s very hard for promoters to
book a band and to make money. I think it’s the same in most
countries, but it’s particularly hard in France. So we play more
often outside than inside France.

This
is an archive based interview also intended for the fans you get well
after both you and I have passed away so let's go straight to your
albums. Please tell us more about.....

Les
Nouveaux Mondes from 2002

In
2001 and 2002 we recorded some demos of the first songs we wrote.
Then we decided that these demos were good enough to make an album
and that’s how it started. The album was very well received here in
France and around the world in the progressive networks. All the
songs are quite good in it I think, but like every band first album
it contains a lot of imperfections. My
favourite song is “Dans la lune encore”.

Présages
from 2003

After
this small success, we wanted to release the second album quickly. We
wanted to find a good label, but we didn’t. That’s when we
decided to go on releasing album by ourselves. The songs in Présages
are really good, but I don’t like the sound of this album anymore,
it’s not as good as it could have been. Just listen to the remake
songs in “La machine à remonter le temps” and you will know how
the songs could have been produced 

Prélude
À La Ruine from 2004

This
one is really different of his predecessors. It’s more guitar
oriented, it really rocks! It was really fun to write, as we had a
lot of musical ideas. The album is relating the story of a man during
the twentieth century and for the first time we had to write the
music for the whole album instead of gathering different songs. It
was very interesting to do. The vocals and sound are as well much
better, even if it’s not at the same quality level as today.

Immersion
Publique – Live from 2005

This
is our first Live album, full of energy and no overdubs. I’ve not a
lot of things to say because I don’t like to listen to Live albums
that much. See it as a testimony of the first period of the band, for
fans .
The tracklist contains for equal parts tracks of the 3 previous
albums. The CD is out of print now.

Si
Partie 1 from 2006

After
the « Prélude à la ruine » experience, we wanted to
make a concept album in two parts to offer something bigger to the
fans. The album begins with the most intricate track we wrote in this
period: “Douce mort”. I think that all songs in this album are
very special, and it’s the favourite NEMO album of many fans. The
title track is one of my favorite Nemo songs! With “Si” we met a
larger audience in the world.

Si
Partie II - L'Homme Idéal from 2007

This
is the second part of the concept about genetic manipulations. In
fact this is one single 56 minutes long song, separated in 10 tracks.
It talks about the search for perfect man, as Nazis did in the past.
A really frightening story that happens again in a more insidious
way. This is one of the most elaborate work we did until now, but in
the same time one of the most easy to listen. One of my favorite Nemo
albums.

Barbares
from 2009

After
the « Si » concept, we wanted to create an album with a
few really strong songs. Every track is very different from the
others, with stong themes and as always elaborate structures. It
contains the longest track we ever wrote “Barbares (Parties I à
VII)” and is our bestseller album. The limited edition was sold
with a second CD containing a 70 mns live album called “Si Live”,
which is sold out.

And
your new album Révolu$ion

As
always we wanted to explore differents paths with our music. The big
difference between R€volu$ion and the other albums is that it
really can be listened by non progster people! The basis of the music
did not change that much, but the form is more modern and the sound
is particularly powerful. Most of the tracks are shorter, (except the
Barbares sequel “Loin des yeux”) but still progressive. One of my
favourite song is “Seul dans la foule”, a long piece built on a
percussion loop.
The concept is about money and the abuse of
capitalism.

How
would you describe you music and which bands would you compare
yourself with ? 

I
think Nemo has a very personnal sound and music, and it’s hard to
compare with other bands. We never wanted to sound like any other
band. Maybe you can hear some Led Zeppelin-like parts, or Dream
Theater-like parts sometimes, but we definitively don’t sound like
these both bands! What I can say is that we like 70s rock in the way
the songs were built, modern prog like Porcupine Tree for the
athmospheres, 80s Hard Rock for the power, and many more genres like
Jazz Rock or Fusion. Our music is a mix of all that we like, in our
personnal way.

Your
vocals are in French and you are a French band. It seems to be a bias
towards English and US bands in the scene now. Do you feel that the
French lyrics and your nationality been a problem for your career or
has it been an advantage for you ? 

Hard
to answer... The thing is that we have chosen in the beginning to
sing in French to be true to our music. I would not be able to write
the same kind of Lyrics in English, because it’s not my mother
tongue. The words I write are important to me, because I want to say
what I don’t like in this world. Too bad if the rest of the world
don’t understand! 
They still can learn French, the same way I have to learn English if
I want to understand 90 percent of the songs I hear! This fact won’t
change, and I don’t know if it’s a good or a bad thing. The thing
I’m sure of is that takes part in the NEMO sound! People that like
the band don’t want us to change this neither. Even American or
German people .
The
sad side of the story is that many people will never listen to our
music because it’s sung in French. Too bad for them 

How
difficult is it for a non English/US band to break into the scene ? 

The
first thing is that you cannot find a serious music label if you
don’t sing in English. Sad but true. The second, as I said before,
is that a large amount of people will never put a hear on your
records. Well, we don’t care because we don’t play music for
money and if our fate is to sell a few amount of CD all of our life
it’s ok .
But i’m sure we can reach a larger audience, the road is long but
we are not in a hurry.

How
is the creative processes in your band from coming up with an idea to
it's being recorded ?

Most
of time we bring not so elaborate ideas in the rehearsal room that we
try to mate with others. After a moment (between 10 mn and several
weeks) songs come to life, short or longs. Sometimes I bring almost
finished songs, and sometimes I bring demos. When the music and
melodies are ok, we write the lyrics (mainly I and Guillaume) and
it’s time to go in the studio! We are lucky to be very productive
and we could easily write one album a year, but I’m not sure people
would buy them every time! 

What
is your current status and what is your plans for this year and
beyond ? 

We
actually work on new songs, as always. What we’d like to do is tour
a bit more, and it could happen in 2012.

To
wrap up this interview, is there anything you want to add to this
interview ? 

I’d say thank you to
give us the chance to be read by people who don’t know the band
yet. And to people: if you like our music emough, buy it! Thanks!

Thank you to Jean Pierre for this interview

Their PA profile is here and their homepage is here 