{"id":77558,"date":"2020-01-31T12:44:08","date_gmt":"2020-01-31T20:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/?p=77558"},"modified":"2020-02-01T09:10:01","modified_gmt":"2020-02-01T17:10:01","slug":"born-toulouse-an-interview-with-destination-lonely","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/born-toulouse-an-interview-with-destination-lonely\/","title":{"rendered":"Born Toulouse &#8211; An Interview with Destination Lonely"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>France\u2019s underground rock n\u2019 roll scene is underappreciated. There are bits and pieces scattered online that forms a picture of its current state, but you\u2019re likely getting half (if that) of the story. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>France contributed a lot to the ideologies and development of punk rock too outside New York and London, but that also is often overlooked. All that has changed lately with more documentation and articles published, shining light on the first wave of bands to emerge from Paris alongside the influential work Guy Debord and the Situationist movement had on the subversive, anti-establishment thinking of the subculture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Currently, a scene still thrives across the nation; we\u2019re just not hearing much about it. In Toulouse, a trio called Destination Lonely can tell you a thing or two about the state of France\u2019s underground as they\u2019ve spent most of their lives involved.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Destination Lonely - i want you\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/WSzyObHsewI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Formed in 2009, Destination Lonely has been around 11 years now. 2020 is a big year for them with passing a decade of existence and releasing their new LP,&nbsp;<em>Nervous Breakdown<\/em>, for their longtime home Voodoo Rhythm Records.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nervous Breakdown<\/em>&nbsp;is their third LP for Voodoo Rhythm and their most ambitious effort with new musical styles utilized on top of their corrosive garage blues.&nbsp;&nbsp;Their lyrics are heavily antisocial and somewhat depressing. However, they\u2019re not gloom and doom themselves; they\u2019d instead write songs about that stuff than live it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Juice Magazine caught up with their members Marco Fatal (vox\/guitar), Wlad (drums), and Lo\u2019Spider (guitar\/backing vox\/organ) to give us a glimpse of their history in France\u2019s underground and what makes them tick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Destination Lonely - no one can save me\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/T6k5-XDqrrg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Each of you guys holds a backstory prior to Destination Lonely and have heavily been involved in other bands prior to getting together. To give readers some insight on you three, can you talk about your past groups and what you accomplished with them? How did you all three meet and keep this going for a decade?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>(Wlad)<\/strong>&nbsp;I met Marco almost 30 years ago when we were both living in a town near Spain&#8217;s border called Perpignan. It was pretty annoying until friends began to organize shows through their association &#8220;L&#8217;art ou cochon&#8221;. Every garage punk band from Toulouse came to play Perpignan, and that&#8217;s how Marco and I met Lo&#8217; who, at the time, was playing with a bunch of them. I began playing drums for The Beach Bitches around this time (We recorded three LPs in 10 years and toured heavily around France). In 2000, I moved to Toulouse and Marco moved there a few years after, so we started a few bands together: The Fatals &amp; Kung Fu Escalator. I left The Fatals in 2005 after a few 7&#8243;s and shows and started the band Blew-Up! with Lo&#8217; Spider, we recorded an LP, and that project stopped after two years. In 2013, Marco approached Lo&#8217; and I to play in Destination Lonely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(<strong>Marco<\/strong>) Wlad said everything. After the end of the Fatals, I moved from Toulouse to Bordeaux and formed The Complications with Looch Vibrato from The Magnetix. We did a few records and tours with that. In 2009, I began Destination Lonely and asked Lo\u2019 and Wlad to join the band in 2013. Alongside Destination Lonely, I play in a band called Amphetamine Penis with Arthur [Larregle], something more punk!&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(<strong>Lo\u2019<\/strong>) I\u2019ve played music since I was 14. The Flying Rats, then the Space Beatniks with whom we did three or four 7\u201d releases. In 1997, I gave birth to The Jerry Spider Gang, a hi-energy rock\u2019n\u2019roll combo with two ex-Beatniks and a friend. Between 1997 and 2014, we released three albums, a few singles, and did 600 gigs all over Europe. Other groups, I participated in include The Zoomen, Dividers, Blew-Up! (w\/ Wlad as our drummer), and Ultrapede. Like Wlad mentioned already, Marco asked he and I to join forces in Destination Lonely. Aside from the band, I also run Swampland Rec, an analog recording studio in Toulouse. That was in 1997 with Magnetix; now it\u2019s my main job. Over the years, I\u2019ve worked with the following bands at Swampland: The Spits, Movie Star Junkies, Magnetix, Monsters, Slift, Mama Rosin, Catholic Spray, Crusaders Of Love, Les Lullies, The Scaners, Lame, Cathedrale, The Anomalys, Bad Mojos, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"614\" height=\"614\" src=\"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Album-Art-614x614.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-77559\" srcset=\"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Album-Art-614x614.jpg 614w, https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Album-Art-450x450.jpg 450w, https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Album-Art-100x100.jpg 100w, https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Album-Art-600x600.jpg 600w, https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Album-Art-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Album-Art-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Album-Art-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Album-Art-45x45.jpg 45w, https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Album-Art.jpg 1008w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 614px) 100vw, 614px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>In reality, you guys have been playing this kind of music for a lot longer than a decade What does playing this kind of raw garage punk fulfill for you guys? What keeps you motivated and driven to keep going on?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(<strong>Marco<\/strong>) Simply because we love it !<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(<strong>wlad<\/strong>)&nbsp;For me, there is no plan in there, except for having fun while playing music with friends, sharing our songs on stage, and meeting good guys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(<strong>Lo\u2019<\/strong>) Rock\u2019n\u2019 roll \u2018s been my life since I was 14 years old, I don\u2019t know anything else haha! Drinking\u2019 in the bars, partying, and playing music! The music we play is part of the music we like, raw rock\u2019n\u2019roll, punk, garage, that\u2019s all we are!&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Destination Lonely - Electric Eel\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3EzLEHo_OMA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What were you guys listening to that makes&nbsp;<em>Nervous Breakdown<\/em>&nbsp;a much heavier sounding album than<em>&nbsp;Death of An Angel<\/em>? Were these songs written especially for this record or carried over from other album sessions?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(<strong>Lo\u2019<\/strong>)&nbsp;We recorded&nbsp;<em>Nervous Breakdown<\/em>&nbsp;during two sessions in 2017 and 2019; some of the songs are older, with the rest being brand new. The big difference between the three Voodoo Rhythm albums is that Marco mostly wrote the first two when Wlad and I weren\u2019t a part of the band yet. For&nbsp;<em>Nervous Breakdown<\/em>, it was only new songs, composed as a band, and with two different singers, so the paradigm changed a little bit.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"614\" height=\"625\" src=\"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/PICTURE_DESTINATION_LONELY_2020-614x625.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-77560\" srcset=\"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/PICTURE_DESTINATION_LONELY_2020-614x625.jpg 614w, https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/PICTURE_DESTINATION_LONELY_2020-600x611.jpg 600w, https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/PICTURE_DESTINATION_LONELY_2020-295x300.jpg 295w, https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/PICTURE_DESTINATION_LONELY_2020-768x782.jpg 768w, https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/PICTURE_DESTINATION_LONELY_2020-45x45.jpg 45w, https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/PICTURE_DESTINATION_LONELY_2020.jpg 1008w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 614px) 100vw, 614px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Are there any personal songs on&nbsp;<em>Nervous Breakdown<\/em>&nbsp;you can discuss?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(<strong>Lo\u2019<\/strong>) There\u2019s like some specifics in Destination Lonely; you must write about the dark side of life and especially heartbreaking love stories, haha! Most of the songs are about just that, some based on true love stories. \u201cOut of Your Head\u201d is about a vampire girl I met a few years ago; \u201cLovin\u2019\u201d is about the difficulties to recognize, find, and admit love. \u201cCry\u201d is the same, \u201cNervous Breakdown\u201d and \u201cIn that Time\u201d are more about the time passing and human decrepitude. Schizo MF, that\u2019s a pure policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What\u2019s been a highlight for you three since you\u2019ve carried on for this long? Have there been any opportunities or plans discussed about bringing this to other countries to tour?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(<strong>Lo<\/strong>\u2019) We take it easy, seriously easy. We do this for fun; we&#8217;re not at an age to have a full-blown musical career. We&#8217;ve got day jobs and many things going that fulfill our lives. When it comes to touring, we usually do something around 40 gigs a year with one or two ten-date tours across France and around Europe. We&#8217;ve played through Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, and into Scandinavia. That&#8217;s a good rhythm for us; our goal isn&#8217;t to make a living playing music anymore. We want and plan to keep playing gigs, but we&#8217;re not looking at jumping on a plane for any massive tour anything like that.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What\u2019s the response been in your local scenes to you three? Is Toulouse &amp; Bordeaux crowd a strong supporter for you guys or do you see a bigger response in other parts of France or even outside?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(<strong>Lo\u2019<\/strong>) We\u2019ve got a lot of friends in Bordeaux and Toulouse. However, we can\u2019t say the crowd is really helpful or supportive there, nor in France or Europe. We don\u2019t play exactly what can be called \u201ceasy music\u201d, there\u2019s an audience for it, but I don\u2019t think it can be that big overall! Throughout the years, we\u2019ve been noticing more people attending the shows; however, our army of fans is growing!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What do you guys want to accomplish together before it\u2019s all said and done for Destination Lonely?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(<strong>Lo\u2019<\/strong>) A double LP, done! Nothing special really. Good shows with all the people and bands we love. I think we\u2019ve still got some good songs to record. What else? Maybe playing in Istanbul or these crazy Spanish festivals!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(<strong>Wlad<\/strong>)&nbsp;I hope we&#8217;ll play again in Sardinia because I missed that gig during our last Italian tour. I had a heart attack during the show in Torino.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Can you mention any groups you\u2019ve played with or have recorded that we should be aware of and check out?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(<strong>Wlad<\/strong>)&nbsp;I am very proud we opened for Reigning Sound in Press; really love Greg\u2019s [Cartwright] music. I have to mention our Italian brothers, The Movie Star Junkies &amp; Lame, two great bands! Very kind people too, adorable!&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(<strong>Marco<\/strong>) Ouais, Lame c\u2019est super!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(<strong>Lo\u2019<\/strong>) There are so many, the gig with Mr. Airplane Man was great. The release party of the last Slift album was memorable and, of course, The Reigning Sound gig in Paris. Be aware of the new Cathedrale album too. It wasn\u2019t recorded at Swampland, but it\u2019s excellent! Foggy Tapes also are from Toulouse; their first LP Here Comes the Fog, is a blast! The Nobels are a brand new garage 60\u2019s band, the new Sonics\/Wailers; it\u2019s fantastic! Bad Mojos are a kind of a European version of The Spits, excellent punk music and nice guys! Nestter Donuts is a one-man gypsy band from the city of Alicante in Spain; he\u2019s preparing something wild &amp; crazy for Voodoo Rhythm currently. You may know these other groups too: Les Grys Grys, The Scaners, Les Lullies, Decheman &amp; the Gardener, Videodrome, Ian Kay, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For more information on Destination Lonely, check out their&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/destinationlonely.bandcamp.com\/\">Bandcamp page<\/a>&nbsp;to hear everything. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pre-order for Nervous Breakdown is available&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/destinationlonelyvoodoorhythm.bandcamp.com\/album\/nervous-breakdown\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Story and Interview<\/strong> <strong>By Matthew Hutchison<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>France\u2019s underground rock n\u2019 roll scene is underappreciated. There are bits and pieces scattered online that forms a picture of its current state, but you\u2019re likely getting half (if that) of the story. France contributed a lot to the ideologies and development of punk rock too outside New York and London, but that also is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77561,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4041],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-skate-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/PICTURE_DESTINATION_LONELY_2020-copy.jpg","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77558"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77558\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77566,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77558\/revisions\/77566"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}