Thank you Ross

I waited for the last day to write the chapter of the blog about Ross.
Here we are. It's our last day here. Tomorrow, we're going. Back to France.
Finally, I don't want to play the chatter box. I'll make it short.

I think we'll miss Ross.
I think Ross will miss us.
I think we're not the same as we were before coming here.

I think we're better musicians now.
I think Ross opened some doors, which we saw as walls, inside of us.
I think we're better men now.
I think Ross helped us to live in peace with our own minds.
I think we're better friends now.
I think Ross helped to see what linked us to each other.
I think MOPA could have died this year for personal and dark reasons.
I think we're born again.
Thank you Ross.

Marion, Manu, Hugo, Annelise

They are our daily hidden energy...
They're called Marion, Manu, Marion, Hugo, or Annelise.
Everyday, by mail, by MSN, by Skype, by MySpace, they sent (and they still send!) us so good vibrations, friendly support, huge smiles. Everything that counts and help us to create this record, to live this adventure, to overcome the hardship we may have to face.

Ladies first...
The last one, Annelise, is THE girl. THE real MOPA girl I'd like to say. THE girl who sent our EP in every town of every country, every time someone ordered one on our Online Store. She works for the "Boutique Antistatic". She takes care of every postal mail. She always says a cool word for the three of us. She never complains, even where we're fuckin unorganized... and God knows we are sometimes.

The first two ones, Marion and Many, help us on our MySpace sites for weeks and weeks and weeks ! If you sent us comments, maybe they answered you. They're incredible cause they continue to follow our line of "trying to get a little piece of humanity in this fucked up / ego fighting world" through our site and MySpace, etc...



The third one is a drummer. He plays with Manu in MY LAST HEROIN(E). And this crazy guy worked alone on building us a huge new MySpace site ! He's efficient and wise. Already wise, and also so kind.


You must know that MOPA thanks all of you.
We need so much support indeed, far away from our home, our friends, our love.
Because you give, you'll receive.
Be assured you'll receive from us. ;-)

KERTONE PRODUCTION presents CHAPTER 5

It's the logo you see before every Video Chapter.
But they do not only take part in the videos...
You must know something :
If MOPA is recording in L.A., we must be grateful to KERTONE PRODUCTION.
These 2 guys, Ox & Kert, are the guys with the biggest balls in France... I mean they got the bravery to bet on MOPA, and let us do this huge record with Ross Robinson. They are not scared. They believe in us. They believe in what life will bring.
I think there must be worse executive producers on Earth !
They guys trust us, and don't touch our artistic direction, nor ours neither Ross's.

It's good to feel that guys... Thanx you so much for that.

Look at the new video : The Chapter 5 ! You will see them dancing in the car ;-))))
Thanx again to Tesh for the video, and to Pierre RED Ollier for the shooting and the pictures.

MY OWN PRIVATE ALASKA / The Recording Sessions - Chapter Five

Metalocalypse

A deathmetal band becomes so huge that it becomes the 12th wealth of the world ! Before lots of whole nations...
Their influence on the people is so unbelievable that the government secrety wants to kill them, so they can stay the 1st trustful entity on Earth.
But the guys of DETHKLOK are stronger... cause they're lucky and stupid. They never die... And they rock !

We "eat" this cartoon since the beginning of july cause Ross is a huuuuuuuge fan of it. We now know the episodes by heart. Watch it, buy the dvd, weat the Murderface tshirt ;-)

... And don't forget to work on the shred guitar part of the introduction music !

Building a pyramid of sand

It's hard to build a pyramid of sand.
You build it cause it's beautiful. Cause you don't know nothing except building things.
And you like building.

But you know how fragile it is.
And there are so many people who can walk on it, blow on it, shit on it...
Some people only watch, but can destroy it watching it from too close.
And some people only want to get it destroyed. Cause it's so beautiful they can't swallow they can't build one.

So you've got the builders, the watchers, and the destructors.
Fuck, they're so many destructors.
It's so hard to take care of such pyramids. Even you can be used to.

There is one thing you must know : destructors don't build pyramids.
Destructors talk.
Destructors don't create.
Destructors suck blood. Cause they don't know how to live peacefully with theirs. Their blood is boiling. Fuck, it's a pot...

You can kill the destroyers from your watchtower.

But I don't want to become a murderer, you know.
And watchtowers are so ugly for my eyes in the landscape.

Birth of the Anti Mother

It's the title of the last NORMA JEAN record.
It has been very recently released. And of course, we knew this album before the release cause the guys recorded with Ross at the same place as us. We listened to this record during the whole month of july and now the world can hear what it's about...
"The Anti Mother".

We met the NORMA JEAN a few days ago here after their Warped Tour. Because I'm too shy, I haven't been able to express how the sounds and the lyrics moved me. Corey, dude, B.A. ! Your lyrics are so rough and meaningful... If you knew how loud we sang "Robots 3 - Humans 0" in the L.A. streets this night, when we were so drunk !... So fun. Or not. ;-)

Cause it's the "Anti Mother" album, here are the lyrics of the "Birth of the Anti Mother" song. Enjoy NORMA JEAN, don't download their record, buy it, you won't be disappointed.

NORMA JEAN - Birth of the Anti Mother

From the bloodline of vicious serpents, a dreadful heart within a lovely shell
A demons heart, but with the face of God
I guess a liar’s heart is still true even if her lips are not
The vomit that flows out from your mouth has seeped into your chest
Searching for the strength to breathe in one last lie from you, but right now the grave seems so much easier
The fear of that devil in me… it comes from you
You’re like the smoke in the window
She comes for sorrow
She comes for lies
We came here for blood
Did you? Yes or no? No one’s getting out because we came for blood
We’re not breathing and I don’t care, because no ones breathing…
She’s not breathing. Choke that witch out
Suffocate her
Choke her out

Being an artist in 2008

I don't know how people imagine us.
The people who don't know us. Who never saw us. Never talked to us.
What is the screenshot ?

Do you see artists living on icebergs, without any link with society ? With urban life ?
Maybe I'd like you to see that.
I'd like to spend all the days of my normal life going fishing, talking to friends, listening to beautiful music (EQUUS for example...), playing football, making love to my girlfriends, seeing beautiful landscapes, walking in the forest, watching movies, and then going to bed and making love again...
But it's not the way it is.

We got no manager. We got no label.
If you see us somewhere, it's because we've worked for that somehow.
If you read us somewhere, it's because we've worked for that somehow.
If you listen to us somewhere, it's because we've worked for that somehow.
We work.
Everything we get, we earn it.
That's why we deserve everything that comes. Us and everybody.
We've worked for that before so it happens. And it happens. There's no miracle.
Let's try to behave as good as possible to make it happen. And it'll happen.

Fruits come when you sowed the seeds before.
And I think miracles come when you concentrate on sowing love.

We sow so many seeds... damn, it willl become a whole forest.

Chapter Four

Tristan played the piano.
Red shooted the videos.
Tesh made the Chapter Four.
Alleluia.
;-)

MY OWN PRIVATE ALASKA / The Recording Sessions - Chapter Four

LilBush

He's Daniel Steinbaum.

He's LilBush.
©
;-)

LilBush is an engineer. Sound engineer. Ross's special engineer.
If somethink is working here, thank LilBush. If something isn't, call LilBush. ;-)
I mean Ross could do it himself, but LilBush's hands are so gifted and fast that he won every studio rapidity contest, Carl Levis style...

LilBush is also someone you like to have with you to work with. No pressure. No faked smiles. No negativity. Damn. They should copyright this guy at Sony, Virgin or Universal for their artists...

And you know why ? LilBush knows several french words, and understands quite well ! He's Ross's spy when we're talking shit in the studio. He maybe prevents us from telling too many french bullshits !

You want to know why we call him LilBush ? Click here :

Lil Bush Exclusive from Season 1 DVD
Uploaded by thatsfunny

You know what LilBush ? You rule ! Bad ass !
Thanx from all the MOPAs

I hurt myself today

We finished the main vocals takes.
And that was beautiful. I dare to say that cause I'm not speaking about me. I'm not that pretentious. I am of course ;-) But not at this level !.. So : the last song was "Ode to Silence". A song we never played live. An extrem song. A very very very extrem and experimental song.

It was so hard for me to find what I wanted to say on this song, that I chose not to tell anything except one sentence. I mean it was hard cause the song is weird and it was just simply hard to find vocals ideas. But it was also hard to find the words, cause what I wanted to express was so dark, so awful, so based on disgust and disappointment, that words "didn't come easy" (as in the crappy song...). So there is no words. Just noises. I mean noises that can come out from you when you link your belly to your mouth. When you link your bleeding heart to your bleeding tongue.

What is beautiful in that ? It's not me. At the end of the vocals takes, Tristan and Yohan wanted to help me to finish the song. They wanted to be there beside me, to scream with me. To help me. To purify. To let it all out. They screamed. Like fucking animals...

Then Ross wanted them to sing the song alone. I mean Tristan first. And then Yohan. As a lead singer. Just to try. They fucking hurt their voice. Like me. Yohan was a little bit shy, but expressed so deep and hidden things... And when Tristan sang... I felt so huge chills... It was so powerful and sensitive... athough he broke his voice after ten seconds of singing (!), something incredible happened. It was so beautiful. He talked in french. And got out all the traumas we had to face during this recording sessions. I was so moved. His voice was wonderful.

I'm sure you'll hear him on the record. You'll have to. You'll need to.

Jouch

His name is Julien Rouche.
It's Jouch.
©.

Before being a excellent graphic designer and an excellent guitarist, he's a friend.
If I talk about him here, it's for 2 reasons.
1. Jouch is in the USA ! He was even in L.A. at Ross's house with us at the beginning of the week. So he's one of the few persons who saw what we were doing here, and also who understood us much more deeper.
2. Jouch is the graphic designer of MOPA. You like our artwork ? Tell Jouch.

It's a kind of "Midas" guy. The guy that turns everything he touches into gold. I mean : create a crappy band, with a crappy music, a crappy logo... Give all your stuff... and all you trust (!) to Jouch, and your band will appear as the most beautiful sides of RADIOHEAD, A PERFECT CIRCLE, and NINE INCH NAILS !

Thank you Jouch for all the things you did and do and will do for us
And if you don't know him, warm your neighbors that you're missing a damn extra-gifted guy
And if you don't have friends, warm your neighbors that he's a damn extra friend too...

PS : Jouch is also a damn gifted guitar player...
Check AGORA FIDELIO and NAÏVE

Ataraxy

When I was younger, I created an indie alternative newspaper called "Ataraxy". It didn't last long actually !..
That's strange how words come back several years after. I'm thinking back at ataraxy now. The ataraxy is the land I'm trying to reach, by digging into myself to understand as well every trauma of every song... Ataraxy is Anchorage. This land is something pure. Something beautiful. A place we don't tell lie neither bullshits. A place where we don't cheat. Where we don't feel anger. Neither hatred. A place without egos, perversion, cynism, without those weapons of sadness, of weakness, of madness.
A place where I would be in first lane to show and be the good example. Maybe for the first time of my life. After all my mistakes, be the example for my own life, for my own country, for my own democraty. Be someone I forgot to be everytime I suffered, everytime I cried, everythime I died. It's so easy in the end to kill the sinner. It's so more difficult to live in peace with the picture of the sin. Cause you'll never be able to kill a picture.
We must live in forgiveness to become that man. That's obvious. It's not that hard to be that one. I mean we don't have to fight, to struggle for that. But it's en everyday consciousness. Self-forgiveness first. Then sowing this forgiveness all around. Automatically.

There's no other way to live my lyrics. I mean I'm obliged to live them with salvation, catharsis, forgiveness and mercy. It's a healthy and sruvival question. What I talk about in my lyrics, what I went through is so painful. In a movie-maker way, we would say it's amazing, and it's fucking great stories for a movie scenario !
The traumas reached such a level it's forbidden for me to sing them with anger, suffering, and hatred. I don't tell that to appear as Jesus. A lot of persons got the same kind of traumas as me. But I want to prevent people from hurting themselves deeper. Because I reached levels of self-destruction, of blabla depression -I don't like this word-, I can say now that I would have died if you would have continued to sing words as messages of hate.

Those words are not anger anymore.
Those words are a reminder. For friends. For me. For people. A reminder to recall them never to live this life. Never to live my life again.
Those words, as rough as they can be, are messages of peace. Inner peace. And blowing peace.
Those words mean : "This is war. See. So don't fight anymore. You'd just die."

Here is what is supposed never to have happened.
It's My Own Private Alaska.

Chapter 3 - The Recording Sessions

Here it is !
Thanx again to Tesh, the master for the videos...
Check it on our page : http://www.myspace.com/myownprivatealaska
Because it's tuesday, and because I bet with my friend Jouch who was here with us yesterday, I must say that we'll surely go tonight to "Taco Tuesday". Ok. That's said. I won :-P

MY OWN PRIVATE ALASKA / The Recording Sessions - Chapter Three

Bury the angels

Sometimes, angels are nazis
Sometimes, they don't come on Earth to help you directly, but to prevent you from choosing ways. But they don't do that kindly...

By hurting you, by beating you, by killing you, they put you in such mental dispositions that you have to choose other ways. The roads you didn't ever think to walk on. The roads you even absolutely refused to walk on before. You suffer now in order to suffer less tomorrow. But the only main problem is that you know you suffer less only the day after. You don't know it the present day.

You never know when you live bad things that they will be so useful for you in the future.
You never know when you go through such awful stories that these stories will prevent you from living other ones like them the day after.
You never know the new man you've become when you first died once.
You never know you would one day forgive and even thank your own rapers, your own murderers, cause they gave you so much power, so much force.
You never know you would only feel pity, and no hatred, for your old enemies.

When you know it, you can bury these angels.
"Die For Me" & "Kill Me Twice" are recorded.

Where it all began

Voices have begun.
After a long afternoon without singing, we began after midnight the serious things for me. Before the break, Ross told me to choose the song we were going to jump into at night. He told me to walk outside, alone, to know it. Even in the forest if I could have gone there. Or anywhere else I could have thought by myself. Maybe even a loud and crappy bar. Inside the noise, you often hear yourself whispering deeply.

I was about to drink a glass alone in a bar. I was waiting for the signal to cross the street. I was thinking about the people drinking. The TVs on the wall. The barmaids teasing you. The people looking at you with strange eyes. "People are strange when you're a stranger"...
The signal for pedestrians turned on and I didn't move. After a few seconds, I moved in the exact opposite way. No bar for me. I took the direction of the ocean. I went on the pier. There were still people fishing there. I stopped to look at the ocean. I thought it could be the only element pure enough to guide me, and lead me to make the good choices in terms of feeling songs, of digging, of climbing in myself.
The waves were large. I saw their profile. I didn't face them. So I didn't know if they were high. But they were large. I stared on their long way to the shore. It's amazing how they travel. Then all became clear. I had to begin where it all began.
The MOPA project began with "Die For Me". It was the first lyrics I wrote. It was one of the oldest piano compositions of Tristan. It was the first song we played together with Yohan. At the first second of the first whole rehearsal, I knew that the musical concept would work. And I sang "Die For Me" for the first time.
We would also begin with it.
If I say please.

Rock concerts

The main piano is done. Tristan has now to finish some additional pianos to complete his work.

As soon as it was done, Ross wanted me to train to warm up my voice, in order me to recover new good physical sensations. The concept of training is simply called "Rock Concerts". Cause the singer has just to perform the whole record in a row, as a rock concert. No pause. No pee. No blabla inbetween. I was in the room with Ross. And at the end with even Tristan and Yohan... "it's a rock concert, so everybody can come !"
So we made 2 rock concerts a day. We made that 4 times.
That's incredible how I sweated while I was singing... I think I lost 10 liters of water per session ! That will make a good balance regarding all the fat and sugar we swallow day after day, even if we try to eat healthy food. These concerts tired me a lot. I've never been that used to perform 60/70 minutes of MOPA, without breaking. But the fact was that. If I was tired, I had to go on, cause the fact of being tired could bring me to another level. That's the deal. That may be the purpose too. Cause when you're exhausted, you try to dig into you to find innerfoces, that you're not used to use. And that's what happened.
Some sounds got out from my mouth... sounds I never heard from me before !
Damn, it was harsch and rough sometimes...
I even hurt my voice on the last rock concert. For the first time being here in Los Angeles. I think I totally lost my mind on some parts, and my brain pushed the limits of my voice way too far.
Next time, I'll do the contrary. Pushing the limits of my voice as far as my brain could follow. Haha...

Video : Chapter 2

Nothing else to say today. Just see the video !
It's available here !

Phone Home

Did you know Tristan doesn't know playing any other song except the MOPA ones ?
That's what he says...
Of course that's not true.
He plays Beethoven sometimes, and even AGORA FIDELIO... He once played METALLICA too. But he's not that lying.

I mean he's an atypic pianist. He's not the classical one everyone thinks he is. Tristan quite hates jazz, and doesn't listen that much to classical and lyrical music. He's the first pianist whose favorite artists are Kurt Cobain and Page Hamilton ! Of course, he plays guitar too. But that's funny how things happened like he didn't play guitar in MOPA, like we're not today a grungy rock band with bass and guitars...
He choosed (we choosed, indeed) to play piano in a rock / metal / screamo band. That's thanks to this man that we're seen as aliens for every soundcheck in every venue we play in !

But it's good to feel as an alien sometimes. It's fun. As long as my finger doesn't turn red to phone home, it's fun.

Robinson Crusoe Adventures

We're about to finish the piano today.
Yesterday, I was so impressed by the behaviour of Tristan playing "I Am An Island". As on stage, he almost destroyed his piano stand. He didn't touch his piano notes. He punched them, with the whole fist, and even the elbow... Everyone shutted his mouth at the end of the song. No one dared. Fuck, I wasn't on Earth anymore playing this song. I felt a chill in my spine.

But before giving you serious pictures of serious piano players, playing serious songs with serious lyrics, I'm not ashamed to finish to post here some cool photos of our Indigo trip.
Ross turned into Yoda. And Yohan into Robinson (Crusoe I mean). Quite cool to take some breathe like that to be able to concentrate the day after to dig into some intense musical stuff.

And the music of MOPA requires so much personal abnegation, to be able to give so much, that breathing before is often vital.

"Breathe in, breathe out" (© Bush)

Indigo Ranch

As you must know, a few months ago, some huge wild fires destroyed a part of eastern California. That natural disaster burnt the whole Indigo Ranch, the studio Ross used to work in. All the main records which came out from Ross came out from this place.
The Indigo Ranch was located in the hills, behind Malibu, north-west of Los Angeles. From there, you can see the ocean as a huge deep floor, you'd be able to dive in as you'd dive from a plane with a parachute. It's so fuckin' high !
The road that leads there is curvy and small. And when Ross is driving, your stomach would maybe say the road is very... very curvy !

It's unbelievable to think these crappy walls that remain here were the base of a huge and historical studio. Now what remains looks like an horror movie cave. The Indigo Chainsaw Massacre !

But the landscapes there are amazing. So vast spaces. And in space, no one will hear you scream.