The paintings of Wes Borland

Wes Borland is not only a good guitarist. The one who used to play in LIMP BIZKIT, when they were one of the best neo-metal bands. Especially with their wild, dirty, and wonderful "Three Dollar Bill"...
Wes Borland is also a great painter. When we work in Ross's studio, on the computer, one of his painting is watching us. Here it is. It is at the same time disturbing, dark, strange and full of inner peace.
The other photo shows Ross and Tristan working on "Anchorage", the last song we wrote. Maybe one of the most extrem in terms of lyrics. One that teared my belly up when I wrote it. One I took so many hours to write... cause my fingers just didn't dare to write these words on a keyboard. Now, they're outside of me. Now they went through a mic. Now they're recorded. At least somewhere. I'll maybe post them soon.
End of therapy can begin.

"Let's talk... right..."

"Page of a Dictionary".
"Broken Army".
We worked on 2 songs yesterday.
I explained the first one to Ross. The fact of being tired of seeing all the metal bands, hardcore bands, rock bands, using words they don't even now the meaning. Bands who invent a story about themselves, coming from the guetto, coming from Brooklyn, coming from the favellas, coming from poverty.. But they most come from a quite neighboorhood, from the big house of mom and dad, from where grandma used to cook them their pancakes before rehearsals... They're "tough guy" in their dreams. They're in fact fagets, they're "little kid"s as Ross said. "They're afraid of the world, but most of all of themselves". That's why they use all the cliches to become others. The one that is not them. The one that seems to be cool, strong, beautiful, poweful. Ross liked the message of the song ! We're totally in it here... in France too... everywhere...
"So wipe your asshole with a page of a dictionary."



Thanx to JANE'S ADDICTION. We got back this tape recorder from them. The assistant of Ross, "Lil Bush" worked by the way on the last PERRY FARRELL record.

4th of July

Yesterday, it was the 4th of July. Independance Day. Special atmosphere. National feeling.
Americans are proud of their flag. But it's not obviously in a patriotic / nationalist way of thinking. But they belong to something they all share. And that is something. Whatever, on this day, everyone is lying in a grass, on the beach, with most of time a flag somewhere ! On houses, on clothes, on tshirts, on hats... even if that can be also ironic. That is fun and strange to see that.
But what is cool is that what counts for americans on 4th of July, is not as in France, the military guys showing their weapons in the streets, in front of the presidents, with all the official stuff... Here, the 4th of July is before other things a paaaaaarty.
So, we met guys from DROP DEAD GORGEOUS and FROM FIRST TO LAST, after having worked on new songs : "After You" and "Amen". It was really exciting to play unreleased songs to Ross, and to see his face listening to them !
And at the end of the evening, we were not even drunk... We're definititely not rockers !

Die For Me : #1

We wanted to play first "Die For Me" in Los Angeles. As a symbol. This song was the first we played together with Tristan and Yohan. I remember when we played it in the big but dirty Antistatic rehearsal local... The magic appeared. We felt it on our skins. We didn't know at this time if the line-up could work or not, cause it hadn't even been done before. Tristan played his classical compositions, Yohan knocked on his drum as if he was going to die, and I threw up my neurasthenic lyrics... and we just felt good.

So, we wanted to do the same in front of Ross. 

That's what we did. And then, after having talked with Ross about how deep could be this song, we

 played and felt. We felt deep deep things. Waoh... Maybe it's because of the deep Pacific Ocean beside.

But maybe not.

No, it's not the ocean...

From the first day I saw (him)

First rehearsal.

And then began the mental surgery. We spoke about that weeks ago with Ross. We were eager to see what he meant. And so we saw... Ross takes your brain, your guts, your heart, and confront them to reality. He wants your soul to be in the mic, in your sticks, on your piano. He wants a band to breathe together.

Let's suffocate.

Toulouse - Paris - Boston - Minneapolis - Los Angeles (part. 2)

When you arrive in Los Angeles from the sky, you think you'll land in a ocean. An ocean of lights. Neverending lights for a city that never ends. L.A. nevers stops. L.A. has nos borders... Lights, and lights and lights...

I was thinking in the plane that we were going to be a little, little, little part of it very soon, writing a little, little, little line in music history, but meaning for us a massive, massive, massive experience. For our lives and MY OWN PRIVATE ALASKA.

Here were are.

Welcome to Los Angeles.

Toulouse - Paris - Boston - Minneapolis - Los Angeles (part. 1)

Here we are.

We left France.

We'll see it back in 2 months...

When we were in Paris airport with Tristan, we were asking ourselves where we were going...

"Los Angeles"...

It's still a concept for us.

A town we read in the lyrics of bands we were fond of, when we were kids

A town we live by procuration

A town we dream in the movies

And now we go there.

We were anxious, thinking about the controls of Immigration Police. We were right to be !

We were not willing to bring 15 kgs of cannabis and 8 home-made bombs... but you know. When I meet police agents, I always feel guilty, even if I'm clean. My colleagues visited the offices of Immigration Control during 20 minutes in Boston and Minneapolis.

But the Boston Celtics won the NBA Championship, so there is no problem !