Studio Tour
Ben later invited me to join him for a visit of the studio a little before our 7pm dinner time. I didn’t answer right away, I needed to seize the moment. It might be weird to read, but when it’s “go”, it’s all systems go for me. I can’t fake it, nor do I want to ever become that fake smiling facade I used to be for almost a decade fronting Your Favorite Enemies. It has to be real and honest, otherwise, it will be a complete disaster, a reality I know way too well to even try and pretend the outcome might differ now… It won’t. Shortly before 10pm, I was ready to go, excited even, to discover what I realized had been weeks of dedicated and devoted work.
It was with my eyes blindfolded that I entered the control room and was floored when I witnessed what they had done. I was barely able to refrain my tears. It wasn’t an unnecessary makeover; it was repainted, redesigned and more importantly, the place now invites us to reinvent it without the stigmata of our common past. It was quite impressive, all the details and care, all the love involved… I’m not easily impressed, but I was incredibly touched by it all. Even a space for Leonard had been thought of, all that without removing all the numerous elements I used to share with MacKaye however brief a moment I ever spent in that space. It wasn’t a sort of remembrance wrapped with new clothes and ribbons… I have my fair share of make-believe and disguises to know that. What I was invited to be part of was life… Anew.
They kept on dragging me around blindfolded, with the second stop being our live rehearsal/recording space in the middle of the church, where all my music gear had been assembled and a writing place carefully set up. After reminding me of all the occasions on which I kept mentioning the necessity of having physical proximity if we wanted to create as a whole, but also that the studio technicals shouldn’t be an obstacle to the spontaneity of our abandonment and collective let go, it was touching to see all the care involved in all the details displayed. It wasn’t only stuff being beautifully aligned, but an ode to an upcoming artistic intimacy. To accomplish that sense of close togetherness in the middle of what can be compared to a 1,2000-seat venue isn’t an easy affair. It involves a true desire to do so, a real commitment to the philosophy that such an idea incarnates. Being one… Something we have rarely been able to experience besides our live concerts. What was before me was a powerful confession to the determination needed to be a unit beyond the obvious physicality underneath the concept of having to align with the other members of a band in order to be synchronized, something I couldn’t care less about. For me, it’s about elevation, always… and I could feel it without any notes played.
The last blindfolded transition took place in what we call our green room, behind the immense stage we only occupy while preparing for an upcoming tour. The green room used to be a multimedia room before we transferred everything to the presbytery adjoined to the church after I decided to dedicate the whole church to music. We never really took the time nor wanted to invest resources to restore the place, so I was quite shocked when I opened my eyes; a long dining table, a couch corner, a coffee station. It was a complete redesign, organized in a way to nurture the communal spirit I have tried to make ours for so long. Repainting is great, but closeness is something entirely different; it’s a desire that transcends whatever masks you can carry on… And if we all have one to some degree, a collaboration like I’m looking for just can’t coexist with whatever safety we may feel by playing a role or holding everything back.
They offered me champagne, explained the conversations they had together, what they came to realize, the willingness to establish a clear scision with whatever was, whatever they had been, whatever resistance to changes and transformations they had borne in their fearful hearts… It was from those constatations and decisions that they decided to make our living environment a distinctive reflection of their standouts, but more importantly to establish a vivid reminder of their new-born resolutions. What was the most poignant for me was the fact that for the very first time since the inception of our band, maybe, we were all in the moment and for the right reasons, all free from the clichés we had become at some point. This was utterly refreshing for me.
