Meet the SXSW Band: You Said Strange

Not much left for us to say at this point other than, are you ready for chaos, music, and fun? Hopefully you are, as the events of SXSW are mere days away at this point with tons of things going down this weekend. If you’ve been enjoying our interview sessions, this one is sure to be of interest as the French band You Said Strange really took some time and care with detailed and well thought responses. Great to see a perspective from a European band coming to the States and being exposed to our insane way of life. Hit the jump for deets.

Whats the name of the band/group? Where are you from?

We are You Said Strange. Were from Normandy, France.

Describe your groups sound using only adjectives or superlatives.

Pop noise, Neo psychedelic, Very smooth grunge inspired by shoegaze and a bit of the post punk wave.

What was your most recent release? Any planned releases for 2023?

We released the first part of our second album in December 2021, its called Thousand Shadows Vol.1.

In early February 2023 we released “(Song for a) Wasted Land,” its the first single from Thousand Shadows Vol.2 which will come out April 2023.

Why play SXSW? Whats the draw for the band? What about this festival will bring you to Austin?

We just finished our collaboration with this great label Freakout Records and we were invited last November to their festival in Seattle which was an amazing moment. For the volume 2 of Thousand Shadows, we would like to build a strong team in the US.

SXSW looks like a great way to meet people and to connect our network to new ones.

To meet indie labels, distributors, booking agencies etc

We also want to experience this event physically. So many friends came here to play their songs, launched in an ocean of energy, they told us it was a huge experience to live at least once in your life. There is a night in our schedule, where we are supposed to play twice in two different places, and maybe a third set is coming. That sounds insanely funny.

There are tons of bands coming into town, but if you could create your own perfect festival, who would you have playing? Would it have a sick name? Where would it take place? Feel free to disregard the rules of time and space.

We are actually making our own festival in Normandy. Its called Rock in the Barn and its gonna be the 14th edition this year, on Sept 8th and 9th. We can not reveal the line up right now because we will release it on March 30th but we booked a band from Austin called A Giant Dog. We met Sabrina the singer last time we came here; she hosted us after our first show at Swan Dive. We cant wait to see her perform on our stage. This last decade, we booked a lot of American bands for our fest: Holy Wave, Dead Meadow, Night Beats, The Warlocks, Matt Hollywood and the Bad Feelings, Acid Tongue…

What has everyone in the band been listening to, or, what plays in the tour van/car/bus?

Eliot (singer) : Personally, right now I’m really into Rowland S. Howards music. He used to play guitar in The Birthday Party, Crime and the City Solution, and other bands. Hes one of the many geniuses who formed the magnificent Australian Post Punk scene back in the 80s like Nick Cave, Anita Lane, Mick Harvey and many others.

Matt (drummer) : Kendrick Lamar, Khruangbin, Yard Act, Courtney Barnett, Lizzo.

Riggi (guitar) : Gently Tender, Sky Ferreira, Automatic, TVAM.

Martin : I recently discovered the last album of Widowspeak called The Jacket and oh my god, if there were an expression for combining these 2 terms, delicacy and rightness, that would have been the name of this album.

Obviously you have seen or heard about the issues coming up this year about fair pay for artists at SXSW? Care to offer any insight or comment?

Well, not before you ask the question actually! Thats great that people are starting to talk about it. We read that SXSW paid artists so badly since the beginning because record sales for artists were good enough when the festival came out. But now its different, only live gigs and publishing (when you are lucky enough) pay artists, not record sales anymore. So the Fest and also this american system would need to adapt his business model to something more fair for indie musicians and composers.

You know when we come to play here we now definitely know what to expect from the hospitality and the money deal. Fortunately French culture government is helping us in France by providing funds for independent projects and they also help for international tours. It depends of course on the credibility and the pertinence of the project. We know that we are really lucky and we feel grateful for all those artists, writers and syndicates before us who fought for those rights in France.

We just booked Hooveriii in Normandy yesterday night for a show in Le Havre organized by RITB and “Fake Live” (amazing promoter btw) and we talked about the way how independent musicians and bands are considered in US. They love to tour in EU because the consideration for artists is truly not the same (fees which are sometimes helped by governments, hospitality, etc). One of their members told us that in Portland (OR) the local taxes are starting to take a % to fund cultural projects, sounds like a great idea!

Weve been seeing more and more artists get into the food and beverage game, whether its pierogies from Pavement or Deftones beer. If you ever got into the game, what would be your food or beverage and what would it be called?

If it has to be food, it would be Cancoillotte, its a french liquid sticky and stinky cheese often infused with Garlic from the east of France.

Matt our drummer, booked a show in Los Angeles thanks to this cheese.

We could name it “The Cancostrange”.

If its a drink it will definitely be Calvados. Its a strong and sweet liquor from home, Normandy made with apples.

We should name it “Thousand Shadowss Booz”.

Many many thanks for these thoughtful responses! Here are confirmed shows for You Said Strange:

• Fri 3/10 : Austin, TX @ Swan Dive w/ Nolan Potters Nightmare Band, Font, Geranium (11:30 PM)
• Mon 3/13 : Austin, TX – SXSW Unofficial Showcase @ Sahara Lounge (10:00 PM)
• Mon 3/3 (Late Night) : Austin, TX – SXSW Official Showcase @ Valhalla (1:00 AM)
• Wed 3/15 : Austin, TX @ Hotel Vegas (Time TBA)