3692 fans
"A high school band that kept on going." It is with surprising modesty that Simon Beaudoux, singer and guitarist of Exsonvaldes, introduces his band as they release their sixth album, Ninety Seconds to Midnight. Between the first rehearsals, twenty-five years ago, and today, there has been a debut album, Time We Spent Together (2004), which has become a cult classic for a whole generation of indie rock fans, a partial transition to French, a bona fide hit with "L’aérotrain" (2013), success and tours in Spain, a split in 2017, and a return in 2023 with Maps…
But to reference their beginnings is not anecdotal. After exploring eighties sounds at length, Simon, Martin Chourrout (drums), and Antoine Bernard (guitar, keyboard) wanted "dirtier guitars, more distortion. " In their previous efforts, the trio embraced a cerebral side inherited from their studies—a master's degree in artificial intelligence for Simon, a sound engineering degree at Louis Lumière for Antoine, and Polytechnique for Martin. This time, it's about recapturing the explosive simplicity of '90s rock, says Antoine, who recalls the band's early rehearsals, spent playing Nirvana, Foo Fighters, and Weezer. Martin adds: "I really like our previous album, ‘Maps’, but the production was very dense; we put a lot of little things into it, a lot of details. I wanted us to do something raw. There are still fifty layers per song, but before there were eighty!"
The desire to fight pulses through the fuzz-guitar choruses of "Tate (Like the Museum)" and "French Keyboard", the assertive vocals of "Tired of Everything", and the sharp riff of "Paris Bruxelles". The swirling synths of "Abandoned Water Park" openly echo those of Grandaddy, a reference the band embraces proudly. Another hero, this time summoned literally: Troy Von Balthazar lends his inimitable voice to "Frontiers", a spring-loaded ballad. "We've known him for almost as long as Exsonvaldes has existed. One of our first shows was supporting Chokebore, who for me was the ultimate band, " confesses Simon. " ‘Black Black’ is a defining album for me. It made me understand that music could be full of darkness, violence, and tension. " Another familiar face is Helena Miquel, who contributes to the clear-cut pop of "En sentido contrario". We've already heard the Spanish singer on two of bands’ tracks, "En Silencio" and "Cyclop", featured on the soundtrack to the Netflix series Emily in Paris.
True to form, the trio goes all in: their back-to-the-roots album appears on V2 Records, the storied ’90s label of dEUS, Grandaddy, and Mercury Rev—the very soundtrack to the band’s origins. Landing on this prestigious label, however, was the result of a happy accident. After ten years of self-production, more by choice than by force, the band wasn't particularly looking for a record label. It was initially while wanting to promote an artist on Finalistes, a label created and run since 2014 by Martin, Antoine, and Simon, that contact was made. "They said to me one day: 'We saw your email signature, what's that, Exsonvaldes? That's really cool!'" says the singer.
It wasn't just a matter of luck: the three friends are now at the top of their game. "When we got back together after our split, between 2017 and 2023, we didn't know if we were going to make it," Simon admits. "And the nice surprise about ‘Maps’ was that very quickly, the three of us began writing easily together. We found something we hadn't even had before. Today, we compose better than ever." The recording of Ninety Seconds to Midnight—produced, like the previous one, by the trio themselves—was also done with ease. The band no longer makes demos, as was the case previously, but writes and produces as they go, more fluidly than ever.
Martin and Simon haven't been idle during the six years of the band's separation. Under the name Ravages, the two friends delved deeper into chanson and electronic music. They also participated in writing camps, traveling abroad under the auspices of Sacem or the National Music Center to work with other artists on songwriting. "Dozens of collaborations, " explains Martin, "which allowed us to accumulate experience and self-confidence. We didn’t only have hits, obviously, but that’s part of the learning process. "
This know-how, which pushes the group to "always twist the song to make it more interesting, to chase away boredom," as Martin says, is not used to the benefit of outdated music, despite the multiple references to the 90s. The new album is very much of its time: whether it evokes the impossibility, even with a change of scenery, of escaping one’s solitude ("the thirst for recognition of an anonymous person ("Est-ce qu’on parle enfin de moi?") or the danger of hiding one’s flaws from others ("Malaga"), it is all the malaise of our time that Simon captures between the lines of his lyrics. "What else could we talk about? " asks the singer. "The world is so scary, politically, ecologically. We have the feeling of living with a diffuse fear and threat. " The album's title, Ninety Seconds to Midnight, is taken from the beautiful closing track "Abandoned Water Park," a perfect crossover between Grandaddy and Death Cab for Cutie. It refers to the Doomsday Clock, which measures how close humanity is to annihilation. Whether the apocalypse is upon us or not, one thing is certain: Exsonvaldes has a bright future ahead.
