En Attendant Ana entre dans la scène

Encapsulating the aesthetic fabrics from the guarded underground movements and canons of obscured and obsessive movements—En Attendant Ana from Paris has expanded their reach to the world at large. Signing with Trouble in Mind for their anticipated album debut Lost and Found (following up the beloved Songs from the Cave EP via Montagne Sacree / Buddy Records); the quintet has effectively contributed to the generous mutations and permutations of innovative DIY approaches of creating art pop for art pop's sake.

Enter Enter Margaux, Romain, Camille, Antoine and Adrien—collectively expounding upon the subterranean sects of innovators by mining the archives of pastel palettes, screen test film sequences and screen print immortalized dilettante and débutante forebears. Sharpening the production chops and bright chord progressions heard on Songs, En Attendant Ana edifies everything you ever loved about the artful dodgers, auteurs, beautiful & destitute losers, stylish chancers and derelict poseurs of the 60s-80s undergrounds.

Lost and Found is one of the most wondrous albums of amazement to arrive in 2018. From the stunning instrumental "Intro" that leads into the anthemic brass-jangle jam "(Not) So Hard"—the group celebrates the histories of DIY movement sub sects with inspired and spirited odes to analogous aesthetics by way of sharp arrangements and execution. The C86-indebted sparkle shines everywhere on numbers like "Night", "Ré", "This Could Be", duets like the endearing "Why Is Your Body So Hard to Carry?" to the awe-striking assemblage of earnest illustrations on the standout "The Violence Inside". Sentimentality can be experienced everywhere, especially as the record draws to a close with the exhilarating star-lit sparkles of "Tinkle Twinkle", exhibiting a relentless momentum that carries forward with a fervor on "Square One" before rounding off with the romantic and dramatic extension of arms and hands broken from their congress on the beautiful "I Don't Even Know Your Name". Now at a time where it seems as if our globe is well lost, En Attendant Ana's anticipated debut album is a reminder of all the styles, endearments and lost arts that we have forgotten that are found and refashioned for an era in need of more heart and empathy for one another.

En Attendant Ana in a world of gold; press photo courtesy of Raw Journey.

We had the chance to catch up with everyone from En Attendant Ana over long distance cables:

Behind the scenes notes, regarding the making of the spirited Gaspard Rolland, Matthieu Boulet and Léo Deville visual for "The Violence Inside".

Initially we had a lot of ideas concerning the video: we wanted to shoot it in a deserted warehouse with various props, a stage etc. But as the weeks flew by, we had no place to shoot and our budget didn't increase. We didn't even know if we would be able to make it anyway.
The only solution was to shoot at Gaspard's apartment. During a couple of days, we moved all the furniture, we covered up every single window so that the sun won't come inside and we put survival blankets all over the place. When Gaspard's roommates came home, they didn't even recognize the place which had basically turned into a giant discoball.

Insights into the groundwork that formed En Attendant Ana:

When Romain and Margaux met 8 years ago, they played together and composed a lot of songs, locked in Margaux's basement. They started to play their songs with a band but it didn't work out so they stopped it for a while. During this pause, they created an association to promote underground bands and organize concerts in various venues in Paris. Seeing bands playing all the time made them want to try another shot. They asked Camille, then Pauline (the first drummer) and Antoine. When Pauline left the band, we asked Adrien to join us, and he did. Most of the songs were composed by Romain and Margaux and arranged by the whole band during rehearsal sessions. Sometimes the songs they bring are well advanced and sometimes they are just drafts...tt really depends. And as far as lyrics are concerned, Margaux's in charge!

Background story behind the name.

Back at the time when Pauline was part of the band and we didn't have a name, we left for a trip in Scandinavia that we started in Bruxelles. We stayed right above a bar called Le cheval de fer (the iron horse). This is where we met one of the waitresses, Ana. We left for our trip and when we came back to Bruxelles, we didn't have a name...we had a beer at Le Cheval de Fer and a drunk man grabbed Ana's ass..she insulted him in every language she spoke and he left the bar with a tiny little tear in his eye. When the incident was over, she came back to see us, all smiling and joyful as if nothing happened. The day after, quite stupidly we admit, we assumed she would be dressed differently, maybe to avoid this kind of situations. But no. She didn't give a shit. She was exactly how she wanted to be. We were waiting for her to bring our orders and we said something like While waiting for Ana, we really should find a name. And there it was. En Attendant Ana, Waiting for Ana, waiting to be as brave, as bold and strong as her. It's about waiting to be confident and develop solid guts, as needed to be a full grownup, because we may be over 25 we still feel like goofy insecure teenagers sometimes. And there is also the idea of Waiting for an A. The ultimate grade, but what for? We often get the question but we don't really like telling this story, we find it stupid in a way...but you know, she was so great...

The discoveries and losses that would help to inform the development of the album Lost and Found.

This album is composed of really old songs and brand new ones. To take the extremes, Romain & Margaux created "Tinkle Twinkle" when they were playing together something like seven years ago while "This Could Be" was finished one week before the recording. The album is a collection of songs that has been around us for a long time, that we worked on and then forgot, that we played for a long time, that we already recorded etc. But the title is not only referring to the songs. There is something about us as well...being lost as we all are, finding a way to get out of the mess, finding reasons to hope anyway...this is an optimistic title after all!

Oh and our best discovery ever ? Adrien! He joined the band only four months before the recording but easily found his place among us. He transformed some of the songs, didn't touch anything on others, allowed us to bring back songs we had abandoned...even if most of the album is made up of songs that existed before Adrien's arrival, we think that they belong to him as much as they belong to us now and that is pretty great.

Coast-side with En Attendant Ana; press photo courtesy of the band.

Incredible things that are currently happening in the Paris scenes that the world needs to know about.

We really feel like the Paris underground scene is extremely active right now, there are a lot a bands , DIY labels (Buddy Records, Montagne Sacrée, Croque Macadam/Requiem pour un Twister, Atelier Ciseaux...), associations organizing concerts everywhere and every time thanks to supportive record shops (Pop Culture Shop, Born Bad Record Shop, Hands in Arms...) indie webzines (Section 26), festivals (La Ferme Electrique) and venues (La Pointe Lafayette, l'Olympic café, l'Espace B)...and hopefully it's not only in Paris. All this emulation is really great because local and national authorities are not helping at all (no money for culture, major Parisian venues closing one after the other). More and more, we feel like a DIY approach to music is not only a choice but a necessity. Maybe it's for the best though. In any case, there are great bands, go and have a look! And one pretty incredible thing for you anyway; go and check 1 ep par jour records. It's a label ran by a bunch of kids with a pretty simple principle; issue one ep per day on their Bandcamp page. It started as a joke, today they released more than a hundred EPs.

Local and international hopes and dreams for communities both near and far.

Sorry, we thought our English was better than it actually is and... we don't really understand the question. For musical communities? As far as Paris is concerned, we hope that local authorities will finally understand the importance of certain places here in Paris and what they represent for our cultural life. We think about La Mécanique Ondulatoire, La Féline, Le Pop In or Mains d'Oeuvres. If they go on with their plan of closing those venues and push the indie scene outside of Paris, it will be more and more difficult for small bands to play live, to have places to rehearse and create and for the audience to discover new music. We don't know if it's the answer you expected but...

Next moves, hopes, plans and dreams for En Attendant Ana.

Hopefully we'll continue to record songs, and be able to play them all the time and everywhere! We are really well surrounded so it's kind of a dream already! And if we had one really big dream: Electrelane go back together, the Organ get back together and we tour with them. Katie, Verity, Mia, if you read us...

En Attendant Ana's debut album Lost and Found is available now via Trouble in Mind, Montagne Sacree and Buddy Records.