H ø R D

copyright @L. Rebaud

We agreed to meet on Wesnesday around 7:30PM at Sébastien's flat.

Shitty weather, everything's grey, drizzle formation downtown - reaching the meeting place I'm listening again and again to H ø R D first LP "Focus On Light" I bought several weeks ago from Sébastien himself, when he received his own first press copies. Although he's almost 40YO, he seemed like a young child on Xmas morning. You could see in his eyes he was so freaking happy (maybe proud, but I had this feeling of real joy talking to him). I remember this very well because a few hours before meeting him, I bought almost 150€ of OGs punk records to a local old-timer who didn't give a fuck about selling pure gems for next to nothing to a young freak like your servant. To me, it was a real pleasure to carry in my backpack both these 80s and 90s relics and "Focus On Light" because I'm sure I will remember this record as something I had listened to every week in 2016. Place your bets...

Sébastien and I share a bunch of pals, a common interest in stuffs linked with "Arts". But we are pretty different: he's calmer, seems careful with everything happening around him. He seems to take a step back on a lot more things than I do, clearly because he's older than me, but you gotta listen to his music and have a conversation with him to understand what I mean. In my opinion, H ø R D's a solo project is more a medication than a specific band, playing specific music. I insist on this detail, because I had the occasion to see and listen to his performances a few times and where we live, I've never seen any poser or local trendy teen dancing like if H ø R D was the latest hip thing. Staring at the audience, I could feel people enjoying these really personal songs, I'm sure they were absorbed by H ø R D's aura as much as I was.

Sébastien welcomes me in his living room, on the top floor of an old building of one of my favorite streets. He's even climbing the stairs with me because he knows how much the stairwell is dangerous, especially when you go only through a cane like I do. I ask him for a big glass of water and we start chatting.

The apparent calm which has always depicted my relationship with Sébastien reveals the consistency of his words towards his commitment to H ø R D since he started making music under that name a couple of years ago, and the way he assumes his music. Fine art training, various experiences in different bands playing a different style of music before realising he was meant to lead his own project alone. A quick look at the corner of his flat where all his equipment is settled and I wonder why people who are known to be talented (traditional) musicians (he played the guitar in LDLF before starting H ø R D) finally turn to computers and keyboards autistic spellcaster. The explanation is very simple, although it is also an interrogation: maybe using machines browses the sound possibilities more than what rock'n'roll has ever brought to curious ears? According to his philosophy, music is fiction. It seizes a special time dedicated to the retranscription of an ephemeral sensation whose essence should be captured and carefully studied in agreement with that special time mood. This is why putting out releases requires so much time and attention, you need a true way of writing your songs, how to start them, end them and be true to yourself. I guess this is why Sébastien was glad with releasing his first LP.

 I've already met him during a lot of punk shows where we live. Plus, he has already opened for punk bands after being requested by a local DIY booking crew whom members love his music. Since then, I kept meeting him in different venues, just because he was curious, or attending to his performances in different venues, subsidized or not, because he does not seem to pay attention to this. His fulness while he delivers each detail about H ø R D reveals the quality of his different releases. Everything becomes a thoughful process which is really interesting in my opinion because I've never been involved in such a band with a strong identity. Don't get me wrong: H ø R D isn't a musical project which need to be representative of a very specific kind of music. It's funny how I've often red things about "darkwave", "John Carpenter's OSTs" when it comes to deal with H ø R D and other bands from Bordeaux like FLÉAU, VvvV, VOLCAN. Sometimes, I wonder what music would sound like if we let journalists or every person who owns a computer and an access to social networks start their own bands. Once again, talking with Sébastien, I realize these ideas are so far from reality: he mentions Brian Eno more than any other musician and reveals how H ø R D is simply pop music. Thereupon, his words are pretty interesting because, as an artist, Sébastien gives attention to the relevance of what he calls his musical roots. Gently kidding around, we discussed about "wiggers" and nice white kids playing reggae and sometimes becoming real cartoons. As to him, it just seemed natural to be attracted to keyboards and this very specific music we call pop because, somehow, he was born into it and didn't feel the need of immersing in an unknown musical culture. Once again, I find his opinion really interesting. I mean, I guess I found some sort of shelter discovering hardcore punk probably because initially, this kind of music does not require some specific musical talents, it just needs to be angry, honest, true to yourself and to the people supporting the scene. Posers do not last long within this microcosm. I guess musicians like Sébastien do not give a shit about who's attending to his performances. He seems calm enough to be thankful towards the people coming to listen to his music. That's probably why he's been pretty gently surprised with the fact some unknown nerd once created a H ø R D profile on Discogs website, or even astonished when several labels (Anywave, Stellar Kinematics, Oldirtydancin' Records and Giallo Disco, four record companies interested in different kinds of electronic music) asked to work with him to put out his first EP and his first LP. Record companies which have shown full confidence in his work, but he admits their feeling and vision about the tracking order was really helpful to release his first full-length album, and definitly a guarantee of quality. This is why his records are consistent as to him and I couldn't agree more: H ø R D "EP #2" (Oldirtydancin' Records, Anywave. Stellar Kinematics) let me more than impatient to listen to new materials. I was looking forward to an addition of atmospheric and dancing tunes, not that kind of stuffs you are used to listen to if you like clubbing, but that kind of music which make your car, train journeys solemner. This music so intimate is definitly audible in "Focus On Light" (Giallo Disco), with its enigmatic artwork. Sébastien explains where the cover comes from: it's actually a photograph he found surfing on Flickr on a very uncommon group called "Bird Imprints on Glass". Sébastien told me if you ever lived in the countryside (like he did), you're pretty used to see birds crashing into windows or bay windows because they couldn't see the glass pane. Sometimes they die, bouncing on the glass or sliding along the window, founding eternal peace on the ground. Sometimes they are just choked and move on, perhaps they'll be abused by another man's creation. Anyway, hitting the glass, birds leave imprints of their feathers and that's all this Flickr group is about. Sébastien gave me the link to this collection of photographs and I invite you to take a few minutes to observe them. The picture he chosed for "Focus On Light" artwork was shot by a gentleman named Warren Lynn who describes his photograph in the following sentences: "This is a photo of the "dusting" left on our sliding glass door by a dove that gently flew into the glass. The bird came in gently and veered away at the last minute, but not before slightly brushing the glass door and leaving this impression." 

Sébastien is currently working on new projects with H ø R D, probably a new EP. Several songs he already wrote need to be released. He's not in a position to assert how many years H ø R D will last, but I'm definitly sure he knows how to paddle his own canoe

copyright @Isadora