Music

Au Revoir Simone tell AUX about their "secret" record company

by Ciaran Thompson

All-female electronic trio Au Revoir Simone are currently on a short tour of Europe in support of their latest album, Still Night, Still Light, which was released in North America last year under their own record label called Our Secret Record Company. A remix of the album entitled Night Light has since come out and features Neon Indian, Jens Lekman, Dam Mantel and Aeroplane among others.

Before their last show in Toronto the band sat down with AUX in a very humid room upstairs at The Great Hall and chatted about the good and bad of running their own label, expressing the need for other bands with similar objectives to follow suit.

“We’ve seen so many young bands get picked up, especially from Brooklyn, and they sort of get in this whirlwind of activity from labels of spending and alcohol and drugs and craziness and they just get chopped and they have to move on in their lives,” band member Annie Hart said. “It’s very sad and I think we’ve learned the hard way that it’s important to be fiscally prudent and save up for things before you do them and don’t get involved with people you don’t trust. I think it’s really helped us because we really understand how things work and we’re not the kind of people who are naive and just let bad things happen to us just because we feel like having a party.”

Fellow bandmate Erika Forster added, “we don’t have to ask everyone for advice. We can often talk amongst ourselves and decide the things we need to know.”

The ladies admitted however that running a record label involves lots of hours spent doing tedious chores such as bookkeeping and answering tons of emails everyday. Overseas they’ve signed with Moshi Moshi and said “they’re not pressure people. They just said ‘put our your best work.'”

Still Night Still Light, the band’s third album might be their best work yet as their charming vocals, each member sings, are accompanied by soothing keyboards and synths. The band admits their appeal to the audience stems from their songwriting.

“I think what people recognize and why we’ve been able to do this as a career is that we try to communicate through our songs,” Forster said.

“They’re very genuine,” Hard added. “There’s definitely no put-ons whatsoever in any of our songs. It’s exactly what we wanted to do and felt at the time. I find that’s our strength. I don’t think any of us are incredibly gifted keyboardists, we just do our best.”

Their short tour of Europe expires in early September and although there are some other commitments the band seem eager to continue making and releasing music in the near future. “I’m going to have a baby,” Hart said. “Heather’s gonna go back to school and hopefully in that time we’re gonna write some songs.”

Watch the music video for the track “All or Nothing” off Still Night, Sill Light below