Two boys, one girl. Three possibilities ? We Have Band makes that old saying even older : it’s a couple (Deborah « Dede » and Thomas W-P) who lead the band, completed by the drummer Darren Bancroft. After a very dancey first album, they’re shading a darker light on their bouncy disco-rock with « Ternion ». A record that will appeal to Hot Chip or The Rapture fans. We caught with them during their last Parisian trip, between a gig for Agnès B. and a dj set at Le Baron, to speak about Formula 1 and…deaths (from Steve Jobs to Myspace).

(c)Tom Medwell

How did you meet ?

We all worked at EMI, in London. We were bored at our jobs, we started to work on some demos. Two of us (Thomas and Darren) have already played in bands. At the beginning, we didn’t say a word about it to our co-workers. We just left the office quietly to go reharse…

How would you describe your music ?

We used to say that we’re playing disco-punk but it soon became a label that didn’t suit our music anymore. Someone called it « pop music with difficulties », we like that. Anyway, we are just looking for the perfect groove.

What are your influences ?

We are very big fans of the New-York scene from the early 80′s, Talking Heads, ESG, Blondie, Tom Tom Club…And then all the bands from the DFA label like LCD Soundsystem or The Rapture. And, of course, a lot of english pop music : Radiohead, Elbow, Blur…

Some of your tracks have been used in video games…

They used a Divisive remix for Need For Speed Hot Pursuit. But we’re not gamers. Dede’s brother is a real one, he can play World Of Warcraft for hours. Darren likes strategy games, Football Manager even though he doesn’t like football. Formula One Manager is even more addictive. We are fascinated by the worlds described in some video games but we’re pretty ignorant about them.

When you’re on the road, don’t you play in the tourbus ?

Not really. Darren listens to audiobooks, Dede sees a lot of movies. We watch a lot of tv shows too, they are perfectly adapted to the intellectual tiredness caused by heavy touring. But we have been watching a lot of The Wire and you have to be very focused !

Would you like to write music for a movie or a tv show ?

Totally. NBC has used one of our tracks on Mercy, a medical drama which didn’t last long. The BBC often uses bits of our songs for their trailers. Oddly, it’s often for their Formula 1 announcements. We were also one of the coming-next of Le Grand Journal (Canal +).

When you started back in 2008, MySpace was still a valid platform for young artists…

We still have our page but there’s not a lot of activity. We were even considering erasing it. Our very first gig was sponsored by Myspace and our manager back in the days found us there so we can say that MySpace played a part in our career. I have the feeling that they didn’t evolve, the site is not user-friendly.

Do you run your own Facebook and Twitter accounts ? 

Yes, Darren does it. He likes to communicate with fans and give out pieces of information. We never had weird fans online, less than IRL. People are brutally honest with us on social networks. They don’t hesitate to say « i don’t like this song, i prefered the old one better ».

Do you read music blogs ?

We often visit to Hype Machine before landing on blogs. We like the ones that only show videos. Some bloggers are incredibly passionate, more aware than the big Pitchfork-type websites.

Do you have favorite apps ?

We use What’s App a lot. Darren likes Shazam, he often gets his iPhone out in the clubs when he’s hearing a new track. We also use Instapaper to bookmark pages we don’t have time to read.

Steve Job’s death : has it affected you ?

A bit because he was an important person. Some reactions were out of proportion but he did inspire a lot of people. Even without being Apple geeks, you gotta acknolewdge that their products are user-friendly while being aesthetic. All our friends who use PC complain about viruses, storage, lack of intuition…

What is the technological item you can’t live without ?

Our laptops. We could say our iPhones too but Thomas lived with an HTC for a year so…He lost his iPhone at a festival in Spain and he was technologically downsized. For better or worst, Apple has really become an essential part of our lives.

We Have Band – Still Life (The Horrors Cover) by We Have Band

We Have Band – Visionary by We Have Band

Ternion - We Have Band (Naïve). Available.

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