By Raven, Tampa Correspondent
Interview
As soon as you listen to The Insight, you will feel yourself back in time to the suburbs of Liverpool or Manchester the days of Joy Division, Echo and The Bunnymen and Bauhaus. The Band wields on brilliantly poetic texts, the baritone vocals of Peter Murphy, and Post-Punk music with blistering guitars, pounding drums, minimalist keyboards, and heavy bass, with acoustic electro-beats that will make you vibrate.
They are very proud of their trademark English Post- Punk influences and you would never guess they French. Coming from the city of Rennes, where their dream and passion started more than fifteen years ago, The Insight’s foundation is made of two self-taught brothers Gaets (songwriter, composer, guitar and Keyboards) and Steevo (drums, electronic pads). In 2013 the band added a compassionate bassist Dulac, which finally completed the foundation. After two self-produced albums (Into The Fall and Hidden Things), the band signed with Crysella Records, which added worldwide production and distribution of their third album White Noise. After over 300 concerts in France and abroad at the legendary concert The Dublin Castle in Camden, London. They are now looking forward to going back on the road and sharing their compassion of music with the public.
Band: The Insight
Genre: Post-Punk
Menbers: Gaets: Vocal – Guitares – Keyboard; Dulac: Bass – Keyboards; Steevo: Drums; Karo—ManagementFormed 1997
I had the opportunity to ask Lead Singer Gaets a few questions about The Insight and the making of their self-engineered video for their single “Give me a Chance.” Here is what he had to say:
ROCKATNIGHT: Why did you pick your band name? How did you form? Why did you decide to play the genre or genres you do?
GAETS: When I was younger I spent my entire time listening bands like Joy Division, Depeche Mode and The Cure. I used to be a very big fan of them so I decided to learn how to play guitar. After a few years, I started to write some demos alone with a drum machine and keyboards on a portable four-track recorder (at this time, computer with software didn’t exist). [At the time] it was not yet The Insight but it was the foundation of what The Insight would be. I asked my younger brother to join me on the drums.
We found “The Insight” fits very well with the vision we have about our music—something that is intuitive and the understanding of the true nature of the things. The Insight was born….
ROCKATNIGHT: Your website/other reviews have describes your lyrics/lyrical style as melancholic. Do you agree? Why or why not?
GAETS: Yeah, it’s true that the lyrics are quiet melancholic. Melancholia is something I have inside of me. I don’t know where it comes from.
Do you write out your lyrics? Do you ever change a song’s lyrics in live sets?
Yes, the lyrics are very important. It takes me time to write. As our music is emotional, the lyrics must fit. Sometimes it could change in live sets; it depends on my mood.
ROCKATNIGHT: Where do you usually gather songwriting inspiration? What is your usual songwriting process?
GAETS: It’s usually starts with ideas I’ve got in my head. We‘ve got a home studio so it’s very easy to test some songs. Then if the demo is good for us, we work on it so many times, that, finally we only keep the essence of the track. We want to make sense in our music and we want the listener feels emotions. I don’t want to play and sing something in which I do not believe.
ROCKATNIGHT: Do you have a band website? Why or why not? Do you have a Facebook or Twitter? Do you use Bandcamp, Spotify or SoundCloud to share your music?
GAETS: Spotify like Deezer.com (a French online streaming website) is a new way in listening to music when you are out . It’s a very big virtual Walkman. You can make playlist as I used to do with tapes when I was younger. Oh my God, I feel like I am very old when I speak like that!
ROCKATNIGHT: Do you think that online presence is important for fans to find you and critics to find your music to write about?
GAETS: Yes, of course! The Internet has revolutionized the way to promote arts in general. Having a website with a small shop, Facebook page, Soundcloud are some great tools to spread the words about your music. Communication is faster than ever. You can interact directly with people who can help you, listen to your music and finally be more international than local. It’s true for a band but it‘s also true for every kind of medias: radio, magazines.
ROCKATNIGHT: What do you think about online music sharing? Do you ever give your music away for free? Why?
GAETS: I think that “Music sharing” doesn’t help a lot. It has killed the music industry. It changes the way you are listening music without paying for it. It makes people quite lazy and the sound quality is awful. I still buy records in a record shop or on internet (it’s very hard to find good record shops now). With “White noise” we had decided to put two more tracks on the physical release to promote it instead of buying a mp3. When friends come to our home, I usually try to put on a CD or a vinyl.
About giving for free our music? Well, I think that each work (song) needs to be paid for. It’s a lot of work being in a band that is not famous. We only give one free track as a promotional item. People buying an [entire] album is more important than 50,0000 downloads because they made an effort to do it instead of clicking on a link, then going to take a coffee [break] as the download is completed. Buying an album is for me a kind of respect for the work done.
ROCKATNIGHT: Your Video you made for “Give me a chance” has an interesting story behind it can you tell me about it?
GAETS: The video of “Give Me a Chance” was produced at home. I wanted to do it cause we haven’t got money. The track talks about a man who tries to have a second chance. The video is little bit more complex because I would like to talk about the main idea of the album “White Noise.” “White Noise” means to me tortured souls trying to get in touch with the living. The main character in the video is behind the screen, like a ghost trying to come back from the light, and asking for another chance to find the piece of his soul.
ROCKATNIGHT: Since everyone was a start-up once, can you give any smaller or local bands looking to get gigs and airplay some tips?
GAETS: Nowadays, making and recording music is very easy. But making money, is very difficult, even if you’re on a label. The only thing I can say is to do most things on your own, be honest about your music and never give up. There is a lot of web-radios looking for new tunes. We can easily knock at their door. There is a lot of promoters who can share your links on the internet for free and for passion; a kind of humanity in this virtual world.
ROCKATNIGHT: Anything you would like share, from new merch to upcoming shows/tours or songs/albums?
GAETS: For now, we are waiting for updates from our label Crysella Records regarding the album because there is a problem about the pressing of White Noise. Someone didn’t do his job well.
Also, we are also currently working on a tour. You can find our old release in our own little shop.
We would like to thank Raven and Karo for all the work done in promoting us and all the people who are following and trusting in our music.
ROCKATNIGHT: Thank You Gaets for the Great Interview and the inside of The Insight. So if you are a fan of Post-Punk or a new fan, The Insight will take you through past and present music bliss that oh-so- made this music Genre.
Discography
Into the Fall
Hidden Things
White Noise
I'm Ravyn, Musicologist and maker of peace. I love Music and writing about all the Great Artist that are out there, A HUGE Thank You and Much Respect to Chyrisse for giving me the opportunity to write for a great music magazine that is ROCK AT NIGHT.
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