Have A Dose Of Teenage Reality Check!

After being one of the most hyped about new bands of 2007 & demanding a spot in the ‘Artists to watch for in 2008’ lists plus conceiving a quite impressing number of remixes, ‘The Teenagers’ have consumed a fairly generous amount of porn magazines, lube tubes & Kleenex boxes in the process of making their long awaited album & I’m glad to say they ejaculated with 08’s first brilliant album!

‘Reality Check’ is a sincere 60s till late 80s analogue noise rock driven ego trip, drugged with ketamine anesthetized keyboard melisma that under-handedly leads on the voluminous bass & heart-whole moaning guitar, the ambidextrous synth sodden milieu juxtaposes celestial tear-jerking melodies & hard not to tap-to pre-set drum machine co-ordinations & wearing explicit novel-sleaze lyrics delivered with raspy vocals bringing the memories back to life through anthems, facts & entropies, all cumulated in a thesis under the title ‘Reality Check’ addressing an unforgettable, humiliating, & amazingly arousing period of puberty drama & contouring eve as the product of sexual appetency, sight delectation & unsolvable conundrum; A flashback to an era fueled with raging hormones, contrasted point of views of love, drama queens, clingy shallow girls, corny self-throwing-at-boys love drunk girls, senseless constantly nagging & complaining girls, horny hot girls, relationship type of girls, & good for nothing girls! Basically a record erecting with carelessness, recklessness, proud deceiving boys behaviors, relationships, breakups, celebrity obsessions, internet, late night parties, cigarettes, vodka redbulls, French kisses, handful of aspirins, sex, & rock & roll!

Tracklist:
01. Homecoming
02. Love No
03. Feeling Better
04. Starlett Johansson
05. Streets Of Paris
06. Make It Happen
07. Wheel Of Fortune
08. Fuck Nicole
09. French Kiss
10. Sunset Beach
11. III
12. End Of The Road

It’s a record selfishly made by boys for other boys, & girls who want to know what the fuck the boys are thinking!

Luckily I came across Dorian Dumont & Michael Szpiner for a quick round of Q&A!

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Interview: The Teenagers

Could you each throw a short bio on the go?

Dorian Dumont: I am a nice guy, Born & Raised in Paris (23, July, 1982), studied & previously worked in journalism. I play guitar for The Teenagers, my all time favourite band is ‘Nirvana’ & my favourite new artist is ‘Justice’.

Michael Szpiner: I’m funny but a bit nerdy, born and raised in paris (22, October, 1981), studied visual communication & previously worked as a junior communication assistant, I play bass for The Teenagers, my all time favourite band is ‘Metallica’ & my favourite new artist is ‘Circle Takes The Square’.

How’d you guy smeet?

DORIAN: I met Michael in junior high, we were something like 12, And then Quentin when we were 17. We all met during our teenage years

I heard that before “The Teenagers” each one was into a different scene! Tell me who & explain?

(Experimental Left-Field Projects)

DORIAN: I don’t really understand the word leftfield but I think it’s for. I was doing a project with a Swedish girl. It was kind of folk/atmospheric. I listen to a lot of different kind of music…

(Paris’s Hardcore Scene)

MICHAEL: I was in a hardcore band called xProvidencex and we were playing beatdown hardcore, they’re still going on really well and they just signed to an English London based label ruction, and I was also in a power violence band called Pouvoir, really fast really great, still going on too. This is the kind of music I listen to the most, it’s really intense emotionally and sometimes physically during gigs, but it’s a feeling you can’t find anywhere else.

(Fashion:)

***Obviously Quentin’s***

At that time did you have any intentions of making a band together?

DORIAN: well we were together for Xmas 2005 and that started like that. We just decided to do a song…

MICHAEL: and then we did it but there were no master evil plan at the beginning

I read somewhere that you created “The Teenagers” MySpace as a joke in the beginning & posted made up lyrics on it as responses to visitors messages, was it true? What’s the whole story?

DORIAN: Yes we did the MySpace for joke. But we did not send any lyrics to anyone as response to visitors messages. It’s just that Quentin’s first friend request was from a girl called Nicole and we all said: “Fuck Nicole”.

MICHAEL: yep, because basically at the beginning we had no visitors.

When did you finally decide to become a band?

DORIAN: well, I would say that people decided for us. After we posted homecoming on MySpace, people seemed to enjoy so we were: “why not?” You know.

MICHAEL: Basically the whole thing started getting serious after we received some messages by labels, bookers…

How did you score a record deal?

DORIAN: answering our MySpace messages.

MICHAEL: being nerds behind our computer screen.

…& your music is?

DORIAN: Rock? Pop?

MICHAEL: Pop Rock

Which is?

DORIAN: honestly something we never had to think about it; we just did what we can do.

MICHAEL: catchy and honest.

Your main influences?

DORIAN: I would say Jacques Lu cont, M83, Smashing Pumpkins, The Strokes, Weezer…

Your Brilliant Singles?

Homecoming

DORIAN: hum… 50/50. It’s a story based on our lives, but the details aren’t true, you know. It’s like when you write a book I guess. The character looks like the writer sometimes, but some parts are emphasized…

MICHAEL: it’s a modern love story with bits of everyone’s life.

Starlett Johansson

DORIAN: we like scarlet Johansson and we were in my flat someday, we just decided to make a song for her. We’re not hardcore fans though; we had to look bios on internet to write the song.

Were you expecting to become this big and popular?

DORIAN: Not at all. I don’t think we are big yet.

MICHAEL: Nooooo!

Who writes your lyrics?

DORIAN: Quentin and Michael are more involved in the lyrics. We always are the 3 of us in the same room when we write them. We just think about what our lives are, and then we write something…

Even though you guys are in your twenties, your music still screams with teenage lust & juvenile!? Do you still behave & live like you’re still in your teen years?

DORIAN: A bit yes, it’s hard to grow up. I think I realized that a lot of my friends are hardly growing up…its difficult in 2008, don’t you think?

MICHAEL: the teenage years are the best but when you’re in it you hate it and later realize it was the best, we don’t behave as real teenagers but the band is away to live those years again.

You offer to remix for others?

DORIAN: we met Simian Mobile Disco, Au Revoir Simone, Lo-Fi Fnk, New Young Pony Club & Goodbooks… and no they asked us to remix them. So we were really happy to do it.

Currently remixing or finished remixing for anyone?

DORIAN: I finished one for Operator Please. That’s all at the moment.

Ironically as its title, "The World Is Not Fair” EP; Don’t you think it’s unfair for all the international fans that it’s just being released in Japan? & seriously what’s with them getting all the bonus tracks & early releases?

DORIAN: I think it’s also released in France now. Japanese people are always lucky with releases…that’s how it is I guess.

MICHAEL: Japanese people always have bonus tracks; it’s kind of a rule now. And to come back to the title of the Ep, yes the world is not fair, that’s a good example no?

Album “Reality Check”?

DORIAN: Teenage.

MICHAEL: True.

Who helped you produce it?

DORIAN: we produced the album with Lexxx. He’s very good and he helped us a lot to sound like we wanted to. That was great to work with him! And. nobody else helped us. Xavier from Justice gave some advices for the compression…but I won’t talk about that, its pretty boring.

MICHAEL: It’s really a DIY record most of the vocals are from the demos and some guitars and bass too, we did not spend an incredible amount of money in the recording, and I think Lexxx did an amazing job and totally understood the spirit/mood of the music.

Who did a better job “Lexxx” or “Gordon Raphael”?

DORIAN: with Lexxx it was perfect, all that we wanted. Gordon is less modern in his sound and his approach and I think it was easier to do it with Lexxx. Gordon is so much fun though.

Who’s the illustrator/photographer who did the artwork for it?

DORIAN: Matt Irwin. He’s so good.

MICHAEL: we all like his work from Less Common.

Is he the same person responsible for all your previous singles artworks?

DORIAN: N that’s the first time we work with someone for our artwork. All the artwork has been made by Quentin before.

The album became available as digital download from the 15th of January! Almost 2 months in advance of the physical release! Aren’t you afraid this will help spreading it illegally & ruin sales later in March?

DORIAN: I don’t think that it’s ruining the sales at all. The aim of all that is to be listened by people. I think that if the album is leaked people might enjoy it and cone at the shows. They will maybe buy the album later. I’m not really worried about the download…

MICHAEL: Downloading is just what people used to do when they were recording album with a cassette, just a larger scale. The most people hear it and talk about it the best it is.

The next single “Love No”! Can you at this point reveal to us who's remixing it & directing the video?

DORIAN: We have very good remixes by TEPR, Dolorean, Poney Poney… and a so cute cover by the French girl Soko.

MICHAEL: We don’t know for the video at this point but we received some really good treatment.

How do you plan to promote it when 2/3 of the band is now relocated in London?

DORIAN: We all live in London now!

Tell us a secret?

DORIAN: Fools Suck.

MICHAEL: I bought a crazy town CD!

Itinerary Sneak Peek?

DORIAN/MICHAEL: We release the next single and the album in March. We’re going on tour on Wednesday in the US and that’s going to be so exciting. Then we will tour Europe and the UK and play some shows in the states again with another band (It’s not confirmed yet). Then festivals, summer is going to be fun.