DEAD CHIC – “Music is a very primitive act”
INTERVIEW – Andy Balcon and Damien Félix reveal the soul and roots of Dead Chic : between inspiring encounters and the shaping of emotions.
After releasing the best album of 2024, Serenades & Damnation, Dead Chic is about to hit the road to present it. We’ve met them in Brussels for an in-depth interview. Using tarot-inspired cards based on the album’s recurring themes, we wanted to dig deeper into the band’s roots, what fuels them, and what makes them the most exciting band to follow this year. From their favorite Beatles song to their creative process, let’s discover them more intimately through this interview. Enjoy your reading!
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THE SOUVENIR – Back to the past: how did you get there?
Andrew: How long have you got? We need a bottle of wine for this! [Long pause] When I was 11, my friend got a bass guitar for Christmas, so I said to my dad “I want one too” but he said “Don’t get a bass guitar because you’ll never get the girls!”
Damien: That’s why there’s no bassist in our band ! [laughs]
Andrew: Exactly! [laughs] So he bought me a guitar instead. I started learning and then playing pubs around my area. My sister went to music school. She always got invited to perform in the church in the area. So I’d say I’d play a show as well but I never had any songs. So I’d just go there, as a 12 year-old, arrive in a church et sing “Good Ridance (Time Of Your life)” from Green Day and I’d make up different songs… Then through skateboarding I met a lot of punk bands… It’s quite long-winded, is that too much? Sorry, it’s gonna be so boring…
No, it’s not! Well, ask Damien: maybe you already heard about it?
Damien: I’m discovering stuff, it’s interesting, go on!
Andrew: In England, you can put young bands, like 15 year-old, on stage for gigs. The first one I went to was a band called Seed. I was like “I want to be in a punk rock band!”. And then I’ve got invited to join them as a second guitarist because we hung out skateboarding. I had an audition but I didn’t get into the band.
Following that, I started a new band called Heymoonshaker in my home town. It was just a drummer and I and we didn’t have any songs. We would get on stage and I just wanted to look sexy, play blues, you know. No songs, just low T-shirt and tight jeans! [laughs] And then I met Crowe, and you know that story with Heymoonshaker.
Dead Chic is definitely the first band where I’ve felt as it is a shared project because I’ve always felt excluded from playing with other musicians or being invited into anything. It’s only when I met Damien who invited me into this project, to work with him, that I felt comfortable in a group.
I think performing has just always been something that interested me. My life would be very empty if I wasn’t on stage. It feels like something I need to do. I can’t really put my finger on why. I like being watched. And one last comment! My dad told me this recently. When I was a child, I was so loud, I used to go to the playground and stand to the top of the slide and I’d go yelling “My name is Andrew Balcon!”. I think I still have that young child inside of me [laughs]!
Damien: Nice souvenir!
Early beginnings
And you Damien, have you also always wanted to shout out your own name?
Damien: I’m basically the opposite! [Speaking to Andy:] Did you know that my first instrument was the accordion?
Andy: Very French!
Damien: My Grand-Mother was so pro! I started really young, like 7 years old. I played for 4 or 5 years. And then, Nirvana! And I started wanting to play rock music, like all teenagers…
But what made you keep going? Because not all teenagers do…
Damien: I don’t know, I was really hooked. I really liked it, writing songs and trying to arrange things… So, to answer your question, how did we get there, I feel like it’s because of constantly trying to do better, all the time. Progressing, making better songs, better arrangement, do better live shows… You tell yourself, “Okay, I did this, it wasn’t too bad, but I could do better.” And going to new places, like tonight. It’s Dead Chic’s first time in Belgium… We really have a great job, you know!
THE NIGHT – Your job is centered on the night and the stage. You’re in fact known for your live performances. What does the stage mean to you?
Damien: Off stage, I’m a pretty quiet person. So for me, the stage is the place where I’m allowed to open up, to let myself go completely. I really feel like everything is permitted there. You go on stage, you press the button and go! It’s not another Damien, but it’s a part of myself I can only show at that time, a part I can’t express off stage. It’s a special place, where special things happen. You have to make it grow because the first time, for someone like me, it’s strange, you think “what the hell am I doing here?”
Andy: Very much the same answer… There is such a sense of freedom. It’s weird because if you think about it, you can spend 48 hours of your life dedicated to 45 minutes of a condensed act. It’s a performance, but it’s a very primitive action, almost like a ceremony. Music is a very primitive act. It’s crazy what you put yourself through, mentally, what you abandon and neglect in your own life to fulfil that precise moment.
You feel so centered in the moment when you’re performing, it’s so meditative but it’s also like a very controlled chaos. It must be interesting to be on the other side of my eyes. There’s a lot of freedom but there’s so much thoughts and thinking on your feet with your movements and your gestures. You’re riding like the forces of apocalypse going into people senses. It’s an amazing thing to be part of.
THE ARTIST – Speaking about strange human beings, let’s talk about artists! Andy, you write that the artist’s life is an addict’s life.
Andy: It’s an addiction to sensations and being a sensationalist, and consuming as much as possible. If you think of a drug addict, they wake up in the morning and their only thing to do that day is to get drugs. If you think about how hard-working those people are to get their fix, we do the same thing. It’s amazing what you’re willing to put yourself through to just arrive at that point. So you time it so well, with all the rituals we do before going on stage… Damien changes his socks five times before he goes on stage… [laughs]!
Damien: It’s almost true!
Andy [laughs]: I tried about four different shirts on this evening… Anyway… I say to Damien quite frequently it’s amazing that we wote a song over the internet together, sending it back and forth, and now look at us! We get to perform to all these people, and people are coming to shows, and saying “that’s the best show I saw in all night” (Editor’s note: reference to the Tough Enough Festival, the location of the interview). And the all thing came from quite a shitty situation, the pandemic (Editor’s note: the band was formed in 2020).
Composition without borders
THE CITY – How do you compose together, from two different cities?
Andy: We started from images to show “this is exactly where I want to be”. It really is how we could show exactly what we wanted and know where we were going.
Damien: I have a very precise memory of the first time I received the demo I sent to Andy, with his voices on it. I was on my sofa, listening to the tape, and I thought “Ok, this is some serious stuff!”. It was “Too Far Gone”. But it depends. Two-thirds of the time, Andy and I work upstream. We try to have a precise idea of what we want. And then, the four of us work on it and adapt what needs to be adapted. On the album, there are two tracks made by the four of us, collectively. For “Fortune”, Remi sent me a rythm and I started putting some ideas on it. We then reworked it all together in rehearsal. The other was “Paris”. We began something with Andy in the studio but it wasn’t working. The first version was called “Horses”. It is then by rehearsing it that we fixed it.
Andy: And finally we’ve had a horse in our video! This is how the law of attraction works you see, because for “Too Far Gone” (Editor’s note: first song of the band), I said to Damien “It would be great to go to South of Spain, and film a western spaghetti music video.” And we made it for “Paris”, that’s amazing! Everything happens, it’s just a matter of doing it day by day.
THE PROPHET – The prophet is a recurring character in your songs, so I would like to know who has played or plays the role of the prophet in your lives.
Damien: Zinedine Zidane maybe!
Andy: [laughs] You love Zinedine Zidane! Tell us why!
Damien: I don’t know why.
Maybe because you are pretty similar, Zizou is introverted in life and free on the field, like you on stage?
Damien: Yes, but it’s mostly because of his incredible gestures. It’s so beautiful to see him play, he is free on the field, magnificent… What about you, Andy?
Andy: Russell Turner. He grew up in Sheffield in Yorkshire. He’s the first elder I met who had an alternative life. He was a professor, a technology teacher but he is the first person I kind of look to as an elder person who lives a really rich life. When I first met him, he was not available, he is very quiet, he keeps himself to himself. He was a lot older than me, he was about to retire from work, but he threw these parties every few months and we had these big fires where all we’d do was jamming. We’d just sit there and play music, I loved that. Russ always introduced me to new people, I was really interested into his network and community…
Now he lives in the Alps, in a small village, for fifteen years and he hasn’t learned french at all. But he goes to every dinner party and his excuse is ” I stay out of the politics of the village if I don’t know a word of French” [laughs] ! I used to go to his house about two times a week for two years. And we just sit around a fire. He taught me to cook, he taught me to peel potatoes, in a very old Yorskshire way. A way which was not putting you down but also acknowledging your level of what you are. And then he’d worked on that and he’d make you a better person. He worked with a lot of young men from Yorkshire through school. And he allowed them to realize their full potential and he definetely did that for me. He introduced me to so much music, he was always super enthousiastic about mine.
Support and transfer of experience
Andy: When we got the article print in Rolling Stones Magazine, he was the first person I called. He was so proud of me, I’m emotional about it now, he was so proud of the life I walked because he always believed in me to break away from the small village where I’m from. Because there was nothing really going on there… He always told me “you need to spread your wings, you need to go and explore the world”. From a male perspective, I think it’s very important to have male elder’s as positive role models in your life. The prophet, for me, is inspiring people who have time for people and feels like they have something to pass on because they’ve lived their own life, with its ups and its downs, its positives and its negatives… It’s so nice when these people come into your life, they kind of influence you or act as a support. They don’t even know that they are a support. I said to Russ recently how important he was and he just didn’t want to hear any of it! [laughs]
VENUS – Let’s move on to the figure of Venus often present in your work. Love is what makes so many artists write, but it’s often the disappointed and sad loves that make the best songs. Is it possible to write good songs when you are happy?
Andy: A trait I have is drama, in my life. Sometimes I create drama. And I think there’s been a moment in y life when I created drama.
Was it a way to nourish your art?
Andy: I think it was more just challenging myself, it wasn’t necessarily to make someting of it. And I know that in the last years, I’ve wanted to correct all that and now I’m really at peace. Now when I’m at my happiest, I’m able to access my sadness, it’s available to me. I’m able to look at it and be quite introspective from it. I don’t necessarily write from a personal point of view in those situations, I always try to reverse, to do it from the other person perspective. Or I rearrange the circumstances into something that didn’t necessarily happened, but could have happened. Like an alternate reality to what actually has happened. I’ve definitely done that on this record.
Damien: Our feelings are just a starting point, a tool. Everything inevitably comes from personal stories, but I think we also absorb what’s happening around us—we’re like sponges. We’re sensitive to the world. Our job is to receive these emotions, take them in, and then transmit them. Like, when I compose for theater, sometimes I’m asked to write music for a specific emotion that matches the actors. I can’t do it if I don’t connect with it, in some way, if I don’t find a feeling within me that’s close to that. And I know I’m on the right track when it stirs something inside me. But sometimes, that “something” is completely different from what resonates with the actors – without them even realizing it. They will never know what the music means to me because I don’t want to interfere with their own perception of it. But in the end, what matters is hitting the right note. That’s what makes it interesting. Ultimately, our job is to write songs. And to do that, we have tools – our sensitivity, our emotions. As Andy said, you can be happy, but our job is to seek out emotions.
The Art of composition by Dead Chic
It’s almost like a craft you’re describing.
Damien: That’s true, that’s exactly it. You have to learn how to use your sensitivity for writing. It’s a cool job, but writing songs is still real work. In the end, you’re always expressing the same things, the same struggles. Even if you say them in different ways and try to make them more universal as you grow and mature through it all…
Andy: I think it would be quite self-indulgent to just always write about one’s own. It’s a bit Charles Bukowski to just indulge yourself all the time. It’s nice to look from different perspectives and circumstances and your position within that. At the end of the day, everything that happens to you is a reflection of yourself anyway. Even if you speak from someone else’s point of view, it’s still a reflection of yourself. Music is a way of accessing these points of views and releasing writing. I really enjoy digging deep. And I am really fortunate that Damien plays such beautiful music. For instance, with “Souvenir”, from the chorus he wrote, I had to create a story and it’s a beautiful thing to collaborate in that way. I respect Damien so much as a musician, he’s a very sensitive creature and it’s lovely to have that as a groundwork to work upon.
Damien: Yes, it’s a beautiful way to collaborate. Thank you Andy!
Andy: That’s lovely, it’s awesome to have that! And the production side of things is very much realised by Damien. I dig Damien’s music a lot. I love the way he plays guitar, his vision on things…
THE PAWN – Let’s talk strategy and career now. EP, album, France Inter, MK2, Rolling Stone… What’s next?
Damien: The rest of the world!
Yeah, can’t wait! You played in England recently – is that part of your plans moving forward, or are you focusing on France for now?
Damien: No, our sights are set wide. We aim everywhere! That’s what’s great about this project, there’s a real energy, a real desire to go wherever we can. Andy often says this: “if you wish for something, it’ll happen”. I’m not sure I fully embrace this philosophy, but I get what he means. We wanted a horse in a music video, and we got a horse in a music video. So, yeah, that’s how it goes you know, chilled. But we still put in the work, we’re putting in the effort. A night like tonight, we make the most of it, we do the best we can, and the feedback is great.
Andy: For me, we’re working towards living in a world where we have the time to spend more time together and dedicate more time towards the project. But we just have to take it a day at a time.
Damien: The next step is the tour in February, with the new titles!
Dead Chic & The Beatles
THE UNICORN – We can’t wait to see the new show! We could wrap it up here, but last question. You’re doing a lot of interviews right now, so we want to know. What’s the question you’ve always wanted someone to ask you but never did ?
Damien: I won’t have a specific question to give you, but I really enjoy when we have time to go deeper, like we just did. I like when we have time to explain how we build our music, to answer properly. The back-and-forth can be tough sometimes. You didn’t ask the usual questions, which is great. Not that I’m tired of the more traditional interviews, not at all! But, I didn’t really answer your question…
You’re right, the more classic interviews are important for people who are just discovering you, which isn’t really the case for us anymore…
Andy: A question… It’s difficult… What are my favourite pubs in London?
[laughs] Ok, so, what are your favourite pubs in London ?
Andy: Well… [pause]
Damien: Did you want a short answer? [laughs] So instead, maybe, who is your favourite Beatles?
Andy: There you go! Can I give my top 3 of songs?
Damien: Your top 1!
Andy: Ooooh no, can I do 3 please?
But wait, we went from favourite Beatles to favourite song?
Damien: Yeah, because it’s Paul McCartney obviously! He’s my prophet, you can put him as an answer for the previous question: Paul McCartney is my prophet!
Andy: I need 3… So “I’m So Tired”, “Flying” et “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)”. Oooh and “The Fool On The Hill” ! That’s 4… What is your to 3, and maybe 4?
Damien: “Strawberry Fields Forever”, “Eleanor Rigby”, “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)”.
Andy: Number 4?
Damien: No, I’m good with these 3!
Interview by Morgane Milesi
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We will stop there for today but know that we have a small bonus question coming to close the interview. To find out which one, see you in a few days! We are counting on you ! Big thanks to Andy & Damien for their time and trust, to Virginie Bellavoir and the Botanique for making this possible.
