During Paléo Festival Nyon I met the French duo Cats on Trees for a round table. Down to earth and very friendly here you find the (short) interview I had with them. Thank you to the Paléo team for making this interview possible and of course a big “merci” to Cats on Trees! You can also read the review of their amazing concert at Paléo here. If you missed them back then you still have the chance to see them at Les Docks in Lausanne on September 24, you won’t regret it I promise!

 

The Liberation: How does your creation process work? Do you think about the melodies or about the texts first?

• Cats on Trees (Nina Goern-Dinger): There’s no rule. I don’t want to put barriers on the way we write and come up with our songs. There’s less chance of getting things wrong. It’s true that the texts often come afterwards. We find inspiration in ours emotions which we express first through the melodies and then with the text. I don’t want to compose only the piano bits and Yohan neither, he suggests me piano part and also ideas for singing parts. And it’s interesting because he never or hardly ever sings as lead singer he doesn’t have the variables of the codes and he proposes me sometimes things which appear non singable to me and audacious at the beginning but when we decide to sing them that is what makes the richness of creation.

 

The Liberation: You came out with your first album in 2013. Are you already thinking about your next album?

• Cats on Trees (Nina Goern-Singer): Yes. Since we met, we’ve never stopped creating stuff. We have a list of songs and ideas which is pretty impressive. We are very excited about this change and also very happy and therefore we have plenty of ideas.

 

The Liberation: Where do you find the inspiration to write your music? Do you have any favourite artists?

• Cats on Trees (Yohan Hennequin-Drums): They’re multiple. It’s true that we are very curious of what it’s going on in music, we are inspired in a general way. We buy lots of CDs, we listen to lots of different stuff. We’ve recently rediscovered James Blake, we missed him out. We listen to electro, classic music and to a lot of piano music. We are interested on artists behind whom there’s a personality with a proper universe, and this also for the movies we watch, for the exhibitions we see and the painting activities we do aside. The thing is that our music came with us and we need to be faithful to what we are. We noticed that by being open and enjoy what’s around us, our life experiences, we have more ideas and our music becomes richer. You don’t have to clam up and withdraw into yourself. For us art is being open and exchanging ideas with other people.

 

Simona @TakeMe2aConcert