AVEC SANS - Have You Ever Rolla Skated

Where are you now and what’s happening?

Jack: Currently at home, covered in paint and sawdust and trying to build a custom wardrobe for my room.

Alice: enjoying some time off by the coast in the UK

Willow: Belgium, making music for an ecosystem restoration camp using recordings I’m making from the environment and it’s structures.

What was the first tune you bought?

Jack: First CD’s I ever bought I got at the same time. Green Day - 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours and Prodigy - Experience. My love for electronic and punk have never faded.

Alice: Alanis Morisette Jagged Little Pill, it felt so anarchic and exciting.

Willow: Marilyn Manson - Portrait of an American Family

Ever held down a proper job?

Jack: I’ve held a proper job most of my life. Being in a band is expensive and being able to afford gear, vans, plane tickets has been invaluable. I’ve always worked in the music industry though which helps!

Alice: like Jack I've always worked creatively alongside music, in music TV and then working with celebrities

Willow: I’ve worked an incredible variety of jobs, my favourite to tell people about is as an Ice-cream truck saleswoman.

If you could go back in time, where would you stop?

Jack: About a week ago where I’d tell myself not to build the wardrobe.

Alice: I'm pretty content here and now.

Willow: 1960’s Harvard University

Bottle of red, bottle of white?

Jack: Red every single time.

Alice: Brown, has to be a spiced-rum based drink for me

Willow: Bottle of white - oat m*lk.

What tune would you happily delete from your back catalogue?

Jack: Not sure I’d be happy to delete anything. Everything which has made the cut on to an album I still feel proud of. If my old bands are included in this question we could have a whole bonfire of tracks to throw on the burn pile.

Alice: It's all a journey, but I definitely wouldn't choose to revisit some things from previous bands

Willow: None, they are all memories of another present moment when we needed to make that piece of music.

Are you currently sober?

Jack: I’m using tools at the moment so no, give it a few hours and the answer will be different.

Alice: Very much so, it's 9am.

Willow: LA sober.

As a superhero, what power would you possess?

Jack: I’ve thought about this and I think I have the ultimate answer… The ability to control air. You could fly, create fire, ice, bubble yourself to breathe underwater or go in to space, crush or suffocate your enemies, control weather. Pretty sure it would be hard to beat. Failing that I’d love the ability to slap bad drivers on the back of the head just with my mind.

Alice: Wow, Jack has REALLY thought about this. I'm an introvert so being invisible would be very handy, I could nope out even more easily. Also, you'd feel safe to travel anywhere/any time – as a woman (sad to say) that would be life-changing.

Willow: The power of infinite compassion.

Canines or felines?

Jack: Canines

Alice: Canines all the way. Dogs are better than us.

Willow: Canines - puppies are clearly the cutest and don’t destroy your being with teeny tiny claws of evil.

Who would play you in a movie?

Jack: Ed Norton?

Alice: Saoirse Ronan - you know it would be good if she took the part

Willow: Ms. Honey in Matilda. I give wholesome vibes.

In three words, how would your best friends describe you?

Jack: Trustworthy, innovative, thoughtful

Alice: Smart, creative, kind

Willow: Compassionate, Honest, Open

Most annoyingly over-used phrase?

Jack: Literally….

Alice: "I love that for you"

Willow: I work on the way I speak so it’s more intuitive and spontaneous, letting go of the comforting familiar tropes of ‘like’ and ‘um’.

Have you ever gone A.W.O.L?

Jack: Only from things like work. I’m pretty dependable and hate the feeling of letting people down.

Alice: yes, but only when I absolutely had to.

Willow: Technologically speaking, all the time! I’m happy to live my life outside the confines of societally imposed constructs and choose to forgo the expectation of immediate contact.

When did you last bounce on a trampoline?

Jack: Last Sunday.

Alice: a couple of months ago

Willow: I honestly can’t remember! It must be years.

Before Stranger Things S4 dropped, had you honestly ever heard of Kate Bush?

Jack: Lol of course! We covered that song back in about 2016? It’s available to stream on our Spotify now.

Alice: She was one of my childhood girl-crushes, when I heard Wuthering Heights for the first time it felt like experiencing witchcraft, I couldn't believe my ears and eyes watching the music video.

Willow: Of course! She’s a cultural, historical musical icon and we actually covered the same song before S4 was ever considered.

At your dream festival, what would your top three headliners be – dead or alive?

Jack: Brutal question. Without thinking too much…. Rage Against The Machine, Fleetwood Mac & Avec Sans ;-)

Alice: The Postal Service, LCD Soundsystem, Sufjan Stevens and if we could join that line-up I'd die happy.

Willow: Golden Vessel, Son Lux, Radiohead.

What’s your pebble skimming record?

Jack: At least 9?

Alice: Zero, they sink, but I can attest that Jack is a skimming champ

Willow: At least 12, most likely over 16.

Worst place you’ve ever slept?

Jack: In my punk band days I’ve slept in a few squats and places where you need to take it in shifts to keep an eye on your kidneys.

Alice: Like Jack I also did some slumming when I was gigging with previous bands, the squat above Nambucca in Holloway was so grim (before it burned down) that I slept in the van. Also, we stayed in this place in the mountains in Italy as Avec Sans and the promoter had inherited it from his grandma and he'd done nothing to it since she died and it was TERRIFYING, it was the best haunted house set you've ever seen. I've watched all the horror films. I slept with the lights on all night and we had to drag a cat out from under the bed before trying to sleep. I barely slept.

Willow: The floor of a house party; cold, no pillow, no covers, transitioning into the hangover state, with only blinks of sleep through the night.

Best place you’ve ever slept?

Jack: Tokyo

Alice: YES agreed, our trip to Tokyo was the best of my life, just like Kate Bush, everything there felt like magic. I've never experienced such a brilliant, creative and imaginative culture.

Willow: Under the Milky Way, nestled in a cup shaped valley on the Spanish side of the Pyrenees. When you look between the stars, there are more stars. Between them? Even more. More and more and more! Everywhere you look.

Have you ever roller skated?

Jack: Heck yes.

Alice: I rollerbladed on Christmas Day when I was 10.

Willow: Of course, blades are for fools, roller rinks forever!