Julian: This idea of the lazy wealthy kids from a wealthy family …. No we're not that. On the contrary, we are hard workers, even obsessive. We spend so much time playing and rehearsing in our underground studio, that it can end up becoming silly. During entire days, we don't know if it's day or night. It demands so much work to sound so "unconcerned" and simple.
Albert: Fortunately, there's always our guru with us in studio, JP. He is a musical encyclopedia. So he looked after the whole recording of the album, he was the only one who could find the words to translate our ideas. He is a link between us and our producer, we couldn't understand or be understood by people outside of the group. We use our own language, our own signs, our humor. It's the only way to decide who will be part of our world. We are not many : we fold up more and more with the same friends.
How did you become friends at first?
Julian: Two of us arrived in a private school in Switzerland. I felt I had nothing in common with the others. They were so different from people I knew in New York, they were obsessed by clothes Haut Couture. I missed New York so much, it's really a part of my soul. Meeting Albert was a relief. At last, someone with whom I could talk. There was immediately something, a feeling of complementarity. We talked a lot of music, of our band plans. We gave ourselves 2 years to create a band or to bury this dream. After 2 years, we gave ourselves 2 more years, (laugh).
Albert: We have no secrets between us. Everything has been shared for a year. I know exactly how the ass of the 4 others look like. (laugh). We are so close that our private life nearly doesn't exist. We couldn't even keep a relationship secret: impossible to prevent us telling the others every personal or indelicate details.
Is there in your success a kind of revenge?
Julian: It is a joyful revenge on people to whom I said - or dreamt to say -, when I was 13 or 14, :"One day you'll see and you'll regret it". I knew that one day, I would prove them that I would do something personal and worth-while. Today, we are in magazines and loads of people still look for something bad in us. Nothing changes.
Can we say there is a gang spirit between you?
Nick: It is not really a gang, much more a love story. We sleep together in the same bed (laugh)…From the first rehearsing on, we felt something special happen, something which needed to be looked after and brought up. It was even a bit scared : we didn't expect that, we thought we couldn't do anything interesting. The beauty of it is that we all learned together, from each other.
Albert: It doesn't mean we don't argue, often some very dirty personal stuff. It usually ends in wrestling. We tell the others to fuck off and 30 minutes later, we kiss, we hug as brothers.