Les Fleurs Du Mal

A hot new prospect in goth rock, the project of two brothers from Stockholm, Les Fleurs Du Mal. We ask a few questions to the mastermind of the band, Axel Grim.

First of all, tell us about the band and how it was created.
It all started two years ago in Stockholm, Sweden. I was having a really bad time struggling with personal problems and more economically structural ones. Writing lyrics and music became a way to survive and putting words on bad feelings.The band consists of me and my brother August Grim.Together we put my own fragments into understandable sinister pop songs driven by guitar riffs and a throbbing industrial beat, which is a complicated way of saying drum machine. Live we are also joined by musicians Jorgen Oscarsson on bass and Erik Lazaroff on guitar.

Les Fleurs Du Mal: a milestone for symbolists and modernists by Charles Baudelaire. How come you named your band after it?
Me and old Charles share themes and neither of us believe that the world is all hunky dory as some want us to think. But to be honest the name actually derives from a book by swedish author Klas Ostergren, a hero I/m still struggling not to idealize. I/ve almost run out of heroes by now. I can/t afford idolizing people I look upto. To accept that you can actually be an arsehole and still create beautiful and brilliant things follows that I can actually appreciate upper class twats like Baudelaire. Besides the phrase Les Fleurs du Mal or the flowers of evil is so damn good and multilayered. It coincides with my dialectic way of looking upon humanity; even bad things, in itself, carry the seed of it/s own destruction. A seed that grows out of evil into a flower and push progression into good further.This way of looking at the flower as a symbol of good things and friendship is also present in the bands emblem.

You have recently released your first EP. Tell us about it.
Les Fleurs du Mal: I is a concept EP, the first in a trilogy. This first one deals with being lost, disoriented and haunted by phantoms of ones past. It also deals with the constant feeling of wanting to escape. In a world where being happy and successful is the only way to be and where the majority who are neither have to fake it or be cast out, the darkness outside the spotlight is a sanctuary from being exposed as a nobody. It is escapism in its prime. But it is still not very progressive. It only leeds furher astray. It/s rather human though.

The term "goth" has evolved through the years. Nowadays,it contains metal bands (often with female vocals), bands that rely more on electronic equipment etc. Practically, it has mingled with most genres, creating new subgenres. What is your opinion on all these bands? Do you like them or do you prefer the classic '80s stuff?
It/s true I/m not very much into the goth metal or vampire dark wave stuff. I/m a rocker myself. But I think I could listen to these bands if they had something to say and  stopped tpretending to be something they are not, vampires for example. But if you growl your lyrics I guess it doesn/t really matter what you say. I like the female singers though.

Goth music usually comes with its own excessive lifestyle and dresscode. Do you follow it or do you just enjoy the music?
I seldom wear corsets or my loose fangs and I almost never wear high heels and top hats, but I tend to be dressed in black. Regarding lifestyle, I/m not really sure what that is. I get up in the morning, go to work and at weekends I get drunk and noisy, maybe that parts a bit excessive. In the gaps of these activities I also try to make music, but that/s something I just have to do.

In your music, influences from bands that defined goth are obvious, especially from The Sisters Of Mercy and their defining album "First And Last And Always". Do your songs pay tribute to such bands?
If you mean royalties for the things we knock off our heroes, we don/t. However we don/t try to hide our musical inheritance. We would like to see ourselves as part of the goth rock genre, but we try to add something of our own.Something a bit more modern, I guess. But that/s all my brothers fault.

Are you worried that this music style seems and sounds a bit out-of-fashion?
No, not really. I don/t think it sounds out of date. I thing it sounds fresh, courtesy of my brother August, but of course firmly growing from the roots of goth rock.Building on old foundations is just wise. It makes the structure more stable, but that/s just a person without originality speaking of course. But then again if some people don/t like it, that/s alright by me. They can just as well listen to Metallica. It doesn/t bother me. And when they get tired of Justin Timberlake and want meaning,they/re welcome back.

The next question is a bit irrelevant, but I will give it a try: You come from Sweden, so you are lucky enough to not fully live through the effects of the financial crisis that the rest of Europe is suffering from. This crisis has affected all forms of art and of course music as well. Do you think that your compatriots have now been justified for rejecting the euro currency?
Even though we have been spared from the worst effects of the financial crisis, in sweden the companies and government has still used the crisis as an excuse to increase the thievery from common people.Now, in most countries they have been more effective in turning their own economic crisis on the people who has nothing to do with it. The people who doesn/t benefit from their economic system and then has to bail out the banks and companies out, with lost jobs, wage cuts and lessened social security. Even though sweden/s economy didn/t collapse in the same degree as for example greece, the people who command our lives has halted wage increases. In their economy this means actual wage cuts. They have also continued to transfer money from public service into the pockets of the rich.The swedish membership in the EMU is just a matter of time.When the vote was negative to joining, the politicians said this themselves. I don/t like neither the EMU, nor the European Union. I like european or global unity, but on the basis of working people. This is a union for business men,banks and capitalists.

Final question: Are there any plans for the release of a full-length album and how do you plan on promoting your material?
We are working on a full lenght album at the moment. But we are also trying to go out gigging and we are looking at the european countries trying to put something of a tour together. So if you want us to play near you and organize gigs please get in touch through our website. To the readers and creators of this site: Thanks for keeping goth rock and serious music alive. Keep up the good work!

D.Damien 

(photo by Jose Figueroa)