Interviews: Bikinis & Icecream

In this new occassion we have had the opportunity to interview the Pop Punk band Bikinis & Icecream, from France. Check out this band and give them a like on their FACEBOOK PAGE.

1.Where did you get the idea for the band name, you planned it or came out just like that? 

It was maybe ten years ago, in 2006. We were hanging out, drinking beers and searching for a band name. We were deep in californian punk rock, Blink, New Found Glory, NoFX, Sum41 at this time. It was summer, it was hot and we were joking about all the american clichés we saw in the music videos of this kind of music : big party with pool full of drunk kids, springbreak, girls, boobs, fun and American Pie...and finaly we said : Bikinis & Icecream ! (hidden sense : Bikinis and I scream !) A good summary of our state of mind at this moment.

Maybe now 10 years after it sounds a bit puerile but we still like it.

2.Why did you want to play this genre? 

Mat: Even if I listen more violent music as metal or hardcore  I've always been found of punk rock. It's a melodic, catchy, happy, speed, energizing style of music that put you in a good mood for a journey. And beyond the basic lines, we can express a lot of different feelings in this music and explore various musical variations.

Flo: Punk rock meant freedom and american dream when we were young...

And i think we want to keep a part of our childhood alive... a kind of Peter Pan syndrome in a Way for us who have cross thirty.

3. Did you know each other before the band was formed? 

Mat: Yes, Flo and I are childhood friends, since school. We played GiJo then wrote our first songs together. We firstly played a lot of metal, then discovering punkrock and tryed to make a band in this style. We played with many differents members but never really managed to form the band. So we decided to record our songs by our way just with Flo and later find the good musicians for live. When we play live we now play with a friend called Jean at drums, that I met at the highschool, we used to party and played a lot of music together : ska, raggae, rock, electro and hiphop and we sti. For the bass, we play with Sylvain, that I met at the sametime as Jean while skateboarding. We played together in the 90s in a nu-metal, hardcore band. It was the good old time...

Flo: Mat is like a grand brother for me. I know him almost since we ´re born. He ´s older than me and I've always wanted to follow him in his creative way..

He can do anything, drawing, playing guitar, drums, bass...Recording our cd's...;) When he told me to start this adventure, i said yes right away!! It was a kind of honor and this is still the case today.

4. Each band member favourite band? 

Mat: Definitly Blink-182. I love this band since almost 15 years for its music, for the band members, their attitude and their side projects : AvA, +44, BoxCarRacer, the amazing Travis drums style, all the Tom Delonge transmedia projects. It's really an incredible band in live, and in the studio, they manage to cross the years, not without breakup but by making their music evolving but staying with a same DNA. 

Flo: I have to say Blink too..This band was at the origin of my Will to do rock songs...  Of course there are many others like Angels and Airwaves, New Found Glory, but also 30 Seconds to Mars, Silverchair, A day to remember... I hope that our models could hear what we´ve done one day...and maybe appreciate it of course...

5. Who or what inspires you to write songs? 

Mat: Even if our band name can sound funny and the punk style usualy connotate with an easy writting, we always give a big importance to the lyrics. We speak about the sense of life, the fadding youth, friendship, the time that passing by and how not to waste our time in this world...and also death, love and all the things that really matter to us,

Flo: I think that our lyrics mean a lot for us... As Mat said, we want to make sense in our music.. And we share the same values since we´re kids. So we speak about hope, fears, all the contradictions which makes us human beings... and  searching is endless...

6. Where was your last gig? 

As we all live in different french cities, we don't do a lot of live show  but we are currently trying to do more reahearsales to do more live in the futur because we wanna go out of the studio now. But the last gig we made was in a big party with in south of France, it was really cool. You can see it here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4x9Eym9YbE 

7. Where would you like to act? 

Mat: There are a lots of cool places in Paris (Le Point Ephemere, l'espace B), in Nîmes (Le Spot, Paloma) or in Montpellier where we would like to play. Or abroad of course, touring might be an amazing thing. We would be happy to play everywhere we can, and especially if its at the Coachella Festival ;)

Flo: when we started to play together, we always dreamed to play in Bataclan.. and since those terrible events 2 years ago in Paris, that has more sense.. Even thougt i know it's dream, all our adventure begun from a dream... so.. who knows..?

8. Whom would you like to feature with? 

Mat: With a Blink member ? We can dream...

Flo: With all blink members!! And Jared Leto, or Daniel John...May i dream too?

9. Whom not? 

Mat: Nobody, all featuring could be a great experience.

J: Everyone should play together!

10. Any of you has ever suffered from stage fright? Any tip for beginners on how to beat that? 

Mat: With this band or our previous band its always the same things, few second before going on stage you feel very a strange anxiety but as soon as you go on stage and start playing...this fear go away and you enjoy the moment.

Any tips ? Have few drink to be in good mood before (but don't play drunk) and enjoy.

Flo: I have the same feeling... it' s  like when you ´re climbing or riding à steep hill.. you always doubt until you dash...And when you start, you just want it never ends.

11. What bands have inspired you the most? 

Mat: Blink182, Angels and Airwaves, Box Car Racer, + 44, New Found glory, NOFX, Sum41, Simple Plan and Seven Hate or Burning Heads in France !

Flo: No doubt that Tom Mark and Travis, in their different bands, inspired us the most!!

12. What's the weirdest thing a fan has ever asked you for? 

Mat: Nothing, we don't have big problems with fan for the moment ;)

Flo: I would like to say that there are so much weirdest things that we can't remember... but unfortunately not...;)

13. What do you think of your fans? 

Mat: We thanks them a lot for listening or music, supporting, by buying or CD. We would like to give them soon new EP or albums with a better sound and of course see them happy in our lives very soon.

Flow: The best gift is to share a live with mal of them.. and even more..

14. Something to add?

We are a fully autoptoduced band, we record and produce our music by our own way, after our side job and family obligation. We are not professionnal producers, so we know our sound is not perfect and could be better if we could have more time and money. but we make it throught the years with passion and friendship and we do our best. We try TO STAY TRUE.