Indie is a shortform of “independence”. Someway, independence means to be yourself as well.
Music of any genre can be labeled “indie” considering that is independent of major producers and record labels. Indie rock – for instance – is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, grunge, riot grrl, emo,shoegaze, etc, being a sub-genre of alternative rock. Looking back to the bands originally labeled alternative rock we find artist such as R.E.M., The Cure, Jane’s Addiction, Nirvana, The Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead, The White Stripes, Muse, etc, bands with their own style, sound and character. Even if we’re looking back to the dawn of the grunge era, the first bands of breakthrough – Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains and Soundgarden – were totally different. Nowadays, unfortunately, indie became synonym with faceless, tasteless, undefined, radio-friendly music. Music? Well, I don’t think so… On the other hand I strongly believe: everybody singing, nobody listening (care and buy). The major labels try to exploit every cash-in possibilities, and while the market visibly restraining, they still over bidding with dumping politics. A Dead Kennedys lyrics from 1985 still haunting me: “The joy and hope of an alternative / Have become its own cliche / A hairstyle’s not a lifestyle / Imagine Sid Vicious at 35 / Who needs a scene / Scared to love and to feel / Judging everything / By loud fast rules appeal / Who played last night? / “I don’t know, I forgot. / But diving off the stage Was a lot of fun.” – and the conclusion is obvious: :”Harder core than thou for a year or two / Then it’s time to get a real job”…
The hardest thing for any single human being is to become himself. And well, for any artist is – or it should be – the only thing that’s really matter: express himself. But while music became business and not what and how we do express matters, but how and how much we managed to sell, music is not even the subject of music business anymore.
Don’t fucking hate me, I hate myself and I hate you better.
Splinn was formed in 2007 by Ben(drummer) and Laurent (guitar/vocals) and after recorded their first demo, bass player Romain join the band.
They entered one of the biggest french live contest “Fallenfest”. They reached the final and played famous Paris venues like La Boule Noire, Le Nouveau Casino, La Cigale, etc.
In 2009 they recorded their first EP and gave other gigs around Paris. French radios ouï fm and virgin radio played some of their songs in various young talent competitions.
Recorded last summer at Sainte MArthe with Guillaume Mauduit, their debut album was released on the 11th of March 2011.
We’ve got 10 tracks, somewhere between hard rock and post-metal, between indie rock and post-grunge. Most of their compositions are slow, gloomy and express a sort of sadness, desperation. Mainly they juggling between Silverchair and A Perfect Circle, but they haven’t yet the subtlety of Tool’s vocalist Maynard James Keenan. Still, they have a few interesting moments, some rock explosions and intense turns, but looking at the whole picture, “Becoming Ourselves” is pretty linear, exploring exclusively one dimension, following only one pattern.
For a first step in finding and defining themselves it’s ok, but still, there’s a long and hard road to go.
