Q&A With Burgeoning French Band Bare Teeth Ahead of Apr 15 School Bar Gig

Burgeoning Lille, France band Bare Teeth is sure to not only pummel the crowd to blissful senselessness with its brashly raw rhythms at its Apr 15 School Bar gig. They'll also get those attendees thinking about the big questions in life with the lyrics for their surprisingly nuanced songs like “Parted Ways,” which details the age old punk dilemma: stay true to your skatepark, mosh pit roots or "grow up and getting a real job” as Bare Teeth puts it. Below Greg Legarand, their guitarist, tells us more. 

How did you guys form and get your start as a band?
Back in September 2014 Titouan, our guitarist, just arrived in Lille and only knew one person here: a music promoter and radio show host who is a friend of mine. He gave Titouan my phone number. At the time, I didn't have a band anymore and was really interested in starting a new one. We met and jammed together and it went well, so we decided to start Bare Teeth and my prior band's bass player, Jay Jay, eventually joined.

We then had two drummers who didn't stay in the band. Then our permanent drummer, Jerome, joined a few months later. We started doing shows pretty quickly. In March 2016, Jay Jay left the band and Tom took on bass duty a few months later to record our album First the Town, Then the World. Since then, we played many shows across Europe like France, Belgium, Germany, the UK, and Italy. Now we're heading to Japan and China.

What is the music scene like in Lille, France? 
We have quite an active punk and hardcore scene in Lille, with lots of bands and small DIY labels. Punk and hardcore are not a very big trend in France, but they're deeply rooted and there are dedicated fans of these kinds of music. We mostly do small shows, 50 to 100 people, but sometimes we have some good opportunities. For example, we opened for Tagada Jones [a very big French hardcore/punk act] in a 1000-people venue in November 2017, and the show was sold out.

We also have ties with the metal scene, which is usually bigger than the hardcore/punk one, but it used to be bigger a few years ago. Because of neighborhood complaints, we have less and less venues to play at now, but we still have some good ones.

What other genres are popular there?
Indie rock, hiphop and electro stuff are all very popular in Lille, but we don't see these people very much. A very famous French artist, Mat Bastard, is from Lille. Olive, my former bandmate in Fast Motion plays with him live. Maybe someday we will open for Mat, but he is very busy!

On a nationwide basis, almost all the big punk/rock shows take place in Paris and we can jump on the bill sometimes, as we know the promoters. But touring in France is quite expensive, because of highway tolls, so it's easier for us to tour in Belgium, the UK, Netherlands or Germany. In these countries, punk and hardcore are more trendy so it's also easier to get shows. However, there are some good bands everywhere, like Not Scientists, Raincheck, and Straightaway. 

In another recent interview you said your song "Parted Ways," was inspired by a friend of yours who "grew up" so to speak, and stopped skating and going to punk shows to focus on his career. You went on to say "Speaking for myself, I'm 36 and have a baby, but I can't imagine my life without playing music and going on tour...even if I don't skate anymore!" Can you tell us more about why it's important for you to stay so young at heart?
Well, maybe I'm afraid to get old and bitter if I stop what I love to do. When my old band Fast Motion disbanded- mostly because I got bored in sustaining the band- I was 30 years old and I thought that time was running out before I felt too old to tour and play. Thankfully I'm now 37, and I'm still around and I don't have any plans to stop.

The guy who “Parted Ways” is about was my best friend for years. He introduced me to punk, as I only knew Green Day at that time. I couldn't imagine that he could quit skating and playing music and I thought that he would play in bands forever. So I was quite disillusioned when he did it to focus on his job and the friends he had in common with his girlfriend.

Playing in a band is quite a big job for me, as I have to care about many things and my current bandmates don't have the network or the experience I have. But it's mostly fun. Going on tour makes you meet other people, other cultures and opens your mind. Why would I stop if we are all still having fun and people are interested in seeing us play?

Bare Teeth will perform at School Bar on Apr 15. For more information, click here.

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Email: kylemullin@truerun.com
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Photos: punknormalactivity.com, courtesy of the band