YOUR FAVORITE ENEMIES: FREEDOM OF SPEECH (INTERVIEW) Most bands become famous after releasing an album on a major label. Others win fans with the sweat of their brows by touring continually for years. A few others, thanks to the magic of Internet, stir up interest from fans from all around the world without having released even one album. It’s the case with the Montreal band Your Favorite Enemies. Showbizz.net spoke with Alex Foster, singer of this committed band. Your Favorite Enemies was founded in 2006. In April 2007, they set up their own record label, Hopeful Tragedy Records. In June 2007, they released a self-produced 5 songs EP to answer the demand of their fans: “And If I Was To Die In The Morning… Would I Still Be Sleeping With You”. The band offers a melodic alternative rock. Besides Foster, the band is comprised of Jeff Beaulieu (guitar), Sef (guitar), Ben Lemelin (bass), Miss Isabel (voice and keyboard) and Charles Allicy (drums). Since, the Montreal musicians toured in Europe. Beaulieu took part in the latest edition of the MIDEM in Cannes and as for Foster, he met with their Japanese fans. YFE has also been named one of the 5 bands to watch out for in 2008 by Billboard. In a phone interview, Foster is very nice and very talkative. We will discuss for almost an hour whereas most long distance interviews with artists do not go for more than 15 minutes. We deal with a man faithful to his beliefs and with a band that wouldn’t agree to anything to obtain fame and wealth. Concerning the laudatory comments from the Billboard, Foster tells an anecdote that represents well the power of the medias. On the phone with his father, he had told him the good news. His father had simply answered, “It’s fun,” says the singer! Afterwards, the man read a paragraph in the Journal de Montréal on the same subject. He then called back, crazy as can be! The EP “We did our EP a little because of fans’ demands. We were already working on our album. People that were looking for our material were calling some retailers or distributors. There was a real craze. It was not only our friends calling,” says Foster. He qualifies this EP as a “collage” and “an introduction to the band to please” the admirers. According to him, the sound of the EP is not the real YFE sound. Thanks to the magic of Internet and MySpace, Your Favorite Enemies can count on the support of fans from the four corners of the world. If this band had gone through the normal distribution channels to deliver their 5 songs EP overseas, “it would have cost $45 in Australia and Japan. It’s absurd. We weren’t going to let such a thing happen. It’s improper and we felt a profound uneasiness,” recounts the singer. Therefore, the band decided to offer this EP at the universal price of $10, shipping and handling included. From Montreal to Tokyo, everyone would pay the same amount to get it. The few profits made with the sales of the CD were reinvested in sending it to communities where the fans could not afford it. YFE’s entourage thought the musicians had lost their mind but the experience proved to be fruitful. “In less than six months, we had sold more than 30,000 copies,” says Foster. Nonetheless, the five guys and the girl of the group became aware that their initiative required a lot of work. They had to see to the shipping with friends and members of their entourage! The task was big. This year, the band would love to release two full-length albums: one will be released in the Spring and another would come out in Autumn. “We have our own studio. We are well organized. We will take the time that is necessary” to prepare the next album according to the musician. The commitment towards the fans According to Foster, the band cares first and foremost about their commitment to their audience and the respect of their fans. “At the beginning, we told ourselves that we would answer each person that would write us,” he says. The word of mouth made its way and the band broadened their audience. “The music served as an introduction to the band,” the singer explains. To him, Your Favorite Enemies is not only a band, it’s like an entity with a social calling that notably supports several causes and organisms like Amnesty International. On the band’s Internet blog, certain heavy themes like sexual abuses are addressed. Are also received testimonies of people who desire to confide. “People in the music industry are interested in the number of copies an album has sold. What we are interested in and consider a success is to enable the silence and isolation to be broken,” states Foster, who studied in social work. “When the music will fade, something will remain,” adds the artist. The fans of Your Favorite Enemies meet and organize events. They travel to see the band. Parents come with their kids to the concerts. “Everywhere we go, it’s like a big family reunion,” says Foster. The singer recounts that he was talking with an older journalist who was comparing the phenomenon to that of the Deadheads, these fans of the Grateful Dead who would gather together as a community and follow the band on tour. The music industry According to him, bands are often “the flavor of the month” and a little like a “trinket” we offer as promotion in fast food restaurants. To survive, they will provide more than the customers ask for. The band doesn’t have a manager as such. Nonetheless, they can count on a solid team to support them, among which are a lawyer and booking agencies for the shows. They notably deal with The Agency Group that counts in its ranks artists as diverse as Pink Floyd, Dio and Malajube without forgetting The Stills or Sum 41. The band also deals with an important English firm (Helter Skelter) for their shows in Europe and Japan. “When a band experiences a form of success, some people want to take it as their own. We have to be alert and readjust the shot,” he says. “We are privileged. We work with people who love music and respect our approach.” “In Quebec, Jeff knows Eduardo Da Costa (Marie-Chantal Toupin). He’s never asked us anything but told us that if we ever need it, (he’d be there),” adds Foster. For the singer, such helping hands are refreshing. Some could promise the band to be the next big stars “in exchange for my soul and the grandchildren I might have one day,” recounts the singer. YFE prefers keeping its independence rather than sacrificing himself to the hotel of the majors. For Foster, it is important to determine what success is for a band. Everyone has it’s own different perspectives. He wishes to not let himself be blinded or seduced by the bad sides of celebrity and the sacrosanct figures (album sales, tour incomes, etc.) the industry boasts. In spite of his social sensibility and his standards, it’s sometimes necessary to play tough in the industry. “In a band, you need a (solid) shell but the fragile glass heart must stay intact and be protected. The entertainment universe, it’s a contact sport,” he states. “The industry is tough.” The projects On February 28th, the band will give a concert at the Petit Campus de Montréal as part of the global event Love Music Hate Racism, to counter racism and the rise of the extreme right. No prior edition had taken place in Montreal. University students thus decided to organize a show and approached Your Favorite Enemies to participate. The approach delights Foster. He is glad that students and not promoters carry it. This show will give the kick-off to a big weekend that will enable the group and the fans to meet. The French magazine Rock One notably organized a contest open to the fans in certain European countries to enable one lucky winner to come to Montreal and spend the weekend with Your Favorite Enemies. “Everyone who wants to be there is welcomed. It will be a huge happening. We know that people from Japan, Australia, England and Quebec will be there,” says the singer. During the weekend, the group will film the music video for the song “Open Your Eyes”. They will also broadcast interviews and images on the Internet, and so much more. YFE will partake in the next edition of the South by Southwest Festival in Texas in March. They will give a concert as part of the “M for Montreal” event. They will also play at a show organized by an independent record label. “We do not work with them but they invited us and we said yes,” explains Foster. In the same month, they will also play as part of the Canadian Music Week in Toronto. The band wants to further develop it’s website and offer more to their audience thanks to new technologies. Without falling into reality TV, Foster mentions the possibility of showing the band’s recording sessions on the Internet. They also wish to give a series of concerts in China, country where human rights are overridden. So many twists and turns for a band that doesn’t even have a full-length album on the market! |
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ROCK FOR AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL Between the record label tents and those of the featured bands, the Warped Tour has always found a way to leave a small place for the non governmental organizations on their site. The Rock N Rights movement, founded by the singer of the Montreal band Your Favorite Enemies, were there yesterday to explain their actions to the music lovers. As part of a campaign undertaken by the organization with Amnesty International, the people of Rock N Rights walked-around the site dressed with orange jumpsuits worn by some prisoners around the world. Moreover, Your Favorite Enemies, who plays powerful and melodic rock, have been invited to give their first concert in Montreal on the Warped Tour stage. On a small stage right next to a skateboard ramp, the band left a great first impression in the mind of the music-lovers. It’s a shame that the sound of Hawthorne Heights, who were playing on the main stage a couple of meters away, was louder at times than that of Your Favorite Enemies in the first minutes of the show… We can’t wait to see what’s next.
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Your Favorite Enemies ON A GREAT SCALE Interview A simple glance at the road covered by Your Favorite Enemies in the last two years is enough to think that the Montreal sextet is entirely made of marketing geniuses. “There are record labels who want to pay us to show them what we did to get here! exclaims Alex Foster, the singer of the band. The short story of Your Favorite Enemies might have started more than 8 years ago, but it’s in 2005 – and after two name changes (The Riddlers and In This Life) – that the band took off for real. After signing with Luthala Management, one of the most important management company in the country, Alex and his gang began working on their first album with producer Steve Thompson (Metallica, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Madonna). However, it is their activities outside of every corporative molds that caught the eye of the record industry giants. Same time last year, the six musicians were discovering the MySpace phenomena. As we speak, the band has thousands of fans from all over the world: from Washington to Tokyo, going through Berlin and Toronto. “We started it all a little naively, confesses Alex. The only thing that we told ourselves was that we’d answer every person who’d take the time to write us. All we wanted was to build bridges between our fans, because in our time, people tend to do their things isolated from each other.” Therefore, it is in a community spirit that the rockers threw themselves in this Internet adventure. Doing everything that had to be done to answer their fervent admirers in their native tongue, they saw their fan base grow day after day. It’s to thank their fans for their support that the members of Your Favorite Enemies decided to produce, record and distribute themselves an EP titled And If I Was to Die in the Morning Would I Still be Sleeping With You. Since its launch in June, the album has sold more than 10,000 copies. Montreal towards the world With shows scheduled in England, France and Germany in the course of the next few months, Your Favorite Enemies has just added its name to the ever-growing list of Montreal bands becoming popular abroad. In the eyes of Alex Foster, the cultural wealth and diversity of Montreal, Quebec’s metropolis, would explain why the Patrick Watson, Malajube and Arcade Fire of this world distinguish themselves as much outside the country. “The Montreal scene is so eclectic, explains Alex. In England, people are fascinated by what is happening here. They ask themselves how we succeed in living in harmony with all these different cultural differences that rub elbows with each other.” “But the Montreal scene has always flourished, Alex carries on. The bands that have been playing here have always been in advance on the popular music genres. And since the bands that express themselves in English never really had a support as strong as the one given to those who express themselves in French, from subventions and the medias, the musicians might have focused more on the music for what it is instead of trying to fit into a more commercial mold made for the French market. Because we know that here, for years, the consecration for a Quebec artist, was to establish himself in France.” Beyond the music The members of Your Favorite Enemies have always been involved in humanitarian causes. Ex social worker, the singer of the band, Alex Foster, has, for that matter, given several conferences in schools everywhere in Quebec to promote open-mindedness. Today, he pursues his work with Amnesty International. “We tell ourselves that once our music will have faded, we’ll have left our trace in other ways”, indicates Alex. |
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BONDS ON THE WEB Rarely has a music group generated as much buzz before having even one album under their belt, as it is the case with Quebec band Your Favorite Enemies, who experience an international success, for the most part thanks to the magic of the Internet. Philippe Renault After turning a lot of heads, first on Myspace, then by winning an important popularity contest in a UK radio station last March, the craze does not cease to grow. Offers from major record labels pour in, fan communities have been formed in a dozen countries, on top of which the band, who starts a European tour in September, have already 30 000 friends on Myspace. Alex Foster, Miss Isabel, Sef Lemelin, Jeff Beaulieu, Ben Lemelin, Charles Allicy even succeeded in attracting in their region of Varennes, the renowned producer Steve Thompson, who has worked with Metallica, Simple Plan, Madonna, Red Hot Chili Peppers, David Bowie and the Rolling Stones, to record their first album, that should come out next September. A FRUITFUL FIRST TRY Moreover, the young rock alternative formation has had the chance to get the feel of the music market by launching a five songs EP on June 1st. Without any promotion or support from distributors or record labels, close to 10 000 copies were sold in only a month. “We’d never expected that it would take such proportions!” said Jeff. “The people in the industry were saying that we’d fail. A lot of record labels put pressure on us to sign with them, saying that, if we failed, it would be the proof that we were just a buzz. Strangely, these same people now ask us what’s our marketing strategy, but we don’t have a marketing strategy!” tells Alex. AFFORDABLE COST As a matter of fact, this initiative to do all by themselves has only one goal: to sell at an affordable cost, no matter where the buyer is on the planet. “We had calculated with labels that, the Japanese would have had to pay $42 for each 5 songs EP. We wanted to sell it everywhere at the cost of $10 Canadian. It’s our way of saying thank you. Our goal is not to make money since we make about $1 for each EP, that we give to the organism To Write Love On Her Arms”, carries on Alex, who is also spokesperson for Amnesty International. As for it’s full-length album, the band will rely on big players in the music industry for the marketing, but it is out of the question to sign anything before the recording is over, in order to keep their total musical independence. SOLID BONDS Beyond the music, the success of Your Favorite Enemies lies, for the most part, on the ability of the band in establishing solid bonds with their fans. “The fans are a part of the communities all over the world, and each member of the band takes care of them personally. Japan has been the first community to appear and it’s me who takes care of it. We developed relations and they share with us their preoccupations. It becomes a refuge to express themselves”, explains the singer, Alex Foster. This bond is so strong that Yoshimi Odaira and Ryunosuke Sudou, two fans from the land of the Rising Sun, have travelled to Varennes recently and stayed in the house of the band members for a week. “When I listened to the band for the first time, I was impressed. And contrary to the others, they don’t do that for promotion. They care about people. I was surprised to receive long and personalized messages from them. They bring hope. I now want to make it possible for others in Japan who suffer from solitude to experience what I felt while listening to them. They can help them. What’s more, their music is good!” utters Yoshimi Odaira, who even took advantage of her stay in Quebec to have the band’s name tattooed. To discover Your Favorite Enemies, go to www.yourfavoriteenemies.com |
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They have more than 20 Street Teams Worldwide A European Tour For Your Favorite Great visitors were in Varennes last week, as two Japanese visitors dropped by to say hello to the members of Your Favourite Enemies and their entourage. They are, Ryunosuke Sudou, DJ in a hip Tokyo bar and who loves to expose the Tokyo youth to the bands music every chance he gets and Yoshimi Odaira, who works in a production house and she loves the Enemies so much that she had their names tattooed during her trip to Varennes by our friend Bony from Dermo Grif. The symbolism is even more important when one knows the sacred link Japanese have with tattoo art. Our two visitors from the land of the Rising Sun are part of a group of fans who get together every Sunday to receive news of the band composed of Alex Foster, Miss Isabel, Ben Lemelin, Stephan Lemelin, Jeff Beaulieu and Charles Allicy. Getting together every Sunday? What an odd religion? “They are part of our Street Teams who promote the band within their circles of friends, their acquaintances. They wanted to see us face to face, see what we were doing,” explains Jeff, as all is buzzing around him in the old garage transformed into a chatting room. “ We have about 20 Street Teams throughout the world, we have some in England, Germany, France, Canada, of course, United States, Brazil, Turkey, China, Australia, Chile, Argentinia, Spain… Wait, am I forgetting some? Ah yes!!! Japan, of course, it was our first Street Team” Close to 2 million visitors It has to be said that the fans of the Varennes band have literally exploded in a short time because the YFE site, on MySpace.com, has surpassed 1.6 million visitors and the numbers keep climbing ( NDLR: Go check it out for yourself at Thanks to the pressure put on by their numerous Street Teams and their admirers, the band is now assured to go to Europe for a tour this fall, in September and October, in fact with lay overs in London, Paris, Berlin, Cologne and Amsterdam. This will be a great opportunity for YFE to present themselves in a showcase in front of a group of producers who will be able to see the band in action, before making any sort of propositions. But before leaving for the old world, the Boyz ( and Girl) would like to give a show in Montreal before leaving for their European Tour, a project which is now being discussed. IN the meantime, the band is not lacking work because the album production is half done. Steve Thompson, who is working on this project, in the basement, with the group since April, has finished the rhythm sections and is now concentrating on the voices and melodies to be added. In August, the internationally renown producer, who has worked with numerous artists such as Simple Plan, Madonna, Metallica, Korn, Duran Duran, Guns’n Roses, Tears For Fears, David Bowie, The Rolling Stones, just to name a few, he will be going to Toronto for a while in order to mix the whole, possibly accompanied by Ben Lemelin known as “The Ear”. If all goes well, the album should come out in a few months, in early 2008. In the meantime, a 5 song EP has been available since June 1st on their website, at the cost of 10$ a dollar of which goes to the non profit organisation: To Write Love on Her Arms.. It contains new material that will be found on the album in production, as well as songs already recorded by the quintet. A little something to help you wait for the release of the new album… which should make noise! |
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For the launch of their first EP, on the 1st of June 2007, we went to meet Alex Foster, with the help of the phone, songwriter and composer of the band Your Favorite Enemies. A passionate, generous and sensitive man… A perfect man will you say. To which I will answer that perfection does not exist. He is only a man who makes mistakes, up to now nothing unusual, but who recognizes it, and that is rare. A surprise and looked-for EP Then immersed in the creation and recording of the first album, the public of Your Favorite Enemies, impatient to hear them, long-asked the band to enable them to have a foretaste of their sound. And after months of questioning regarding this project, they decided to offer this famous EP that is not, as specified by Alex: “A common means of promotion. We took our time, extensively thought on the manner that we wanted to do things […] We did not want the people to have an outrageous price to pay simply because it was their desire to have it. That is why we created our own independent record company for the EP. We developed our own distribution network with an online store. The EP is then sold for $ 10.00 worldwide. For the people close to us, it was still like a financial suicide!” It is a successful gamble and at the same time a thumb of the nose at the music industry. The EP is a total success, the public is won over. And that is what counts for the band who makes of the human aspect of music, the most important one. Long-desired by record labels that smell the good deal, they chose to take their time to know the people, to surround themselves with a faithful and sincere team, no matter the importance, reputation of the company, as long as it understands the band and lets it stay as it is. “We wanted to send out a positive message through this album, explains Alex. We make almost no profit off it and the little we make is given to a charity work. Our public feels respected that way and we do what we love to do. It’s a little our image, to do things ourselves, while respecting who we are and in the highest respect of those who support us also.” Here is the proof that remaining uncorrupted and be successful do not inevitably oppose each other. The sequel… An album. Produced by Steve Thompson in their own recording studio, Your Favorite Enemies keep that “do it yourself” side to their upcoming album but also the possibility to decide what they do. Alex emphasizes: “It is out of the question to say that thanks to that, we have the power to negociate but it gives us the possibility to go where we want to. Besides, we do not consider any offer, any contract as long as the album is not completed. We do not put more importance to being signed with a major than with an independent label. We just have to be okay in a team that understands what we do, without necessarily sharing in our vision but only by giving us the necessary resources to enable us to do what we want. I work with Ben, the band’s bass player and excellent producer. We have high hopes regarding that album. It is not a matter of success, of billboards, of sales because the heart of the project is to be true in the emotions… The image of who we are…” Of course, there is always a question of money, the record labels ask for it, and it’s normal after all, but Your Favorite Enemies made the choice to favour the relations, accompanied by their team. And it is moreover this humanism that will show through, as much for the already released EP as for the upcoming album at the end of 2007, a way for them to portray the world through the life of each of the 6 members but also of the people they meet. It is, for that matter, the story of Left Behind, a committed piece that reminds people not to stop believing, to keep on fighting. Inspired by the story of a refugee friend who shared their lives. Alex, stirred, narrates: “In the face of the reality of this friend, I had the sensation that all these people who let down, who felt totally alienated from this world were crying from their heart. When we are together, in heartfelt unity, change can happen but it needs to take place in us. The people in power will take advantage of this despair to succeed in what they want, to such an extent that we would be nothing more than dust under their feet. My friend said: “There is no weapon to stop a sandstorm. We won’t be stopped if we are together.” For me, it marked a change in my way of writing. Usually, I start with the person whereas now, it’s a collective look. That this friend ceased to believe sowed in me an emotion I needed to share. It’s a little as an open letter to this friend, in the face of whom I did not dare say a word.” The past shapes the present “My father was an alcoholic and my mother was depressive because of it. We were moving often because of our humble situation, which resulted in plunging me into a great solitude. I didn’t make friends, I was more the whipping boy.” This story is Alex’s story. And while some found refuge in artificial paradises, he immersed himself in music and books, alone and captive of a world, imaginary and, most of all, foreign to his suffering. Following his encounter with an older man at his usual record shop, he listened to a racist album, the man revealing himself to be a skinhead. They meet every week and a bond is created. “It was a rather new phenomenon in Montreal, even if I had seen that he was different in his hairdo, his clothes, his speech… However, it was so unusual for me to be considered. For the first time in my life, someone cared about me. It didn’t matter what his uniform or ideology were, what his motives were, I had hoped for that for years […] This frailty has made of me someone really committed. He trained me, became the father who had always failed me. It was not first and foremost for the ideology but for the affection. I rapidly became a leader. I’d go look for people who were in the same conditions as me, weak and alone. I knew how they would respond because I was like them.” This is the beginning of the end for Alex who had become a leader in a neo nazi group, one of the most powerful, of whom we were afraid, living a reckless life, suicidal in every action… And when he decided to put behind him this past after 5 years of suffering and violence, it’s his life that topples over. Under the knife, he takes the risk to leave but refuses to promise not to say anything about his past. “The price to pay to be loved had become too high. My father had defeated his demons, my parents were once again happy together… It was my turn to take action.” First of all, he takes a break, imposed by the members of this group, and after a month of reflection, he decides that things must be different. After 2 years of depression, an English teacher at his university teaches him but also opens doors for him to have a new life. Alex refers to his past for the first time with a generous man who had taught children in Zaire. Guilt in the face of his actions, towards the people he has abandoned irregardless, he works on himself while accepting to pay the price. A people person irregardless, even in the most extreme of situation, he favours this side of himself, to go towards others to believe together. He meets the members of Your Favorite Enemies, previously In This Life and founds Rock’n’Rights with Jeff Beaulieu, the band’s guitar player, after discovering the human misery and despair, to make music out of his message of love and hope. This is what Your Favorite Enemies are: A heavy past that generates a never ending generosity. Spokesperson of a generation that suffers and of which they are a part, each member wants to believe it and help the others to believe it too. The path will be long but promises beautiful things: a European tour is scheduled, with a transit in Paris on October 2nd 2007, as well as in Germany and England, the upcoming album, the encounters… And we are very happy to be able to share this with them, and for a long time still… |
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