We are now back home, at the YFE HQ. It’s almost 3am, and I am unable to sleep, I don’t know why… The excitement of being back home, or the blues of a tour finished. The joy of seeing everyone here again, or the sadness of leaving some of the people we spent the last month with. The peace of mind I found on tour, or the stress of losing it back in a daily routine (that can’t really be called a routine). The security I found in understanding I would never find comfort in anyone, of the anxiety of being alone. That fear of the dark combined to this fear to shine. Friends and loved ones I already miss more than I should, yet meeting with everyone here back at HQ just like I left for a day. This feeling of having a life better than any fairy tale I could ever imagine, yet living it in the setting of a Greek tragedy. Life is made of ups and downs, some higher than others, some lower than others. And thinking about the tour, about everything that happened, I can’t help but think of how blessed we all are. From that modest but honest moment we spent together walking the streets of Cologne with Alex on his birthday, to that surprise cake Claudia brought us in Hannover, driving 3 hours only for this, to that day in Bielefeld when we gave Alex another “tour” birthday present, a t-shirt signed by everyone and a painting by Conrad from Trail of Dead, where we met Marcel once again after a year, and where we were given the opportunity to play 75 minutes instead of 40, to that old lady who explained in details every sculpture and paintings of a church with her struggling in Eindhoven, the show in Brussels that reunited people from Belgium, Japan, France, UK, Canada and America, and then the show in Paris, a grandiose finale to a tour that’s been just as grandiose, where the energy culminated like never before, where the members of the band got on stage during Trail of Dead’s set wearing pirates hat, and finally Alex’s surprise birthday… Words are lacking to explain just how wonderful it all has been. And I am sitting here, in front of my computer, and I feel like everything I am talking about feels out of a movie, like it can’t be real. But the smells, the textures, the pictures, everything is just too real to be just a movie. And a movie like this could never be imagined, could never be written. Because reality, for what it really is, because life, with all its ups and downs, is by far better than any movie we could dream we lived in. Because we can make it what we want to.

It’s past 3am now. Everybody’s gone to sleep since several hours. Outside, the grounds are slowly being covered in a pure and untouched white blanket, my first snow of the year… And I can’t help but smile; this reality is by far way better than any movie that will ever hit the screen…!

– Stephanie

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We’ve spent our last full day in Cannes… Under a gray sky, one like we’ve seen every day since we’ve arrived, but for a few hours of sun on one day. Under such a cloudy sky, with such cold weather and such a high level of humidity, it is hard to think of the French Riviera as a glamorous prized destination. Yet, this place has known glorious days…

Alex being a fan of literature, we decided that on our last day, we would go to Juan-les-Pins, a half-hour drive away from Cannes, where many American writers used to spend their summer during the Roaring Twenties… We wanted to see that place where the Fitzgeralds spent their time with the likes of Hemingway, that town in which “Tender Is The Night” took place, where so many other artists, musicians, painters & poets found inspiration…

Having a lot to do during daytime, we left our apartment at 8:00pm, and headed to the city. One place in particular we wanted to see was Hotel Belles Rives, former Villa St-Louis, summer house of so many of them… We got there, drove past it, found a parking spot, and it’s all excited that we arrived face to face with a hotel that was closed. Closed! We didn’t even know a hotel could close… But we guessed that it would only open again in March or so, when the French Riviera came back to life. Juan-les-Pins, in January, is a dead city… You see no one walking in the splendor of her streets, and hotels, restaurants and bars alike are definitely closed, waiting for sunny days to come back before they open their doors again. So we walked past the hotel, thinking that we might as well walk the streets, who knows what we could find… That is until we realized that the gate leading to the garden terrace was not locked. Careful not to be seen by anyone, we made our way in, and came face to face with a breathtaking sight. It was night time and we couldn’t see much, it was cold and humid, but for an instant, it was a usual summer day on the French Riviera during the Roaring Twenties all over again… We had a peek through the huge glass doors of the hotel, letting us see the remains of a period frozen in time, long gone but not forgotten… We then walked a little more in town, where the bars, clubs and restaurants usually burst with life… Reminding the Cuban architecture, the presence of Hemingway, who spent a lot of time in Cuba, in that city, was easily noticeable!

It may not be the Roaring Twenties anymore, but its spirit is still very alive… Looking at the city and thinking of that period I so love, I couldn’t help but think of Your Favorite Enemies… After all, everything we are, this way-over-the-top, unreal and circus-like vibe that surrounds us is not much different from what I imagine those years were like. I mean… who can say they have a family that spreads all over the world the way we have? Our family may make no sense, but it’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever been given to see… 🙂

Back in Cannes, Jeff showed us around his favorite place, Le Suquet, what they call the “Old Cannes”. Narrow backstreets made of stone, where no cars are allowed, with ancient architecture… We came back to our apartment after a little while, where we shared a moment of communion, like we do every time we leave a place… Bordeaux wine, bread and cheese… To this freedom we have of simply “being”, as we are, with no constraint, and to the happiness it brings. And yes, we had to drink our wine in regular glasses… No wine glasses where we are staying! Not so typically French, but hey, the wine was good… and glasses aren’t enough to alter a moment such as this one!

It is right now 4 am as I am writing this… I am surrounded by one of the most famous snoring turbines, someone who talks while sleeping, and someone who listens to the Montreal Canadiens hockey game just a little bit too loud…

We are soon leaving for Barcelona, where we will be filming the band’s next official video clip!
More details will come very soon! 🙂

– Stephanie

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Sunday morning in Cannes, a very difficult morning! Hopefully, we had something to look forward to, as we were going to meet some of our friends for a coffee! As none of us really knew Cannes, we decided to go to a place called Barista, just beside the Morrison’s pub. So we contact everyone, and leave our apartment. Getting there, what do we realize? It’s Sunday in France, and everything is closed. This is a concept we don’t know anymore in Canada, and that we forget every time we are back in Europe! We hopefully managed to find a nearby bakery. To the guys happiness! I mean, what better food is there in France than bakery food? And we were not disappointed! But that food was only a pretext to the incredible time we have spent with those very good friends of ours! We talked about the concert, of course, but also about music in general about ourselves… It really was old friends coming together after a long time. And the tiredness we knew completely faded away. It didn’t matter anymore at all, as those discussions we’ve had  were more than uplifting!

And then, we were invited to the circus. A real circus! With animals and people doing acrobatics, young and old, a true traveling family, the traditional way. So we headed to Antibes where we entered the magical and unreal universe of the Cirque de Venise. Tigers, horses, camels, zebras, snakes and ostriches gave place to trapeze artists, contortionists and dancers.

We headed back home, shared a snack, and then it was time for something Jeff had especially been looking forward to: Super Bowl! It was broadcasted live, so we all gathered in our apartment and watched the game. A very, very disappointing game, that we didn’t even watch until the end, as we knew that there was no possible turnover in what was going on. Broncos would lose. When we went to bed, we only hoped it would be not too much of a disaster for them!

I think the first thing we did when we woke up was to go and check what the score was. Not that we expected the game to have completely turned over, but hey, we hoped that the Broncos would have gone up the hill if at lest a little! But that didn’t happen, as the game ended 43-8… Poor Jeff, it’s 2 years in a row that the team he cheers for loses…

And then, as Alex said in his “Monday Socks” post on his FB page (a tradition he started a few weeks ago and that you can read here!), today was a little peaceful time in the craziness of what the YFE madness is all about! All of us were quiet, thinking about the last days we’ve lived, the moments we shared, how inspired we’ve been by the people we’ve met, and thinking about the different moments that are ahead of us. Not that we have any ambitions for these moments, nor any expectations either… But as those moments are fuelled by the times we are sharing with you, we can’t do otherwise than be excited at the only idea of meeting some of you again, and others for the first time!

It’s right now 2:45am. Jeff has just come back from his meetings, the guys are sharing a late snack (instant noodles that they didn’t expect to be so spicy and kept choking on) before going to bed, and we enjoy that simple time, just being together, as family, gathered in a place that’s way too small for all of us together… But hey, that’s just how we like it 🙂

– Stephanie

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It was a very early morning for all of us… And it’s especially early when you consider that some of us went to bed way past 5 in the morning. Second night on tour, and we can already say goodbye to those long, comfortable nights of profound sleep! Wait… Have we ever had them before? 😉 I guess that’s life on the road, but especially life with YFE in general!

Jeff left for meetings, Miss Isabel & Moose went grocery shopping, Sef & Ben made sure the guitars and all the other equipment were ready for tonight’s show, while Alex did some vocal exercises and kept in touch with you all! So many of you have written to him concerning the recent blog he posted (in which he posted never before released lyrics of a song that was never heard before! And they are just sublime – both the song and the lyrics! If you haven’t read them yet, the blog is right here!

The morning disappeared before we truly knew it was here! Already, it was time to load the van, and we were heading to the Morrison’s Irish Pub, where we played tonight! We were scheduled to do the soundchecks at 1pm, but it was delayed a little… We decided to go for a coffee! After an unsuccessful attempt at finding a coffee shop that would welcome 9 of us for only a coffee at lunch time, we decided we would go back to the Morrison’s, this time at the lounge section. We sat down in one very cool section of the place, and discussed different stories… Jeff’s snoring (and some of the others, too, but Jeff is still unbeatable in his category),
Moose’s shampoo (he has displayed them in his room! Just how crazy is that!), and Sef who is just being Sef. A tour without him would definitely not be the same… In a way, we are glad he didn’t send a sixth guitar on tour instead of coming with us… A guitar causes less trouble, sure, but it never is as funny as Sef!

And finally came time for the soundchecks! We brought all the equipment inside – easy! No amps to bring this time! But then we had to fit everything of stage… Not so easy! The stage is already very small when it is empty… So imagine it with a drum, amps, footboards (Sef’s spaceship in itself occupies half the width of the stage!), a keyboard, and 6 people… Look at the space they have left at their feet! But hey, we managed to fit everything in… And I can tell you that this concert is going to be a very punk rock one! It might be a small place, but walls will fall tonight, this makes no doubt!

We then talked with the owner, an Irishman who surprisingly speaks a perfect French! As tonight’s set is scheduled to be only 30 minutes, we even went as far as asking if we could play longer, to which he agreed “only if you are good, otherwise, I turn down the sound!”.

We then went back home, around 4:30pm, where we shared a light snack and read the different blogs that had been released! Yes, it looks like a new tradition has been born for us on the road! It gives birth to very special moments, and allows us to share on a different level… Not that we don’t usually do it, but let’s say it’s a good spark to new conversations 🙂 We all went for a quick nap, blame it on the very late nights and early mornings and all the traveling in the past few days!

Nap over, we gathered in the living room/bedroom/dining room where we discussed the set list for the show we were giving at The Morrison’s that night! We finally settled for the following songs:
– Lantern Lights
– Where Did We Lose Each Other
– Would You Believe
– Open Your Eyes
– 1-2-3 (One Step Away)

Followed a quick rehearsal only with an acoustic guitar, a way to put us in the mood of the show before we even left our little apartment!

We then all got in the van and drove 15 minutes to the venue, in the heart of Cannes. We drove in front of the venue, to see people packed not only inside, but outside as well. It made the stress level of some people rise up, while on my side, it just made me even more excited… After all, way before being a photographer for YFE, I’m a fan 🙂

We stopped the van not too far away from the venue, and then it was time to get ready. Because the place where we were playing tonight was a pub, there was no such thing as a backstage, no matter how small it could have been. So it’s seated in the van that Alex listened to the songs and sang over them, that Miss Isabel did her vocal exercices and that Moose clapped his hands in a very special way (to be honest, it’s a very funny exercice to see, but it apparently makes a whole lot of a difference… but only he can tell!)

Then it was time for the show! The turnover (that period of time in between 2 bands to get the stage ready for the following one) wasn’t an easy task! Even though all our equipment was just beside the stage, there were so many people that it was hard to just walk from one point to another… Now imagine with Sef’s giant spaceship-like footboard… 😉 And once everything was ready for us on stage… SHOWTIME!

And what a show it’s been! The opening song of the show, Lantern Lights, simply started the whole thing with a bang. And I mean a MAJOR BANG! It’s hard to really explain what this song makes you go through… Starting with spoken words and screams, it suddenly shifts to a melody that captivates your soul, before changing to an epic cadence with a feeling of emergency like you’ve never known it before… And the rest of the show? Well, let’s just say that Alex was on somebody’s shoulders in the first song, that he walked around the whole room twice, that he jumped from the bar into the crowd (not from the second floor balcony this time, though it would have been possible!), and that the drum ended up on the bar, with Moose playing and Alex singing on the bass drum, and the whole band in the crowd. I think nobody really expected such a thing to happen tonight, but everybody took part in it, embracing the moment, and making it even more grandiose. People we’ve known for a long time and who drove several hours to come and see us, people we had been talking to for a long time but whom we were meeting for the first time, people who discovered the band that night… We knew the show would be pretty punk rock. We knew we would remember it. We knew the walls would fall down while we’d be playing in that venue… We just had no idea what these walls would be until tonight. And now that they’re down, everything can be rebuilt with a brand new perspective. And this is the most exciting part. Because it means there are no limits no more. Because it means that everything is possible, as long as we believe so!

We were supposed to be allowed to play for 30 minutes. We played 70. I guess that means we weren’t that bad… 😉 And the owner, at the end, told us that we could have played 5 more, and he would have been happy about it. In 13 years of business, with shows EVERY SINGLE NIGHT, he has never seen anything quite like this before… And in the end, we were kicked out of the pub at around 2:30, half an hour after its closing time.

It’s right now 6:00am. I guess it’s time to say good night…

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Very first morning in Cannes! And it’s sunny today! 🙂 The little apartment we have doesn’t allow much sun in, but it’s enough to know the sky isn’t gray outside anymore! We started our morning as any usual morning… on our computers, sharing and catching up with you all! That’s also the last thing we’ve done last night before going to bed! We’ve had a Skype with the people at the HQ, sharing with them the adventures we’ve had so far, and then read all the blogs that had been posted all together. I think it’s the first time we do something like this… I mean, we read all the blogs/posts that each and every one of us post, but to read them out loud… that was a first! And hopefully something that we will do again! 🙂

So we’re here gathered around the table, sitting on the couch, on the chairs, and on suitcases before we leave and head for our rehearsal studio in Nice.

Jeff: When are we leaving?
Band: As soon as we’ve had breakfast
Jeff: When are we having breakfast? Not that this is a way to have breakfast now… I just wanted to know… But I am horribly hungry! I could have breakfast right now!

Now guess which breakfast was Jeff’s one, and which was Alex’s… Easy? 😉

We ate, loaded the van, and then we were on our way to a rehearsal studio in Nice! Knowing we had a 45-minute ride ahead of us, we decided we would watch the second DVD of Julien Temple’s Glastonbury documentary. The screen in the back still didn’t work, but we were accompanied by Nick Cave, Kaiser Chiefs, Radiohead, Pulp…

We had one stop to make downtown Cannes, at Orange, for the problems we still had with our wifi connextion (or should I say non connextion!). It was the first time for each and every one of us to be in Cannes, except for Jeff, who previously came twice! He was super excited to show us around the places he knew, his favorite spots and streets. “And just around that corner is the McDonald’s!” Thank you, Jeff, for making our experience such a cultural one!

Then Matt wanted to please us, so we stopped at a Starbucks in Nice. But try and ask for directions in Nice… Nobody’s from Nice! “Ah non, désolé, je ne suis pas de Nice.” This is what we kept hearing over and over again! We finally decided to go to a nearby McDonald’s to ask for directions… There’s no way an American corporation wouldn’t know about another one! And we were right! They directed us exactly where we needed to go!

A few more minutes driving and we arrived at Nice Sound Studio! And what a wonderful place it was! The people who welcomed us over there welcomed us as family, making sure everything was perfect for us to rehearse, that we were comfortable and felt like home! And then the rehearsal began! And it was a memorable moment! It amazes me every time to see how much a rehearsal is similar to a real concert – by its intensity, its passion, and the amount of sweat that drips through their pores! I really feel privileged to be with them in studio. I am not a musician myself, but every time they play music, there is no such difference anymore. It doesn’t matter who’s playing or not anymore, as what is going on is a pure communion of hearts. You’re not in the band, you’re not a member of the crew, you’re not a fan. But together, we are. And at that very moment, it is the only thing that really matters. We are alive. And free.

Those 3 meaningful hours of rehearsal ended with an incredible conversation with the owner of the studio, Olivier, who built everything by himself, in order to give a little place to music here on the Côte d’Azur.

We then went to the oceanside, where we walked a little bit, remembering the different emotions we lived during the rehearsal… A simple moment, looking at the lights reflecting in the ocean, some very close to us, others very far away in the distance… A little bit like us. We’ve all been very close, and at times very far. But that fire inside of us never stopped burning… Even though this light is something we have stopped believing in, even though it is at times something that we cannot see anymore… Before we can even notice it, we find this fire alive and well… we find each other again.

We are now back home, after a stop at the Morisson’s Irish Pub, where we will be playing tomorrow night! We are on stage at midnight sharp, and the gig is free! Bring your friends!

– Stephanie

PS: Miss nothing, and follow the band absolutely everywhere! That’s an experience you definitely won’t regret!

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