June 24th, 2012
10:00pm

Vague Souvenir, “City On Fire”

Tonight, the band members recorded the track “City On Fire”, originally by Johnathan Rice, for their new upcoming project “Vague Souvenir”… A part of Ceremony & Jubilation, this project is a recollection of songs that inspired, moved, changed them over the last years, images of what they lived all together and wanted to share with all of you…

A soulful, meaningful performance… I had the privilege of sitting quietly in the studio, behind the control board, hearing every sound with a definite perfection… Closing my eyes, I was transported somewhere I had never been before… Read More »

À La Fenêtre 

I must say, this is a song that I hated at first… A text that I truly disliked. I thought it was too harsh. Too rude. Too intense. Too raw. Too real… 

I couldn’t help it. As beautifully written as it was, I couldn’t like it. I think, when Alex asked me if I liked it after he sent it to me, it was the first time I answered him “no”. I continued right after saying that the text was beautiful, but that I just couldn’t bring myself to like what was being said. 

I do remember well the moment we recorded the lyrics for that poem… We were supposed to only record the first one, ”À Ces Matins Sans Âme”, but Alex absolutely wanted to try this one as well. And we did the 2 remaining poems that night as well! We listened to them again the day after, with a fresh mind, to make sure it was all that we wanted it to be.  Read More »

This is a text I wrote as Your Favorite Enemies were recording the song “I See A Darkness”, in the Upper Room Studio. This text was sparked by a tweet from Jeff I read that night, a tweet he did as he was sitting with me in studio, listening to Alex & Miss Isabel record the vocals for the song… Once again, this is only a little spark of emotions I lived, as I was witnessing what was going on around me…

– Stephanie

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The Quietest Whisper

June 28th, 2012
8:00 pm

Hearing @umitohanasuhito & @Miss_Enemy sing together, is something I’ll always be amazed by… Fills the church with so much soul
– @Jeff_Enemy

Today was the vocal recording for a song on “Vague Souvenir”, song called “I See A Darkness”. The band recorded the song together 2 nights before, but as Miss Isabel was then playing piano, she needed to record some back vocals, to support Alex’s. Read More »

“If You’re Passing By” is a song about redemption, with grace blooming from confession and peace arising from forgiveness. It’s a song about the freedom of letting go in order to redefine your own life, accepting without surrendering. It’s about allowing yourself to be fragile without the fear of being perceived as weak. It’s about arising from despairs. It’s about the courage to leave, not the distress of running away… arising and evolving… allowing yourself a rebirth… “I guess it’s time to go”… 
 
I initially wrote “If You’re Passing By” for the “Love Is A Promise Whispering Goodbye” album, but finally decided to keep it for myself, like so many other songs I wrote during that particularly confused and melancholic period of my life, somehow reluctant to publicly unfold the reminiscence of inhibited moments, thinking they were feeding the perpetual bleakness of the shadowing despairs I was accepting to live with at the time. I’ve learned over the years that time doesn’t heal anything, it only gives a greater appearance of life to what’s dead, and becomes the personification of some bright colors to our same old black and white illusions and fake plastic chimeras. Read More »

Is Hope A Safe Place To Fall?

As the guys were composing the songs, crafting them, working on the arrangements, and recording them, I had the privilege of being with them in studio. This is something I wrote as they were crafting the song “If You’re Passing By”.

At that point, the album was not yet finished, but we knew pretty much what shape it would take. This blog, though, was still pretty far in my mind, and I wasn’t thinking of it at all. But as I was watching them, listening to them, and sharing the emotions they were living through the music, I felt compelled to write something. It might have never been used, but I needed to write it.

This blog is a recollection of thoughts and moments, incomplete, but raw, as I lived the moment.

– Stephanie

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June 29th, 2012
5:00pm

Looking back on 5 years, you realize that the most incredible joy walks hand in hand with the deepest of all despairs. Maybe after all, joy could never “be” without despair. Can we know what beauty is until we’ve sought what’s truly ugly? This is a little bit how I see Your Favorite Enemies’ story; we needed to experience the most horrible things in order to know that a beautiful treasure was right under our nose: US. Read More »

This is the first day of my life
I’m glad I didn’t die before I met you
But now I don’t care I could go anywhere with you
And I’d probably be happy

When the first 2 notes were played on the set of the ”Bla Bla Bla: The Live Show”, on June 3rd, I immediately knew what song it was. I couldn’t be wrong on this one. I know its every note, its every word, its every pause… In a way, this song was a gift the band was offering me, knowing how meaningful it had been for me, and how it accompanied me through every moment of my life…

This song is one I discovered through Alex as I was still going to university, before I moved in with the band and started working with them full time. Not that I disliked university or anything – I have always liked school and always had good grades… But somehow, I knew that this wasn’t what I wanted to do. I knew I was doing it only half-heartedly… and half is way too generous for the effort and heart I was investing in it at the time. And then this song came to me…

That song has always been very meaningful to me, from the very first time I listened to it. I listened to it so much it probably is impossible to even count up to that number… You know, when I like a song, I am the type to put it on repeat. I usually get bored after a few weeks, but this one, I never grew tired of it. I don’t know… There was something special to it. Read More »