The Inquisition: 053.Maïak

1. How did you came up with the name of the band? 

We've been trying to come up with a name for ages. « Maïak » was one of the first ideas and with time, we decided to adopt the name. It means « lighthouse » or « beacon » in Russian, but we choose it for it is the name of a nuclear plant that was the site of one of the worst accident in history. It’s morbid, but we like to associate our music with symbols of disasters in a mixture of tragedy and irony. You can see that in our tracks titles as well…

2. Do you have a standard procedure of creating a song? Do you just jam around or is there a main riff and the track is build up on it? 

A bit of both, usually someone -usually Marc- comes with a melody or a riff and we jam around it. We spend quite some time improvising when we compose and there have been many moments of pure harmony that we have lost forever for not having recorded them. 

3. What are your influences and what kind of music do you hear when you are at home? 

Antoine: I think we all are influenced by progressive and independant rock from the nineties, bands like The God Machine and Sonic Youth. I listen to all lot of post-rock these days (from Slint to Russian Circles), but I am also a big fan of John Coltrane! 

Stéphane: The Notwist, Mogwai, GY!BE… 

Marc: Impure Wilhelmina, Noir Désir, Ennio Morricone, Neurosis… 

David: The Evpatoria Report 

4. Which is the one album you can't live without? 

Marc: « Remué » (Dominique A) 

Antoine: « Spirit Of Eden » (Talk Talk) 

Stéphane: Chopin’s « Nocturnes » and « La Polonaise », by Martha Argerich or Sviatoslav Richter David: « Golevka » (The Evpatoria Report) 

5. What's the first record you've ever bought? 

Stéphane: « Breakfast in America » (Supertramp) 

Marc: « Music for the Masses » (Depeche Mode) 

Antoine: « Diesel and Dust » (Midnight Oil) 

David: « The Evpatoria Report EP » (The Evpatoria Report)... no seriously it’s « Outlandos D’amour » (The Police) 

6. Name a band that you would like to share the stage or tour with? 

Marc: Any band, as long as they are cool people doing interesting stuff… The thing is more to find one that would like to share it with us ;) 

David: The Evpatoria Report 

Antoine: We have recently discovered another post-rock band from Switzerland, Darius, it would be great to share the stage with them. 

7. Did the internet and specially the blogs helped to spread your music around the world? Name a place (country) that you were surprised to know your music has reached to?

Definitely! Our album has been shared by bloggers throughout the world. We suspect it to be the fruit of Taner Torun’s work, the founder of our label Fluttery Records. Bloggers from Russia and the Netherlands have been very positive about us and 3 internet radios have us on their playlist now. But the most surprising was to have a review in a printed media: The New Zealand Herald, which is the first daily paper in New Zealand!! 

8. Do you support the idea of bandcamp where fans can decide the price or services like Spotify? 

Yes, it’s cool 

9. Where do you see yourselves in 5 years? 

Still on stage and enjoying it… 

10. Is the artwork of an album important nowadays in the digital era? 

Yes, it still is the best way to catch someone’s interest. What has changed with the internet is that only the front page matters now. A pity, because for our new album, the cover picture (a beautiful photograph by our friend Raphael Weber) that we chose continues on the back of the sleeve also… 

11. What is your favorite album cover? 

Antoine: « Fixed Water » (Sophia)

Marc: « Hail to the Thief » (Radiohead)

Stéphane: « Rage against the Machine » (RATM) 

David: « Maar » (The Evpatoria Report)

12. It seems that a lot of people are turning on vinyl again. Why do you think that is and which is your preferable media format? 

Vinyl remains the purest and warmest support, but it is also a beautiful and tangible object that one can touch and won’t disappear with your hard drives. We are working with Urgence Disk records, a Geneva based label, to issue a vinyl version of the album soon. 

13. What's the most vivid story or moment as a band? 

A few weeks ago, a guy asked our label to get a signed photo of the band! The guy seems to have already gathered quite a collection of autographs from French pop and movie stars, including Brigitte Bardot. Or maybe the fact that we struggled for so long to find a name we all agree upon. When we came in the studio to record our first album (in 2011), the sound engineer asked us for our name and we couldn’t give him any answer….

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