FAULT: What’s the story behind Pet trap music? How did you all meet?

I (Ben) met Olivier in Studio Haxo where we were working. We started to write a few songs without any particular intention. Then the two bands in which we were playing split, so we focused on our new tracksand started to think about forming a band. We wondered what or who would complete the band: a singer, a drummer or whatever. Then Guillaume joined us. With this line-up we found our identity. We were listening to different kinds of Rock (Brit pop for Guillaume, independent U.S. Rock for Ben, metal for Olivier) but we all had electronic music in common (Boys Noize, Depeche Mode, Soulwax…). We wanted to keep the classical songs construction from our different rock influences and added the electronic energy. That’s why we naturally chose machines to complete the band.
FAULT: What’s the creative process when writing new material? Is it a
collaborative effort?
We haven’t got one specific way to write a song. It could come from a beat line, a guitar riff, a vocal…We try not to repeat the same structure from one song to another. Anyone of us can begin to write a song and then each one adds new ideas. We haven’t got a song written by only one person. Each one of us plays different instruments. It helps us for writing and also on stage! We compose our songs on different software and that really changes the approach of a track. We don’t want to establish any limits. We feel free to incorporate elements from any kind of music. New stuff is our gasoline! The worst thing that could happen to us is that we keep to a routine and just try to make some Pet Trap. In our first EP the length of our tracks is around 3-4 minutes but we may make longer songs to create a climax. It’s something that we still haven’t try.

FAULT: What are your favourite lyric from your song?

We maybe have a preference for “Clinic” lyrics, especially for the flow and the musicality of the words. They groove the song. We don’t try to tell a story but more to describe landscapes and feelings. It leaves the audience free to have their own interpretation. For us lyrics are an environment you can hang around in. They serve the music. By this, we mean that our songs are not a support for the lyrics. We write them more to determine the identity of a track. They create images on sound, a little bit like a video on music. We liked Highway 907 lyrics too, they‘re funny and a little bit crazy and we attempt to recreate this atmosphere in the videoclip that we just shot. We’ll try to liven up the next lyrics with photos, drawings…
FAULT: Does your music reflect your personalities?

We’d rather say that our songs reflect our moods. By definition personality is something that doesn’t change a lot during your life. Your mood on the other hand changes all the time.

In one day you can change from a euphoric time to a stressful one. Moods significantly affect your vision of the world and even the way you comprehend it! That’s why our songs have various atmospheres and that is something we want to keep. We’re sure that if we’ve written RIP another day, so in a different mood, it would sound really different…

FAULT: How do you prepare yourself before a live show?
Of course we try to focus on what we’re gonna do… thinking about the set list, how to put songs together. We also have a few drinks, sit around and bullshit…It’s an unconscious way to relieve a kind of stress. As we use keyboards, computers, we are actually concerned about the hardware, the fear of a “system crash”…we depend a lot on our machines.

FAULT: What does the next year hold for pet trap music?

For next year we simply want to play more gigs and why not outside of France. We hope for good reviews and a welcome for our first EP and videoclip. We really feel involved in the band, it’s about music as well as friendship, and we’re not just playing music together, we share more than this. We’d like to keep on releasing an EP every six months and also videoclips. We’ll try to incorporate many art forms in our music. Video excites us. We want to create a parallel world! That’s maybe the point of art, to create new realities, not just describe the one that surrounds us.

FAULT: What is your FAULT?

We learned to be able to improve a lot this year through our mistakes. But we want to maintain this “FAULT”, it allows for accidents. We have a few ideas in our tracks that come from errors (by playing the wrong note, errors of editing…). When it works we take it as a gift. It makes sense and magic to let that happen, rather than to correct every mistake and try to reach a supposed perfection.