AS HAPPY AS POSSIBLE
======================





 Eric (Feel It #4) :
You mustn't take "As Happy As Possible" literally.
Some people having this idea were wrong. What we wanted
to mean, as through the general idea of the record, is that
we are as happy as it's possible to be in a world which is
a big shit. Thus it's positivist all the more as we think
we're lucky : we don't live in a dictatorship nor in a country
in state of war, we're white which is a big advantage in 
this world, we're not poor nor homeless. We would be wrong
if we complained. But at the same time it's not to be taken
in the literal sense because, in spite of all this, there
are many things going on in this word which annoy us and force
us not to consider ourselves as happy beings while the planet
isn't entirely happy.

Sub Pop advised us to do a shorter album. They would have
liked us to keep songs for the future as we're composing
very slowly. When arriving in the studio, we had many
songs. We knew it would be a longer album, but we didn't
ask ourselves questions.



@As Happy As 

Sometimes it's hard to wear the mask
When painful names are coming back
Some memories hurt so bad
That we'd just like to hide and cry
And we've been told so many lies
We can't believe in paradise
And because time is passing fast
We dry our eyes and try to be ...
As happy as you can be
When you close the door
And still hear the screams
I guess that man is the only pest
And the white man did never rest
He made a world in his image
Selfish and cruel, hopeless and loud
We know that and we're wandering
Looking for peace, begging for love
Touching somebody else's skin
We don't forget but try to be ...
As happy as you can be
When the sun is shining 
On the battlefield
As happy as you can be
When you close the door
And still hear the screams.


@Papapapa 

Poverty spreads, heroin bursts
And hunger kills in the Third World
While planet earth is dying
The reach always steal more money
Everybody will agree
That everything is getting worse
I'm worried they should be
But it keeps going just the same
Nazis are back and kicking
And so few stand against it
Workers of the world with reborn flags
Kill each other in civil wars
We feel so smart 'cos we've learnt
That history repeats itself
But what might be the final run
Is now played live on TV
It's coming, it's growing
And we're sitting and watching
It's coming, it's growing
And we're so weak and lonely.


@Harpo's Theme 

Kurt Bloch plays the violin on this track.


@Horror Toys 

I'm twelve but have no name
I'm in the war
And I'm not a child
I fight for these men
I don't know who they are
I don't know who is right
I'm in the war
I'm not a child
A long time ago they came
They killed daddy and mummy
And they took me away
Now with a gun in my hand
I torture and kill
As they all teach me
I'm in the war
I'm not a child
Red like blood is my future
There's no way back for me
I kill to stay alive
I'm twelve but have no name
I'm in the war
And I'm not a child
I'm in the war
No longer a child


@Biking 

I'm breathing
I'm sweating
I'm learning
I'm standing on my wheels, I'm biking
Night and day, any season of the year
And weather, going on
I'm clean
I'm silent
I'm safe
Birds fly along with me, I'm coming
As fast as I can, depending if it's going up
Or if it's coming down
I'm lonely, with the animals
And the car is our enemy
Thanks to my friends
'Cos Giant is with me
And whatever happens they can always
Try to get me
I'm burning
I'm blowing
I'm trying
I'm coing up the hill, I'm biking
By myself, the wind in my eyes, the rain on my face
I'm free
I'm stoned
I'm stuck
The road is high but I'm climbing
As fast as I can, I ride a bicycle I don't need gas
I'm biking in the country
And cities if I have to
It's great, riding free
The wind burning my eyes, and clouds all over
I'm learning, climbing high
I travel 'round my area, SSK49
Thanks to my friends 'cos Giant is with me
And whatever happens, they can always try to get me.

Eric (Extra Jazz #24) :
Musically, it changes a little, speaking from the guitars from what we
usually did. It corresponds to what we did on this record, there are 
things that changed from what we did. Christophe is fan of biking, he
likes this. When he has free time he goes out on his bike. It's perhaps
a way to empty things, to escape himself from the surrounding world, while
being fully in it - you come back to the reality when you're between two 
cars. It could appear as something slightly futile, but it's also a symbol.
I was speaking of ecology, we're in a world which pollutes heavily and
the bike is a bit a return to the nature, to more sane things.

Christophe (Prémonition #15) :
We all like biking, watching the Tour de France, moving in Angers ...
But Biking do not deal with our love of biking. Nothing to do with
"In Paris with a bike you overtake the cars". The lyrics are here to
describe the side of the pain in life with its peaks and its low levels,
the lonely biker in the mountain. The bike is only a metaphor here.



@Immigrés, Clandestins 


Christophe (Prémonition #15) :
Usually, we have tracks, and a title has to be found. When there are
lyrics, the solution is simple : we chose the most frequent word in
the text or in the chorus. With instrumental songs, we can imagine
anything. (...) To come back to Immigrés, Clandestins, we found
this little arabic side during the debate on the nationality code.
We wanted to show clearly on which side we stood. All the more as 
this speech can apply for the lot of Mexicans in the USA.

@August 
July, July
Everything is fine
July, July
Everybody smiles
If it could only rain
So I wouldn't feel
Like I'm missing something great
Not this other day
With promises
Already gone away
July, July, July
And I need your smiles
When we're gathering
And eating all together
Trying to believe
That summertime
Could really last forever


@Dreamer's Song

For all of you fools in this world
Who dream watching stars in the sky
I want to tell you you're not alone
For all those who walk in the street
Singing, their heads in the clouds
Let me write this tune for you
For all you lovers in this world
For whom the sun shines every day
Keep the spirit of your happiness
Hate is so easy in these times
That it's a hard way to love
Let me play this tune for you
For all of you who have this dream
Of a better life in this world
I want to tell you, you're not alone
For all of you who are so sure
That justice is losing ground
Let me sing this tune with you

Eric (Hyacinth #13) :
In the thanks, we quoted Sinead O'Connor who refused to sing
the American hymn during the Gulf war, the story with the pope ...
and so on ... It's so courageous, and now nobody wants to hear
anything about her. Anyway, Dreamer's Song, I've done it while
thinking to her, it's more the character ... somebody like
Billy Childish too who made a compilation for the native
American people who were exterminated ot who are living in
painful conditions because the white man has arrived.



@Monkey 58 Strings Sonic Fly 
 

Christophe (Prémonition #15) :
With instrumental songs, we can imagine anything. It's the
case of Monkey 58 Strings Sonic Fly whose title comes from
the number of strings used : "58 Strings" with "Sonics",
the name of a basketball team and a rock band in Seattle 
where we recorded the album



@You Wanna Die 


Eric (Hyacinth #13) :
This song, it's towards somebody we know and who almost killed
himself, it was not really a suicide but more death by inches.
You fill your head with many things and once you are in the
hospital and you may die, and you'll die one day because anyway
it's too late. It's more to say from one person to another :
stay here, because we like you and there are things to do. It's 
sure that we can't say everything is fine and you're dumb to
want to quit this shit. But there are nevertheless things to do
and we can try to ... You see there are also good sides too,
times when we can laugh

Christophe (Prémonition #15) :
I've got the feeling that we live in a world where nobody is
happy. Everybody runs after happiness and is afraid. I can
hardly find people around me that are really happy. Hence the
title. This song doesn't reflect a will of suicide but more
a despair.



@(Maria Cries in Lima)

Instrumental song played by Eric alone.

Eric (Devor Rock #15) :
We have a certain way to create songs. Thierry and I, we're at
home and are looking for songs. Seldom we bring entire songs.
It's more ideas, riffs that we're going to work later during
rehearsals. And it happens that I find small instrumentals
very very short. And here, I've decided to record them. Then
the others listened to them and liked this. And at the end, we
asked ourselves why not to record them. And it came right 
because the record was long, there had to be some kind of
breathings. Otherwise there are many noises on the record,
which correspond to our life in the studio



@Looking In Your Eyes 

When I'm looking in your eyes 
My life becomes a paradise
And when in your mind you feel sad
I always try to make you smile
We'll never know if tomorrow
This world won't be too mad
But I'm sure we'll still be in love
Let's walk together for a while
Let's share our time if we feel fine
I swear love won't tear us apart
Even if sometimes it's so hard
One day will come, if you can't wait
We'll fly to planet Mars
And we'll make love
'Til the end of time
Let's walk together for a while
Let's share our time if we feel fine
Let's dream that it could never end.


@Ad Men 

Why did you shoot at John again ?
Why did you have to kill him twice ?
To make sure there will be nothing left,
Of the dead rebel
You soil anything you touch
Why did you use his soul, his voice ?
You stink, you sell things you don't like,
To people who don't need it
Some ad men think they're making Art
When it's only propaganda 
To sell, to buy, to produce and sell again
With market analysis,
And the smiling coloured screens
You're paid, to sell shit you don't like to
People who can't buy it.

Eric (Hyacinth #13) :
Christophe wrote the song, but I agree with him. It's very
precisely in relation with the ad for NRJ (commercial radio).
It's about taking many things from Lennon to the fall of the
wall in Berlin or the slaughter of whales. To use this to 
promote a radio is horrible. Is it a radio that stands for
Greenpeace or that makes people react, move ? Not at all.
They are here to play the music of the major companies, that
the world of business ask them to play and that's all



@(Omar Feels Fear in Weimar)

Instrumental song played by Eric alone.

Eric (Hyacinth #13) :
When you take your guitar and play a slow song or a languid one,
it corresponds to a state of mind, and it's not voluntary. As well
as the lyrics, the title of the songs, the vision of the album,
this corresponds to what we live, the way we see the world during
a period. If find that now the misery begins to be universal and 
there are people who suffer, from dictatorship, hunger war ... and
those three little songs are here to tell that here and there,
there is suffering.



@Flags 

Why should I fight for a nation
Why should I kill for a flag
I'm not a number on your list
I'm not a part of your thing
People are getting so crazy
They're looking for an enemy
Males are fighting all the time
I think that's why we should ...
Burn all the flags
Why always build new frontiers
New walls between people in this world
When they are all watching now
The same USS TV serials
Money has no limits
'Cos business knows no frontiers
They're just helping the police
To control all things
Burn all the flags
I'm not one of the cattle
I'm only a child of mother earth
We just want to live in peace
We want to stop the madness
Burn all the flags.
At the end of the song, you can hear the International song

Christophe (Prémonition #15) :
Now we are shocked by the rise of all the nationalisms. It's so 
easy to make people die in the name of a flag, a patriotic cause.
To make them believe that they are fighting for an ideal. A war
always hides economical interests ... for sure engaged lyrics of
rock'n'roll bands have never changed the world. They have even been
modified and made up. The ambition of Flags is not to change the
world or influence people. These lyrics were written for two reasons.
The first is that we want to show on which side we stand. We don't
want our audience to ask as for some US bands if we approve fascists.
The second reason, is that if I hear somebody who shares my opinion
it pleases me and I feel less alone ... Flags is the only song
in this album that contains so demanding lyrics. They come out of
a state of hanger, and so must be taken at their first meaning.
But in general, we're far less affirmative



@Desert Days 

I've never abused you
So you could understand
Sometimes I feel it's like
I'm falling back, again, again, again
I try to find my way
I've never condemned you
So you should understand
Sometimes I feel it's like
I'm flying back, again, again, again
I try to fly my way
I've never contempted you
You have to understand
Sometimes I feel it's like
I'm turning round, again, again, again
I try to fall my way
Through the desert days
I fall my way

Christophe (Prémonition #15) :
(Questionned on the slow tempo)
And yet the riff comes from Thierry, the one who like the most
hardcore. Since now, it's true that the tempo was frequently
speed, from time to time mid, and seldom slow. We react to
pleasure and not to the tempo.



@(Wang Leaves China) 

Instrumental song played by Eric and Pierre-Yves.

Christophe (Prémonition #15) :
These interludes are small melodies that Eric composes alone
at home with the guitar on his recorder, to find new songs
for the band. At the end of the recording, we realized that
the album would be very long, and would be made of very
fast songs. Thus, we recorded these interludes to make it
less monotonous and to prevent listeners from being "harassed".

The album ends with a child's laugh.w

Christophe (Prémonition #15) :
This laugh comes from an idea and a deep want of Pierre-Yves.
I don't have a child myself, and a priori, I don't want to have
one although I really appreciate their innocence that you can't
find among adults. But above all, this laugh is linked to the
graphism of the sleeve, and it's to make fun of people who
consider ourselves as a hardcore band.


Back to the album section / Back to the discography 



Copyright :
   
 


Freely written by Stéphane Dufour