STALEMATE - When There's a Will... (France - HardCore/Crossover - Interview with Giny & Simon).

Hello ! Can you introduce yourself and tell us how it all started for you—how you discovered this musical universe, what attracted you to it, what fascinated you, and what made you want to make music?
Giny: Well, it goes back quite a while, to when I was a teenager. I listened to Queen, then NOFX, and then hardcore... Let's say with the concerts in Paris on the “Péniche” with Comeback Kid, etc... What fascinated me about it was the world that was already established and that I didn't know: the dances, the straight edge, the people who think differently. I completely found myself in this environment where everyone can be free to be who they are and feel like they belong.
As for the desire to make music, the question hardly arose because I played piano at age 7, then bass at 14 and guitar at 15, then I played a little drums at 26, so I don't even know if I was aware of the mess. On the other hand, I didn't want to sing because I didn't feel comfortable without an instrument.
Simon: For my part, I discovered punk/hardcore at a very young age. In 1991 or 1992, when I was 9 or 10, thanks to some neighbors in their mid-teens who were skateboarders and introduced me to Spermbirds, Dag Nasty, NOFX, and Pennywise, initially via cassette copies. The first thing I ever listened to was Spermbirds' album “Joe.” I remember putting the cassette in my Walkman, and it wasn't just “this is great,” my immediate reaction was “this energy is incredible, I want to do this with my life”! This was followed by NOFX's album “White Trash Too Heebs and a Bean,” which just drove the point home, hehe...

Tell me about the band... How did you meet? What is the current lineup? What are your past experiences? And most importantly, WHY did you feel the need to form THIS band?
Giny: Simon and I met in the concert scene quite early on, in 1999, and then we built up a whole musical circle around us, with encounters where we would say, “Would you like to play bass?” even though they had never played before... and everyone liked it, so we sometimes found ourselves with five bands with four people.
As for the other members, I met them in the same way over time... for example, Jo around 2008 and the others more recently.As I said, I've been in lots of different bands playing different instruments. The band I was in for the longest was Lovve with Simon, and we did quite a few European tours.
Why this band? Quite simply because Lovve ended and Simon and I said to each other, “Let's start a new band!”
Simon: As Giny said, we met at concerts in Tours in 1999. We formed a melodic hardcore band when we were very young, with a single concert in a garage in Montbazon... It would have been classier to say “a gig in a basement in San Francisco” hahaha! (Hmmm... yes, we do what we can with what we have haha! Ed.)
Jo and I met in the mid-2000s, I'd say. We played together for quite a while in a punk rock band called “Daily Mind Distortion,” where he was the drummer.As for Pierrot, we met two or three years later and played together in “Verbal Razors” until 2016.
The youngest is Vincent, who is 20 years younger than the average age of the band. This is our first band together. He played guitar in a stoner band called Midnight Stumble, and we met at metal and punk concerts in Tours.
After Lovve and Murmansk, a hardcore punk band I had on the side, and Ed Warner before that, I felt the need and desire to do something a little different, something less fast-paced, without blasts, and something more airy with songs longer than a minute and a half, haha.

Describe your sound and explain why I should listen to YOUR band at all costs?
Simon: I would describe Stalemate as a 90s/2000s-style hardcore crossover band with a touch of thrash. Since you're asking us questions, I think you'll listen to our band, hahaha (No doubt about it, you're right - Ed;)

What are your lyrical and musical inspirations/influences?
Simon: Bands like Spermbirds and Inside Out are a big influence on me, as well as bands from the early days of Bridge Nine Records. After that, the songwriting is done on instinct, and we don't try to reproduce or sound like this or that...It comes naturally with the slightly different influences of the whole band.
Giny: I wrote my lyrics based on my encounters. Since I'm very sociable and meet all kinds of people, there are lyrics about homeless people I know, others about addiction that some of my friends struggle with, etc. The main theme of my lyrics would be concepts such as resilience, depression, and all that...

How important are lyrics to you? Are there any specific messages or thoughts that you try to develop and share through your lyrics?
Simon: The lyrics are just as important to me as the music. Giny writes very well and breaks away from the codes and clichés of the genre.

What about your latest release?   
Simon: We've just released our very first album, a 6-track EP called “New Scar.”
It's been available to listen to on streaming platforms since September, and a physical CD release will be available in November. We recorded at Macrocosme Studio in the suburbs near Tours, which is run by a friend. The mastering was done by Alex, our live sound engineer.

What are your plans?
Simon: First, we want to promote our EP live, try to play at festivals in spring/summer 2026, play in bars, self-managed venues... And record an album in 2026 with a vinyl release.

What would be your wildest dream with the band?
Giny: That we'd be invited to all the festivals in the summer...
Simon: No particular dream, just to keep up the momentum and try to play regularly.

Your BEST & WORST concert - as a band - and why?
Simon: My worst concert memory was in San Antonio, Texas with DFI. The drummer was so drunk that when he hit the cymbal for the first time, the whole drum kit collapsed. I played guitar on a vocal PA system with a “metalzone” pedal. there was hardly anyone at the concert and the people weren't nice. I played three songs and put down my guitar to go and have a beer, ha ha ha!
The “best” is harder because, fortunately, I have a lot of good memories... Aucard de Tours in 2023 with Verbal Razors, the Black Sheep in Montpellier, again with Verbal in 2016 (the last date with Pierrot, by the way), and Murmansk and Lovve in Bucharest and Belgrade. 

Upcoming live shows?
Simon:
November 8 in Lyon at Trokson with Big Mouth.
November 22 in Rouen with Scorcher and Circle Dudes
December 13 at Winter Riip “Metal HXC Fest” near Tours.
April 18 in Rennes with Pilori and Tocard

A few words about your local scene - any bands you're friends with that you'd like to mention?
Simon: There's a great concert scene in Tours because there are so many associations. As for venues, there's the Canadian Café, which hosts a lot of hardcore/punk/metal concerts, the Jericho, run by Jo, our bassist, among others, the Super 9, the Misérables, and the legendary Tours venue “Le Bateau Ivre,” which reopened during Covid and has a great concert lineup. There's also the SMAC “Le Temps Machine.” There are lots of other bars where there are acoustic concerts, plus open-air cafés in the summer. That's quite a lot.
In terms of bands, we'll of course mention “Alma,” Giny's other band, “Healer,” a brand new sludge band, “Jasper,” Jo's psychedelic rock project where he plays drums and sings, “Pneu,” the local heroes, “Patient Zero,” more of a French punk band where I've recently started playing guitar, Pulmonary Fibrosis “grindcore,” Pavement Punishment (hardcore crossover), Care Mess (synth punk electro), Deprisa (a brand new punk band), Kyma (hip hop), Midnight Stumble (stoner), Beyond the Styx (hardcore metal), Acid Drop, and Verbal Razors, who recently split up. There are tons of bands, actually...

-The last word is yours...
Simon: Thank you for your support and interest, and to all our friends and everyone who has supported us and continues to support us in our projects. And remember to take care of your physical and mental health above all else! Peace!!!