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Y. of the Ultra Milkmaids

1993 - Dijon - France: UM were born out of the punk rockin' ashes of "the chicken in the kitchen". 1993-97, the Y.O.R. trio slowly evolve from noisecore to melodic ambient with a wonderful but short This Heat / Massacre-like period. 1997: The Magic Twins take full electronic control of the project. 1997 - present day: Ultra Milkmaids become what/who we know now as Y.+R. exploring a wide range of electronic and organic soundscapes, venturing to where no man has ever gone before.

I thought we could start off with a quick overview of your past ten years, which is quite long a career for any band I think.

Y./ I can’t answer such a question. First it’ll take ages, second I’m not sure I remember everything well, third you can find something like a biography at www.ultra-milmaids.com -and we’re not going to spend the whole interview talking about the past are we ;)

To me, you look close to what electronic-music-stars could be here in France.

Y./ That’s not the way I see things! I realize some people in France know the UM’s name, but it’s mostly because they heard a track or two on compilations and certainly not because they know our records, let alone buy them. Maybe that’s being a star, here in France: you’ve been around for 10 years and doing electro for 8 and nothing really important happens. In fact we’re trying to make up some kind of 2003 tour and decided to stop the band if we couldn’t gather 6 live dates. But we don’t care (DDN: I have an idea why the Milkmaids aren’t famous or anything, it’s merely because they’re straightforward, zero-pretentiousness kind and nice people which is all you’re not supposed to be around here in the electronica scene; by the time I wrote these lines at the beginning of year, the Milkmaids found more than 6 dates for their 2003 tour - Paris France April 8th, Lyon France April 18th, Rennes France April 23rd, Arnhem Holland April 25th and 27th, Den Haag Holland April 26th and Amsterdam Holland April 29th -actually played them and everything went on well, so hopefully they’ll keep on being around for some time).

I do! Do you say ‘we don’t care’ out of disappointment or because you got no time for caring?

Y./ Sheer disappointment. Maybe that’s why we’re so much into our rock bands and labels now. You know: beers+girls+hangovers+etc.

(I don’t know a thing about hangovers ;-) Hey, tell me more about that!

Y./ My own surf-punk band is called ‘the star and key of the indian ocean’ (http://www.star-and-key.fr.st), I play with R. in the Surfin’ Barmaids (http://www.surfin-barmaids.fr.st) and we got our own record label Nasty but Fair (http://www.nastybutfair.com/records) - U-Mohol our original electro label is hibernating at the moment. Much more people come to see us as a surf punk band that ever came to see the UM. When we play in our hometown (Nantes -France) we easily get over 250 people. I mean real people, people coming for the music and having a good time, not to take some arty pose or act cliché or feel they belong to a tribe. Compare this to the 30 people (yes, those who talked all the time) who came to our show in Marseilles last time we met.

Quite funny, when you think about it: you say people only go to rock shows and that’s not really the impression I get reading magazines. Mainstream art mags are crowded with electronica and ambient record reviews not with surf punk.

Y./ You’re right. May come from the audience being utterly fed up with electronics. Music comes and goes you know. Rock and roll was trendy in the eighties and is coming back again and we’re happy about it.

Fed up with what? The music or the attitude?

Y./ Attitude for one, but we electronic acts all have a problem when it comes to play live. That’s the main difference between pop- or rock-influenced bands and electro for sure. I think people would enjoy electro on stage if venues were adapted to electronic acts. Or maybe we all should adapt to play in rock venues, I’m not sure. We all complain about people not coming to see ambient/experimental acts on stage but let’s put it the other way round: what do we do to make them enjoy themselves when they do come?

On stage, I always thought electronic music was mostly boring, and surf punk never was…

Y./ Hey, we’re not that boring! We insist on having some way to use videos on stage to convey what traditional bands do playing their instruments. We use the space on stage totally differently. I must confess I too think electro can be very boring without visuals or anything to catch your attention.

Your kind of melodic ambient electronica is a most difficult music to be played on stage but still.. You played with the greatest, like Sonic Youth and in the most unexpected places for an ambient act…

Y./ At the gothfest in Leipzig (Germany), yes, along with Celluloid Mata, it sure was weird for us to play at Europe’s biggest goth festival in front of a thousand people when all you get when you play alone in France is 50 (on the good days)…

What’s your usual audience?

Y./ I don’t know, I never checked!

Here comes the ritual question: reviewers compare your music to Maeror Tri all the time… Why? What I think is: everything you release on more-than-underground labels is very different from MT’s stuff, while everything you release on underground labels actually is influenced by MT (not that bad a reference is it), you know this kind of ‘layers of noise make melody’ way of seeing things.

Y./ When we started using electronic gear as well as our instruments our music was close enough to Maeror Tri, this guitar/delay/reverb-noise/melody thing you’re talking about and some noticed it. This reference has been with us for long years now, no one cared to ask if we agreed with it or not. Nowadays, I don’t feel we have much in common musically but we kinda use similar atmospheres. Maeror Tri are great friends and great musicians, so why should we complain?

You seem rather bitter about the scene, why is that?

Y./ I don’t feel bitter, I probably need a break from the Milkmaids, some Ultra vacation ?. People from big distros seem interested in our latest album ‘pop pressing’ and it’s quite nice: time will tell. Maybe our music became more ‘listenable’, maybe people’s ears changed.

Excellent! What do you mean, listenable? I thought your ‘peps’ latest album on Duebel (a ex-division of Ant-Zen, www.duebel.com) was listenable enough…

Y./ Pop! Rock! Dance music! Electronica! Ambient! Choose your own!

The new Björks are here!

Y./ You mean the singer? Oh, girls’ stuff isn’t it ;)) I never heard anything from her actually.

Some say your music is very simple, I’d say it’s extremely pure. Don’t you miss the time you were a rhythm virtuoso with your project dt.y?

Y./ HELL NO I surely don’t miss virtuosity. The UM isn’t about rhythm and that’s it.

If you like records that don’t leave the CD-player easily, and tunes that keep on playing inside your head for a long time, find their ‘peps’ on Duebel, or ask them for a copy of their live in the US 3” CDR (reviewed here a few issues ago, were you asleep?), or buy ‘pop pressing’, out Feb02004 on Ant-Zen and reviewed above (this record is fantastic, let me say it once more)… They recently toured with FRZ and Blue Baboon in France and I’m told there were little people that came to the shows, so let me tell you Froggies all are naughty little bastards. Ah, yea, contact: www.ultra-milkmaids.com