Hello everyone! We’re here today with Red Sun Atacama. How are you guys doing?

Red Sun Atacama — We’re doing great!

You played at Motocultor today. What did you think of the crowd and the atmosphere?

Vincent — We’d pretty much prepared ourselves for anything. We got our first circle pits, so we’re happy!

Clément — Shout-out to the crowd! Because it’s the fourth day, 2 p.m. is pretty early. And yet, the place was absolutely packed. So, seriously, well done, everyone!

Robin — And the organisers were fantastic! Everything ran smoothly, and the whole experience was great.

Your biggest news at the moment is your new album, Summerchild. I’d like to start by simply asking what the title means in the context of the album.

Clément — Well, you see, we’d always said we’d never name an album after one of its own tracks. No Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath, for example. But in the end, we made a little exception to that rule with this one.

In terms of the storytelling across the tracks, there’s a song called Summerchild. And since there’s kind of a common thread running through the songs, with a character who’s never explicitly named -so to speak- except in that particular track, we thought, “Fuck, this is actually the Summer Child at the heart of the album!” So that’s what we called the album: Summerchild.

And what about your creative process? How does it work? Do you tend to start with a jam, or do you already have ideas in mind?

Clément — Our creative process involves a lot of exchanging riffs with Vincent, usually at an early stage. Since we all live far apart, we can’t jam together nearly as much as we used to. So we exchange riffs instead.

From there, I put together a basic framework, using the bass as the guiding element throughout the different tracks, based on what Vince and I have been exchanging. Then Vince creates his guitar parts to fit that framework, and Robin does the same with the drums.

Once we’re happy with it, we’ll extend certain sections, or maybe a riff or a chorus isn’t quite working. We try to come up with some cool ideas for the interludes. Basically, we rearrange things a little.

Once we’re happy with the result, we get together for two or three days. During those two or three days, we play the songs over and over until everything really clicks.

Vincent — You could call it the modern way of doing things. When we started the band ten years ago, we used to kick off every rehearsal with a jam. We’d just see where it took us.

Sometimes we’d come up with things we wanted to keep and develop later on. That’s also how we got to know each other and figured out what we enjoyed doing together musically.

So today, the process is a bit smoother, despite the distance, Covid and all the obstacles we’ve faced while working on our more recent albums. We’ve found a way to combine the old-school approach with a more modern one.

Clément — And the vocal lines, lyrics and themes really come last, almost like a second guitar, if you will. But yeah, that’s more or less how the process works!

That’s actually what I was going to ask about, because your previous album, Darwin, came out in 2022. Was it during Covid that you learned how to work remotely?

Clément — Well, Covid kind of forced us into it. Not so much because we were all stuck at home, but more because Robin, who plays drums on the last two albums, moved to Bordeaux during the pandemic. So suddenly, we found ourselves living far apart, wondering what we were going to do: were we going to carry on or not?

In the end, I took inspiration from what quite a few other bands were doing. I remember thinking a lot about Russian Circles back then. They’re all based in the US, but each of them is in a different time zone. And they still manage to tour and make albums. So I thought, “Fuck, we should be able to make it work too!”

So Darwin was already made that way, with Robin in Bordeaux and the rest of us still in Paris. Then, after Darwin was recorded, Vincent moved down south, and Robin moved even further south. I moved somewhere else too.

So, as things stand, we’re all at least a two-hour drive away from one another. We basically had no choice but to learn how to work that way.

Vincent — We can work on videos, and we’ve found tools that allow us to collaborate, even when it comes to sharing riffs. It’s not ideal, and it’s not as good as jamming together in person, but we’ve made it work.

It would have been difficult if we’d started out that way ten years ago. But because we’ve known each other so well for all that time, we’ve managed to figure it out and still put out two albums along the way.

Making Darwin was quite a complex process. Did you face any particular constraints or challenges when working on Summerchild?

Clément — Well, we set ourselves a few challenges. The first one was to try to write songs that were less than four minutes long.

Vincent — That didn’t work!

Clément — Honestly, we weren’t that far off! There’s still a nine-minute track on the album, though; the second-to-last one. So yeah, old habits die hard! But it was a genuine challenge we’d set ourselves.

Vincent — The idea was to make the songs more effective and not that long.

Clément — I wouldn’t necessarily call them long. We just like to take our time and enjoy the moment! But we’d decided to try writing songs that were just a little bit shorter.

At festivals like this one, for example, we usually love playing for an hour and fifteen minutes. But here, we get 40-minute slots, sometimes even just 35 minutes. Having shorter songs means we can fit more of them into the set.

At Hellfest, for instance, we had a 30-minute slot. Back then, we didn’t really have any shorter songs. They might still be long by pop standards, for example, but they’re shorter than what we’d been doing before.

This time, we had 40 minutes, so we were able to fit quite a few songs into the set. At Hellfest, because we hadn’t yet worked on sets that short, we were faced with a choice: play a 25-minute set or a 35-minute one. We couldn’t make a half-hour set work, so we stuck with 25 minutes.

I wanted to ask you about Passenger. Laurent from Clegane features on the track. Were you already friends before that, or did the collaboration come about through this song?

Vincent — Yeah, I’ve played with them quite a few times.

Clément — Yeah, Clegane are really, really good friends of ours. Guillaume, the guitarist, even officiated at my wedding! So we’re pretty close.

We also got to know each other through putting on shows. My wife and I used to run a concert-promoting organisation in Paris, and they had their own organisation with his wife. We put on quite a few shows together. That’s how we first met.

And we absolutely love what Clegane do. We’re really good friends. We’ve played several shows together, sometimes as part of bills with three or four bands. We’re playing together again in Lille in September. And personally, I love the way Lolo screams. I’d been telling him for a year, “We’re getting you on the next album!”

So when it finally happened, I said to him, “Remember what I told you?” And he ended up recording his vocals for the track.

We haven’t had the chance to perform it together yet, but that’ll be the first time! So, people of Lille, if you want to hear the full version of Passenger live, come and see us at Bulle Café! Thank you!

If your album were a movie, what kind of movie would it be?

Clément — Whoa! Why are you asking questions like that? (laughs)

Vincent — I don’t know. It wouldn’t be Mad Max, because we’re not really that stoner… But I honestly have no idea. We could be the soundtrack to…

Robin — It needs cars. Something with cars!

Clément — Honestly, I’m going to go in a completely different direction here. I’d probably say Fight Club, to be honest with you. There’s that psychological side to it, but at the same time, it’s really fast-paced and everything. I don’t know…

Robin — The album isn’t really that dark, though.

Clément — Well, the themes are dark, even if the overall aesthetic isn’t. That’s why I said it. But I don’t know… That’s a tough question! You need to give us a heads-up when you’re going to ask questions like that!

And finally, my last question: do you have a message for the people who listen to your music?

Vincent — We’re incredibly grateful that you stream our music and come to see us live. It’s been a wonderful journey over the past ten years, and there are more and more people coming along for the ride. So thank you!

We hope you’re listening to us wherever you are, whether in France, elsewhere in Europe or in the United States. A little while ago, after a show in Bordeaux, someone came up to me and said, “I listen to you at the gym.” That made me really happy!

Clément — Well, that was a lovely, heartfelt message! Thank you, everyone, and see you very soon in front of the stage!