Hello, Nice to meet you ! Can you introduce yourself with some words to French people who don't know you yet ?

Kitty - So we're St. Agnes. We are an industrial rock band from the UK.

Jon - And… Jesus. Talking about yourself is the hardest thing ! We’re an Industrial rock band from the UK and we have a passion for trying to create as much chaos as we can on stage.

So how would you describe your music with one word ?

Kitty - Honest.

Jon - I was going to say the same… Authentic.

You choose really harsh topics and when you have a message to give, you just give it and say it out loud. How did it come to you and how did you choose to talk about this in your songs?

Kitty - I didn't used to be like that. When we made our first record, it was a lot more writing in a character, not so much myself. But I had a really difficult time. My mum passed away two and a half years ago and I poured all of that emotion and grief and anger and the horror of it all into lyrics. I had to do something with it. And that's kind of when I started putting it into the music. And it was quite scary because I hadn't been that honest before. And it's hard. It's hard to be vulnerable. Some of the songs are really difficult to perform and they were really hard to write and record. But I've got a much deeper level of satisfaction from my art since I've been doing that. And I think, as well, seeing the audiences and the fans, the more honest I am, the more they connect with the music. And that's deeply satisfying and gratifying. It's from Bloodsuckers, our last record onwards, that I started really doing that.

Jon -  And I just think for us as a band, as artists, you know, we make music because we have a passion for creating something that doesn't exist. And the reason we have to create something that doesn't exist before we do it is that if there was already music out there that perfectly encapsulated the emotion we wanted to express, we wouldn't need to make the songs ourselves. And there are songs that we love but sometimes you feel this very specific emotion, and it's a very specific experience, and you need to release it somehow. So you sit there and you get your guitar and you talk about it and you write a song, and you feel a cathartic release. And that's the birth of true art. And as Kitty's writing partner, it was really exciting to work with someone who was willing to be that vulnerable and to go that deeply into a traumatic experience as a way of making really authentic, honest art.

What's a song that has a special meaning to you?

Jon - All of the songs on Bloodsuckers have really quite intense memories associated with them, because Kitty and I recorded all the vocals just on our own. So I was there watching her kind of scream and cry and throw the microphone across the room. And, you know, there were days where we'd argue, and she'd be like “I'll sing this song once. And then I'm going.” Because it wasn't a good day. But that being said, I think that At War With Myself is a song that was quite a breakthrough moment for us, where it was the first song that I think Kitty wrote really quickly. You were feeling the emotion. I saw her write it. She was basically in the middle of having a kind of nervous breakdown and just wrote what was happening. And then the next day recorded the vocals. I was kind of astounded to see that and I felt a lot of responsibility for making sure that everything that I did musically wasn't going to dilute that amazing art.

Kitty - I think This Is Not The End for me is really special because I really wanted to write something on Bloodsuckers that was directly about my grief. But I found that really, really difficult because I was in it. It was turmoil. It was the last song we wrote and recorded for the record. We did it. Record had to be sent off. They managed to do it. And it was about how even though I was in this dark place, I could still see the glimmers of light coming through and I knew that I would be okay. And that's what the song is about. It's about turning all of that awfulness into something beautiful. And that helped me a lot. That idea of taking all of this and using it to make art and to make something beautiful is something I should do sometimes.

Sometimes music helps us because we listen to it and sometimes music helps us because we make it.

Jon - That's perfect.

Kitty - Yeah, exactly.

Did you have any message from a fan who told you you helped them?

Kitty - Oh, yeah. That's the other reason why I now just only write from my own experience, because I've had that a lot. I've had so many messages because I obviously talked a lot about grief and death on Bloodsuckers and I've had so many people message and be there particularly for This Is Not The End and say like, “oh, this has happened to me and I've had this song on repeat and it really helped”. I mean, that is the most… I've got goosebumps. Like it's the most humbling, amazing thing.

Jon - That was the amazing experience on tour where we played This Is Not The End pretty much every night. And Kitty would invite the audience to really think about people they'd lost. And it's making me well up. Like seeing Kitty sing this song that was so raw and so painful. And I saw her some nights she would go and walk into the audience and sing it from the floor. And people at the end of the song were hugging her and crying because they had lost people. It was a very powerful moment. This stays with me. It’s really strong.

Is this your best memory or do you have another one?

Jon - Every memory from stage, from life with bands. Those kinds of things are kind of very powerful and quite hard to top. But they are also quite dramatic and emotional. I think they're also sometimes moments of like, levity and joy and simple pleasure. Like I think just now playing Hellfest, there's a part in the last song, I Mean Nothing To You, where I'm playing guitar on my own in the middle of the song and I have to really concentrate to make sure that I'm staying in time with Andy. And I couldn't hear myself very well, so I walked over to Andy and was looking at him and then when I turned around, there was a wall of death happening. And I was not expecting that to be the case at all. So that was kind of amazing and like a really joyous moment. So to counteract all of the sadness of what we were talking about, that's a simple moment. And then seeing Kitty kind of like the ringleader of this kind of chaos, I was like “yeah, cool !”.

You seem really happy to have done Hellfest this year.

Jon - Oh, it's amazing.

Kitty - Yeah, amazing. We were playing at 10:30. So we just thought “oh, you know, there'll be a few hundred people”. We got ready and walked out on stage. There's so many people. Yeah, just an honor, a privilege.

Jon - Real privilege.

Is there a festival or a venue that you would love to play at?

Jon - For me it’s Brixton Academy in London. I've been to so many shows there and I have so many core memories with the big ones : Nine Inch Nails, Rob Zombie… And Machine Head. All those different shows have kind of told me what a good gig is. When we're talking about our live show and what to do, I basically just think about those shows. And to actually get to play as a headliner and sell it out. I think that would be at that moment, I think I would be like, “yeah, I've done something pretty cool here”.

Kitty - I think for all UK bands, that's the dream venue to sell out. The reputation is legendary !

You know Machine Head is playing tonight ?

Jon - I do, yeah. I do. I would like to see them again. I haven't seen since the More Things Change tour, which is like the second album. It's a long time ago.

Will you go tonight?

Jon - Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're staying around all night. Staying until the Prodigy tonight !

Kitty - And coming back tomorrow just to have fun, which we never get to do, ever.

Jon - Yeah, it's such a rare occasion that we don't have to drive somewhere and that we're like, “let's just go and watch those”. Fu Manchu are playing too and I'd like to see them.

You go to a lot of countries but never have the opportunity to visit and enjoy. Do you have a favorite country to play in?

Kitty - Well, France, obviously. We've done a few tours in Italy when the band was quite young, so quite a few years ago. And it was amazing. The food was insane, the people were crazy. And the venues… It was very early days, so the gigs were very shambolic. Pulled together. We played in somebody's garden. It wasn't like a proper tour.

Jon - It was just a punk kind of squat venue tour. Weird punk gigs in tiny basements and gardens and then interspersed with sitting on a beach drinking and eating amazing food and being like “being in a band is really cool”. You know, that was that. I think those memories are always going to stay. But we always find stuff to enjoy in every country we've played. To be honest, it's so down to the people. And once you're playing a show, you tend to meet cool people that you have something to talk about. Because, you know, if we're playing in the Czech Republic and the language barrier is quite tricky but you mention, maybe Metallica or something and you end up bonding with someone, you know, it's great. That's what is so good about music.

Kitty - I remember seeing you and an Italian promoter. You both started. What were you singing?

Jon - His English wasn't great, but we just sang the whole first Korn album to each other, basically.

Kitty - Couldn't speak to each other, but you sang together.

Jon - Yeah, he was like singing all the guitar parts and I was like “can't you see? Can't you see I'm going blind.”

What are your main influences ?

Jon - Both of us love Nine Inch Nails.

Kitty - That's probably the biggest influence. Again, it's like, it's the authenticity with which he does everything. You know, he's so honest and raw. The emotion in his voice is incredible. So that's endlessly inspiring. And I think it's like it is any artist who is honest and authentic because I think when they're not, you can spot it a mile away. And I really don't like it. Like, it offends me when I think artists are not being genuine. So every artist we like is super authentic. So, yeah. Nine Inch Nails.

Jon - Nine Inch Nails are such a wide ranging kind of musical thing as well that I don't think you need to listen to many other things to still spend a lifetime listening to it, you know. But yeah, Nick Cave is a really interesting artist that kind of explores dark themes and lyrical kind of interesting storytelling and it feels kind of metal. But the music isn't like lyrically and so ironically it's interesting and dark. But there's always a new approach, and I find that really inspiring. PJ Harvey is another very authentic, honest artist. And then on the metal side, I love Korn, like the first few Korn albums. I think that's exactly what Kitty's saying. That it’s authentic, honest, lyrically devastating music. Truly authentic, truly unique vocal style, unique music at the time. Rage against the Machine. I mean, if you want to see a crazy crowd, Rage Against Machine are the masters of just making that happen like that. They're incredible. And it's all because it's all from their heart.

So we talked about your influences, about your show today at the Hellfest. Let's talk about new music. Do you have some plans already?

Kitty - Yeah, so we're just finishing up a record at the moment. We're probably a few weeks away from finishing. We're not sure when it's coming out, but we're thinking of releasing the first single in September.

Jon - We're control freaks and we like to produce everything ourselves and take as much control ourselves. Whereas the last album was this emotional kind of release and we had to capture the moment as it happened, this one where there's a little more thought involved and a bit more time and the themes of the album are slightly kind of more hopeful. We'll finish the record in maybe two, three weeks, something like that. We’ll have a single in September. And then who knows when the rest of it will happen. But we just want to get it right because we owe it to the fans that we have. We've set out the thing that what we do is be authentic and honest to our vision all the way through. And we intend to stay doing it that way.

Kitty - I think when we first start to write the songs, it's so exciting, that very first moment where Jon will come up with some music and I'll come up with a melody, or we do it a million different ways. But that nascent idea is just thrilling, isn't it? We're just so buzzed up. I think because there's so much potential. You're thinking it could be this. It could be that. It's not written yet, but in your mind. It's amazing. And that's really exciting.

Jon - There was a great quote, and it might be Nick Cave, but I'm not sure. It said that you have these amazing ideas, and then you kind of go and ruin it by doing it. But that’s the necessary process of it. But at that first moment, it makes you so addicted, it makes you want to chase that over and over. It’s when Kitty will sing a melody or a lyric, and I’m like “That one. That’s amazing”. It’s so exciting.

Do you have a message for your fans ?

Kitty - Thank you for sticking with us. I do get a lot of messages, and I people are being really open and honest, and just thank you for that. Because it does mean an awful lot !

Jon - I think that we’re not the most communicative people on social media and stuff. We’re not people who film every second of our lives and put it out there. It’s not because we don’t want to interact with fans. It’s just that it’s not who we are. But if people want to talk to us, they can talk to us, we will always answer. We enjoy talking to fans and communicating ! It’s not that we’re trying to hide away, it’s just we’re kind of shy.