[P.U.T]-Like animals

P.U.T is a french/belgian duo (two brothers, one living in Paris, the other in Brussels) playing really high quality noisy and dirty industrial metal. They released in march their fifth full lenght (see complete discography below) called Like animals.

If you're into urban and dark menacing atmosphere, crushing heavy or noisy dirty riffs and cold mechanical beats, then this record is for you. The ability of the duo to create songs that combines a vicious groove with a grim mood is that set the record apart. It sure will end as one of the best industial metal record of the year.

putmusic.bandcamp.com

https://www.facebook.com/pages/PUT/78005182411

Lionel and Nicolas kindly agreed to answer to my questions about their band. here is the interview : 

-how did the band formed, how did it evolve up to now, and what does its name means ?

[P.U.T] formed in 1998 with Loïc my elder brother on guitar / rythms and me, Lionel, on bass and vocals. We did 2 albums "Bitterness, despair and cyniscism" in 2001, "Surgical ep" in 2002, 2 maxis, some featurings on remixes and albums, and played something like twenty shows.

At the end of 2002 Loïc stopped and was replaced by a friend, Alexandre Vitrac. My younger brother Nicolas also joined as sound engineer and programmer for some rythm parts. We released "Happy days" in 2005, many maxi’s, featurings on compilations, and played some gigs in France and Belgium.

In 2006 I moved to live in Belgium, we stopped for a time, then continued but without live rehearsals. We toured again at the end of 2007. Nico then went from the back to the front of the scene, handling second guitar. A 45 tours, some maxis, lives records, and many shows in Europe, including a tour in Germany.

Half 2009 Alex quit for personnal reasons.

We continued as a duo, a band of brothers, and released 2 albums this way,  the first being "the end" in 2010, followed by 2 maxis and then the second album being  "Like Animals" in 2012, we did  many shows including two European tours.

After 14 years of existence we have played more than 170 shows, in France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Italy, Austria, Czech republic, and Switzerland. We released 5 albums, 8 maxis, 2 lives, 45 tours... ouf voilà, we are in june 2012.

-At the start what did you like in industrial/noisy metal? Which bands influenced you?

Lionel : at the start it was bands like Scorn, Unsane, Sonic Youth, Sleeppers, Hint, Grötus and Godflesh that made us wanna play this kind of music. The hypnotic, heavy, dirty, weird and distorted feeling that goes with this music made a big impact on us and me Loïc wanted to do the same, to play music that disturb the senses and the mind, our own to start with.

Nicolas : What I liked was the possibility to subvert the sounds, to torture samples and to make music with noise, to channel an emotion through a deluge of noise. Many bands influenced me, like Front 242, unsane, portobello bones, condense, ministry, scorn, prodigy...

-In your opinion how do you bring something different into this musical style?

N : In the band we don’t have a technical approach to music, it’s more physical. We set a goal for a song and we find the tricks to do it. That’s what makes the sound and the song structure specific to PUT.

L : Honestly I think we have a sound and a way to write music that is really our own. And what’s more, I don’t think any other band sounds like us, with the mix of sludge noise metal Indus that we play…

-What does Like animals represent in the evolution of the band ? how was it written and recorded?

N : It’s just the logical following to what we want, we write what we feel at the time. Each one doing his thing on his own and then proposing it to the other, each one thus bringing it’s own personal touch.

Concerning the recording it’s really simple : a SM57 in front of the amp, really loud volume, and that’s it. For this record we were really looking for a raw sound, coming straight out of the amps.

L : It was our easiest and fastest album to record, one twelve hour session and it was done. We were already playing live many songs so we knew it already quite well. For “Like animals” we wanted something closer to our live sound, rawer hence more aggressive and heavier. So are also our new songs compared to the songs on the previous records, we were "internaly" angrier.

Concerning the writing, like Nico said, we write each one on its own (also because we live 350km away from the other) and propose it to the other who then adds his touch to it. We had already done that for “the end” and it worked well. Each one has its style but it always stays in the spirit of [P.U.T].

-what about the EP IT released before Like animals? it contains remixes of songs that are on Like animals, usually the bands release remixes after the release of the original songs not before, why did you do that?

-N : the goal is just to say “hey, we’re gonna release an album, get ready for it!”

-L : we also wanted to surprise, to “tease”, proposing one song from the album IT, and 3 remixes/ interpretations of songs to come, to disturb a bit and make people wonder what’s coming.

-with which kind of bands do you use to play ? are you sometimes on the bill of electro shows?

-we don’t play on electro shows much, it depends of the open-mindedness of shows organisers but I think we’re too much guitar oriented and metal for most electro shows organisers…but we opened for Scorn in Brussels (Mick congratulated us for our show), and played with dub or experimental bands. But these years we mostly played with metal bands, grind, punk, post rock, noise…and that’s ok with me because some were killers!

N : organisers have trouble to set up shows with bands of different musical styles. On the contrary we are really open and we like playing with bands doing something different than we do.

-what about the lyrics of the songs ? why does the record is called Like animals?

N : “Exuvia” is about Amazonia sending killer spiders against man as a vengeance. “IT” is about a man bit by a scorpion and falling into delirium. The song “zoo” is about a man who prefers spending his time watching “reality-tv” than facing the real world because he fears people, feeling that they behave like they are in a zoo. “Mammoth” is about all these assholes that crush everything on their way without thinking and paying attention to other people. The album is called “Like animals” like the song of the same title which notes that man is the worst animal.

L : on this album we were more directed towards songs about the destruction of nature or man’s behaviour, two themes that were already present in our previous record but it is more stressed in this one.

-do you already have ideas concerning your next record ?

-L : “like animals” was released just a few months ago, so for the moment we are still touring to present it, still many things to do for it. We don’t think about the next record yet, we have the time…

-apart from touring any other things planned for 2012 ?

-L : we plan to do a second maxi for free download in the year with remixes again. for 2013 we plan a split with Grünt Grünt a really good grind band from Angoulême (France), if all goes well we’ll also release an EP with 3 or 4 unpublished songs for our 15 years of existence, interested labels can contact us…

-something to add?

A big thank you for your curiosity! good luck for the future.

the video for IT from Like animals :
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xox2zq_p-u-t-it-extrait-de-l-album-like-animals_music

DISCOGRAPHY
ALBUMS
2001: "Bitterness, despair & cynicism" CD (P.O.G.O. Rds)
2002: "Surgical [e.p]" CD (P.O.G.O. Rds / Djeuze Grou Prod.)
2005: "Happy Day" CD (P.O.G.O. Rds)
2006: "Llive at bois d’arcy 14/01/06" CD (P.O.G.O. rds)
2008: "Live at Magasin4" 2CD: Xcrocs Records - Fr) // tape: Noise park activities (At) + Yaizekletka (Ru)
2010: "The End" (Dirty roadz)
2012: "The End" (Yaizekletka Rds - Russia)
2012: "Like animals" (pogo - dismember)

MAXIS & 7"
1999: Démo "Only friends sessions" - sold out -
2002: "Limited ed. series vol.01" (P.O.G.O. Rds) - sold out -
2004: "Acoustic sessions" (P.O.G.O. Rds) - sold out -
2004: "Limited ed. series vol.02" (P.O.G.O. Rds) - sold out -
2004: promo 4 titres (Rought mix version) from "Happy days" (P.O.G.O. Rds) - sold out -
2007: "Follow my wave e.p." (P.O.G.O. Rds - Spook Core Music - Dustin Must Die - Rottingham label - Elf Flesh Industries - Subconscious Manifestation - Deadknife Rds )
2007: Maxi album "Limited ed series vol.03" (P.O.G.O. Rds - Spook Core Music - Dustin Must Die - Rottingham label - Elf Flesh Industries - Subconscious Manifestation - Deadknife Rds)
2008: 45 tours "See the light / They Live" (Noise Records - France)
2010: "my sun is dying" (Dirty roadz)
2011: "wake up in the water" (Dirty roadz)
2012:  "IT" (pogo - dismember)
and many compilation in France, Netherlands, USA, Japan...