Q&A: Benoit & Sergio
Benoit & Sergio first stepped out as a duo a couple years ago with a pop-oriented sensibility that gives their music a truly unique feel incomparable to typical dance music productions. They take the best of everything, for dance and non-dance music alike, with a few releases appearing on forward-thinking pop labels, Ghostly International and DFA, and the more recent imprint started by tech-house party-starters Seth Troxler, Shaun Reeves, Lee Curtiss and Ryan Crosson, Visionquest. Now, on tour, they’ll give us a taste of what’s to come with their SF debut at Lights Down Low with No Regular Play at Public Works on Friday, December 2.
I did a quick Q&A with Benoit & Sergio to give a better sense of their work for their upcoming party. Unsurprisingly, the duo likes to keep a veil of mystery that matches the allure of their sexy, mature productions.
What are your backgrounds? Where did you grow up and how did you come across your favorite music?
Benoit is from Paris. Sergio is from Iowa. Benoit studied science. Sergio literature. We came about music the old-fashioned way–going to record stores, going to shows.
What are some of your all-time favorite records?
Brian Eno’s “Here Come The Warm Jets”; Guns n Roses “Appetite For Destruction”; “The Fawn” by The Sea and Cake; Daft Punk “Homework” ; Billy Joel’s “Innocent Man”; Can “Soundtracks”; Metronomy “The English Riviera”; Paul Simon’s “Still Crazy After All These Years” – to name a few
When did you decide to start making music?
Like all moments of truth in a one’s life, the decision was made not by us but by the thing we thought we were deciding on.
What is pop music to you and what are your favorite things about it?
When in rare, magical cases, a song transcends sentimentality and enters a complex dimension of real melancholy coupled with a promise of some kind.
What got you interested in dance music?
The possibility that a party might never end.
Your music has a story-telling aspect to it. What’s your motivation behind this?
Everything tells a story–most stories aren’t that interesting, though, so the motivation isn’t to tell a story but to tell a good one, and that’s the same motivation for anyone involved with art, music, literature.
Can you explain a little bit about your earlier release this year, Where the Freaks Have No Name?
Proust said about happiness that he would destroy it, by the mere fact of putting it into words, which is to say that it is hard to put into words what it was about.
So far you’ve got a handful of EPs out. Do you intend to come out with a full length in the near future?
We are working on a full-length album now. Hopefully we can get it done soon, but we don’t want to rush anything, because some times things take time.
Tell me about your other projects, such as (for Sergio), Birds & Souls. Which other artists have you worked with and how did you feel about the results?
All of our time is devoted to Benoit & Sergio. The other projects were more akin to summer flings which you look back upon with fondness.
How do you work together? Generally speaking, how do you end up splitting the work load?
When we are working well together, it never feels like we are splitting a work load. It’s more like two friends, hanging out in the park, playing catch.
Do you miss anything about Washington, DC?
Sergio misses the Atomica pizza at Paradiso and the cadences of English on warm summer nights. Benoit lives in DC still, so he doesn’t need to miss anything. He just needs to walk down the street to find it.
What are you most excited about for this tour?
The open, generous, energetic, loving nature of the better half of America.
For more info and tickets, go here.
