Annie Hart and Hannah D’Angelo of Brooklyn synth practitioners Au Revoir Simone on their life and times, from gigging with David Lynch to flying with Motley Crue.
My most painful injury
Annie: “Last year I stepped on a rusty garden rake, which was hiding under leaves in my backyard. A spike went through my sneaker bottom and right into my foot. The painful part was at the emergency room when the doctor injected saline into my foot repeatedly to flush out the metal bits stuck inside. Ouch. Oh, and I just remembered a couple of years ago I got hit by a speeding taxi driver who whipped around to make a U-turn while I was riding my bike up Third Avenue in Manhattan. I got a concussion and that felt awful. Absolutely awful. Indescribable.”
Heather: “As clumsy as I am, I actually have never had a really painful injury. No garden rakes or broken bones to speak of – I should really find some wood to knock on right now. Probably the most physically painful thing I’ve ever experienced was when we were all staying at our sound engineer’s parent’s home in Bedford, England. It looked like the Keebler Elf house, with impossibly low ceilings and tiny arched doorways. I was talking on the phone and so wasn’t paying attention as I extended my body full length when walking from one room to another, and slammed the top of my head into the ceiling at full force. I literally saw stars and nearly blacked out.“
My best ever night out
Annie: “Being in a touring band there are lots of great times, but my favorite was on our tour opening for We Are Scientists, back in the days before any of us had cell phones over there. We ended up party-hopping in Glasgow. Highlights include being served a strong gin and something-or-other by Alex Kapranos in a random small apartment party – how Glasgow can you get for your first visit?! – then breaking off with the group to go search for our driver, an incredibly endearing guy from Bolton who found a sweet Glaswegian gal at our hotel bar, getting the three of us in a taxi to a party at someone from Snow Patrol’s house, where I had encouraged the entire first party to meet me, and they did, in droves, and we all had a grand time dancing and carousing. The cops came, which I think was entirely my fault, since I invited all those people there, and I ended up in a cot at the end of Chris Cain [from WaS]’s bed after we had all ordered room service French fries. Triumphant. I had a terrible hangover the next day.”
Heather: “I’m not sure if there is a “best ever,” there have been way too many amazing nights out, some of them band-related, and some from just living in NYC for 13 years and having the kind of crazy nights one has in this city. Definitely one of my favorite nights was when we played a show for David Lynch at the Foundation Cartier, in Paris. The stage was designed to look like the stage from Eraserhead, with plush, red velvet chairs and curtains, and as we performed, he smiled and watched attentively from the crowd, which was like the band equivalent of when your teacher gives you a gold star. After the show, we all drank champagne on the roof, surrounded by incredible views of Paris, the Eiffel tower was glittering in the distance, and the whole city felt calm, mysterious, and magical. We hung out, got drunk, and mused about life in general for hours – it was a really memorable night.”
My Worst hangover
Annie: “After an Antlers show in New York. I think I shotgunned a beer at one point, which was the beginning of the end. I was sick for two days. My most memorable trip.”
Heather: “Ugh. New Years Eve, 1999. I went to a party and drank an entire bottle of champagne, along with other cocktails – I was 19, and an inexperienced lightweight. My boyfriend had to carry me home like a baby through the streets of the East Village, and I spent the next few days feeling like I was going to die.”
Most memorable trip
Annie: “This is an impossible question for someone who tours constantly and travels lots on the side. I think my first trip to Japan with the band, which I combined with quitting my job and going to India by myself for a month. I really stayed off the beaten tourist path for most of it, and connected with people in a really strong way.
Heather: “My most memorable trip so far was when I went to Peru for three weeks. I hiked up to Machu Picchu in the morning, took a train through the Cusco Valley, saw the Andes mountains, and spent four days in a three-walled room without electricity or hot water in the Amazon rainforest, sleeping under mosquito netting, being woken up by Howler monkeys. I highly recommend Peru for the traveller who is interested in getting a completely different perspective on life.”
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The strangest situation
Annie: “My entire life is strange. I mean really strange. Two weeks ago Iwas in a studio with Air, where they were voluntarily learning our songs. Going to David Lynch’s house for a cup of cappuccino? Coming to a place like Istanbul and have four hundred people at your show who know every word to a song you wrote about a friend one day when you were sad? Isn’t that surreal? And yet, it all somehow seems completely normal. Kind of like being in an airplane. I have a difficult time actually believing that I’m flying, since it is so foreign to me and being in the cabin is so removed from everyday life. But you still know that you are flying, even if it doesn’t seem real.”
Heather: “I agree with Annie on this one. Although having just spent a week with Air in their studio, I distinctly remember a moment where I was teaching Jean-Benoit the chords for ‘All or Nothing’ and thinking, ‘How the hell did I get here?’ That was similar to when I somehow miraculously landed an internship at the American Museum of Natural History in the Astrophysics department. Leading up to that I had been an unemployed art gallery assistant with a BFA in Photography, hating life, and then suddenly I was sitting at the lunch table with Neil deGrasse Tyson, listening to him wax poetic about un-intelligent design.”
The worst song I ever wrote
Annie: “I can’t remember. I’ve blocked it out of my mind. But believe me, there are plenty of clunkers.”
Heather: “Was too bad to even get into. But yeah, it takes a lot of crappy writing to finally get to the decent stuff.”
My most impressive sporting feat
Annie: “I am the laziest athlete ever. I go more for endurance than exertion. But this year I tried the Polar Bear Swim on New Year’s Day. I, and about two hundred other people, stripped down to our suits and got in the Altantic at Coney Island. It was exhilarating!”
Heather: “Ha, wow, sports are not exactly my strong suit in life. I nearly scored a goal against my own team when I played field hockey during my Freshman year in High School. I say ‘nearly’ because I was that bad. Even with the aid of the entire opposing team trying to help me to score a goal for them, I still failed. I think someone on my own team finally knocked me out to try and stop me. Still, that would have been impressive. I’ve recently taken up bike riding, against all common sense, and rode a Velib rental through the Arc de Triomphe traffic circle. As terrifying as that was, I felt a huge sense of accomplishment when I finally arrived at the Champs-Élysées.”
The coolest person I ever met
Annie: “I can’t even count the cool people who have crossed my path, let alone judge who among them is the coolest.”
Heather: “My brother, Jonathan.”
The most disagreeable celebrity I ever met
Annie: “I can’t remember. I am like an out-of-touch grandmother in so many ways. I don’t even really know who famous people are.”
Heather: “We were on a flight from Tokyo with Motley Crew once, and they were so rowdy. Not my kind of crowd.”
The hardest I ever laughed
Annie: “I laugh a lot. I thought I was going to die during a performance by Mike Birbiglia of ‘Sleepwalk With Me.’ It was one of those situations I get into where I am supposed to be finished laughing and the rest of the world has moved on, but I’m still stuck on a joke no one else liked as much as I did, with tears in my eyes and my abs in awful pain.”
Heather: “The exhausted delirium which inevitably sets in about half way through tour is conducive to creating those kinds of open-mouth, tearing-eyed, silent, choking laughing fits not usually experienced since childhood, so there have been many. About what? I can’t remember. Sometimes if Annie starts laughing, I can’t resist joining in.”
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The worst gig I ever played
Annie: “There was one at the Knitting Factory where we had problem after problem. No one remembered the chord changes and we didn’t even have DI’s back then, we mixed ourselves through a crappy Behringer mixer on the stage. The three of us were in tears backstage afterwards.”
Heather: “And then there was the hellacious show in North Carolina, the only time we’ve played there, which was just an hour of constant, ear-splitting feedback loops. Of course that was the one and only time my Dad was able to come and see us play. There were about ten people in the audience, I don’t even know if they were fans, I think they just wandered in from the street to bear witness to the noise rock. Although my dad congratulated me afterwards, I could tell that he was just like, ‘this is what you’re doing with your life?’ So, I’m grateful to all those who have posted YouTube videos of our shows. They lend a little much-needed legitimacy.”
The best gig I ever played
Annie: “There were so many great ones! Whenever we have an unexpectedly avid audience it always puts us in a great mood. This show we just played with Air was incredible, as well. We spent a week learning their songs, and they ours, and we crowned it off with our best run-through of them all on stage. Hearing our songs with an excellent drummer, bassist, and keyboardist was a completely new and satisfying experience.”
Heather: “Yes, there have been, but I’m going to say that the show with Air was by far the best one. That whole experience was a realized dream.”
The worst lie I ever told
Annie: “Unfortunately, there are lots of bad ones. One I remember is telling someone I loved them when I didn’t, and it got me into years of trouble.”
Heather: “Oh, yeah, mine is similar. I think unhappiness paired with confusion can turn one into a real coward, and I’ve definitely been a coward on a few regrettable occasions.”
The angriest I’ve ever been
Annie: “Oh, boy! I can get pretty mad sometimes. Last year, I ended up in one of many baggage debacles, arguing policy with an unfriendly clerk after two weeks of verifying prices over the phone. Sounds innocent written down, but it was enormously frustrating when it happened. That was the end of tour-managing ourselves.”
Heather: “Watching the BP oil spill crap all over the Gulf. I haven’t been this angry since Bush won his second term in office.”
The best piece of advice I can give
Annie: “Live your life with kindness and generosity.”
Heather: “Don’t panic and always bring a towel.”
Au Revoir Simone’s remix album ‘Night Light’ is out now
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Clash Magazine Issue 53
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