...the easy path isn't necessarily the most fulfilling: "How long can we hang" by Ex en Provence

Ex en Provence

...is a collaboration between Songwriters Samuel Deschamps and Jan Blumentrath who met whilst sharing stages and line-ups with their former bands La Shark and the Intergalactic Republic of Kongo / Eliot Sumner.

In their studio, a former jewish gym under a snookerhall in Stoke Newington, they set up a room full of synthesisers and have been dreaming up a new sound ever since. Since then the two have collaborated regularly as writers and producers for a diverse range of artists.

Whilst separated in London and Berlin The creative partnership has evolved to adapt to the pressures of lockdown, bouncing sonic and lyrical ideas as voice recordings, developing concepts in essays over whatsapp and using air corridors to briefly meet and shoot videos when and wherever possible. 

‘Ex En Provence’ became a release from confinement, figuring out new ways to exist as a band. Jan even ran a series of live experimental music gigs performing, from the back of a van to Berlin traffic jams and streaming live and the band performed several live gigs using Zoom from 3 separate locations. This union through the cosmos became a part of the fabric as they continue to develop new music.

facebook     twitter     spotify     soundcloud     youtube     instagram

Who are the "humans" behind Ex en Provence and is there a story behind the band name?

Ex en Provence is a Duo of the 2 songwriters Samuel Deschamps and Jan Blumentrath. The name comes from having had several intense romantic experiences in Provence (South of France) over the years. It's a play on words with French Town Aix en Provence .

"How long can we hang" sounds amazing and creates a nostalgic Art Pop feeling. What's the story behind the song, what or who was your inspiration?

The song is mostly a reflection on the sacrifices and changes we make over time... in relationships, how the easy path isn't necessarily the most fulfilling and how Western and Eastern spiritual ideology can shape us. 

I took a lot of inspiration from the love story of the artists Marina Abramovich and Ulay, who walked in opposite directions down the great wall of China as a statement of their love. When they Seperated we wanted something that matched the epic nature of this story telling.

Who got the idea for this extraordinary video?

Jan had the Idea after a chance encounter with artist @p_x_studio Pietro Bolcato and his amazing animation Creating AI machine, it was such a visually rich song we thought it would be a good fit! 

The process was to feed the lyrics to the machine as it searched and rendered imagery and material from the Internet... With help from the artistic styling of Pietro.

Nowadays songs have a playtime of around 2min 30s, what do you think ... enough to tell the story?

Certainly! A story can be told without words by a simple musical phrase! Truthfully sometimes the challenge getting an epic saga across in a short amount of time is exciting. But nothing should ever feel or sound rushed, or too generic structurally.

I have read something about several hundred demos, how would you describe your creative process?

We have been working together as songwriters for almost a decade now, we both love the creative explosion at the birth of a song! It's like nothing else in the world, typically we just set up many keyboards and a pallet of sounds to play with, two notepads and just press record! Then it's a process of narrowing down and fine tuning all the ideas that are flowing!

What's the hardest part being an Indie artist?

Your second job! :)

Any chance to see you somewhere live on stage?

Very excitingly and possibly, sometime in early 2023 in Berlin and London. This project, We started as a lock down band from two different cities bouncing ideas back and forth and meeting on zoom. We are looking forward to get on stage and play for you next year!

What can we expect from you in the near future?

...many more songs and visual/artistic collaborations, to play some live dates is definitely a priority!