Named after a cutting machine, Massicot is a quartet from Geneva. Since their start in 2009, Massicot has toured Europe frequently, charming many a listener into dancing to their sharp and minimal post punk riffs.
With the aggressiveness of a tiger in Formica, Massicot oscillates between frank and noisy moments and hypnotic, repetitive phases. An obsessive, rythmic guitar, a modeled bass, a violin as an free electron, tropical kraut drums led by latvian poetry form a mass, a constellation of electrical dinosaurs, imported pineapples, cloud-drawings, intricate rhythms and Dada-jokes.

Facts

1: ANANAS IS NOT AN APPLE

2: DON’T MISS MASSICOT IN AUSLAND

3: THIS IS A DINOSAURE, NOT A BASS GUITAR

Questions

What is the biggest inspiration for your music?
We started Massicot simply improvising. We did that for one year before we decided to compose and rehearse. This is the organic way we discovered our sound. Rhythm, repetitive patterns, accidents and spontaneity are our main inspiration sources.

How and when did you get into making music?
We all come from art school and are big music fans. Some of us have studied music since they were kids and always have been in band s, but in the end this is more a common interest for sound and experimentation that brought us together than a taste for a precise style of music or academic skills.

What are your 5 favourite albums of all time?
Amongst so many others :)

Congotronics – Crammed Discs
Nico – ‘The Marble Index’
Brigitte Fontaine – ‘Comme à la radio’
Can – ‘Lost tapes’
Fred Frith – ‘Step across the border’

What do you associate with Berlin?
Endless crazy nights, artists, Memory and memory loss.

What’s your favorite place in your town?
Cave 12 in Geneva, a wonderful venue for deviant rock, weird electronics, experimental and all kind of wildness in music.

If there was no music in the world, what would you do instead?
Dance !

What was the last record you bought?
Nature Proper by ‘Beards’ (from Leeds) and The Inevitable Album by ‘Ravioli me away ‘(from London) during our last tour this summer in UK. Both are really good.

Who would you most like to collaborate with?
Musicians whom like to experiment with repetitive rhythms and patterns as well as psychedelic aspects in music and sounds. We’re also thinking of going more visual, and even if we all come out of art schools and can do stuff by ourselves, we’d like to collaborate with video / photo artists in the future.

What was your best gig (as performer or spectator)?
As performers, we released our new LP at La Cave 12 last may. It was crowded and it gave us a lot of energy. It was a great evening also as spectator because we were lucky enough to share the stage with Anne James Chaton and Andy Moor. Our last show in London was also incredible for us. People went totally crazy dancing. It doesn’t happen every time !

How important is technology to your creative process?
As a rock band we don’t rely on technology that much. We are quite low tech in fact… No electronics except for some simple pedal effects. We like pedal effects though. We started with none and then slowly, one by one, they appeared, transforming our sound, allowing some much more noisy moments in our dry and percussive atmosphere. New ideas came with new sounds of course.

Do you have siblings and how do they feel about your career?
Some are supporting and caring, others are supporting and worrying !!

Our Favourites:

Genuine