Daïtro: Raising Questions Instead of Singing a Rebel Truth

Formed in Lyon in the early 2000s, Daïtro established a place for themselves within the French and international DIY scene. Starting as a four-piece, they expanded their ranks with Gwen and Aurélien, bringing new ideas and dynamics to their sound.

Consisting of Aurélien Verdant on vocals, Julien Paget on guitar, Gwenaël Grosclaude on bass, Samuel Moncharmont on guitar, and Benoît Desvignes on drums, Daïtro’s music was a combination of chaotic 1990s screamo infused with post-rock elements. Though sounding different with each release, their style was more or less reminiscent of contemporaries such as Funeral Diner and City of Caterpillar, but stood apart from the more aggressive sound of legends like Orchid or Pg.99.

European screamo had its noteworthy names, such as Aussitôt Mort and La Quiete, but what set Daïtro apart was their commitment to their French roots (Fingerprint, Jasemine, Ivich, etc.). Singing exclusively in French, they offered a different texture and emotion to their sound. Now, in this interview with Julien Paget, we want to get deeper into their journey, their music, and the legacy they’ve built.

Salut, Julien! To start with, could you introduce yourself, give us a brief history of Daïtro, and tell us about your releases so far?

Hello! So, I’m Julien, I play guitar and sing in the band. I play with four other good dudes: Benoit, who plays the drums, Aurelien, who sings, Gwen, who plays bass, and Sam, who plays guitar too…

I have known Sam since I was three years old and Benoit since I was thirteen, and one day we decided to start a band so we learned to play our instruments… We started to play as a three-piece in 1997 but it was just to learn how to play together, write our first shitty songs… The band as Daïtro started in 2000, we were a four-piece for the first four years, there was no lead singer, I sang everything, and Thomas was playing bass.

We released a debut seven-inch in 2002 and an MCD, Des Cendres, Je Me Consumme, in 2003 with this line-up and then when Aurelien and Gwen arrived, at the beginning of 2004, we did a split with Raein in 2004, a first full-length, Laisser Vivre Les Squelettes, in 2005, a split with Ampere in 2006, one with Sed Non Satiata, and another seven-inch in 2007.

We toured mostly in Europe since then but also in Japan in 2006 and in the US in 2007. There is no particular story behind the band, just friends wanting to play music altogether, that’s how we started and that is still one of the main statements of the band…

You released a split with your friends Sed Non Satiata that benefits two collectives in France and one Italian organization. Please explain how the idea for that split came about and tell us more about the collectives you are helping.

We were involved in Food Not Cops, which was the Food Not Bombs in Lyon, and we missed some dishes to cook and serve dinners. We thought we could raise some money with the next record for it but as we didn’t want it to benefit only something from our hometown, we decided that it would be cool if it could be helpful for other local associations of people being involved in the record.

As I said, Food Not Cops is based on the Food Not Bombs idea, we collect food for free in markets, cook it, and then serve it in the street to people in need… Unhurt is an association in Toulouse preventing ear damage… Spazio Autismo is an association in Bergamo helping autistic kids to make their lives better and more enjoyable. The LP in the US will also be helping Casa De Elizabeth, an orphanage in Tucson, Arizona helping children who have been deprived of a loving family…

What other bands, projects, collectives, or organizations are you involved in? I know you’re running a DIY label and distro, and that you’re also doing artwork and packaging for Daïtro and other bands…

Gwen and I started a new band with our friend Hugues, it is called 12XU, it is more Wipers-Hot Snakes-Dinosaur Jr.-driven… we played our first shows and will record a demo this weekend! Gwen and I also started Echo Canyon Records, we released the split with Sed Non Satiata on CD and have other projects on our mind for the near future… I do some artwork sometimes too. Sam is co-managing a DIY art gallery in Lyon too and makes some exhibitions in other cities too… So far that’s all, it’s quieter than before actually!

The messages in Daïtro’s songs seem socially and politically aware, but the writing style is more introverted and layered, not directly hitting the listener with politics like more generic hardcore punk or crust bands. Do you think your DIY attitude, playing in squats, and benefiting different causes make you a political band, and is that political in itself?

Our topics, the way the band works, where we play, and what we want to do with it come from some political awareness but it doesn’t make the band ‘political’, if you know what I mean… I think the meaning is too strong and it would be pretentious and unfair to all the bands being really political…

With the band, I think we are more trying to put out questions we have instead of singing a rebel truth. But I don’t consider ourselves apolitical at all either, so we’re somewhere between these two extremes. Too many people think that the fact of being DIY makes them political whereas I think it is a fantasy.

Being a militant, going to demonstrations, gluing posters for the Anarchist Federation or whatever, trying to reach different people with radical ideas, this is politics. Most of the scene here is simply extreme-left-wing friendly whereas few are real political militants…

What does hardcore punk mean to you? Is it a lifestyle, a youthful rebellion against the norms, a tool for radical ideas, or something else? And how have the meanings of DIY and activism changed for you over the years?

Hardcore punk for me is a tool that helps me to be aware and fight social and cultural dogmas, it helps me to get self-confidence and helps me to think that brotherhood and solidarity still exist on this planet. But throughout the years, I lost my naivety about it, I stopped thinking that it was a fantastic parallel world with only good and reliable people, I can notice the good and the bad too and being with other people not being in the punk thing sometimes helps me a lot to keep hindsight on it, and not be swallowed by the punk dogma.

I was way more active two years ago but I’ve been so disappointed by some people or saddened by some things that happened that I calmed down everything. On the other hand, I can’t stop setting up shows, playing with the band, having ideas of records to release, but now I just try not to do fifty things at the same time and do things better when I’m involved in them…

Do you think this scene is really offering something new that lets you explore life on your own terms without being trapped in society’s norms and rules? Or is it also just a close-minded social clique with its own trends, posers, and divisions?

You always have the good and the bad, the positive and negative aspects, you can’t say the punk scene is all white or all black. It definitely brings something new, of course, the punk scene brought really interesting ideas to the way you can build an independent network, how you can achieve big things on your own, how you can challenge some ideas you got from your education or from your culture. It really helped a lot to build my own person and to feel fine with it and it created some really stimulating things like DIY, radically different ways of thinking and living, giving room and a voice to minorities…

The negative aspect comes from the fact that punk is well known now and that people can take from punk only some parts of it. So I don’t think there is one whole punk scene fighting with the same will of making things, I think there are several punk networks with different levels of radicalism… that’s how it created cliques with boring posers and folklore pretending to know the truth about what punk is.

What are you doing in your daily life outside the DIY hardcore punk milieu that has a positive impact on people’s lives and connects to mutual aid and solidarity? How can we respond in everyday life to the alienation, violence, and nihilism of modern Western white-male-hetero-dominated societies?

mmm… Being aware of how hard it is stuck in our cultures and traditions is the first and most important step to change the bad habits we inherited, like the way we can speak, words we can use, and reflexes we can have towards women, gays, and marginal people, or let’s say people in general. Then besides what is related to punk, I’m not so involved in mutual aid and solidarity in my hometown except giving old clothes, being aware of what I buy, eat, and throw away, things which are the most basic things you can do. The punk involvement, bands, shows, label, and other temporary projects, and my job fill my life enough to have a complicated personal life sometimes so I cannot do more actually because I still want to keep free time to spend with people I love. On the other hand, I don’t know if I have met the good people I’d like to do such things with yet… But once I’d feel I can do it, I’d definitely get involved in local things that have an impact on people living in the same place…

We probably did Food Not Cops ten times in 2006 and it was a really good experience for me. Sharing moments with homeless and marginal people was something I really appreciated because it’s positive not to be disconnected from them. Thanks to the benefit, we’ll buy some dishes and other stuff to cook in the street so it will help all of us to have a new dynamic about it and make Food Not Cops happen more often now…

At the moment I’m sending you these questions, the biggest NATO summit in history is taking place in Bucharest, Romania. Twenty-seven thousand cops were mobilized to keep everything peaceful and quiet, and the repression against alternative-looking people started weeks ago. Protests in Bucharest are forbidden and activists are being arrested without legal reasons. What do you think about all the militarism, propaganda, and police presence defending world leaders and NATO policies?

It’s just completely frightening and I just wish there will be riots just for the principle. I still can’t believe the government people elected need to be protected like this… At least, it shows that anti-capitalist struggle has become a serious threat for them if they need to be protected like that… Hopefully it will become bigger and bigger… It shows how our modern societies we praised as being a model of democracy are fucked up.

What I think about militarism, propaganda, etc. defending these dudes? How could I find one good reason to justify it? Who could do it except themselves? I’ll give you a more local example that really pissed me off too. Last year in Lyon, I was coming home and I had to cross a big place in the center… there were cops everywhere in the buses. You know, real cops dressed like soldiers… I went by one and asked, “what are you doing here?” The guy told me there was the Ministry of Internal Affairs under the tent on the place and that they were there to keep the place quiet. It was very peaceful, you know, but now, it looks like every time there is something linked to the government you need big security. I was pissed off and it made me so nervous, I couldn’t believe it… I said, “don’t you think there is a REAL problem with government if every time it is represented it needs to be protected with ten buses of cops? Honestly?” He just replied to me telling me he was just doing what the hierarchy thought was good to do. So what can you do…? You just want to smash those dickheads’ faces just for the principle of being there…

Do you have an opinion on French militarism and Sarkozy’s pro-American and pro-Zionist positions, as well as French policy in the Central African Republic, supporting brutal dictatorships and still sending French troops to wars in Africa to preserve current militarist regimes?

France supporting African dictators is something each French president is doing, like a custom, it’s not Sarkozy’s idea. The most famous for that is Mitterrand who sold so many weapons to dictators, stayed quiet during the Rwanda genocide, etc… France and Africa have a terrible common history and it is totally ignored in France, it’s crazy, except for the fact that France had African colonies. All you hear in school and the news here about postcolonialism in Africa is like France helps African countries elect presidents, helped financially many countries and we can congratulate ourselves on how we did the job well… It’s bullshit!

Did you hear that there was a proposed law defending the positive aspects of colonialism to be taught in history classes in school two years ago? Hopefully it didn’t happen thanks to teachers’ protests but I was so astonished that a French person could even think about it… French industries are doing so well in Africa, it brings so much to France, there is so much lobbying and so many lies that they’ll help any regime that will help keep the benefits.

About Sarkozy’s pro-American and pro-Zionist positions, it makes me worried. I think the other presidents, Chirac was known for it, were Palestinian-friendly to be friendly with all the Muslim community in France, I think. It didn’t make him better or more acceptable though, but at least I was relieved to sometimes see him questioning US policies. I think Chirac is the last right-wing president with that slight anti-Americanism coming from De Gaulle. Sarkozy is the new generation… He only thinks and acts in a very extreme liberal way, he’s one of these modern liberal leaders who’d do anything for France’s commercial health, at any cost. US policies are responsible for so many modern tragedies that I cannot be anything other than really anxious because of course I don’t support or justify them.

What was your opinion of the big CPE civil unrest and riots in France?

It was really cool they happened because it pushed the government to change the law. As you probably know, we have numerous social advantages in France that tend to be more and more canceled because of very radical liberal politics. That sucks for people of my generation because it is an open door to more and more social precarity. I’m relieved to see how young French people keep in their hearts this reflex to go into the street when there is something wrong for them… There were huge demonstrations, it was really a massive thing… but I’m not idealistic about that, you know, I know it happens only in some extreme cases, which is still a good thing I admit of course, compared to other countries where it seems more dangerous to rebel against the government…

Back to music-related questions. What bands have influenced you the most? And could you name a few great bands you like that you think have been underrated?

I don’t really have secret bands I love and who influence me with few people around me ignoring them… Maybe just Lisabö, a Basque band singing in the Basque language… their records are very hard to find, very limited, they only play in the Basque Country and they are in my top five favorite bands ever with no doubt. It’s the saddest music I know and a great influence on the band too… We’re all fond of Breach too, I think that’s where our taste for heavy rhythm comes from…

We did like Envy a lot in the past too, but we don’t really consider them as influential. The other bands that could stand as our models would probably be Yage, 12 Hour Turn, Hot Snakes, Lack, Aussitôt Mort, Sed Non Satiata… It stands as the common ground for the songs. Then we put some of our other more personal and specific musical tastes and feelings into them to make it sound.

We also think about the ideas we had on previous releases and try to push them further in new songs.

The “emo” trend is very popular right now and Daïtro is an emo band, haha.

We definitely like the emo punk label because it has sense to us since it is linked to emo bands that always are and have been models to us: Yage, 12 Hour Turn, Sinaloa, Policy of 3, etc. These bands are strongly attached to the DIY scene… Screamo sounds more pejorative to us sometimes and it’s related to a part of punk that we’re not very excited by, so being labeled as ‘screamo’ we don’t really take it as a compliment.

Whatever, for the last three or four years the musical press and big magazines stole the words emo and screamo from punk to make them a commodity on a big level, it became the new face of emo and screamo for people, which is sad, even if punk people didn’t notice it. Underground emo and mainstream emo don’t have the same purposes and same goals. I think every mainstream band is very self-centered whereas underground and DIY bands want to build a strong radical community, considering their bands as ‘amongst others’.

Mainstream emo is very teenage-orientated, based on image and fashion like rock stars, whereas underground emo bands don’t care about that. Also for mainstream screamo bands, musically I consider it modern nu metal, it has the same clichés, it’s so boring and so predictable. The way they look, the way they act like rock stars in videos is sooo pathetic, it doesn’t really annoy me, I’m just very amused by it… Then, being older now, it’s funny to see young kids pretending to be very underground because they listen to magazine screamo bands, whereas in reality they’re just a product of this new trend created by magazines… It doesn’t piss me off at all…

I was probably the same when I was seventeen, when I was listening to Nirvana and other bands on major labels, pretending to listen to non-commercial music, haha!! Then, if people in the punk scene put all ‘screamo/emo’ bands in the same bag, seeing all of them with the same prejudice, I think they seriously miss some objectivity and they should learn more about the different faces punk can have. The style of music you play doesn’t give you credibility at all, it’s above all what you say and the way you do your band.

We interviewed Aussitôt Mort not long ago and Antoine talked about the French scene. He said it’s great that bands and people from different cities are communicating and making shows, splits, and other things together, united by the same purposes like DIY, music, friendship, and activism. What’s the situation in your hometown of Lyon? Are there many good bands, squats, venues, zines, and activities? And what’s your view on the scene in France as a whole and your favorite bands at the moment?

There’s always been some really cool things going on in Lyon, people trying to open squats, set up lots of shows in different styles, or play in good bands. There is a solid hardcore punk background… Then there are so many shows now that I can’t find the diversity that was there seven or eight years ago when we were all going to each other’s shows; today everything became more specialized because people cannot afford to go to every show… so it slowly created subdivisions and cliques…

In Lyon, there are some cool places where punk exists, like a squat called Le Boulon where people also live, Grrrnd Zero where we practice and where most shows happen, which also has a space dedicated to an autonomous art gallery, La Luttine, a small place where we can all go and meet people on Saturday afternoon to read zines, talk, and listen to music, there is also the silk-screen workshop in this place and it is used for small meetings of political organizations.

Lyon always had a strong militant consciousness too so it gives the punk scene a lot of possibilities. Then about France in general, I won’t complain about its situation because it’s easy to find people having the same ideas that you have or having the same purposes. But I have the feeling that it’s happening in France what happens in Lyon: every music style has a specific network which maybe makes things easier but it doesn’t really help the mix of ideas and styles, I think it slowly tends to make people more close-minded. About zines, there are more zines than in the past too, mostly written in French which is cool…

Aussitôt Mort, Bökanövsky, Sed Non Satiata, Gasmask Terror, Death to Pigs, Lexomyl, Lost Boys, Ned are probably my favorite bands nowadays also, I do like them a lot… About squats, there are a few that have been there for more than ten years now like L’Etincelle in Angers, Les Tanneries in Dijon, standing as the most famous ones… But it’s definitely not as in Germany for example where each city has its autonomous and alternative place. It’s definitely harder to keep a free place here for a long time, there is a lot of repression, especially here in Lyon where all the squats didn’t last more than one year… It’s sad but on the other hand, it creates some good dynamics when a new one opens…

What are your future plans for new releases, tours, and shows in places where you have never been?

We’re finishing a new album that we’ll record in July… Then we’ll probably tour this fall and it sounds like we’ll be able to come and tour in South and East Europe which makes us really excited about it because we’ve never been there… Then we discussed other splits with some friends’ bands too!