We Hate You Please Die songs are often thick with variance, almost to the point of non-recognition within each particular composition, which gives a certain life to them that when taken as a whole, is quite substantial, playing out like worlds within worlds.
“They’re kind of like stories on their own,” guitarist Joseph Levasseur explains. “They go through many emotions, many dynamics, and, like in a film, we like the moments that surprise us and put us in a position of a little difficulty.”
On the group’s latest record, Can’t Wait To Be Fine, out June 18 via Stomp Records, you get the inkling of the difficulty that Levasseur talks about. Often songs take complete 180-degree turns, and then turn right back around to fit snugly as great little punk rock numbers. But the expanse contained within each is of note, giving it the ultimate expression you hear.
“Personally I really like hearing songs that surprise me,” Levasseur adds. “When they start we don’t know how they will end, and what states of mind they will lead us through. There are endless possibilities to create songs, so it would be a shame to do only what makes sense. The music would be so sad.”
And Can’t Wait To Be Fine does feel happy, feels alive, brimming with possibility, like something contained and finally let loose. You hear bits and pieces of influence, often within seconds, giving the record nobility and grandeur. It shows its cards, and still surprises with a flush.
“It’s cool if the songs give off joy,” Levasseur says. “Because despite the name of the group, the goal in all of this is not just to be angry, it’s to create virtuous circles of joy through the songs. It’s almost a political choice to play only major chords.”
The angst comes through each song the band lays through, though, the spirit of aggression, of awareness and purpose, very clear and straight. With a name like We Hate You Please Die, you’d think there’d have to be some function of anger beyond a passive one, and there is, but through this forceful message is a peaceful, loving purpose, and that is felt like a warm sun, each aggressive measure swallowed into a tranquil blur, a collective conscience of sorts.
“The name has several meanings,” vocalist Raphaël Monteiro explains. “It’s a great tribute to the comics and the movie Scott Pilgrim first and foremost, but it’s also a cathartic and provocative name. The name is extreme, but also extremely opposed to our beliefs. We don’t want people to die, but it synthesizes a raw anger towards this world and towards ourselves.”
Ultimately, the band’s multiplicity is reactionary. The songs come together as an expression of solidarity, and that is the warmness and trust you hear. The rage, though, is the seed, the ultimate dynamic of the group.
“I won’t hide from you that I am not optimistic even if I try to keep a little hope,” Monteiro quips. “We are very much on a planet that is being destroyed more and more. I’m bad at math, but I think we all know the answer to this problem. The race for power and greed are anchored everywhere, no room for emotion, it just takes results. It should come as no surprise that one part of the world is on drugs and the other at war or neglected. Thank patriarchy and capitalism for making people so callous and destroying others. That’s why it’s time for deconstruction and why the woke movement arose. We’ve reached the limit. People forgotten or damaged, they want to talk about their reality and no longer suffer or act as if nothing had happened. Suddenly, another part of the people who have always lived far from this reality finds it very difficult to digest it, which is understandable. We must show empathy and tolerance once and for all, and stop our individualistic education. Because at the end of the day, if one day everything burns down, it doesn’t matter where you come from, you’re going to burn the same way. So, it would be cool to manage to stop sawing the branch you’re sitting on one day, and not end up with an end like in Watchmen.”
Can’t Wait To Be Fine sounds like Rorschach and Ozymandias fighting it out, and coming up with a better solution in the end. But what about Dr. Manhattan— perhaps that’s for the next record?
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Photo courtesy of We Hate You Please Die and Titouan Massé.
