"Krone" interview

Pop band Air: “We have written classics”

The French pop collective Air during their brilliant performance at the Vienna Konzerthaus - there will be an open-air reunion at MetaStadt.

(Bild: Andreas Graf)

With their debut album "Moon Safari", the French filigree electronic band Air made music history in 1998. For their belated anniversary, they are on a major tour and revitalizing the longing for better times. Half of the band Nicolas Godin answered our questions at the Vienna Konzerthaus.

Since the corona years, many people have had their problems with the correct classification of time. The French cult band Air and their record label are in a similar situation. The legendary downtempo/chillout cult album "Moon Safari" actually celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2023. However, the extensive tour and the new re-release vinyl with remix songs and demo recordings will only be released this year. So be it - the important thing is that Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel are back on the road again. In Austria, before the celebrated gig at the Vienna Konzerthaus, which was sold out for months, this was last the case in 2010 as part of the faded Jazz Fest Wien at the State Opera. With a mixture of "Moon Safari" and a best-of set, the two taciturn hobby astronauts will also be coming to Vienna's MetaStadt on July 23rd - giving fans who missed out on the meagre ticket roulette a chance.

With "Moon Safari", the two sound tinkerers from Versaille not only fulfilled a retro-futuristic dream for themselves, they also captured the pre-millennium zeitgeist like no other. Shortly after the end of the boorish Britpop scene and before the beginning of the global mood decline that continues to this day, starting with 9/11, the two introverted free spirits created album-length music for dreaming, indulging and sinking into. "Moon Safari" has also survived the "Test Of Time" and, a quarter of a century later, still doesn't sound outdated and beams old fans and new fans into a cozy cloud of nostalgia that shines free of wars, terror and social media radicalism. Godin reminisces in an extensive "Krone" interview and also talks about the pitfalls of sudden fame, why an artistic relationship has to include tension and why he sees himself as a cozy bon vivant in the near future.

"Krone": Nicolas, it's hard to believe but true - the tour for the belated 25th anniversary of your 1998 cult album "Moon Safari" is actually the first time you've presented this work in its entirety ...
Nicolas Godin: Absolutely correct. We always thought that we wouldn't be able to perform this album live in a dignified way. It's very delicate and consists of an incredible number of small elements and many details that could quickly get lost on stage and take the charm out of the songs. We had guest singers and different arrangements and didn't know what to do with them live. We also promoted the album extremely heavily and got a bit tired. It just wasn't the kind of music we liked anymore and we deliberately headed for completely different shores. But after all these years, we rediscovered the magic of the album and wanted to make it happen. I don't want to compare myself to classical musicians, but we always had the same approach when we composed. Even with the albums "The Virgin Suicides" and "10 000 Hz Legend". The track list was always carefully balanced, every little detail had its place. There were just too many hurdles that we could always have stumbled over.

At the end of the 90s, you couldn't have expected the kind of life that "Moon Safari" would later develop.
Not even in the slightest, we made the album exclusively for ourselves. There was a good electronic scene in Paris and as long as our friends were happy with the music, so were we. We made 12-inches and didn't think far beyond the city limits. The very first time I held a copy of "Moon Safari" in my hand, I was over the moon. We had an album ready. For me, that could have been it. I couldn't imagine achieving anything more.

Is it really the case that you have far less love for the album in the end than millions of people who have tipped into this work?
It was different at the very beginning, but the promotional machinery for the album was incredible. We spent six months just giving interviews and talking about this album, and that was enough. We consciously wanted to do something completely different and therefore changed radically. But that was always the aim of Air. Each chapter should have its own life.

Was that also the reason why you never performed the album in its entirety?
Sometimes yes. On the first tour, we had "Moon Safari" songs in the setlist, but we changed them so that people in the audience didn't recognize them. It was a statement for us to get away from that, but you can't go through life with that kind of attitude.

That's the curse of the musician - you always want to move on yourself, but the fans like to stay where they fell in love with the band.
That's the musical Stockholm syndrome. It's a luxury to suffer from, but it can also be difficult. (laughs)

Was there a particular moment when you seriously considered the anniversary tour? Or where "Moon Safari" took a turn for the better for you in general?
For many people, the album is a part of their lives and culture. There's hardly a pub in England without a song from this album, it's absolutely crazy. People come to every concert and associate something very personal and special with the album. The album belongs to the listeners as much as it belongs to us. I know how important music was to me as a 16 or 17-year-old. This music stays with you for your whole life, even if it changes. Back then, I listened to the same album for a year, the same ten songs. Today, teenagers have all the music in the world on their smartphone in their pocket. That's great, of course, but nobody throws themselves into an album as passionately as they used to and sticks with it for a long time. Music has become far too fast-moving.

France has always had a very vibrant and diverse electronic scene. Was there a lot of competition back then in the 90s?
It wasn't like the Britpop scene, where everyone hated each other. (laughs) Of course there was competition, but it was always respectful and friendly. We still have a lot of contact with each other today and are all friends. There is a beautiful bond between us all.

Nicolas Godin from Air in Action.

(Bild: Andreas Graf)

How does it feel for you to be an integral part of pop music history?
It's a kid's dream and there's hardly anything that stands above it. I never thought about rock, rap or anything else from a young age. I always wanted to make music that was part of the world and understood and liked by the world. With songs in French, it's difficult or impossible to be successful internationally. We made instrumental music and became internationally successful, like Jean-Michel Jarre before us. I still can't quite believe that we made it that far. There was also a lot of luck involved.

A lot of artists have the great desire to create music that is timeless. "Moon Safari" is an example of how this can be achieved in reality. Do you see the album as an unplanned masterpiece in terms of composition?
It was always our obsession to create something timeless. When I hear the drum tracks today, I know exactly when they were made and how they were created back then - for example in the song "Sexy Boy". Simply unforgettable. In the beginning, I always composed music in my bedroom, and every time I turned on the radio, I despaired. I never managed to create music for the radio and didn't know how I could ever reach people with it. Since I couldn't write hits, I had to write classics. (laughs) Maybe that really is the secret of timeless songs.

Every music lover knows Air and even more know songs by you without directly and quickly associating them with you as people. How happy are you to have had so much success without being exposed to the fame of a Justin Bieber or Mick Jagger?
Whether it was Daft Punk, Chemical Brothers, Massive Attack, Portishead or us - we were all producers and sound engineers first and foremost, not artists. The record companies turned us into artists because they wanted to sell us. I loved the studio, tinkering with songs and instruments. We weren't David Bowie, we were just servants of the music. Nobody was looking for the limelight. None of us were extroverts either and to this day I still feel intimidated when I have to take photos or am invited to photo shoots. The labels wanted to turn producers into artists in the spotlight. They succeeded to a certain extent, but we always resisted as best we could.

Are you secretly happy that your fame flourished at a time when social media platforms were just being developed and not yet used globally?
But so very happy. (laughs) Just thinking about the word fame gives me anxiety attacks. Every TV show used to be torture and we worked with really famous people a few times. It was an absolute nightmare. Just watching them have to dress up for every step they take in public. You're lying on the beach, eating in a restaurant or playing golf - and cameras are snapping everywhere. We once played with Charlotte Gainsbourg. She was out with her son and the paparazzi followed her wherever she went. I wouldn't have swapped places with her for the world. What good is fame if you can't even go for a quiet swim? I'm a guy who lives in the studio. That's my vocation.

Musicians are never satisfied with their songs and albums. A quarter of a century later, would you change much about "Moon Safari"?
Not today, but for years the overloud bass tracks bothered me. We even re-released the album after the Ochsen promo tour because we adapted the mastering relatively quickly. But at some point I put the album away and never listened to it again in order to find inner peace. Today, after all these years, I don't care at all and I'm very happy with the work. I used to be a much worse perfectionist. We always say in France that the better is the enemy of the good. On "Sexy Boy" I sing totally weird and out of tune, but if we had adapted it and it had been straightforward, the song would have lost all its charm. There's a reason for everything.

In the end, do you always have to fight your inner perfectionist?
All the time, but that's probably the only way as an artist.

What did the work on "Moon Safari" and the album itself ultimately do to you and Jean-Benoît Dunckel as partners, colleagues and friends?
It's very complicated. We make music together because we are complete opposites. This often creates a lot of tension, which is important for a band. You never want to and should never have a band with your best friend, because you are far too similar to him and then the music doesn't become interesting. If you're always of the same opinion, it doesn't lead to anything. At festivals, I've mostly seen bands where there was a lot of tension backstage. Phoenix are the opposite, they are like five fingers on one hand and enjoy their great friendship. A rare case.

Tensions can be fruitful. Tensions lead to decisions and, in the best case, to always bringing out the best in yourself.
You have to be the opposite of the other. If I'm white, you have to be black. Anything else makes no sense in music. Putting together setlists can be a fucking nightmare. When managers of one artist negotiate with the others about which song by whom ends up where in the live concept - there's often real drama. (laughs) Thank God we don't have to worry about that, because the setlist on this tour is self-evident.

At least the "Moon Safari" part. For the second half, the best-of, you had to get together again ...
Okay, that's true, of course.

Are these tensions the reason why there hasn't been a new Air studio album for twelve years now?
It's more a question of whether new music could match the class of the older ones. I very much doubt that. In my opinion, every band has ten years. In France, for example, there is hardly a fashion designer who is still relevant after ten years. It's similar in music. I don't know of any act that has ever come close to the quality of that time after the first ten years. We could of course write and produce a new album, but I doubt very much that the momentum would be on our side. I'm a huge fan of Kraftwerk or David Bowie, but they also said everything you need to know in the first ten years. We wrote our most important albums up until 2005. But we have a good time, eat together, tour together and spend a lot of time together when we're on tour. In music, however, we have told Air a bit of a story. Of course, you can never say never, but we don't have another album planned.

Was it difficult for you to agree to this anniversary tour at first, because as creatives you live in the present and also in the future, but not in the past?
We were on tour the whole time until the pandemic hit. Before that, we were on the road every three to four years and then it was suddenly over. It broke our typical rhythm and even after the pandemic we hadn't thought about playing live. We were always in a cycle that we thought was fun, but at some point it took on a life of its own. That was probably also the reason why we enjoyed this long, six-year break from playing live. The magic of making albums no longer exists today because the consumption of music and streaming providers have destroyed this mystique. In the "Moon Safari" days, it was exciting to make an album, today many people don't even think about the concept anymore. But when we go on stage, that magic is still there in the music. The concerts today have the magic that album creation used to bring out of us.

As a gifted sound inventor, musician and producer, couldn't you live without playing live?
In principle, yes, but you should probably ask me this question in a year and a half when the whole tour is over and I'm completely exhausted. I'm also looking forward to the open-air shows in the summer, because our space sound fits in very well.

Even though Austria is a small international market, weren't you also inspired by G-Stone Recordings, Kruder & Dorfmeister and co. in the beginning?
Definitely. The trip-hop scene was important, but I was also always inspired by classical music. Mozart, Karajan and others. I also go to Austria every now and then to see classical concerts. I was a private guest at the Konzerthaus last October and went to see a cellist play pieces by Claude Debussy. The sound was fantastic, but unfortunately I couldn't see enough from my seat. When I go to a classical concert or a big jazz concert, I want to see every musician and every instrument as closely as possible. I go to classical concerts all the time when I have the time.

The last Vienna concert before this year's double hit was in 2010, when you were guests at the State Opera as part of the Jazz Fest, which still existed at the time ...
I'll never forget that, it was just crazy. I still ask myself today what we did there. Was that a mistake? The history of the Vienna State Opera is incredible. I love Austria and I love playing here.

Does it make a fundamental difference to you in which location you perform your music?
Even as a child, I was impressed by the state halls that went hand in hand with classical music in many places in Europe. Festivals are more like a circus and not as romantic. The backstage areas alone, like here at the Konzerthaus, are classy and beautiful. I always tell young people to think carefully about how they would like to spend their day if they don't know what to do. I then simply occupy myself with classical music. I never get bored.

You mentioned the rowdiness of Britpop bands in the 90s: I find it interesting that you had so many Britpop musicians and Brits as fans back then and still do. People on the island are not considered to be very Francophile per se ...
I'm especially honored that so many British musicians, such as David Bowie, who we ourselves admired, liked our music, told us so or spoke well of us. That's very nice praise for the work and all the effort you put in. The British have always loved Moon Safari and still do. They have always treated us fantastically.

Even if there's no new Air album on the horizon - what's next for you personally? What are your plans?
I actually had an album ready, but now we have the Air tour and there's no point in putting it out. I'm holding it back, but nowadays it doesn't matter when you release an album. After that, that's probably it in that way. I don't think I'll start another project that has to do with electronic music. I will rather turn to classical music. I'll be 70 in 15 years, so I don't want to look too far ahead. I love music and don't necessarily have to follow any plans for it. I like to sleep well, make myself a coffee and study classical music and play it. I also like to go to concerts and am often out in nature with my dog. I like the simple, beautiful things. For me, music is no longer a job.

That sounds like an absolutely ideal situation.
We French are per se more relaxed, laid-back types. A lot of kids form bands to escape poverty, but we come from Versailles, where that was never an issue. It's an old city steeped in history and we've always focused on the art aspect. We French live according to the principle of "Art de Vivre". Eat well, drink well, go to good concerts and spend your life as well as possible. I enjoy my friends and family - simply the good life. We've earned this freedom over the years.

Live in the MetaStadt
If you missed the brilliant performance at the Konzerthaus, you can see Air once again open-air this summer. On July 23, the French duo "Moon Safari" will be playing in Vienna's MetaStadt. Tickets and further information about the cult performance are still available at www.oeticket.com.