It’s a cold Wednesday on the Hamburger Reeperbahn. In addition I’m tired, my camera film doesn’t seem to work right, spring has just abandoned the city and the street I’m walking down reeks of shit.
There could have been better days for Last Train to come back to Hamburg, you might ask? Maybe yes, but maybe no, because the French band and I have arranged a meeting for an interview before their show today. One by one I’m getting to know Anthony (drums), Tim (bass), Julien (guitar) and Jean-Noël (vocals and guitar). After Jean-Noël giving me some example of his German skills (“Radiergummi”) and me asking for the cheese (“Où est le fromage?”), I know that I’m in good company and everythings falls in place.
As you’ll find out, it’s not just the questions, it’s also the answers. And these guys are going to give some good ones. And here they are: Last Train!
You released an orchestral album.
Why and where did that idea come from?
Jean-Noël: We were inspired by some tracks, and yeah, music from movies for many years so that we tried to put that kind of sound in our own music. But sometimes it began to be tricky because there’s a side of kind of progressive rock music that we don’t like. And so we decided to just have a playground to do it. And that’s the reason of this album, the fact that we can just use this inspiration and the fact that I really wanted to do that kind of music, without disturbing on rock music. So it was like a playground.
Source: YouTube, LAST TRAIN
French band meets Germany
So welcome back to the Reeperbahn.
The last time you’ve been here, was in 2017.
Tim: The last time we’ve been in Hamburg was in 2020, we played in Hafenklang and it was March 2020 – right before Covid.
So it’s not your first time in Germany.
What’s the German crowd like – compared to other countries?
Who wants to?
Tim: Hi. I think we’ve always loved playing in Germany, because we were born next to Germany in Alsace. So we’ve always been very close to this country and we often went to Germany to have shows and we’ve always liked it. And getting drunk also (laughs). And we loved every time we played there. So I think there is something between the German audience and us. I don’t know what, but there’s something.
Anthony: Yeah. I don’t know if it’s just from my point of view but I feel like German people actually listen – because we played in some alternative places – maybe more than French people, to alternative style. Like prog music or they like a lot of the stoner rock stuff. They’re more into exploring music then French people, but maybe it’s all wrong. But yeah, it’s the feeling I got. It’s the feeling I got from the the first places we played with the band.
Antoine Baschung
Tim: And in Germany we also made a few opening acts for Rival Sons in a few cities. And it were always such nice evenings playing there. And people were very happy to have us as the opening act. Sometimes it’s harder, but in Germany playing before Rival Sons was always such a pleasure and a good time. It was funny, these opening acts because I remember we had to play only half an hour and we played only four songs. It was like Fire, Jane… it were very short shows. But we loved it.
Let’s take a few steps back.
I’m not often asking this question, but: Why Last Train?
Who wants to reveal the mistery… ?
Jean-Noël: So the mystery is: We were super young. We created the band when we were, 12 or 13 years old. It sounded nice when we were young and we just chose that name, but, we could have choose any other name that sounded nice. I’m sorry, but there’s no signification behind that name. But we had the opportunity to change, and, we decided to not change. And maybe this is the real point for us because today, Last Train is the meaning of our friendship and the fact that we’re playing music together for a long time now. And so we’ve got little by little proud of it.
Yeah! You made it your name then!
WEATHERING
Your first album included Dropped by the Doves.
The song ended up on the soundtrack of the Lucifer series.
An honor or not your cup of tea?
Anthony: I don’t think any of us watched the show…? No. So actually, yeah, there are times, when we receive a mail, like, you’re on this show and we’re like: “I guess it’s cool!” (laughs)
Tim: The last thing with vampires I watched was Twilight. So ten years after, it was like a bit old fashioned.
It’s already like ages ago!
Tim: Yes, it was ages ago. And I watched it last year and I was like: “Uuch…”.
To stick with Weathering.
A friend of mine showed me the music video for Cold Fever and I’ve been instantly hooked. The aesthetics of it reminded me pretty much of the golden indie era of the 2000s, maybe the late 2000s.
Did you draw inspiration from that time or was it just your style back then? It’s like a greeting from the past. The girl with the hat and… (everyones laughing) Indie girls used to wear hats!
Jean-Noël: I mean, this is exactly the time where we decided to make our own music, so I guess we were so into that music that it infused in our music. And so, yeah, there’s, some good things and obviously some bad things, like the hats. So sorry for the hat. We won’t do that again (laughs and the band joins in).
Source: YouTube, LAST TRAIN
Jean-Noël: Cold Fever was the first song we’ve released. And when we think about this now, ten years later, about this clip and this song, it’s just like: “Oh, this is old us, but this is still us.” But this is like us from the beginning. So that’s funny to watch. And you talking about this song is funny because it’s really us from ten years ago.
Past and present
For your next record, The Big Picture, you decided to do stuff on your own, you started your own label and even did your own festival.
Did you ever think – if you look back at that time – maybe that’s too much?
Jean-Noël: It wasn’t like we woke up one morning and were like, yeah, we’re going to start a label company and the festival and everything. It just took a lot of time. We do a lot of things by ourselves for a long time now. The first video clip, the booking of the first tours, the promo and all that stuff. Today we have a different company. We produced the tour, we produced the albums, we manage the band by ourselves, but we had to learn how to do that. And so we did that since the beginning. And in the beginning, it was really…, maybe innocent. Maybe naive, but day after day, we just learned how to do this and we’re still learning today, so it’s just a long journey.
Jean-Noël Scherrer
Jean-Noël, I’m sticking with you because this is a question for you:
Did you ever try it or thought about singing in French?
Jean-Noël: Actually, no. It’s the kind of music we play. We didn’t choose it. It was just like that: We wanted to play in a band, and we wanted to play rock and roll music, singing in English. And we never asked ourselves like, wow, is it the correct language? But yeah, today there’s a lot of people asking if we can sing in French, but we just don’t want to. But it’s not because it’s a statement, it’s just that we love the English language, singing in English, even if it’s tough for us because it’s not our own language. And we have to work really hard to get the right pronunciation and good songwriting because writing songs in French and in English is not the same exercise. So yeah, it’s tough, but it’s cool. Love it.
Source: YouTube, LAST TRAIN
This year, after three albums, even an orchestral one, you released III.
Does this record feel like you reached some kind of destination?
Like “We’re in our musical home”?
Julien: That’s nice. Thank you. Thank you very much. I think we feel good about this album, because we did everything we wanted to do. And the fact that before that we released Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, where Jean-Noël and we could try a lot of different things with an orchestra and a lot of instruments, that we didn’t know before. He could really try different things by himself and just explore things by himself. So when we started to write this album, III, it was very simple. We could do everything we wanted to do. So it was a good moment. I don’t know where I’m going with that (laughs). It was nice to be the four in a room and just write songs, because it took a long time for Jean-Noël to write Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. So after that, when we came back in a room just playing rock music, it felt very nice. Yeah, I think, it was home for us.
Julien Peultier
You’re a rock band!
Many people have said it and I’m not sure about it. Maybe I don’t want to see it, but is rock ‘n’ roll dead?
Anthony: Actually, there’s a lot of bands out there that prove that: No. For me, it’s a sentence that an old guy’s telling you, because he doesn’t like the music nowadays anymore. And he’s just in anger, because he doesn’t understand the world he lives in now. Actually, there’s a lot of rock bands out there that are playing music that is in education with the world right now. I take the famous ones for now, like Idols, Fontaines D.C., they’re talking about recent things, and I feel like young people can relate to that. So no, like I said, I think it’s really a sentence from people that doesn’t understand the world they live in right now.
Source: YouTube, LAST TRAIN
There’s one line in The Big Picture which led to my last question for today: “What we’ve never been through together.”
And my question has nothing to do with the song itself.
Which event in music you wish you could have witnessed?
Julien: I would say The Beatles here in Hamburg. The first time they came to Germany to play rock music. I would have loved to witness that. Because I love the Beatles, of course. It must have been crazy to be there.
Tim: One point that’s true: Every one of us would have been there to see The Beatles. That’s true. Some of us would have been like crazy. Others like: “Okay”, “That’s okay”, “Nice”, “Is that rock?” That’s funny, because it’s a bit related to your last question.
Timothée Gerard (blue due to the film, not the weather)
Like with the old people, it’s the old guys coming to our shows often tell us, like: “I’ve been to Motörhead in the 90s. This is the best thing I’ve seen.” (laughs) And that’s funny because it was Antoines answer. Does anyone have any idea of a witnessing thing?
Jean-Noël: Yeah, but it’s a good answer too Tim, because I don’t feel really nostalgic about this period. I mean, when we were younger, we were only judging things by the classical rock band, like: Is it better than Led Zeppelin? Is it better than The Rolling Stones? Or other things. And we were like: Yeah, it was the best of times. And today I think it’s more interesting, because there are so many new artists since Led Zeppelin and actually a lot of interesting artists to listen and to go see in concert. And there’s so many shows, there’s so many ways to travel and to be witness of these shows, that I’m glad to just live in this century rather than the 1600s, where I probably would have been, I don’t know, a farmer (laughs). I would never have had the luck to watch these shows, you know what I mean? So, yeah, I’m just glad to be here in the right now.
Anthony: We would be so farmers! (Everyone’s laughing) Because we come from small villages in Alsace. It would have been so difficult for us to be a band and touring at this time. Even to see a show.
Last Train in the backyard of the Headcrash.
Thank you guys – I’m happy and glad that we met!
Take care and enjoy the tour! Until next time?
