CultureLoad

Fresh Body Shop: French rockers with little affection for reality

“Music makes us escape from a boring life.” The name FBS, short for Fresh Body Shop, might suggest that there is a whole band behind that music project.

Well, that is neither completely right nor completely wrong. When Pedro, the head of the project, writes and records the songs for the albums, Fresh Body Shop is a one-man-project, but when they play in front of audiences, they are a band. So basically, they are a live band, Pedro explains. That might not be the most conventional way of making music, but for FBS it seems to work, pretty well for that matter.

Pedro has started FBS in 2007 and has since been more than just a bit busy making new music, mostly influenced by music of the 90s. But Pedro started writing music much earlier. Even in his childhood while practicing piano or guitar he would start playing own songs. “And later it became an addiction.” Definitely not the worst addiction in the world. “The lyrics are important in FBS.” Pedro reports. “But I always try to write something not too obvious. And I write the lyrics on my own, just as the rest of the song, too. I grab a pencil and try to catch what comes into my mind at this precise moment. It’s like taking a picture of my state of mind, and my mood changes very often.”

Writing music is not the only process Pedro does on his own. “I still record alone because I got used to it. In many other bands I’ve tried to compose with different people, but the result has never been really good. I’m always impressed by bands that can make great music by composing together. It seems easy when you set up a band, but it’s in fact very hard to obtain the chemistry.” And for Pedro, writing and recording by himself is total freedom.

Because that method obviously works for FBS, fans of the band and of the Alternative/Rock/Pop genre can be more than happy because the results of that process are outstanding. The songs on the latest album “The Ugly Army” are pretty diverse, varying from acoustic pop songs to violent industrial songs. “I try to make my angers, frustrations, fears, excitement transpire on the paper”. And according to Pedro that is one of the huge advantaged if you are not signed on a record label. “You do what you want to.” And Pedro makes use of this possibility as much as he can.

That also means that he could write about anything he wants to in his song. He however chose to mainly stay away from being all too fond with nuisances and social problems in his songs. “Sure it’s a good thing, when necessary,” he admits. “But I’m much more into arts that make you disconnect from reality. It’s just a matter of taste…” And he explains why that is his taste. “You know, I’m sort of a dreamer, who doesn’t really accept reality as it is.”

And playing live for him and his friends Oli (Bass player), Djenf (Drummer) and François (Synth) means exactly this: “It makes us escape from a boring life.” Luckily their huge success on the Internet has helped them to play concerts quite regularly. They mostly play gigs in France where they come from.

But besides being their home country, France does not influence them musically. “My musical culture is much more Anglo-Saxon.” Pedro states. Something, you can clearly hear in his songs. And Pedro suggests four songs for people who haven’t listened to his music yet: “The Ugly Army”, “Can’t Get Enough”, “Enjoy the Apple” and “My Artificial Sun”, the last one, by the way, having taken him 5 months to finish it. And music that is put together with so much effort and passion wants to be listened to, of course. For everybody who wants to do that, they can download FBS’s album “The Ugly Army” on CultureLoad.

Nora Frei
Editorial Team