Band der Woche: Une Vraie Gothique

Une Vraie Gothique – das sind Ulrika und Ferdinand, ein französisches Dark-Electro-Duo aus Paris. Entstanden aus einer gemeinsamen Performance entwickelte sich das Projekt schnell zu einer intensiven kreativen Zusammenarbeit – eine musikalische Welt voller Dunkelheit, Sinnlichkeit und geheimnisvoller Atmosphäre. Während Ulrika mystische Bilder, intensive Emotionen und eine starke Verbindung zu Stimme, Rhythmus und Ausdruck in die Musik bringt, formt Ferdinand daraus treibende, tanzbare Songs zwischen EBM, Darkwave und kalter Clubatmosphäre.

Foto: © Jacob Melgren

Im Gespräch erzählen sie von ihrem kreativen Prozess, ihrem neuen Album Rendez-vous au cimetière und ihrer ganz eigenen Auseinandersetzung mit moderner gothischer Identität.

Who is behind Une Vraie Gothique? What made you decide to start the project?
Ferdinand: We’re both behind this project. It all started when Ulrika asked me to help her compose an electro‑disco track for a performance she was putting on in an exhibition by Claire Courdavault at “Le Cabinet des Curieux” in Paris. After that collaborative experience, we realized we shared a passion for gothic music and decided to form the band.

Could you tell us a little about your musical journey so far? How did the two of you come together musically?
Ulrika: I had several bands and I am still working with a French band called “Les Pétroleuses,” which is a tribute (or rather, a “femmage”) to the Paris Commune. I also sing in the metal band Colonne, with whom we’re working on our first album. I’m also a member of the medieval vocal duo “Nunc.” I was the leader and singer of “Pélican Noir,” and you can also find me in the “SNTR” project if you wanna dig some black‑doom‑atmospheric stuff. As Ferdinand said, it’s a truly wonderful musical collaboration. I feel like I bring chaos and vitality to the mix, while he adds more structure.
Ferdinand: I started out in music with an industrial‑electro project called Serial Industrie, then I was in a rap group called “The Rabbit Sisters” and an electro‑pop‑techno group called Pussy Chérie. On “Une Vraie Gothique,” I’m really happy to be working with Ulrika because she brings a very “organic” quality to our music, whereas I can sometimes be a little too rigid.

When did music first become a part of your life? Was there a moment when you fell in love with sound?
Ferdinand: I remember listening to and dancing to Eurodance compilations in my parents’ living room in the late ’90s.
Ulrika: I remember, as a child, having a game about Mozart where we had to put the pictures together based on the pieces of music. I loved that game, though I don’t understand how it worked anymore. Later, I learned to play the piano. This was a rather classical way of being into music. But I liked the possibility to express feelings through music, even in classical pieces. Afterwards I joined the marching band at the engineering school where I studied (La Bande de Centrale Lille), which allowed me to approach things with much more freedom and chaos! I loved playing in the streets, dancing spontaneously, and sharing energy and joy. I played the bass drum.

Foto: © Anaïs Novembre

What are you looking for in music? What are the boundaries that you look to explore with music?
Ulrika: I need energy, secret words, and enveloping, mysterious atmospheres that allow us to connect with our sense of the sacred and with intensity. I love the way the voice takes on a rhythm to become a command or a chanted melody. For me, there is clearly something magical about sound. Furthermore, recent research shows that Paleolithic paintings were likely created in locations where caves had specific resonances: it is probable that performances or rituals took place in these places, involving sound!
Ferdinand: I like to create dark, danceable music. I like to mix styles, and I don’t really have any limits—I’m always interested in blending goth music with other genres, including styles that might not seem to fit.

If you had to describe your music without using any musical terminology, how would you portray it?
Ferdinand: Our music could be a series of nocturnal encounters in various cemeteries, across different eras, that sometimes turn into dark, sensual celebrations.
Ulrika: Zeit. Atmen. Raum. Leere.

What themes are you currently drawn to in your work?
Ulrika: Mystic, magic, love, sadness, rage, violence, despair, wonderful and mysterious. It is an attempt to connect with one’s inner divinity.
Ferdinand: Finding one’s place in a movement that struggles to define itself, coming to terms with one’s physical appearance, empowerment, eternal youth, and the desire to attend great goth parties—both past and present.

Foto: © Anaïs Novembre

How do your surroundings impact your art, and in what mood do you create your best pieces?
Ferdinand: For me, more than our surroundings, it’s the music I listen to, the memories I have, and the desire to create the most impactful track possible that shape the way I compose.
Ulrika: I’m not exactly sure how to define our “best songs.” Right now, everyone really loves “Une Vraie Gothique,” and then there are different opinions. People also remember “R.D.V. au cimetière,” which is the most sincere, literal, and direct of all our songs. So it’s hard to pinpoint a specific formula! But I think that if the composition doesn’t bring me joy, that’s a bad sign. It has to be easy to listen to. At the same time, it needs elements complex enough to satisfy curiosity and hold your attention, but without requiring too much concentration. Which is often a sign of a structure that’s too artificial, which ultimately won’t sound coherent enough when you’re just listening casually.

Where does the impulse to create something come from for you?
Ferdinand: “Come on, let’s make an EBM track about a cursed elevator that takes you to hell.”
Ulrika: I have no idea. I think creation is more of a way of life. I’m not capable of repeating myself; I always need to introduce something new, to change things up. Now, how does that translate into music? Well, I ask Ferdinand, “Can you come up with a killer bassline to take us to hell?” and off we go!

Tell us about your new album Rendez‑vous au cimetière, it just came out. What’s the story behind it? How does a new composition usually come to you? Walk us through your creative process – what’s that like for you?
Ulrika: I don’t have a clear inspiration or a fully formed vision. Instead, I work by connecting with ideas and impulses, and by wandering aimlessly through the keys on the keyboard. I see creation as a mix of shaping and harvesting. That’s also the case because I tend to get involved in things that are often too complex. Seeking the obvious is where the real work happens for me! With words, it’s different: they come to me like epiphanies. I have powerful images that strike me, giving concrete form to ideas and emotions. A dagger of anger. A ritual of wind and skin. Magical words. I love the freedom of not trying to make things look pretty, but allowing myself to cut up bits of words, to spit out sounds sometimes.
Ferdinand: Rendez‑vous at the Cemetery is where we stand today after three years of work with Une Vraie Gothique. The album introduces our characters: my own obsessions and Ulrika’s torments. Each track is a new encounter between these two characters who are complete opposites but whom their relationship with darkness irrevocably connects. This is the first chapter of this project, and the beginning of an answer to the eternal question we’re asked: “So what does it mean to be une vraie gothique?”

What artistic influences, outside of music, have had a significant influence on how you approach your art?
Ferdinand: Genre films, bizarre and horror works, the raw art at the Halle Saint‑Pierre in Paris, the paintings of William Turner, the sculptures of Giger, of course, and the poetry of Bukowski are just a few examples.
Ulrika: I studied art history for three years, in addition to my engineering studies. So I can tell you that there are A LOT of paintings that have moved me, but I can certainly mention Dürer, Goya (his paintings of witches), the late 19th‑century Symbolists (Spilliaert, Moreau, Théodore Rousseau), lots of dances of death, and generally anything related to death and the sacred – which amounts to a whole lot of pigments on a whole lot of canvases in a whole lot of museums. But I also loved all the Gothic and fantasy novels of the 19th century. Mérimée, Maupassant, Villiers de l’Isle‑Adam, Huysmans… all those ghosts that emerge just as modernity seems to want to push death beyond the walls of cities and lives.

How important is the visual side of Une Vraie Gothique to you? How does the visual aspect relate to and reflect your music?
Ulrika: Sometimes I tell myself that I’m not a real musician because my eyes are more active than my ears, and images are more powerful than sounds. I think in images, I communicate through images, so it’s only natural to incorporate these elements into the project. And for that, we’re lucky to have such a great team around us.
Ferdinand: Yes! We’re lucky to be working with some wonderful female artists on the visual aspect of the project. Valentine Cuny‑Le Callet is the illustrator behind the covers of our singles and this album. Her distinctive aesthetic – with its almost obsessively sketched lines and shadows – works particularly well with our artistic vision. Iris Yassur created our logo, paying close attention to our requests. The logo had to reflect our dual identity: a project that is genuinely dark electro but with a touch of fun, even satire. And finally, for the photos and a future music video, we’re working with photographer Anaïs Novembre, whose sensuality and approach to the body perfectly embody the carnal dimension of what we offer.

Foto: © Anaïs Novembre

How would you describe the world you are trying to create during your performances?
Ferdinand: Concerts give us a chance to present our songs in a different light, with context and humor. Generally speaking – and this isn’t obvious when you listen to the album – our concerts might have pretty funny parts. I’d say that performing live is a delicate balancing act because we don’t want to slip into schoolboy humor, but we can’t hide the fact that my character has an obvious burlesque side.
Ulrika: That being said, I am building a kind of secular ritual where you can embrace the dark side while exploring its various facets: kinky, violent, or mystical. A welcoming space. We want people to have a good time!

Looking ahead, what’s next for you? What are you most looking forward to?
Ulrika: We’re wrapping up a collaboration with Persephone’s Revenge, in which we tell the story of Ulrika’s encounter with Persephone – who has emerged from the underworld – on an Icelandic beach strewn with ice blocks. We’re also preparing a documentary about our residency at the Mars College Festival in California, where we were invited by Vanessa Rosa and Gene Kogan in March to perform and compose a piece about mathematics! I wanted to create a way to emotionally experience a theoretical proof, and I chose Euler’s Basel formula: the sum of the reciprocals of the squares equals.
Ferdinand: We want to promote this album on stage everywhere. We want to play as much as possible while continuing to write songs and work on our future music videos. We’re really eager to play all over Europe, especially in Germany, where the goth scene is very active. We’re very curious to see how German audiences will respond to our music, because here in France, people tend to focus more on the musicality of Ulrika’s voice than on the meaning of her lyrics.

Instagram     Bandcamp     Facebook

(483)