So the old studio was at Nicolas' apartment, where you did Moon Safari and the singles — what were you recording on there?
A sampler. An Akai S1000 and then after three songs we moved the first tracks to a Fostex D80 digital 8 track.
Then with mixing and strings...
We went to a real studio for mixing [Plus XXX, Paris], so it's on an SSL, but now we prefer the Neves.
Stéphane [Briat] mixed those?
"Alf", yeah. We call him "Alf".
And you worked with him for quite a bit. Is that because he worked at the studio or was he someone you knew before?
We met him one day at our record company and he was the first one to mix "Casanova 70". We have tried with a mixer before and we were not satisfied, but when Alf did it it was sounding very well. He had this ability to do a cream of sound. He was able to mix all the instruments together.
He understood your music more?
Yes.
You did strings on that. Did you transfer the Fostex to another unit to add more tracks?
We had the digital tracks, so we went to Abbey Road and transferred them to tape.
Was that fun going to Abbey Road?
Yeah. Nothing has changed. The same paint on the walls.
When people are mixing your stuff, Stephane and Nigel [Godrich], are you always there?
Yeah. Always in the back.
How much guidance do you give? Do you try to let them come up with something new or...
It depends. On some songs we know exactly what we want. On some songs we have no idea.
Are there times where songs are rearranged during mixing?
We try, for the mix, to have everything done. In the mix we get rid of some thoughts more than we invent something. We make it more clear.
Do you find that a good mixer helps you decide where to open it up?
Yes. That's why we have to trust the mixer a lot, because if we don't we can't make a choice. Because sometimes, you know, the artist is not the best to make good decisions at a certain point. It's like if an actor would direct his own movie. It's really hard to see what could be good.
Better to have someone look from the outside and push you...
Yes. Because sometimes you say, "I want to keep this guitar, because I love the guitar, the C note after this chord." But the C note is not what's important. What's important is if the whole part is good, and you forget that, you know.
You guys obviously like working with Nigel.
We trust him. Other guys, too, like Tony Hoffer [on 10,000 HZ Legend]. His mixes were incredible.
You've done string sessions now at different places, with different arrangers. How have you guys felt about the evolution of your string session overdubs?
