3. LowI Could Live In Hope

I Could Live in Hope was released in December 1994, when I had just moved to Dijon in Burgundy to start my English studies. It was kind of exciting to finally leave my home town. But things didn’t turn out the way I thought they would, because, basically, my brother committed suicide. He committed suicide in December 1994.

I remember taping ‘Words’, the first song from I Could Live in Hope, from this great radio programme that went on throughout the 90s that I used to listen to, Les Inrockuptibles, where I also heard people like PJ Harvey for the first time. I had my tape always ready to record things, and ‘Words’ started, so I taped it, and I also remember being stopped in my tracks and wanting to play that song to my brother. The sad thing is that I never got to play it to him.

Low is a really special band to me in terms of how minimal their music is. On my last album, the drum machine is kind of related to Mimi’s super-minimal drum playing, and also in terms of the vocals, I think they have some of the best vocals in pop history. I say ‘pop’ in a wide sense, but I think their vocals are just out of this world. They’re just great musicians in a non-showy way, which is something that I relate to. They’re also still trying to evolve. That’s something that I relate to very much.