"The band has never been so at the top": how Trust reinvents its first three albums

The announcement, in 2016, of a new reformation of Trust (the fourth in its history!), Had been greeted with a certain skepticism.

And many did not give much of the skin of this umpteenth incarnation of the most mythical of French hard rock groups, this time bringing together, around the indestructible Bernie Bonvoisin (vocals) and Norbert "Nono" Krief (guitar), two former players, the bassist David Jacob (already present from 1996 to 2000), and guitarist Izo Diop (acting from 2006 to 2011), as well as a newcomer, drummer Christian Dupuy.

Against all expectations, four years later, Trust is still here, on a good footing, having accumulated over 200 concerts, and released three records, two in the studio and one live.

For 2020, the French rockers wanted to offer a nice gift to their fans, by performing on stage all of their first three albums, "Trust" (1979), "Repression" (1980) and "Marche ou crève" (1981 ), at the rate of one album per evening.

A real gift, insofar as, in recent years, the group has offered in public only recent compositions, with a few exceptions, such as the essential “Antisocial”.

But, oh rage, oh despair, the pandemic happened, canceling all the concerts planned.

Good for bad, since “ReCiDiv” has just been published, a nice 4 CD and 4 DVD box set, in which Trust tackles his first three albums as promised, playing them from A to Z as if he were on stage, but without an audience.

Bernie Bonvoisin explained to us the motivations of the group.

How did the idea of ​​“ReCiDiv” come about?

BERNIE BONVOISIN.

She came to us at the end of a dinner with the people of Verycords

(Editor's note: the record company that publishes the group)

.

I put that on the mat, and everyone went on it.

Why the choice of the first three albums?

It turns out that since the last reunion, musically, the group has never been so on top.

For the first time, we have a complementarity between each musician.

Everything is done in a fluid and peaceful manner.

It's also been three years since we added backing vocals, and rearranged a lot of old songs.

We therefore thought that it would be interesting to take these three albums, to rearrange the titles, to rewrite them too.

Three albums is a lot, isn't it?

The interest was to be without a net.

Of course, we could have landed in a studio, taken the time, made models ... There, the interest was to go in an emergency.

Because, sometimes, urgency puts you in working and thinking conditions that are totally different.

Whereas if you take the time, you try, you try again… There, it was a bit like a concert, it passes or it breaks.

Newsletter The list of our desires

Our favorites for fun and culture.

Subscribe to the newsletterAll newsletters

Do you listen to these three albums regularly?

Honestly, no.

There are some titles from these albums, and I would say mainly in the first, and the second, that we replay since the reformation, after having rearranged them.

On the other hand, certain titles of the third were for the first time played live, there was a titanic amount of work to be done.

It was very interesting.

And it is clear that a certain number of titles from these three discs will be reinjected into the repertoire of concerts planned for next year, such as "H&D", "Les Brutes", "Misère".

You haven't had any luck with your drummer, it seems?

Yes, we had rehearsed for 23 days, we were at the end of it, and we received an SMS one morning to tell us that he had come back down to Marseille…

Was it panic on board at that time?

It was pretty dizzying!

It was out of the question to let go.

While having coffee one morning with David, I suggested: "Why not take three drummers, they will have three times less work, but we can take three hitmen"?

As we are very friends with Hervé Koster

(Editor's note: who has already been part of the group in the past)

and Pierre Belleville

(Editor's note: ex-drummer of the Lofofora group)

, we contacted them, and it immediately worked.

The day after Christian left, we auditioned three candidates, and we kept Antonin Violot.

Then we rehearsed for two days with each drummer.

It was bad for good, because everyone has their own technique, the three are really exceptional musicians.

One of the three will continue the journey with you?

Yes, Antonin will stay.

Pierre works with Kery James, and Hervé has a whole bunch of projects.

You did not record in the order of the albums released, starting with the second.

Why ?

Antonin was taken in the provinces.

So we started with “Repression”, continued with “Marche ou crève”, and ended with the first album.

/ Verycords  

On the day when the first recording begins, what is your state of mind?

Like before a concert?

Yes, because we know that it is without a net, and that everything is filmed.

In addition, we start with "Antisocial", because we play the songs in the original order of the records.

And it is there, at the end of "Antisocial", that we realize that the fact of being in this live energy - we play at the same volume as the one we have in concert - is weighed down by the 'absence of public ...

Why this additional acoustic session, the subject of a fourth CD and DVD?

It was planned from the start.

Last year, we gave a concert to support SOS Méditerranée, the association that will collect migrants from the open sea, and it was acoustic.

We were the first to be surprised, it was so pleasant and original.

As we absolutely wanted to give the last two albums a little nod, we played three tracks each without electricity.

Moreover, we will bounce back on this since from next March, we will remake acoustic dates.

In one of the little "making of" delivered at the end of each performance, Nono admits that he is not very keen on reinterpreting others of your old albums in the future, preferring to devote himself to new material. ...

I agree with him on that!

There are already things that we record before the scales, or a riff that comes and that we record on a phone ...

Trust is a name that everyone knows today, whether we like the band or not.

What inspires you?

I wish any artist who makes music a taste of this feeling.

When you have people of your generation coming with their kids, when you have 18-year-olds to your concerts, that means you've had an impact on three generations.

It's very nice.

EDITOR'S RATING: 4/5

“ReCiDiv”

(Verycords),

Trust, 4 CD / 4 DVD box set