Anglo-French Dark Electronic Rock duo
Ian Pickering and
Felipe Goes make up the band
The Noise Who Runs and although in the future they may recruit more members for the band at the moment they perform as a pair. A literal translation of a French phrase, Le bruit qui court,
The Noise Who Runs, chose their band name in honor of a restaurant they frequented called O Bruit Qui Court. When band member
Ian asked what the restaurant name meant he was told it meant nothing in English.
“I’d been trying to find a name for the band for a long time, since before I recorded Left-Handed Tendencies as Ian Pickering in 2014, band names are the hardest thing about music, genuinely, and when I heard that : ‘it means nothing’ - literally, the noise who runs, I was away with it, everything fell into place like a Big bang movement.” admits
Ian. On a personal level for
Ian the band name also has significance explaining the name
“coincides with me moving to France to be with the woman I love, finally getting sober for good, its been six years now, and kind of late in the day as it is, increasingly demonstrating to myself, my fullest potential, artistically.” Although in’ French, the term hints at gossip and rumors the band interpret the meaning of the name as “voices of the unheard growing louder and stronger and demanding in a better way”. Although
Felipe doesn’t recall when he first got interested in music he admits that his mother would listen to music and sing while cooking and cleaning when he was small. When he was a teenager
Felipe picked up a guitar and from there his passion for music grew.
Ian always had music as a part of his life but when he turned around eleven or twelve he explains
“ I first started writing song lyrics and that remains the most satisfying and pleasurable part of the whole process for me. I am easily at my most contented when I’m doing lyrics”.
Ian also credits his oldest friend
Liam Howe from
Sneaker Pimps as being a fundamental influence on his music and style.
Ian explains that he and
Liam “started working on our own music from an early age, me writing words, him working on music, sound engineering, production, with whatever we had available , notably an upturned plastic bin and a Casio VL-Tone, then a Roland SH101.” As
Liam’s father updated his equipment
Ian was able to experiment on the older equipment and foster his music writing. This resulted in
Ian and
Liam making albums with
Sneaker Pumps. Ian has a casual approach to songwriting and he doesn’t force the process. He describes his songwriting as
“basically its like Mr Bump, the accident-prone Mister Man, the blue one covered in white bandages. Basically, he has a nightmare doing anything because he’s gonna break something, spill something or hurt himself (I’m also literally like that, sadly), but eventually he gets his ideal job - apple picking. And he just walks around the orchard not even thinking about apples and every so often he crashes into a tree, an apple falls down, he catches it, job well done.”
The process of songwriting begins like this for
Ian “All I do is read, listen, watch, talk, discuss and at some point, all those tiny snapshots and fragments coalesce into a bigger picture that I always feel like has been there forever. And once you get that first step out of the way, the only trick to writing, recording and producing is to devote all your time to it. ALL your time. I don’t think about anything else unless someone’s talking to me or I’m teaching.” In cultivating
The Noise Who Runs’ particular style the band can’t really identify how many genres have influenced the bands sound. Felipe explains that he
“listens to all sorts of music but I don’t think of one artist or band in particular every time I make music.” He challenges listeners to discover what the band influences may be by listening to their music. For
Ian he believes that a pure genre of music is elusive and and he think that the evolving genres are being named in more and more ridiculous ways in attempt to classify music. He likens it to the children born during the pandemic with ludicrous names given to them by parents hoping in some way to make them seem individual.
Ian says
“I was born in the 1970s, was a teenager in the 80s and was trying to make it in music for most of the 1990s, before Sneakers took off.” He describes
The Noise Who Runs as a
“kaleidoscope of everything that occurred in those decades that had an impact on me.” Ian believes that the music that influenced him most in his formative years was anything that he could relate to and was relevant to his life. This is why through the music of
The Noise Who Runs the duo are trying to convey
“the desperately unfair state of play in the world and add a poetic voice to what I believe is now the growing clamour for fundamental changes to save the chances of a decent future.”
To stay inspired musically
Ian says
“I’ll tell you what I definitely DON’T do to stay inspired and creative and grow artistically. What I don’t do is buy those fucking Brian Eno bastard Constraint cards and get all fucking pretentious about recording a song using only the door of a broken washing machine, a shaved guinea pig and a raspberry ripple while hopping on one leg to record palindromic vocals backwards. What I DO do is care, very sincerely and wholeheartedly - about people, about the state of things, about the thin end of the wedge and the short-end of the stick, about inequality in society, about the lack of political will to enact change. Staying inspired and growing as an artist, these things come as naturally as breathing - and if they don’t, you should really find something else to do. “ Felipe has developed a love for trying new things musically and admits to enjoying learning new concepts, genres and instruments.
Felipe says
“Doing stuff other then music also feels helpful to stay inspired, just do not as me to share my drawings !” Ian has promised that he will put some of
Felipe’s drawings on the band website.
Unintentionally fostering a dark aesthetic, the duo admit to never actually discussing an aesthetic for the band but instead allowed it to grow through osmosis.
Ian explains that they do have control over the growing aesthetic through the very personal songwriting. He says that the fundamental thing for the band is
“the hand-prints from prehistory on the cave walls, that mark left to posterity, the clear statement ‘We were here’ calling down through the ages like a slower than glacier kind of social media post.” With what
Ian says is an optimistic approach “
that’s where the aesthetic for all the visual side begins and that’s now evolving on its own, kind of instinctively.” Ian jokes that’s so much happens for the band instinctively that they
“really should sit down sometimes and talk about all these things more often”.
An experienced live performer
Ian admits
“ I absolutely love playing live and I’ve kind of done it at both ends of the scale - big gigs and festivals with Sneakers and pubs the length and breadth of England with transporter. I don’t like impromptu performances, I don’t like jamming. For Felipe, since we got stopped in our tracks with COVID in 2020, just as we were ready to start playing live, now we’re starting to rehearse again and will hopefully gig before the end of the year, just a few small shows to cut our teeth, I think it will be his first time. So the first The Noise Who Runs gig will be the absolutely first time for Felipe. That’s gonna be quite kind of momentous.”
When asked how they engage with and stay connected to their fans
Ian amusingly says “
What, Felipe’s mum and my mum? They both said you can ask them directly so we’ll give you their email addresses if you like.”In the future
The Noise Who Runs will be attempting to make new and engaging music by adding and removing various elements to and from their sound. They hope to perform live soon.
For new listener to
The Noise Who Runs, Felipe wants people to know that he enjoys making the music so hopes people enjoy listening to it.
Ian describes their music
“there’s always something more to offer each time you hear it. And it’s possible that The Noise Who Runs is the soundtrack for the times. Smoke something, relax, let the album and the songs work their peculiar magic.”
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