π Spiruline - talk gentrification & sexism in the Parisian scene, global flinta representation & not taking yourself too seriously π
πΈ : @harshivv
π What's Spiruline about?/ Where did the name come from/How did you set up?
Hiiii, we're Spiruline, a punk hardcore band from Paris.
We're Ida (bassist), Freda (vocalist), Titouan (guitarist) & Marec (drummer). Spiruline is all about slaying the hardcore scene with heavy riffs, very high-energy parts & attitude. It's about taking space in places we are not the most welcomed & bringing our messages in a fun & festive way.
We all met by attending shows in Paris, & being sick of seeing every time the same lineup with only cishet men bands. We were βtired of seing men enjoying themselvesβ (that's what you told me when we went together to a gig in Paris hehe).
π KNM : glad 2 be of service π
The few instances when there were women & queer people in bands really inspired us to do the same. So we came to the idea of doing our own band after saying : "why not us?".
It was around December 2022. We struggled a bit to find the name Spiruline, we had a big list & I think it was the only one everyone agreed about (different guitarist & drummer back then). Spiruline is the name of a microalgae which is full of iron & good nutrients, especially recommended for vegetarian/vegan people. So it gives you a lot of energy!
π What inspires you to play music?
Our inspirations are very diverse, but I think everything comes from a certain sense of urgency.
We felt a need for doing it here & now. We started playing shows very early after beginning to rehearse together. We had things to say, & the stage was a place where we could express ourselves, even if at the beginning we sounded kind of bad hahaha. You have to start somewhere ! Seeing the state of the world, we were done watching the countercultural scene, one of the only freedom places we have left, being monopolized by incels & "apolitical" (conservative) people.
πΈ : @proch1.instant
βWe had things to say, & the stage was a place where we could express ourselvesβ
πΈ : @harshivv
βSeeing the state of the world, we were done watching the countercultural scene, one of the only freedom placesΒ we have left, being monopolized by incels & βapoliticalβ (conservative) peopleβ
π Whatβs your writing process?
At first, we created our songs by finding riffs & structures during band rehearsals, all together. Now it depends, Titouan or Ida come with riff ideas & we try to make songs with it. We work a lot with the "Guitar Pro" software.
One of us sometimes comes with a whole song written & we adapt it with everyone's ideas. Other times we just have a theme or a vibe in our head, & we try to make it into a song. For the song Mosquito, for example, we already had lyrics that came from a hot summer night being bitten by all the world's mosquitos & thinking men are as annoying as mosquitos. So we wanted to find a riff that sounded like the "zzzzz" of a mosquito.
In terms of lyrics, we found ideas in the situations we live in our everyday life & in the political news. For our first songs, we already had lyrics & we adapted the lines to match the songs. Now, we try to write the lyrics to match the music.
π You've played with some of our label favourites Body Farm. What was that like? What was the cutest thing that happened?
The show with Body Farm was absolutely insane. It was in the basement of a small Parisian bar. It was on a Monday night but it was very crowded. We shared the stage with Sonder Rage, a really good punk band from Paris as well (check them out !!). The heat in this basement was crazy, everyone was sweating. We really love those kind of shows !
Body Farm members were so nice. I remember Ocean, the singer, had a DIY labubu with tattoos & piercings their bestfriend made for them before coming to Europe. We also bonded over being fans of Megan Thee Stallion. Also, it was actually the bassist of Slut Bomb that played this tour with Body Farm. She stage dived & slammed on top of everyone during the show, it was so nice !!! There were also people from the UK who came to Paris just to see us all play !!
π Who do you most want to tour with? & how did the tour with Passed Out come about?
I don't know if we have a dream band we want to tour with. We met a really nice band from Switzerl& called Disinclined, & we'll very probably tour with them soon !!!
We met Passed Out in Germany in 2025 when we played a gig with them in their hometown KΓΆln. We really loved their music & their energy. We were both asked to come play in Manchester last summer, but it was too complicated for us, so we decided to organise a whole UK tour together. We played with them again last November, & we laughed a lot by being unhinged at the merch tables. So I think the tour is going to be very fun !!!
πWho are your main influences in music/life?
Between Mary Shelley & Hannah Montana hahahaha. This is the spectrum of all our influences I think.
We draw a lot of inspiration from everyday experiences, & while we donβt necessarily have clear influences, we like to reference political theory & figures that we agree with, other underground bands as well as pop culture figures.
It goes from Murray Bookchin, an anarchist writer, to Kathlenn Hanna, Poly Stryrene, & Britney Spears - but also the friends we met through shows like the superstars from the band Trholz (from Toulouse, France). We also love movies a lot. One of our new song is called "Final Girl" as a reference to the sexist final girl trope in horror movies, & how we can invert it. The lyrics of that song cites different characters like Carrie from de De Palmas' movie, Ellen Ripley from Alien, Laurie from the Halloween saga & Sidney from Scream.
πTell us about your aesthetic.
One thing was very clear when we started the band - we didn't want our aesthetic to follow the typical codes of hardcore with graffiti logo & other type of wannabe gangsta shit. We love pink, glitter & loud music, so we wanted to find something that expresses our anger & our love for cute things at the same time. We didn't want to leave the so-called "girly" things we love behind to feel validated in the scene.
It's very funny to see how the colour pink easily triggers some people haha. We try to navigate between different aesthetics we identify with to create our visuals. We love "creepy cute" things. Also last summer we were obsessed by the Frutiger Aero aesthetic referencing to the way people imagine the future they wanted in the early 2000's.
We really love the Y2K aesthetic in general (if you want to check the poster our BFF Neo made for a gig we organized with XOXO, Kibosh & Excoriated last September, https://www.instagram.com/p/DLsLBcrokNw/).
We also enjoy doing make up. We try to do nice things on our faces when we play shows, as well as outfits that match our vibe. We use shows as an excuse to dress up & wear outfits we'd never dare to wear in our everyday lives haha like high platform boots with mini shorts. It's all about the contrast between the heavy music we play & being cunty.
βWe didnβt want to leave the so-called βgirlyβ things we loveΒ behindΒ to feel validated in the scene. Itβs all about the contrast between the heavy music we play & being cunty.β
πΈ : @harshivv
π When you're not doing band stuff what do you get up to?
We work in different fields : academics, social work, event planning & cultural work. Otherwise, we try to take action in political action as much as time & energy lets us do so, & we all have a bunch of hobbies hahaha.
This all permeates into band work though : aside from the music, we like to do a lot of our stuff ourselves, so we easily engage in graphic design, screen printing & sewing for the merch, for instance. Lots of sports (two of us practice combat sports) & cooking too, sometimes for shows we put on or participate in ! We love to spend time of our pets as well. Ida & Titouan both have very cute cats (Zazou, Jiji & Dahlia) & Freda has a little dog (Lofi) that came to the studio with us when we recorded our last EP.
π As some of hxcores sweethearts I know you're heavily involved with putting on shows in the Paris punk scene. Who have been your favourites so far? & what's the vibe of the scene over there?
So the scene in Paris is quite something. First of all, though a lot of people navigate between the two, the punk & hardcore scene are quite separated, which can sometimes lead to a bit of miscommunication between the publics. The scene here, despite the assault of gentrification making it harder & harder to organise DIY events, is very active with tons of bands & collectives. The bad side of it is it seems to lead to a lot of cleavage between orgs, especially the hardcore scene is very parcelled, sometimes for valid reasons, sometimes not. The offer of bands is so high that the bills are very genre oriented, to a point where it sometimes gets a bit tone deaf & overlooks the community aspect we should try & build.
Also the french hc scene overall is quite sexist in a very rampant way. In France at the moment, there are maybe less than 10 active bands with women in them, no full wxmen lineup in any band, which is kinda crazy if you compare it to many other countries. Gotta say itβs hard to make a name for yourself as women here as youβre so harshly judged over sexist criteria, especially if you do not 100% give in to the codes of the scene.
βIn France at the moment, there areΒ maybe less than 10Β active bands with women in them, no full wxmen lineup in any band, which is kinda crazy if you compare it to many other countriesβ
π What does it mean to be flinta in the Paris punk scene? What are the challenges? & how are you moving things forwards?
Since 2022, some of us are part of a collective in which we put on shows with only bands with women or queer people in the lineups. We received a lot of criticism from people saying that "the war we lead against men is very shocking", but also a lot of support.
We organized the Gel show in Paris back in 2023, on the 8th of March, which was really good & very bad at the same time - because the venue we booked was way too small for all the people wanting to attend the gig & we had to kick out men from the show because they were behaving like total assholes in the pit.
Twice we've hosted a very cool street punk band from China, Dummy Toys, it was a pleasure to meet them. π We love how the bands often come back to us when they want to play in Paris, it feels very nice because it means they loved it the first time. I think we booked Lifecrusher & Shooting Daggers twice, Trholz thrice !!!
βWe received a lot of criticism from people saying that βthe war we lead against men isΒ veryΒ shockingββ
π Whatβs the vibe on tour?
When we tour in Europe, we sometimes feel like rude French people that talk a lot & laugh very loudly when everyone is calm & quiet. One time we did a show in Germany, & after the show we went to eat in a kind of vegan tavern & had a beer. We were very tired so the beers kicked in immediately. We came home to the appartement of the very lovely people that were hosting us, & they were all drinking herbal tea, talking very calmly. We arrived slightly drunk & smelling like fried food, & we couldn't stop laughing because we were so tired & the air mattress was making fart noises.
It's also very funny every time we play hardcore shows because when we arrive backstage, we just put all of our makeup on the table & start doing our faces. & sometimes men from other bands are just side-eying us. Another time we were going to Swizerland for a show & Freda was wearing very long press-on nails & driving. When we arrived to the border, the custom officer was really shocked because of the nails, she called her colleague like "come check these nails", & she told Freda "what are you doing in your life with these nails ? you must not cook a lot".
π Tell us about your newest members. I know they have some pretty sick lore behind them.
We met Marec through someone we know from another band saying "he's the best drummer in Paris". At first he was just here to fill in for a couple shows because we didn't know each other at all, & we wanted to maybe find a flinta drummer. But we went on a little tour to the east of France & Germany together & we realized we have the same chaotic (diagnosed) adhd vibe. Also, his drumming was fitting really well to our songs. So we decided together that he was joining the band. We really love having him in the band, he's the king of problem-solving & improvisation. Also, he has a lot of experience with touring (he already went to Canada & China with other bands omggg), so he's very good at doing tetris in the car boot & finding food for free ;)
π You're renowned for your epically themed halloween parties. What can you tell us about them? How do you land on a theme? & do more shows need to have a theme to them?
Thank you so much !! Indeed, Ida & Neo like to host a yearly Halloween costumed party that includes a costume contest - the prize being a very last minute piece of art made by the two & generally a "shitty object raffle", meaning people get to win one of those objects that are useless, unused or that the use is yet to be determined, but that just lay around the house without being thrown away.
The lucky winners got for example a grocery bag full of grocery bags, random screws, or even a 2022 Aya Nakamura calendar (this was in 2024).
We always have a lot of fun & it's just an excuse to get crafty. We choose the themes based on fun & costume potential, so we had Shrek, memes, Spongebob Squarepants.... & YES, shows should have themes once in a while !!
We like to dress up for our release parties, first one we were dressed as the Totally Spices & Jerry (idk if you have this cartoon in the UK ?). We're gonna be another famous team for the next one... I think the scene can benefit from taking itself a bit less seriously. You can tackle serious matters & do things seriously without taking yourself seriously - I am citing someone here, but can't remember who - & too many bands & orgs really need a bit of an ego check. It's not (always) that deep bro.
π What 1 thing could everyone be doing to make the scene a better place?
At the risk of sounding like a hippie, I think one thing that could be good is for everyone to chill a little. Things are not that serious.
Of course we all put a lot of time, energy & money into participating in the scene, but I think sometimes we need to remember we're all here to have a good time, 2 have fun & make friends. Sometimes during shows, no one is moving, there's just a big horse shoe in front of the stage, everyone is looking at everyone, checking what merch you wear, if your pit moves are good. I find it very annoying.
As we were saying, of course what we do with these scenes is very important politically, but together let's just stop taking ourselves so seriously !
π I know you've been involved with trying to expand global network of flinta in the hardcore scene. How's that been going? & what would you like to see happen with all of that?
It's always very inspiring & empowering to meet people you don't know in other countries with the same thoughts & the same views. Within the 3/4 years organizing & playing shows, we met so many incredible people from different countries doing fabulous things at their level.
Building a community of women & queer people in these male-dominated scenes is very important to us, because we think it's the only way we can make things change for the best. This is the subject we wanted to adress in the track "So Easy Being Them" on our new EP in which we invited 3 other vocalist from different bands hihihi.
Also, we want to overcome the idea of a very USA-UK-West European centred punk & hardcore scene, expanding this community to other scenes. With our friend from the collective Malafama, we organized the Paris show of the Antipode tour - a project created by the Turkish artist DoΔa Sultan to promote the North-African & Middle-Eastern scenes.
π What's next for you lot?
Soooo we are releasing a new EP in April !!!! It's 5 tracks with quiet different influences from early metalcore, to beatdown & stompy grooves. They all have their own personality haha. We're really really excited about it.
It's our first release with Marec's drumming & we worked a lot on our sound & the tracks !! The EP is called "Thick Skin // Sharp Nails". The idea was to create something incisive, short but impactful ; to show that we're here & we're not going to move despite everything. Maybe, just maybe .... you can find it on the Label .... just saying ... πππ
Thank you very much for offering us a space to exchange about our project & our vision of music & things. We're really looking forward to the UK tour, & to playing in Brighton !!! <3
Spiruline join us to be loud, French & sassy at the Brighton date of their UK tour this May 6th
π Yapper : ethereal.void.404
πΈ : @harshivv
