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So determined were they follow their own way, that Air recorded Love 2 entirely within the confines of their own Atlas Studio, a state-of-the-art facility tucked away in a backstreet in the north of Paris. Here, they were buffeted from the winds of external agents and free to navigate their own path. “We wanted our own studio, to have an environment in which we could be lost and where we could invent for ourselves the best way to proceed. That is what we have; somewhere we can record our tracks without those other influences. I think that we are searching for mistakes. This is what is important. It is how art exists. We are inventing albums and sounds, creating a back catalogue and we want to push in different directions every time. Later, in like 10 years, I want to look back at our albums and see that.”

This willingness to embrace the happenstance nature of music puts Air somewhat at odds with their contemporaries. Speak to most bands who are about to release a new album and they’ll do everything they can to convince you that it is the closest they’ve come to perfecting their particular oeuvre. However, JB positively thrills to the idea of imperfection and this explains much about Air’s recording practices. The sounds they create may, at times, seem somewhat synthetic, but, in fact, the way they are put together is extremely organic. The pair throw the door wide open to spontaneity, nothing is scripted; the only thing they know for sure is “what to avoid”. Working in this manner means that there are a lot of ideas that fall by the wayside, as Dunckel confirms. “There is a lot of music that is left behind. We also extrapolate music out for pictures, it is important for us to create these kinds of accidents that we are searching for.”

Remarkably, once they’ve settled on a song to record, they’ll play it through in full once, or twice and use those recordings. They don’t use a click track, are wary of editing equipment and software and barely use computers in the music-making process. It’s quite an old-school way of operating and JB concedes that they are somewhat purist in this regard, though they are by no means latter-day Luddites.

“You know, if there is a nice program, and we like it, we will use it. Sometimes we use plug-ins too. I am not against the fact of music that comes from computers, I am sure that computers can generate great sounds. We are not against modernity. The only thing, for us, is that we play everything.”

Helping them “play everything” on the new record was drummer Joey Waronker. “We were coming from the tour and Joey was there, playing onstage. We had a nice feeling together. We like a lot to trip together, when we play. So a lot of tracks have been recorded like that, as a trio.” The Californian, who has played for some of the most iconic names in the alt-rock world – everyone from Beck to the Smashing Pumpkins, Elliott Smith to R.E.M. – helped define Love 2’s up-tempo sound. Dunckel is keen to emphasise the drummer’s input, stating baldly that neither he, nor Godin are good drummers and that without Waronker the album wouldn’t have been quite so dynamic.

JB seems pleased with the changes that the new working methods have wrought and the somewhat more galvanised, buoyant sound that Air have debuted this time around. Still, he suggests that more radical change is on the horizon, a fact that their latest album title alludes to.

“Love 2 doesn’t necessarily mean anything. It is more a design. But, it is meant to have a good impact on your brain, that when you hear Love 2, you say to yourself, ‘What’s this, what’s new?’ I like that, it’s like a brand. There is an intrigue to it. This is a new chapter for Air, with the studio and so on. We are changing now. I think that we want to do more soundtracks. We are ready to explore other concepts. This album is the last that is classic [Air]. The next one will be very different. It will be anti-pop and anti-rock.”

It seems only natural to ask what has inspired this hunger for change – after all, the current modus operandi has brought widespread success and all the attendant privileges. “Well, I think that we are not the only ones,” begins JB. “However, now [with their new studio] we have the chance to make something really well recorded, with a really nice texture of sounds and something that is strange – mixing electronics and many loud instruments together. I think this could work, we have many fans all over the world and I think it’s important [to change]. With this promo, I realised how important it is to surprise people. Now, with the Internet, people are always expecting something that is new, that hasn’t been made before. They also want to have pictures. It is hard and a challenge. People expect a lot.”

He assures me that Air are ready for that challenge, in fact that they’ve never been better equipped for it. Surveying their progress to date, JB states simply that., “We play better, we sing better and I think that we speak better English! It isn’t perfect, but you should have heard how I was 10 years ago. I think that it [the band] has lasted all these years because we [Dunckel and Godin] are really different. We complement each other well and need each other. We started to record in 1996. And we are still here, which is incredible. However, I think that music has nothing to do with your age. You can play and invent good tracks and great music until you are dead, or too sick to continue.”

However, Dunckel also recognises that he has no absolute or material imperative to continue; that the battle to conjure those innovative sounds he talked about is one he has no need to fight. He even acknowledges that the possibility of stepping away from it all has flitted across his mind, “Sometimes I’ve thought about leaving music, just not doing it at all. Maybe I’d do something good for humanity, like being a doctor, something that really benefits people. However, I think that our music is a sort of medicine,” he adds with a gentle laugh.

‘Do The Joy’, the opening track on Love 2, warns us that we live in a world “On the brink of extinction”. Ultimately, perhaps, it is this awareness, more than anything else, that motivates JB and Air.

“I realise that life is now. I am doing yoga and I realised just how far you can go in consciousness. When you reach the end of your thirties, you are really keen to lead a good life. It is now or never. I don’t do things to be happy in the future. I just enjoy it now and be happy now. I don’t care about having more money for the future and these kind of things. Money is for now. That is why I am not okay about sacrificing things for money anymore. Friends, children, family and your body, these are the things that are important. There is nothing to worry about. The end of life, it’s like Charles De Gaulle said, ‘Old age is a shipwreck’. You must just follow your own course and weather the storm. Life is fantastic, do not worry about decline, it will come. Mercifully, it will come.”

LOVE 2 IS OUT NOW ON EMI

WWW.EN.AIRCHEOLOGY.COM

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