2003 was a very good year for Laika. First of all, it was the 10th anniversary of the band and, to celebrate this event, they published a very nice 2-CD compilation Lost in space including classics tunes, remixes, unreleased and live tracks (even peel session).
But it was not enough and brand new Laika material came out with Wherever I am, I am what is missing. So they tried to give a new direction to their music by using the same basis in a different way.
When I arrived at Le Nouveau Casino, I was searching for Laika members. Finally, this is Miss Margaret Fiedler that found me and began to talk about her business. Wow! She’s really pretty...
“Happy to meet you! ”

All members of Laika played before in famous bands like Moonshake [note: Margaret played with Moonshake] ...

(Margaret, laughing): That’s not famous! Moonshake was not famous!

...My Bloody Valentine [note: Guy Fixen played for MBV] or the terrific GOD [Lou Ciccotelli doing percussion for GOD]

(Margaret) Right! They [GOD] were very terrific!

... So is Laika a supergroup or a real band project?

Not a supergroup: a real band. I met the others almost eleven years ago. I didn’t really think that will work. I did not know... Lots of bands are gone eleven years ago. We just try to do simple things, just me and Guy and it’s fun. We like to do different things: normally, there are lot of people on stage but right now there are not so many people on stage. We do what we want to do.

Since 1993 it seems Laika seems to be the same line up. Is there any reason for such stability?

Well, no. Just right now it’s just me and Guy playing live in Laika. Just the two of us. That’s the news thing. We will use a whole band for the festivals. It’s a kind of changing. We have been the same for ten years but I think for the next ten years, we will try different things. That’s the concept.

Do you still have relations with Moonshake?

No, I mean not really. I’ve seen them because it was a friend’s birthday on Saturday. But I haven’t seen them for years.

Why did you choose the name Laika for the band?

I think it’s just a sweet image this little dog just lost in the space. But a great sadness as well. Because they knew at the [space] center that she’s gonna die. It’s kind of bittersweet images that express our music. It’s sort of melancholy and we like that in music, we like that in movies and in emotions. Hopeful but sad.
We also liked the idea of the dog in a spaceship for the first album cover and for the posters.

Why don't you use the little dog anymore?

We were together for ten years and we just decided to move on. We don’t really create new weird but just testing. I think we will gonna do this every ten years.

How did you work for the compilation “Lost in space”? How did you choose the tracks?

It was a work we really liked. We put the things together by ourselves and nobody helped us. I wrote most of the sleeve notes with Guy. It was very personal: it’s our favorite songs, the songs we have done. We choose the stuff people find interesting: that’s the second disk is about. The first one is all the songs we use to play live: it’s our favorite songs.

Is it a perfect way to close these first ten years?

May be. That’s a kindly way of thinking.

Your new lp “wherever I am, I am what is missing” is in the same mood as before. And before you talked about changing your music...

No, no, no. I like what we were doing musically. The new album is just different. I think it is simpler. It’s in the kind of what we [used to] do but with more focus. I think sometimes we could put too many ideas on songs. So we try to use a more pure way of writing songs.

Can you describe your writing process?

For this album, it’s quite different. Normally, Guy and I write words and music together. But for “wherever I am, I am what is missing” he wrote most of the songs of his own. I was away for a year and half playing guitar for P.J Harvey [note: Margaret plays guitar and melodica for PJH live since 2000 and it seems it’s ended], I was very busy, I was not at home. I was supposed to be writing during my free time. But I just can’t really do. I can’t write on tour. But it was too crazy and you put your head on so many different places. And when I came back home, I started to adding stuff to tracks but it was overloaded it. So I did the vocals. That’s what I did: I only put the vocals.
I think “wherever I am, I am what is missing” is more pure, more simple.

What’s you main influence when you are composing your songs?

Of course it’s a mixture of things. Nobody is so simple to be only influenced by one thing. Everything we can find all around of us. And I think it’s the sense of things that influence us. A lot of people are influenced by their own work, including us, because we know what we have done and we can not know what is right or wrong, we can’t fix things all around.
But you move on and lots of things go wrong. You change your mind sometimes. Sometimes you like something and five years later you don’t think that anymore. So, in a way, this new album is a reaction against the previous album: it’s more simple. We made the previous album “Good looking blues” with thirteen people playing and we made this album, “wherever I am, I am what is missing”, with three people only playing.

What do you remember from touring with Radiohead or Air ?

The favorite tour we have done was in 2000 when we supported Radiohead in roman theaters just before “Kid A “ came out. We loved to play in roman ruins in Arles. The Vaison la romaine show was cancelled because of the rain but it was beautiful. We loved to play in these areas: it’s amazing. We feel like playing on another planet by doing that. We were very lucky of doing that.

Some people consider Laika has a mix of electronic, hip-hop, experimental things and pop. Are you agree?

Yes. Basically, that’s what we are listening to and we try to reflect that.

With “Lost in space” you summed up 10 years of Laika. What are your plans for next ten years ?

(laughing) Making more records? It’s funny because we are a kind of slow but in the same time we try to do things as well as possible. We are also touring and it takes a lot of time. And I played live for PJ Harvey for a year and half so we don’t have a lot of time. We are doing other things and ever busy.

Do you prefer to play live?

It’s a different thing: I love playing live. I love travel. I like what other people don’t like: discover different foods, airplane... I love the fact you can talk with people after the show: it’s a necessary contact because in the studio you don’t see anybody and the aim of the music is communicate. But sometimes I like the affection of doing records: you can take the time to put what you want on songs. Actually I love the stuff on the new record. The takes are first take but usually you don’t have to do it: you record songs three or four times before getting the right version.

Last question: can you describe your work with only three words?

Spacy melancholic pop.