French alternative / indie band Paerish are set to release a gorgeous collection of re-imaginings, titled ‘Acoustic Sessions – Live At L’Ancienne Abbaye Saint-Léger’ EP, on 27th February via SideOneDummy Records. Now they’ve unveiled one of its most radical reimaginings – a rendition of their song ‘Still There’, which was a single from the band’s most recent album ‘You’re in both dreams (and you’re scared)’ from 2023, and has now undergone a significant atmospheric shift.
Originally an upbeat, electric-guitar-led rock song influenced by “loud” bands like Weezer, the track has undergone a transformation to a significantly more gentle kind of beauty. “We decided to take inspiration from certain Pixies songs, particularly the way the band would sometimes perform “UK surf” versions of their tracks — slower, softer reinterpretations often played at the end of their shows,” says vocalist and guitarist Mathias Court. “This resulted in a “UK Surf” version of ‘Still There’, with a significantly slowed-down tempo and the addition of a flute, allowing the song to fully break away from its original electric form.”
“The members of Paerish all grew up in the 90s with MTV Unplugged,” says Court, when musing on how the idea for ‘Acoustic Sessions – Live At L’Ancienne Abbaye Saint-Léger’ EP germinated within the band. “Those iconic sessions saw bands re-arrange their songs acoustically to offer something completely different from the rest of their discography. For us, that idea has always been a true artistic challenge: stripping a production down to its core to keep only the writing, the emotion, and the performance. It’s a chance to rethink our songs and see how far they can go once the studio polish is removed.”
And that’s exactly what Paerish have done with this beautiful new collection, which was recorded and filmed by the band live in the most resplendent of settings – L’Ancienne Abbaye Saint-Léger in Court’s hometown of Soissons.
The release features four complete transformations of tracks from Paerish’s 2023 album ‘You’re in both dreams (and you’re scared)’. The album itself is raw and real with jagged electric guitar riffs and pummelling drum lines crashing through your speakers with both intention and abandon. The essence of the songs they’ve extracted for ‘The Soissons Sessions’ is distilled into its purest form and then carried by ethereal, folk-flecked vocals, gentle meandering acoustic guitar lines and intricate accompanying instrumentals that bring a completely different frequency and life to the tracks. Stripped down, but also fully scored, these versions breathe a completely different kind of life into the original compositions.
“The songs we chose and recorded for this live session were all originally written in Soissons during the COVID-19 period. Playing them again in the very city where they were born felt obvious — a way of closing the loop,” elaborates Court on their thinking behind the process leading up to this release. “Having grown up in Soissons, I feel a strong attachment to this city and come back often. The former Saint-Léger Abbey has always impressed me. It’s a place filled with history — majestic, almost outside of time. That’s why I suggested to the band, and then to the city, that we record this live session in a place that means so much to me.”
Paerish are currently working on their fourth studio album with Grammy-winning Engineer & producer (and longtime collaborator) Will Yip so stay tuned for more news from the band in 2026.
‘Acoustic Sessions – Live At L’Ancienne Abbaye Saint-Léger’ EP Tracklist:
1. Houses of American Style (Live at L’Ancienne Abbaye Saint-Léger)
2. Sequoia (Live at L’Ancienne Abbaye Saint-Léger)
3. Still There (Live at L’Ancienne Abbaye Saint-Léger)
4. The Luck You Had (Live at L’Ancienne Abbaye Saint-Léger)
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