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Interview Gojira

Radio Metal had the great opportunity to interview the members of Gojira: the four natives of Bayonne were in Paris last week for two days of intensive promotion. We took this opportunity to listen to « The Way Of All Flesh », their latest album, which will be released on 6th October. Interview here. Gojira's Band with Virginie : a flash ! Interview conducted by Virginie Date : 2008-09-11 City: Paris Radio Metal: How are you feeling today, only a month before the release of « The Way Of All Flesh »? Are you impatient? Scared? Mario (drums): It’s all rather cool. Joe (vocals / guitar): Yeah, we’re cool. There isn’t too much stress, we’re happy about the album. We’re satisfied with ourselves, and it’s relaxing. Mario: We discover the album for the first time, it's very exciting. It’s almost like a baby… Mario: Especially for the booklet. We had only seen it on a computer before, and now it’s really here. It’s really like a baby. When you first listen to it, the album is surprising. GOJIRA offers a new dimension: you have taken risks with the use of bamboos, strings, industrial sounds... Do you think the regular GOJIRA fan is looking for such an evolution? Joe: I wouldn’t say it was a risk. On the contrary, we brought something that makes our music richer. To me it’s not a risk, I think it’s totally great to use sounds that make a change from guitars and bring something new. Then again, it’s not exactly new, because we’ve done that already. The bamboos we’ve used in one of the songs already appear on the first three albums! Maybe it was more discreet, but it’s something you can find on all the albums. It’s a logical evolution; I don’t think we’ve been breaking the codes of our music. Mario: We don't think the album is so much different. On the contrary, I think we almost confirm our audience in their opinion. This album is totally GOJIRA, it has our codes, our music. There are several innovations, but I would hope that our music has evolved in the three years it takes us to make an album! We haven't broken the rules so much. That's the way I see things, but maybe we're not totally objective. It sounds like your music has been influenced by your tour in the US and the bands you’ve met there. Was it natural or is it the result of a consultation? Jean-Michel (bass): I'd say it was spontaneous. We've always been listening to Anglo-Saxon and American bands, that's our influence, so we tend to use the same language. Obviously, playing in the US with all those American bands gave us some kind of energy. We've been influenced, but it was spontaneous, it wasn't planned. We just want to go further with our music. What are the bands that have inspired you the most? Joe: BEHEMOTH remain the band that impressed me most, along with MACHINE HEAD and LAMB OF GOD. That's the three main bands for me. CHILDREN OF BODOM were quite something, too. I think all the bands and all the people we meet influence us. Mario: There’s only a small influence. We see the bands, feel things, and then we go to bed and realize afterwards that the experience left its mark. But when we compose a song, we don't go like: "Wait, do you remember what MACHINE HEAD did that night? What about we do the same thing?" Things come up naturally; some elements actually came up unconsciously. We've simply lived something memorable - seeing the same band perform fifty nights in a row leaves its mark. I don’t know how, though: it’s in our brains, in our bodies, and when we start composing, it reappears. Once again, when I listen to the album, I go like: « Oh, yeah, that makes me think of such and such band », but it really wasn't conscious. You affirm that you make music in the general sense of the word, and that, as a consequence, you’re not opposed to other styles. Would you be ready to make an album in the same vein as the song Unicorn? Joe: I would quite like that. I don’t know about you guys (note: Joe addresses his bandmates), but I‘d be ready to make a completely different album. Mario: Totally. Joe: Actually, there’s this project we’ve been talking about for four or five years now. It's called "Maciste all'Inferno", it's a silent movie from the 20s – 1928, I think. It’s an Italian historical epic with a rather famous hero. He's considered as a super-hero of the pre-war period. There was a festival, Ciné Concert, in Bordeaux; it consists in showing silent movies and inviting musicians to play the soundtrack. We’ve composed the 90 minutes of original soundtrack for this movie, and we obviously had to put the metal codes aside to do something that would fit the movie. It was a great experience to make something really different, with more traditional rock songs - to make something that fits an image. It's an interesting project, and we'd like to make an album with it one of these days. Mario: To me, whether our music is very soft or very brutal, it’s emotionally coherent. It’s not gonna be puzzling if our next album is a soft album. We would still try to respect the GOJIRA codes, for ourselves as well as for the audience. Our music has a particular sound, a panel of emotions. It's not difficult to use the same emotion in a soft song and in a brutal one. Joe: I don’t think a soft GOJIRA song could sound like an old mainstream French song! Mario: Exactly. We’re not gonna make a reggae album, and then a GOJIRA album. There’s always this link with extreme music in our soft songs. Since we're talking about art, you all have other artistic ambitions: painting, concert pictures, the Ciné Concert thing... Could we see you in any other different field? Joe: Sure! Marco is very much into drawing and photography. He has his own solo keyboard project, called « Alone and Tired » (http://www.myspace.com/aloneandtired19). Jean-Michel is more into sports, he loves cycling. Christian, for his part, composes very nice little things on a classical guitar. Mario: We’re open to Art in general, and we do wear several hats. We don’t focus only on music, we’re an artistic band. As for me, I feel like I make Art before I make music. When you look at the booklet, you realize that Joe can do just about everything, from editing to drawing. He's a real artist. All the members of the band are a bit like that, and I wouldn't be surprised if we wanted to do something more that just make an album or give good shows. If we can, maybe one day we'll put more at stake and combine dancing and music, or make a movie, who knows. We're not going to wander on paths that could get us lost. But if we feel like we can do it, then why not widen our field of action? This album is a proof of that. In the booklet, you can see many drawings from my brother and from myself, pictures taken by my sister... It shows we're multifunctional! What would you say to define Art? Joe: Art is the expression of life. I'd go as far as saying that cooking, even if it's just putting ketchup on pasta, can be artistic. Loading the van and having everything in order can be Art as well. Everything we do, even being here, in this apartment, is artistic. It’s like this idea that we’re separated from Nature. That’s an illusion: we’re a part of Nature. It’s just impossible to try and put Art into little boxes, because Art is everywhere. People who look at a painting are in an artistic building, they dress as fashionably as they can because they want to be seen, they’re artistic too. The way you're dressed today is artistic. Everything that is linked to our everyday life can be called Art. I don't feel like we put limits to it. So you don’t see Art as an outlet, a way to express your feelings? Joe: Of course, but if you can find an outlet in every single moment of your life, it’s even better! […] One of my main goals is to try and express my artistic potential in every single moment of the day. Then again, there are four members in the band, and we all work together, so we need discipline. In the end, when we have worked a lot, and we hear the guitars and the bass and the drums and we put a screaming voice on top o f all this, it is an outlet. It’s great and useful for us; we need that in our lives. It's a physical, artistic and psychological performance, it's not only Art. Mario: I see that as a need myself: it’s a deep-rooted need; it has to come out in a creative way. We find these feelings in ourselves through Art. It also has a lot to do with imagination. The band in constantly evolving (your name, your music, your latest album…). Is that because you keep taking a new look at yourselves or because you’re never totally satisfied with what you do? Joe: Both. Mario: It goes together. We’re never totally satisfied. Joe: For the very first time, we’re 100 per cent happy with the sound. We were used to working on the sound ourselves, except on the first album, where we worked with Stéphane Kramer at the Impuls Studio, in Belgium. Everything went beautifully, it was our first album and it was all over in two weeks. For the past two albums, we’ve worked with our live sound engineer Laurentx Etxemendi, And we put a lot of effort into it. We always reassess and criticize ourselves, but we also try to put things into perspective: if you gave a shitty gig, we'll tell ourselves that we're only humans and that it doesn't really matter. We try not to be too demanding with ourselves. Every time we start working on a new album or on a tour, it’s a fresh start. We wonder what we can build with what we have – and we have nothing. It’s much more exciting than going: « we’re the best, all we have to do is add this and that ». It’s much better to start from the beginning every time. I would like to analyze the paradox between the violence of your music and your humility. We all know that mankind is built on paradoxes, but how do you explain the paradox around GOJIRA? Joe: That’s a very good question! First of all, what is a paradox? I don't think we're paradoxical at all, because we're ourselves at every moment. When we play music, we're not faking it. Of course, sometimes we overdo things a bit, but it's just for the sake of it. Christian (guitar): And we quite like that, too. Joe: Yeah, we do like that. There are several forms of paradoxes. For example, when we’re on stage, we’re absolutely sure of ourselves, and that's the way to go. We can't be shy and apologize, but when we leave the stage, we can’t be like than anymore. It’s logical. Some people also think that there’s a paradox between lyrics that talk about peace and a very violent music. But I think that it only expresses urgency, the precarious situation of man on Earth. Mankind will have to learn to survive, because the planet is rebelling. The sea level is rising, so is the heat - the situation is critical. Some people wonder if we're really responsible for global warming. We observe mankind and come up with this message of peace. Our message is the message of Christ, even though it may seem strange because we're not religious people. There's nothing more simple than "love one another". This motto has been used in the Old Testament, in the New one, and this has led us to very complicated situations. We give a message of love, and we give it with a powerful music that expresses a situation of urgency. We need to stop destroying everything and killing each other. I might not be very clear, but to conclude, I don’t find it paradoxical to mix up love and violence in our music. You look happier than ever, and yet the lyrics of the new album talk about death. Another paradox! Joe: Why couldn't death be linked to happiness? Do you sublimate death as a metaphysical thing, or do you try to understand it? How did you combine the theme of death, rather taboo in our society... Joe: Absolutely. How did you combine death with your kindness and your message of love? Joe: With as much naivety as possible - but not in the pejorative sense of the word. I think my approach was very objective. That’s where we're going anyway - the end of life - so I'm curious about what happens afterwards. 90 per cent of the planet believe that death is not an end, that it can be celebrated, that it's only another step in our existence. Whether it’s the end of individual life or just another step, I don’t see why it should be taboo. The only scary thing is the unknown. The lyrics of GOJIRA always revolve around what is unknown. What happens after death? Is it really the end, like a light we turn off, or is it just the body that stops functioning? Does the soul, the personality, goes on living? I just wanted to think about our fear of the unknown, the mortality of everyone and everything, the end of the day that leads towards night and then towards a new day... It's symbolic and poetic, I don't think it's morbid or scary at all. It’s a bit like Baudelaire’s « spleen »… Joe: If you like. That's a nice comparison. Mario: The « you look happy and yet you talk about death » paradox is a matter of balance. We're all rather sociable, because we manage to put things into perspective. But we also manage to think b ourselves and to behave in society. We're polite, we smile and respect other people, but at the same time, we have our thoughts… Joe: …our pains, our questions… Mario: Questions are not a negative thing per se, it’s very healthy to ask yourself questions about your existence. But we’re not obsessed about it. Joe’s approach isn't morbid, it's serene, and so are his lyrics. Where do you find your inspiration? In the uniqueness of the Basque Country, for example? Mario: Our environment certainly plays a part, albeit an unconscious one. When we’re rehearsing and we see the huge trees near the studio, the big forest that feels like it’s going to swallow us… Joe: We can hear the waves from our studio. Mario: But I don’t know exactly how this influences us – although rehearsing near century-old trees must have an influence. The environment plays a part that we don't fully understand yet, even though the elements have a central place in the music of GOJIRA. Joe, you drew the cover of « The Way Of All Flesh ». Can you explain the meaning of the drawing, and how it was born in your mind? Joe: It came to me while I was working on the concept, the subject, the title. We always have to give a title to an album, but if I could avoid choosing titles, it would be more comfortable for me. This album talks about a lot of things. We used it to talk about life in general. Whatever the title I was thinking about, I always saw this man, it was the synthesis of everything GOJIRA had ever done before. It’s not exactly something new, it symbolizes the band’s work from our first album. Christian and Jean-Michel don’t talk a lot, so I’m the one who expresses his feelings in the lyrics, but even those who don’t talk much have questions to ask about themselves. Christian: I completely agree. Joe: We ask ourselves a lot of questions, we try to overcome the problems that can arise between us, to talk, to understand one another better. The cover symbolises this cross section of the human being. A bit tortured, isn’t it? Joe: I don’t think so… Or maybe I don’t fully realize it! Mario: It really is a form of exorcism, I think. Joe: The human skull is a bit morbid because we took off the flesh, the eyes, the skin, but it’s still a part of us and it’s very useful. Mario: It’s like ripping off the mask. Taking off the different layers. Joe: Exactly. Wondering what’s inside the body. Mario: It’s a cute drawing, almost naïve. Joe: Yes, it’s voluntarily naïve. It shows the very structure of the human being: the heart, the guts, the bones, the skull, and the aura as well. I was thinking of this drawing even before we started talking about death. Maybe you think it's tortured because you think the man has been cut with a saw? Yes, exactly. Joe: Right. It makes me think of an exhibition called « Our Bodies ». All together: Yes. Joe: It’s true, but it remains symbolic. It doesn’t have the gory aspect of a photograph. Most French bands consider GOJIRA as the standard-bearer of French metal. Do you think it’s justified? Are foreign bands more open because of you? Jean-Michel: We can’t really give our opinion. We have worked hard to be where we are. We were lucky to be at the right place at the right time. We’ve stood fast and we’ve given the very best of ourselves. It has certainly opened the eyes of foreign metallers on what is going on in France. We’re aware of that, but we can’t really give an opinion on this situation. We go along without worrying about that, we simply try to do our job. Mario: We have played a hundred gigs in the US, and we’re the only band to have ever done that. In that perspective, maybe we do bring the French flag with us. It's a symbol. The Americans wonder where this band who gave so many concerts comes from. These people discovered a French metal band, so yes, in a way, we are the representatives of French metal. But we're not pretentious enough to say that "we ARE French metal". Joe: It’s difficult for us to be detached. Our motto is to work and to improve. We don't ask ourselves questions, we rehearse and improve. We have a new album, we go on tour, we find ourselves in the US, in front of new people, we shake hands… It’s not much, really. When someone sees us for the first time, they often go: "oh, you're French? I didn’t know there were metal bands in France”. In France there are strong, professional bands, but some of them have decided to write their lyrics in French, so it will be more difficult for them to sell abroad. The metal movement in France is strong, and some people have changed their opinion about French metal because of GOJIRA. Mario: It’s all about facts. We can always be blown away by an underground French band. Joe: It all happened like it did because we found ourselves at the right place at the right time, and we've worked a lot to be here. It doesn’t mean we’re better than any other band. Our music is not crap, but there are many brilliant bands who play in the basement and who’re not very interested in working too hard or making compromises to find a label. Last question, gentlemen: what makes you so strong nowadays? Mario: Moving, travelling – that’s what make me so strong. Jean-Michel: Going to other countries opens your mind – discovering other cultures, seeing people who react differently, going to extremely poor countries... When we come back home, our minds are full of images that make us more human. It always makes us stronger. Christian: Yup! (laughter)

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