Hellzzzzzzz there! I don’t wanna
start this interview with some boring questions about the history of The Great
Old Ones, instead I would like to ask you about the times before The Great Old
Ones, when all members were starting to play music. What were your first bands?
When have you started to play music / metal and what are your roots? Are they
exclusive to metal music or there were also some other musical styles, which
you played?
Xavier Godart: I started a band in high
school with some friends, we played mostly covers of classic rock and punk
stuff. Then I was involved in some punk hardcore / math core bands, influenced
by bands like Botch or Converge. I also did some music for myself, influenced
by Cult Of Luna or Isis. TGOO is my first touring band. As for the others,
Benjamin played in some hardcore bands like me, Jeff played in more bands than
I can imagine, from folk to death metal. He played in Tormenta, a great math
rock band. Sébastien played mostly in death metal bands. Léo played in lots of
bands too, from jazz and funk to black metal.
So, why
H.P.Lovecraft and not E.A.Poe, S.King or G.Masterton? Or Tolkien? What is so
influential and intriguing about his works that it makes you base the music /
lyrics of The Great Old Ones on his concepts? Do you remember the first time
you’ve read his novels? What feelings does it awake in you?
Benjamin read HP Lovecraft work when he
was a teenager and I think it has a huge impact on him. The universe he created
is huge and it's an infinite source of inspiration. You can express feelings,
as long as scenes or landscapes based on HPL descriptions. It could have been
another author but for some reason, Lovecraft was a more natural match when
Benjamin started to compose for this project. But maybe we'll find the
inspiration somewhere else in the future, who knows.
Lovecraft has
obviously inspired many metal bands, starting with Metallica in their early
days, through such Morbid Angel and
finishing with some current underground
bands like Unaussprechlichen Kulten. Why, do you think?
I think it's pretty obvious that
thematics in HPL novels fit pretty well with metal. Feelings of horror, fear,
madness are common theme.
Some people go as
far as seeing some truth in the stories Lovecraft wrote, that he was a
visionary who was able to see things that are hidden from the sight of normal
people. I wonder do you believe in extraterrestrial or other such things, as
ghosts, etc? For example, all these mysteries of the Egyptian pyramids… What do
you think of it?
I will just say that we are all down to
earth kind of people, so no, we don't believe in such things.
Tell us something
more about the concept, which you chose for “Tekeli-Li”. It obviously is mainly
based on "At the Mountains of Madness" novel, am I right? Your label
has even released a special edition of the album with this novel, what – I must
admit – is a killer idea!
Thanks! The album is entirely based on “At
The Moutains Of Madness”. You can see it as a retelling of the story. As the
novel is in the public domain, we had the idea to print an original copy, with
some artwork from our singer and guitarist Jeff Grimal, who is also a great
painter. We proposed the idea to our label and they were really excited about
this thing.
I wonder how the
songs for The Great Old Ones are usually composed? I mean, having such concept,
you obviously must try to fit it into the music. So, is it difficult to capture
the essence, the atmosphere and the feeling of Lovecraftian myths in the music?
How does it usually look like? Also, the fact of having three guitarists makes
the whole process easier or even more complicated?
Benjamin Guerry (vocals / guitars) is
responsible of 80% of the material. He writes music with the concept in mind
and then we let the music evolve in rehearsal until it reaches a point when
everything seems complete. It's a pretty natural process. Also, having three
guitars is not really a big deal (if you forget the weight of the gear...).
Bands commonly records much more than two guitars in studio but aren't able to
reproduce everything for live gigs. Keeping three guitarists in the band allows
us to play everything live.
That sounds wise, I
guess. Let’s speak of the music of The Great Old Ones. Obviously we all
describe it as post-something. Post black metal, post metal, post rock… I do
feel though that “Tekeli-Li” may sound too extravagant and too unconventional
for most of black metal fans, even if it certainly keeps some influence of this
music here and there. But there are many more layers in your music. So, to whom
do you feel your music is directed to? What surrounding does it require when
being listened to? And what kind of feedback did you receive so far?
We're open minded people. We're
obviously influenced by black metal, but not only. We put a lot of things in
our music, consciously or unconsciously. So, I guess you need to be open minded
to appreciate our music. Feedback is really good so far. Of course, not
everyone gets it, but most of the time they understand what we try to do. And
that's great.
How do you feel
your music has progressed since the “Al Azif” album? Did you try some new
things, speaking of the technical aspects, playing, song structures, etc? Was
is a challenge for you to compose an album, which would be better or at least
as good as the debut?
“Al Azif” was our first effort, and as much
as we like this album, we were unhappy of some little things, like the drum
sound for example. We tried to fix these things on “Tekeli-Li” and I can say
we're pretty happy of how it came out. ”Tekeli-li” is also much more resulted
in terms of composition, everything seems
more consistent on this album for us.
We're really proud of what we achieved.
The music of bands
like The Great Old Ones often reminds me the movie soundtracks, so I wonder if
they are any inspiration for the band when composing it? And more so, what
would be more influential – black metal or the so called post rock / metal
genre?
Well, I think we tried to write this
album as a soundtrack for “At The Mountains of Madness”, so I guess that
explains why you feel like this. As I was saying before, we're inspired by all
kinds of music, mostly metal of course, but not only. We really enjoy bands
that don’t put boundaries to themselves and try to experiment, and that's what
we are trying to do too.
Such song as “The
Ascend” sounds very special to me. It is a perfect combination of black metal
with post metal. What purpose is of such instrumental song? Why did it actually
end up being one and not having any vocals?
This track represents ascend of the
mountain, just before William Dyer discover the non-Euclidean city. The storm
during a few minutes, majority of blast-beat, and then the calm, when the plane
stops, with acoustic guitars and cello... It simply follows the novel. And we
felt that this part of the novel doesn't need any lyrics to be described.
We have also such
song as “Behind the Mountains”, which is obviously absolutely amazing. But I
wonder how does it work to play such long songs live, for both: you – the
musicians, and for audience?
Well, all our songs are pretty long so
that doesn't make any difference for us. Also, we usually play our setlists in
a row, without stopping too much between songs. It's only a problem when you
only have 30 minutes for a gig, we usually prefer to play 3 songs instead of
one or two.
The artwork for the
new album must be also something special for you. I mean it is not a typical
metal cover and maybe the small CD size won’t let us see all the details, but
it surely looks intriguing. Unveil some more details on the artwork, please.
Jeff
Grimal our guitarist / singer makes all artworks for the band. It's a real
asset for us. He works with the concept in mind and proposes us his vision. And
that usually match very well with the music. On “Tekeli-li” artwork, I guess we
can see an abstract vision of these mountains. We felt that an abstract work
suited better, as we can let the listener draw his own vision of these mountains
in his head.
The cover of
Bjork’s “Bachelorette”… I must say it is not an obvious choice for a metal band
to play a song of the artist like her. So, why did you pick this one up, what’s
the story behind it?
We're all amateurs of the Björk work,
but no one in the band is a real fanatic of her. Benjamin just heard that song
one night at a party and just thought it could be great to write a cover of
this track. And for some reason, he actually did it. We weren't thinking about
releasing it, but in December 2012, our European
tour was cancelled at the last
minute, and as we had this free time, we used it to record this track.
You seem to be a
very special and significant band for your label, Les Acteurs de l'ombre
Productions. How important is it for you to work with a label, which is French
and also has such musical profile, very much connected with more avantgarde
side of black metal? I, from my point of view, must say they seem to be doing a
great job, when promoting their bands!
Our relation with them is really
awesome. It's not only because they put money on the table. They are supportive
whatever we want to do and that's really great and comfortable. I really think
you can't have this kind of relationship with other labels, especially bigger
ones. Gerald who runs the label and Romain who handle physical production are
great guys and we are very lucky to know and work with this kind of people.
If you were about
to record a video for a song from new album, which one would you choose and
why? And more so, what would it look like?
We would love to make a music video, but
it's a real budget and it's difficult to find the right people to do that. I
don't know which one we would pick, but it would definitely be an animated
movie, because we think that is the best way to transcribe everything.
You’re quite active live band, playing tour with Regarde les Hommes
Tomber or bigger events like Roadburn. What feelings do you have about these
gigs you’ve played so far? Any funny or especially worthy to mention stories
from them?
We haven't been that much active so far,
but it's becoming easier to tour for us. That's great, but as we all have a
full time job beside this band, we'll never be a full time touring band. We had
the chance to play in great festivals like Hellfest or Roadburn and that were
our greatest experiences as a band. It feels great to be treated like a
professional band. And there are no stories I can think of (at least, no one I
can tell...).
Bands like yours,
Paramnesia and Regarde les Hommes Tomber have certainly brought a new quality /
sound into the metal scene. Obviously there are also some older acts like
Agalloch, Wolves In the Throne Room, Alcest and so and on… But tell me, what do
you think of all this? Do you feel like something special has been brought into
life?
The bands you mention are great. We're definitely
huge fans of Wolves In the Throne Room. Like I was saying, they are the kind of
bands who doesn't limit themselves and that's what we really like about them.
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