I saw Gojira live for the first time a few years back when they opened for lamb of god and Metallica. I remember at the end of the show, I turned to my friend and simply asked, “Who the hell was that opener?” Neither of us had heard of Gojira. I’ll readily admit my first exposure to them was that show, and the song that immediately floored me was The Art of Dying. There wasn’t any showmanship. There wasn’t any kind of dedication to the “imagery” of the band itself. In fact, I remember vocalist/guitarist Joe Duplianter in a Beatles shirt and so many people around us making comments like it was this anomaly of sorts. It was something that stuck out, and the sheer force of sound that Gojira unleashed on the crowd that evening was something I’d not witnessed before in a metal show. There was a synchronicity in their sound. There was a camaraderie between them on stage - like they’d been together for decades and weren’t simply opening for two other “high profile” bands.
Needless to say I did what everyone reading this has probably done and went and got everything Gojira I could possibly find - tearing through their discography song by song, reading their lyrics, and knowing damn well that it wouldn’t be long at all, and these guys would be the headliners. Fast forward just a few short years later, and here we are. Having released one of the most relentlessly bombastic and technically impeccable metal albums this year with L’enfant Sauvage, Gojira is not an on-the-cusp band, nor are they a mainstream band, either. Granter, their popularity is growing exponentially every day, but it’s what they are a collective group of musicians - their approach not just to the composition of the song itself but to the messages of hope, positivity, and a concern for the human collective that makes Gojira a group of musicians all their own. I recently had a chance for a brief chat with Joe Duplianter (vocals/guitarist) to discuss just that as well as how going to the bathroom can be just as spiritual as anything else.
See the interview after the jump:
Just right off the bat Joe, if you don’t
mind my asking. You guys have risen from almost total obscurity to now,
where I mean Gojira is a very recognizable name, just the influence that
you guys have on other bands in just a short period of time the last,
you know, four or five years. What’s your reaction then to that as a
musician of someone who’s seen the metal genre change as it has?
Do you mean what’s my reaction to the success of the band?
Yeah, man.
Um… It’s um… I’m happy. [laughter] I cannot say
something else than that. I’m really happy you know. Uh… I mean I, I
dedicate my life to this band and um… all my energy goes into composing,
producing, touring, uh… doing interviews. So of course, it’s taking off
in a way that I really like because it s not … it’s not blowing up you
know. It’s like uh we took our time. The band progressed and grew over
the years, which is something I really liked, because it’s like one step
after another and it’s not like you know big success in just one album
or one song. We don’t have recent hits or whatever. It’s just building
up slowly and I like that, cause I know where I am. I can follow
everything, you know, have my own rhythm and I can … everybody in the
band is really comfortable with what’s happening for us, like we are
just growing the whole time.
Absolutely, and that actually ties into the
next question, Joe, which is It seems like just over the past five or
ten years there been a resurgence of a lot of critical respect for the
metal genre where previous to that you didn’t really have a lot of
critical respect for metal bands, and I think Gojira happens to be one
of those bands that is indefinable. You guys are hard to
compartmentalize and that’s always good. How do you feel as far just
concerning the recent kind of embracing of the metal genre again?
Wow, um… I don’t know. It’s—it’s
pretty powerful you know – how you talk about it and I’m not sure how to
answer this question, cause I just focus on simple things so, I don’t
analyze too much what’s happening. I just know that it’s growing
organically, and we are the center of each decision that we make and all
that and, I’m not sure I’ve realized the impact on the genre or on
people in general. I just—I just see our fans you know when we play live
and I talk to them after the show and they’re very emotional and I—I
can feel something is happening and I feel very blessed to be a part of
this project because it’s—it’s not just us you know. It’s also the
audience and the people, the way they listen to us and the way they read
our lyrics and all of that. It seems like something talks to people in
what we do.
Absolutely.
In the music, in the lyrics, I don’t know, but it’s
– for us, it’s really natural. It’s our lives, you know. We just
challenge something. Something good happens and we—we just catch it and
maybe the way we do it works too for the people. The way we pay
attention to each detail, you know. We don’t want to become easy on that
part or anything like that. We try and we stay awake and stay focused,
and we don’t do drugs. We put our hearts into this like really, really
strong, and at the same time we keep an eye on the business side of
things. It’s important for us that everything is coherent and that we
stick to our beliefs and you know it’s—it’s whole … I think that’s what
people think, is that they feel that we are in the center of this
project. There’s not a manager or a record company telling us what to do
or whatever. Since the start. I think a lot of bands have huge
potential at the beginning, but they don’t meet the right people to help
them or they get tired, because they don’t go on tour enough, or they
don’t record a good enough album or such combinations of a lot of things
that make a band stand out. I don’t know, man, I just feel blessed,
you know, to be part of this.
Well you know one thing that’s always stood
out to me Joe, just in listening to Gojira, are the lyrics and the fact
that one huge difference I see personally –there’s a positivity there.
There’s the environmental concern, there’s things of that nature.
What was it for you guys coming into the mix? Because you don’t really
get that a lot in the metal genre. You don’t get that kind of positivity
and social and environmental awareness in the metal genre, typically.
It’s something that’s very cerebral. There’s an authenticity there – a
genuine concern for the Earth. What was it for you guys, stepping into
when the band first came together that caused you to go into that
direction, lyrically speaking?
I don’t know. For me it’s like I don’t understand
why there are not more bands worried about the future or about their
health, you know. In the lyrics when I—when I start to scream in the
microphone that’s what comes to me. To talk about things that matter,
at least to me. And it seems like a lot of singers will talk about just
their pain, you know, and they just want to describe how hard it is to
be alive, or how much they suffer, but from a very, very personal point
of view, maybe too personal. Sometimes it’s good to—to take some
distance on some things.
I think you’re spot on. I’ve wondered that
myself, Joe. I think that’s … like I said, I think that’s what sets you
guys apart from so many other metal groups is because of the
consciousness.
The four of us, I think we are spiritual, but it
doesn’t mean that we are better than anyone or that we are healthier,
you know. It doesn’t mean that. It just means that we see, uh a deeper
meaning in things, all the time. Not just in the music, but in my
everyday life. For example, each discussion with my wife, or with my
friends – there’s always something important going on - even in simple
things - even going to the bathroom is like a spiritual thing.
[laughter]
It can be, for sure. [laughter]
Being alive is a—is a blessing. You know, like
being alive on this planet. It’s like it’s a gift. I’m not a religious
person, but uh, but definitely spiritual, like you can sense every
second of your life as something really important and really precious,
or you can just go through life like a zombie . And I think I try to
communicate a lot of that in the lyrics, normally.
Photo credit: Nicolas Riot
You certainly get that Joe and that’s one
of the things that I—I love personally about the band Gojira - is just
the - I guess the self awareness and the consciousness that you guys are
constantly pouring into every song. And like you said there’s a …
there’s a vast misconception about the metal genre that there’s going to
be solely bands who are just going to think basically about their
struggles, or their pain, or even things that are violent. I think you
guys simply tap into an awareness and consciousness that many metal
bands or any bands, really, focus on. It’s definitely refreshing
especially paralleled with the intensity of your music. Now, I
guarantee you’ve probably been asked this before. When you guys came up
with the name for the band that was originally called Godzilla, was it
because of your love for the early Japanese film, or was it because your
sound is so utterly bombastic?
[Laughter] Um, we didn’t really have a sound really
when we picked the name. I just knew about the-the Japanese old movie,
black and white movie, and then I—I never really … I was never a fan of
Godzilla or anything, but there was this mysterious aura around it, and
then the movie came out, like the big super production movie with Jean
Reno, the French actor, and we’re like, “Damn that sucks man.”
[Laughter] Because uh you know people around us were like, ”Oh, so
you—you just released a movie now, ha-ha.” Making fun of us and I was
like, “Damn this sucks, that sucks.” And [laughter] by the time we
decided to change the name we had already received a letter from lawyers
that we had to change the name anyway so, you know, we were forced to
change it and it was a good thing.
Many thanks to Joe for his time and the rest of the
Gojira crew for their dedication to approach their music not from a
surface level standpoint alone, but one that provokes a consciousness of
the world we share - a constant observation and awareness that doesn’t
preach but rather pounds with every sincere note and screamed lyric the
dire situation we are faced with daily. It’s an honorable and a gutsy
thing for any band to do, and Gojira does it with an absolute ease
that’s almost uncanny. With percussion (Mario Duplantier) that pummels
the listener into submission paralleled with the complimentary guitar
(Christian Andreu) and bass (Jean-Michel Labadie) unrelentingly weaving
the complexities of rhythm through every track, you’ll be inclined to
forget the stereotypical and oftentimes superficial “darkness” of so
much of what the metal world has to offer and find yourself embracing an
almost enlightened state of being. If you’ve not bought their latest
release, do yourself a favor and visit their Facebook page or their official band site
and do so now. In the mean time, start where I did with Gojira and
take a glance at the video below. You’ll find yourself mesmerized and
pleasantly blown away, I assure you. One of the most intriguing metal
acts of our day, Gojira continues to simply evolved both their sound and
their message. Do yourself a favor and introduce your ears and soul to
their sound.
Many thanks to KF for helping me with this interview. Many thanks, good sir.
Cheers. - D
Originally posted at: http://www.steelforbrains.com/post/33843669298/gojira
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