Roadrunner PR Blog: gojira

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Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Invisible Oranges Interviews Gojira's Joe Duplantier

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I caught up with Joe Duplantier of Gojira after a set in Pontiac, Michigan. His band filled the room past-capacity. That’s to be expected: Gojira had an eventful summer. Not only did they release their long-delayed fifth album, L’enfant Sauvage, but they trekked across America with little-to-no preparation after the much-publicized arrest of Randy Blythe sidelined what would have been a much more massive affair. Dethklok and Lamb of God are just now getting back on the road, but Duplantier is not one to waste time—we covered more in 15 minutes than I have with other bands in an hour.
Duplantier and I didn’t get to speak with one another till past one in the morning. The set drained him, but even a tired Duplantier is an energetic man. He speaks with hand gestures, and wears his emotions on his sleeve.

— Joseph Schafer

Check out the interview after the jump:

A Conversation with Gojira

Photo credit: Michael Evan Dafferner

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:

Gojira Lands in Loudwire's Death Match Hall of Fame with "The Axe"

French metal masters Gojira have clobbered their way to Death Match immortality as the band’s single ‘The Axe’ has now been inducted into the Death Match Hall of Fame with four straight victories.
Gojira began their victorious trek by defeating the world’s most successful cartoon metal band, Dethklok, launching the stamina Gojira needed to ignite a path of utter destruction. Gojira then went on to face metalcore leaders As I Lay Dying, pulling off an incredible win against the new school giants.
The savage metal act went on to destroy legendary black metallers Enslaved, before facing yet another massive challenge against Cradle of Filth, which gave Gojira their fourth and final win.
Praise be to Gojira and ‘The Axe,’ as we declare the band’s track as immortal in the Loudwire Death Match Hall of Fame.

Originally Posted at: http://loudwire.com/gojira-enter-death-match-hall-of-fame/

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Anti-Music Reviews Gojira's DVD "The Flesh Alive"

This French prog metal band leans heavily on the metal so more emphasis is put on thrashing drums and evil-sounding vocals than on progressive noodling and with The Flesh Alive they offer their fans entrée to three home-turf shows; one from the Garorock Festival, one shot in Bordeaux and a briefer third shot at the Les Vielles Charrues festival in Brittany. Some may wonder why the band included two nearly-identical shows in this 2-DVD/1-CD package; the answer is that their fans are legion and rabid and they hang on every (even slightly different) note. An hour-long documentary is also included and the CD contains the dozen focus tracks from the main shows.

By: Kevin Wierzbicki

Originally posted at: http://www.antimusic.com/reviews/12/Peter_Gabriel-_Jimi_Hendrix-_Beach_Boys-_Gojira.shtml

Gojira's Joe Duplantier Discusses "L'Enfant Sauvage" on APTV!

Click HERE to check out the interview

Monday, October 1, 2012

Gojira Talks "L'Enfant Sauvage" and Look Back on "From Mars to Sirius"

Shrouded in mystery and mystique, Gojira reign supreme right now as far as modern metal goes.

The French outfit went beautifully and brutally "wild" on their 2012 epic, L'Enfant Sauvage. Revolutionary implications emanate from every track on the eleven-song body of work, yet there's an elegant level of secrecy. Nothing's quite as it seems under the mind-numbing polyrhythms and bone-snapping riffs. Often, vocalist and guitarist Joe Duplantier drafts lyrical images that belie that intensity with just the right amount of poetry. It's a dark art that very few have excelled it similarly—most notably on Tool and Metallica come to mind. That's how good they are…

In this exclusive interview, Gojira main man Joe Duplantier spoke to ARTISTdirect.com editor in chief Rick Florino about L'Enfant Sauvage, looked back on From Mars to Sirius, and so much more.

What's your take on L'Enfant Sauvage now that it's out there?

I actually just got a chance to forget about it for a month [Laughs]. I enjoyed a break and took some vacation. It was really good for me. Since we started to compose and record the songs and then go through the whole mixing and mastering process, it was very consuming. I co-produced this album. Right after we finished everything, we jumped on tour for a couple of months. I had so much going on. It's like giving birth to a baby. I took a break recently. It was two weeks, and I just came back. I feel a little more fresh. I really think it's our best album. I'm very happy with the way it turned out. I cannot wait to go on tour and play some headline shows with the full production and lights. I look forward to rediscovering the songs. When you compose a song and record it, it's one thing. When you start to play it live, it really starts to come alive. People can experience the songs, and that's the interesting part.

What's your favorite song on the record?

I like "The Fall". It's the last song. It's very dark, slow, and heavy. That's probably my favorite because it's so dark.

Where were you coming from lyrically?

I wanted to paint chaos, you know? It's like a painting of chaos. It's a deep feeling that humanity is destroying everything, and it's total nonsense. A lot of things don't make sense in this world, and I wanted to express this without really thinking if there's a solution or proposing what I think about it. It's a bunch of images put together, and the music really inspired me to come up with the lyrics for "The Fall".

Was "Born in Winter" evocative of the season? Was it written during that time?

Yes, it's also a song about hope. Birth is a beautiful thing. Winter is the hardest season. It's cold. My first baby was born while I was doing this album. A lot of came from that. My daughter was born in winter. It inspired me. The idea behind the song is even if you are born in winter, there will be a summer one day and things are going to be better. It's a little bit of hope in the cold.

Do you read often while you're writing?

In general, I don't read a lot. There was a time when I was reading a lot of books. I don't write a lot either. I struggle. I have a lot of things I want to express that are turning in my head. I always have a notebook and a pen. It's usually completely empty [Laughs]. A lot of it happens in the studio when I put all of my ideas together and, finally, the song is born at the last minute.

If L'Enfant Sauvage were a movie or a combination of movies, what would it be?

It would be a mix between Star Wars and Dead Man. Jim Jamursch's Dead Man with Johnny Depp is a very dark movie of a guy who's walking through life, but he realizes he's dead at the end. It's very strange. I love it. It's a transition between life and death like a dream. It's surreal. I say Star Wars too because there's always this battle between good and bad. At the same time, you don't know if all of this is real or if it's just imagination. That's where Dead Man comes in.

Do "This Emptiness" and "My Last Creation" fit the album's overall vision for you?

Yes, for a couple of weeks, we talked about this a lot. We asked, "Should we make another long album?" We really wanted to keep this album short because the songs are so intense already. I think about Master of Puppets. It's eight songs, and they're brilliant. When you finish the album, you want to go back to the first song and listen to it again. Sometimes, we have a tendency to put out long albums. At the end of the album, you're exhausted. I love all of the songs on The Way of All Flesh, but you're tired at the end [Laughs]. We wanted to make a punchy, dynamic album. They fit with the whole because they were treated as part of the album. Until the last minute, we didn't know which would be part of the sequence.

What are you listening to now?

I listen to a lot of electronic music like Massive Attack. Then, there's this English producer named Ben Ash. He's a young producer doing a lot of interesting stuff. He has a project called Two Inch Punch. I'm listening to this. I met him, and that's how I got into his music. I listen to hip hop and electronic music as well as a little rock. I also listen to Queens of the Stone Age. I don't listen to a lot of metal in general. Sometimes, I like to crank Meshuggah really loud in my apartment [Laughs].

There's a lot that can potentially happen with the L'Enfant Sauvage songs live.

It's true! For the first time, we're going to change some stuff in the songs. You're right. It's inspiring to make these songs evolve and do something special live. Maybe the end of the song will take a new turn. There are a lot of epic endings that are invitation to changing.

What do you think of now when you look back on From Mars to Sirius?

It's a good record. It came at a time where we needed something for us to breakthrough. We were a French band performing in some other countries in Europe. That album was good for us. There are some solid songs on it. We can't imagine a setlist without three songs from it, which is big because it's like seven-years-old.

—Rick Florino
09.26.12

Originally posted at: http://www.artistdirect.com/entertainment-news/article/gojira-talks-l-enfant-sauvage-and-look-back-on-from-mars-to-sirius/10254161