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Gojira have come a long way to be here.  They hopped the Atlantic Ocean, breaded their bus, and are smoking across our country, leaving thick wafts of death metal perfume wherever they go.

Fortunately for us, drummer Mario Duplantier and guitarist Christian Andreu surrendered an interview with downPICK before their first headlining tour Thursday night at Slim’s!  We discussed food, the French, why European metal fans are boring, and Gojira’s plans for world domination.

J’aime San Francisco au mois de Mai…

Enjoy!

Well first off, welcome to San Francisco!

Christian – We went to a very nice place today, the hippie place.

Haight Ashbury?

C – Yeah I think so, I don’t know.

Did you make it to Amoeba, the big record store?

C – No, just to take coffee, to stay in the sun, and walk around.

Mario – We took a coffee and came back.  We don’t have enough time to visit.   It’s very frustrating for us each time on tour.  We just have one day and the day afterwards is another city.  San Francisco is an amazing city.  We know from France, everybody talks of San Francisco.  It’s very famous.

We were upstairs and looking at your merch table, and you had lots of pamphlets for PETA, the whales, and vegetarianism.  Are you Vegetarians?

C – Joe is vegetarian.  The rest of the band is not, but we just eat meat sometimes.  It’s very important to be careful, but we are not Vegi.

M – We feel concerned.   Christian is very concerned.  He has garden, and works on his own vegetables.

What do you grow?

C – Everything, tomato, eggplant, squash, and, uhhh… concombre?  How do you say…

Cucumber?

C- Cucumber!

Who’s looking after your garden on tour?

C – Mum! (laughs) and my brother too.

Is it hard though, when you’re on the road?  It’s a lot of fast food, especially in the United States.

M – I know Christian is suffering a lot in US, because for us, we don’t have time to go to cool restaurants as we’re always on the road.   And in US the food in general is very bad unless you know some place.   In France, for example, there are lots of things on the road, very diverse and balanced.  You’re on the road and you can find anything.  In the US it’s very different, and sometimes we suffer.

C – I think we see in the USA a new movement, a good movement about knowing about food, organic and good food.

How have people reacted to your flyers on the tour, has it been positive?

M – People feel concerned and talk about it.  In general it’s very positive.  But we don’t pretend to be eco-warriors; we don’t want to impose anything.  The fact is that we’re on the road and have a stage and we have a table with merch, so…

C – We just want to share our ideas.

M – But not to impose. We are not extremists.

This is your first headlining tour in America.  How has that been different?

M – People come to see Gojira, so that is very new for us.  There is less people than the other the tour because we were opening for bigger bands.  But in general it’s a very very good tour.  It depends on the city.  For example in Vancouver, it was sold out, like 500 people.  It’s very very cool for our first time.

C – Seattle was amazing too.

Those are both North West cities.  Have you noticed a different response in different parts of the US?

M – In NY too, but sometimes in the middle of the USA, it’s a little weird.

Maybe it’s the food.

(laughs)

So tell us about tonight’s show.

M – This is our good occasion to create our own set.  We have video, we put a screen with image and video on it.  But tonight we have a big problem.  The technicians forgot the computer with all the image and video.  So tonight we tried to fix it with another computer but it would be one image and one video…

We noticed lots of paintings scattered around over here.

M – The last two shows, we didn’t receive our merchandise.  And for us it’s very bad, because each day is important to make money.   I did this painting in like 15 minutes to make some money tonight, cause we need money for the tour.   So we try to do our best to propose something original.  People can give $10 or $5, I don’t know.

C – Every band makes shirt and hoodie.  And we have shirts and hoodie too, but if Joe and Mario have an idea, then why not.  In Seattle, we drew on black shirts and spray painted logos, and it worked!

M – It worked because people wanted to help us!

C – And every T shirt sold!

M – But tonight we received the merch!

But no computer!

(laughs)

C – It was such a cool idea, so I decided to continue the concept, so today we have the merch, but I decided to continue the drawings.  Joe too.

How would you describe Gojira in 2009.

M – We try to make organic music, very massive. Today we feel like a strong band.  Very strong – we can adapt ourself everywhere.  10 years ago, for example, I was very superstitious.  I wanted just to play in the morning in the studio, cause in the afternoon I thought I had less energy.  But now we play everywhere, we play in Morocco, we play in Iceland.

Strange things happen at shows, sometimes we might not have a guitar, for example.  So we learned to adapt ourselves everywhere. I can see Gojira is now a stronger band than before.  We try to never complain.  We lost our computer, so we try to fix it.  We lost our merchandise, so we try to fix it.  We are a stronger band.

But on an artistic level, I think we are all a huge fan of death metal.   We are a DM band, but with a different way of thinking than some other bands.

On the newest record, The Way of All Flesh, specifically on the track ‘A Sight to Behold’ which starts with a huge keyboard.  That’s new – do you think that’s going to take a new role in the next direction of the band.

M – Yeah, maybe.  We want to stay a rock and roll band -  we don’t want to have a lot of samples, but for example, on stage I play with a click on 4 tracks.  So now it’s a new rhythm for us, a new thing. I can play with click, so maybe if we want to put more keyboard on next album, it’d be possible.  But when we decided to compose this track, for example, we thought we wouldn’t play this track live, but we found a solution of putting a click in my ears.  So maybe we will experiment with new things on the next album.  But we want to keep the spirit of a rock and roll band, very simple.

So you don’t use click on every song.

M – No, just on four songs, just because there is keyboard.

You’re playing in Morocco, Iceland – are the crowds different from country to country?  Is there anything that’s funny, that crowds do or don’t do?

M – In USA, I think people are more spontaneous.  And it’s very specific to USA.  People have more open minds, so when we play there is less judgment.

C – They don’t care about the label and the ‘where do you come from’ and ‘blah blah blah’.  The listen to music.  If you like music then you go to the concert and it’s perfect.  Maybe in Europe, they need to know everything about the band, which label they’re on and where do they come from, and ahhh..

M – It’s not the same mentality.  I love to play in USA. In general people talk louder, and they’re bigger.

C – They’re not shy… you can scream, AHHHH!! … in Europe…

M – In Europe, when you have a hat, you’re an eccentric person.  Sometimes in France, we feel so closed in.  Everyone is kind of the same, same shirt, same haircut.

C – Lot of judgment..

M – In Scandinavia, for example,  I saw big difference.  Metal music is common culture, so sometimes you have old person, or people in very nice clothes.  When we play in Norway, it was crazy to see normal person, not a kid, not a punk, but just a normal regular person who appreciates the music.  We have big success in Norway.

C – For example, in the UK, there is lots of young people, very fashion oriented.  In Germany we don’t have success at the moment.

M – They’re very old school in Germany.

I’d think they would like you there.  Your band is very rhythmic, and Germans like very rigid, rhythmic music.

C – Yeah, but for us we are too intellectual, too complex.  ‘Oh, straight to the point, straight to the point!’  They like Bolt Thrower, Rammstein…

M – Scorpions (laughs)

C – In Spain for example, they head bang, but they don’t make helicopter–windmills!  Because they love trash metal, and they love Sepultura.  Sepultura is the biggest band ever in Spain!  So when we play over there, it’s dirty guys with big beards..

Beneath the Remains!

C-Yeah, exactly. (laughs)

The first time I heard your band, it reminded me of Meshuggah, it sounds very simple on the surface, but it’s really very complex underneath.

M – Yeah, we like the mix between technique and simple things.  We don’t want to be only technique.  We try to play with dynamics; we love quiet before the storm.  Our music is always dynamic.

Do you have a typical a method for writing music?

M – It depends.  Most of the time it’s my brother Joe and I.  We’ve played together since we were children.  So, it’s very spontaneous – sometimes he plays a riff and it’s very logical.

C – He and Joe compose maybe…

M – 80% of it.

C- Sometimes, I come in, and say ‘hey, I have an idea!!’

M – But for the last one, Joe and I compose almost everything, except ‘Ouroboros’.  ‘The Art of Dying‘ was a drum exercise of mine.  I proposed it to the guys, and they put guitar on it.

Any thing you’d like to leave us with?

C – I would like to answer your question from before.  I think for Gojira, it’s the end of a period.  After 12 years or 13 years.

M – We spent a lot of time to be an international band because we come from France.  We were a French band for many years, and only for 3 years we are international.

C – I think it’s the end of a period for us.  It’s the end of a lot of work, and now we are ready to play everywhere and propose a new CD in the world, and go to the next level!

Let me ask you before we go…  On the original Godzilla demo ‘Possessed’, you had a very Death influenced sound.  I like Death a lot.

C – Oh, me too.

Wondering what your favorite Death album is?

C – For me it’s Individual Thought Patterns.

M – For me it’s Human or Symbolic.  Maybe, ehh, Symbolic.  They’re all so good.

So you heard it here first!  Mario Duplantier likes Symbolic!  Christian Andreu likes Individual Thought Patterns!  Suck it, Blabbermouth, WE got the scoop!

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