Now guitarist Xavier Godart has sat down to answer a few of our questions about how they build their black metal epics, their respect for H.P. Lovecraft, and where they're headed next:
Radio Free Future: You guys seem to capture the essence of H.P. Lovecraft's writings better than many of the other bands who have tried to do so. How do you approach Lovecraft as an influence that might be different from other bands?
Xavier Godart: Thanks! Well, it's hard to tell how we differ from others bands based on Lovecraft's works. I think it's more a combination of circumstances that made TGOO work. Lyrics from Benjamin, our musical influences, and Jeff's paintings seem to fit perfectly together.
RFF: With atmospheric black metal, there is a difficult balance between being hypnotic and simply being repetitive. How do you keep a long song from becoming tedious? How do you decide when a song needs to shift in a new direction?
XG: It's hard to answer that question. There is no specific recipe. Usually, one of us (mainly Benjamin) comes up with a full song structure. Then we work this song in rehearsal where we add music arrangement and we move some riffs in order to avoid the song being boring.
RFF: When you start to write a song that will likely end up being fifteen minutes long, where do you begin, and how do you know when it's finished?
XG: We usually know how we want a song to start. Then, we just develop several ideas at their maximum. We try to make the song evolve in the same way our feelings evolve when we read a Lovecraft novel.
RFF: Al Azif has a unique sound to it that makes it stand out a bit, even from other black metal records. What kind of production decisions did you have to make in order to get that sound? Were there any particular techniques that you'd never used before?
XG: We knew that we didn't want Al Azif sound like a classical metal record. We wanted the sound to be dynamic, alive, as if the sound surrounds you completely. For that, we've worked with Cyrille Gachet, who is the sound guy of Year Of No Light, another band from Bordeaux, France. The work he did with their last album Ausserwelt is spectacular.We recorded everything in a vaulted cellar. All the reverbs on this record are natural.
RFF: Some bands take a few albums to really find their sound, but it seems like you guys kind of arrived fully formed with a really impressive debut. How long have you played together as a band?
We are a full band since a year and a half, but 70% of the music on Al Azif existed before that. Benjamin started writing years ago. I think the fact that most of the music comes from one person ensures homogeneity. For the sound itself, all of us were playing in a lot of bands way before TGOO. The experience helped us to find how we wanted to sound really quickly.
RFF: Al Azif is still a new album, but looking forward, do you think that future TGOO albums will be Lovecraft-related?
XG: We've already started to work on the second album and it will definitely be based on Lovecraft's works. But for a more distant future, who knows...
RFF: A lot of the really interesting black metal seems to be coming out of France these days, especially black metal that isn't afraid to experiment with the sound and add new influences. Is there something about French music culture that creates this tendency?
XG: Difficult question. Metal in France has always been underexposed by French and international medias. Maybe it's because of this lack of interest in the French metal scene that bands like Deathspell Omega or Blut Aus Nord aren't afraid to push their music far away from classical boundaries.
RFF: What's the first thing you'd tell someone about TGOO if they'd never heard your music before?
XG: For me, it's difficult to put the right words to describe our music. I would say just relax, put a good pair of headphones on your head, and let yourself be surrounded by the sound.
Thanks to Xavier for taking the time to answer our questions, and make sure to stop by The Great Old Ones' website or bandcamp page and pick up their debut album Al Azif.
